SINGLE SENTENCE SINGLES ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS ON THE LATEST LOCAL MUSIC DROPS BY NICK SPACEK
Amber Wilson, “Timeless Love” Kicking off this roundup with Wilson’s debut single might be a little unfair to everything which follows, because this Adele-level, emotionallydevastating vocal performance sets an almost impossibly-high bar that should have you immediately hitting up her TikTok to see her amazing covers of artists like SZA, Hozier, and more.
Courtesy of Shooting Star
“I FEEL SO FORTUNATE TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LIVE OUT SOME OF MY CHILDHOOD DREAMS BY GETTING OUT AND PLAYING,” STATES THOMAS. “IT’S STILL THE SAME. I GET THE SAME CHARGE GOING ONSTAGE TODAY AS I DID BACK THEN.” with the band, people didn’t always remember who did what song without that number one single to kind of lock it in. We had enormous amounts of airplay over years and years, but they didn’t know who we were.” Thankfully, after decades together, the fans have always recognized Shooting Star. Whether it’s the prog-rocking “Last Chance” from their self-titled debut, or 1989’s pop-rocking “Touch Me Tonight,” the band’s sound has managed to weather myriad changes in the industry. I ask Thomas to what he attributes Shooting Star’s ability to keep going for all these years. “It’s kind of what I feel as well as what I hear from our fans: the melodies,” Thomas says with conviction. “Gary [West] and Van pretty much wrote everything. I mean, just the melodies that they came up with! Gary was awesome at writing lyrics—just really heartfelt lyrics—but having a soft edge and a hard edge—which I kind of enjoy–in the
band, too. I’m a fan of music. I like all kinds of music, so I do enjoy both the rockin’ stuff and the ballads and all of it in between.” Going back to where Thomas and I started talking, with our discussion about vinyl releases, it seems that’s what’s kept the drummer doing it all these years: “Just being a fan of music. That was my big passion, growing up—music and listening to albums on headphones, just crawling inside the songs and listening to all the sounds and how they were recorded and reading the liner notes. Just a passion for music.” Knowing what it did for him, Thomas says that he has no regrets. “I feel so fortunate to have been able to live out some of my childhood dreams by getting out and playing,” states Thomas. “It’s still the same. I get the same charge going onstage today as I did back then. Also, I love the creative side of that: going in the studio and just creating.”
Mr. and the Mrs., “Sea Side” Unless you buy the actual 7-inch, you’ll never know that the secret gem on this new single from the area garage rockers is a cover of the first-ever Nanker Phelgecredited song, “Stoned,” a crazy Rolling Stones rarity originally released as the b-side to “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and is here gloriously reworked as a swampy surf-rock number. Seaside with Mr. and the Mrs. is out now on coke bottle clear vinyl. Martin Farrell Jr., “Take Care” The first of two singles from local label Lost Cowgirl Records—based out of Stull, Kansas, and ran by Jenna Rae of Unfit Wives—comes from the label’s in-house engineer, Martin Farrell Jr., and blends the lonesome honky-tonk of Merle Haggard or Waylon Jennings with the country rock of America’s “Sister Golden Hair” in a refreshingly novel take on roots music. Lily B Moonflower, “Midnight Song” The second of two Lost Cowgirl singles is “Midnight Song,” a real gem from singersongwriter Lily B Moonflower that’s a twangy ode to playing the jukebox as one day becomes the next, with the slow, loping track definitely fitting the hopes and dreams of the new year. Moonflower’s debut album—aptly entitled Moonflower—will be out on Lost Cowgirl Records on February 12.
Mensa Deathsquad, “Nothing Is Ever Enough” Brandon Phillips— of the eponymous Condition, Other Americans, and the Architects—goes full Faint with the first single off of Cyclist, the sophomore release of his one-man synthwave project which resounds with every iota of the strength necessary for it to have been recorded in a spare bedroom while recovering from surgery “with an open wound in his abdomen, two surgical drains, and a severely compromised immune system.” Mensa Deathsquad’s Cyclist is out February 23. Jonathan Brokaw / Dan Ohm, “Out of Your Mind” There’s nothing finer than when Brokaw decides to get weird, and this collab with Dan Ohm takes the work that the musician has done in Salty and All Blood and adds a motorik backbeat to the grimy basement rock aesthetic of it all, resulting in a Spitsmeets-Chrome mind melter. Tommy Newport, “Yellow Lines” Newport’s publicist says this track “drips with groovy, pick bass and trippy guitars,” and really, it’s so absolutely perfect, I don’t have any better descriptors other than to echo editor Brock Wilbur’s questions: “why is it only two minutes long [and] what is this guy doing in Wichita?”
ARE YOU A LOCAL MUSICIAN WITH A NEW SINGLE TO SHARE? EMAIL NICHOLAS.SPACEK @GMAIL.COM thepitchkc.com | February 2021 | THE PITCH
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