i can’t remember the last time i blogged here… the vanishing point approaches sooner than one would think. my band, june star has become my job and i no longer teach. anyone reading this probably didn’t know those facts or the many more facts that have culminated into my persona… but that’s okay, apparently we have a lot of time in catching up.
june star has a new record coming out in october… it’s untitled… which is good for now… but it is 13 songs… recorded with jason rubal(dresden dolls) and is probably the cleanest sounding effort we’ve put out there. exciting i suppose.
our last disc Shift, Engage, and Initiate got one very nice review from Americana-U.K….
June Star “Shift, Engage, and Initiate” (Independent, 2009)
First impression on hearing the music of June Star was, Son Volt and Jay Farrar — now that can’t be bad, and you are right it isn’t
June Star possess a core band that feature guitars, keys, bass, drums and guest pedal steel on ‘Staring The End Down’ that possesses Mark Olsen-esque tendencies, and is one of two songs to figure on the five-piece band’s forthcoming double album, ‘Love, Honor, And Negotiate’. Opening track, ‘Drive All Night’ is the other and it too is a superb affair.
Why put out an eight-track prior to a double album you might ask? Simple, June Star after taking four years over their previous record, ‘Cora Belle’, realise they needed something to keep themselves in the picture. Multi-instrumentalist Timothy Bracken and the bandleader of 10 years, Andrew Grimm share the lead vocals and songwriting duties. Based in Baltimore, the leading members playing four of the band’s older songs are captured live at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia. Stripped bare and playing a neat little all-acoustic set a great warmth wafts from the speakers throughout.
Bracken who had previously figured only as a musician, shows him self to be a solid and innovative singer-songwriter. His singing of an emotion-filled ‘This Love Won’t Let Me Go’ and the likewise, angst-torn ‘In The Back Of My Mind’ underline the wisdom of Grimm to call on him to both write and sing more. Elder statesman, Grimm provides a couple of solid vocal presentations via the lazy paced ‘Highway’ and ‘This Love Won’t Let Me Go’ as he adds a little edge to the proceedings —now for the double album! Bring it on, boys.
for some reason… i don’t think the reviewer was a native English speaker… hmmm… the double ablum is not happening… why? creative differences led us to scrap it.
more tomorrow? perhaps?
andrew
