The always busy Sonny and the Sunsets released an Exclaim!-approved album called Antenna to the Afterworld, along with a curated garage compilation and the final installation of frontman Sonny Smith's 100 Records art project. It'd be understandable if they opted to take some time off, but instead they've put the finishing touches on a new LP.
The band's latest release is called Talent Night at the Ashram, and a press release suggests it's a seriously ambitious project.
The album is described as "a big soup of sonic ideas that wouldn't normally be glued together," and an album that "sees them in perhaps their strangest and most lyrically explorative phase yet."
Rather than beginning as a standard album, the release was originally conceived as a film. Each of the album's 10 songs was intended to be a short film that would form the full narrative, and some clips were even shot with hired actors before Smith decided it'd work best as an album.
Smith opted to record the LP at home for the most part, working on his own tape machine and collaborating with the Fresh & Onlys' Shayde Sartin, King Tuff's Garret Goddard, Kelley Stoltz, Rusty Miller, Ian McBrayer and others.
We won't get to hear the ambitious project in full until it's released on February 17 via Polyvinyl. That said, album track "Cheap Extensions" already has a music video, which can be viewed below.
Talent Night at the Ashram:
1. The Application
2. Cheap Extensions
3. The Secluded Estate
4. Talent Night at the Ashram
5. Alice Leaves for the Mountains
6. Happy Carrot Health Food Store
7. Blot Out the Sun
8. Baby Jokin
9. Icelene's Loss
10. Secret Plot
The band's latest release is called Talent Night at the Ashram, and a press release suggests it's a seriously ambitious project.
The album is described as "a big soup of sonic ideas that wouldn't normally be glued together," and an album that "sees them in perhaps their strangest and most lyrically explorative phase yet."
Rather than beginning as a standard album, the release was originally conceived as a film. Each of the album's 10 songs was intended to be a short film that would form the full narrative, and some clips were even shot with hired actors before Smith decided it'd work best as an album.
Smith opted to record the LP at home for the most part, working on his own tape machine and collaborating with the Fresh & Onlys' Shayde Sartin, King Tuff's Garret Goddard, Kelley Stoltz, Rusty Miller, Ian McBrayer and others.
We won't get to hear the ambitious project in full until it's released on February 17 via Polyvinyl. That said, album track "Cheap Extensions" already has a music video, which can be viewed below.
Talent Night at the Ashram:
1. The Application
2. Cheap Extensions
3. The Secluded Estate
4. Talent Night at the Ashram
5. Alice Leaves for the Mountains
6. Happy Carrot Health Food Store
7. Blot Out the Sun
8. Baby Jokin
9. Icelene's Loss
10. Secret Plot
