Wednesday, March 28, 2012

FRANK TURNER & JON SNODGRASS Buddies

Another acoustic record for you all to devour, just the way i did when first laying ears to it.
This is a joint venture between two of today's greatest singer songwriters with backgrounds in hardcore/punk. A trend that has been going on for a while now and brought us many great acoustic releases by well known punkveterans going solo.
English boy FRANK TURNER has been paving the folky acoustic road for a while now and so has his American buddie JON SNODGRASS. Both have a background in our beloved punk scene, FRANK was once a member of MILLION DEAD and JON was a major part of ARMCHAIR MARTIAN, both firmly rooted in the punk and hardcorescene of their representive countries. JON also teams up with CHAD PRICE ( ALL)  in DRAG THE RIVER where they bring their very own blend of acoustic punkfolk.
And last but not least in the all star band SCORPIOS where JON is part of a group made up of TONY SLY, JOEY CAPE and BRIAN WAHLSTROM


After travelling the world with their own projects these kindred souls met each other in 2009 during the REVIVAL TOUR, an acoustic collaborative event, brainchild of CHUCK RAGAN ( HOT WATER MUSIC ) and his wife JILL. A traveling tour of artists with different backgrounds and audiences but most hailing from the punk, rock, folk scene.
Past participants include JOEY CAPE, DAVE HAUSE, CORY BRANNAN, BRIAN FALLON, TOM GABEL and many more, for exact info Click Here.


The dynamic duo couldn't resist making music together so during the tour the first collab song was penned down in no time and brought to the stage. Since this felt natural they felt the need to write some more tunes together. Due to the geographic differencies and a full schedule it lasted up untill the summer of 2010 when FRANK went to visit his sister living in Colorado. Homestate of JON, so a visit was planned to get JON over there and drink away the night, playing guitar in the yard of FRANK's sister. After a fruitfull night they decided to travel back to JON's hometown of Fort Collins to record them in his homestudio.
The result of this little get together was mastered @ the legendary The Blasting Room and pressed for eternity onto vinyl. FRANK's usual record label XTRA MILE RECORDINGS decided to release this precious collection of songs on limited green vinyl and i've grasped the opportunity to buy me one of these during a recent visit by JON in Belgium during the recent SCORPIOS eurotour. I even got the chance to thank the man himself after the show.

Green, clean and mean
The album has been pressed on green transparent vinyl and in a edition of 1000 pieces never be repressed.
(or at least that what i'm hoping for since i don't like to share my treasures with others, they can listen digitally if they want or other ways but i just love it knowing that i'm one the lucky few to have this on vinyl )
Due to the demand there has been a digital release that's still available on the world wide webs.



The songs are all, as expected, of the hand of FRANK and JON and handle just about anything they came up with during their orgy of booze and guitarplaying. Songs about buddies mostly, depicting their friendship and the weird ways of their friends. Even songs about putting the chickens to bed. Low cost recording on two mikes and some TASCAM 388 tape led to this album. You can hear the DIY mentality and the booze all through the recordings since the dynamic duo even taped all their little chit chat in between the songs.
If you want serious content with a message then don't search here, this record is what you get when two singer songwriters get aquinted and start letting the liquor talk. Although it's a very nice record full of good tunes to bump your head too. Even without a message or concept these guys are natural talents at writing tunes that stick around in your head. Words must just stumble out their mouth when they open it, and melodies surround them all day long in their head. If you give them ten different words and five minutes of your time they'll make you a song on the spot. And you're gonna be stunned with the fact that's is even a good song.
The story of two friends and lots of alcohol
Now i need to confess that all the crap i've been writing about is just simple info written down by the
artists themselves on the included lyricsheet. The whole story of the idea, gettogether and outcome of the album are being laid out by them on one simple sheet of paper. Each track has his own explanation to it and shows us an insight in the 'making of' and where they came up with inspiration.



In the end another great addition to the ever growing collection of vinyl in my shelf.
A nice limited 10" by two of my all time favorites, can't wait to see them live again playing their
sweet toned melodies for us all. If you ever get the chance to see them than do so, tell them i told you too,
cause it's worth it.


Here's a little video to create your own opinion about this release. 



Ezekiel02:24:81

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