Spiritual 029 :: The Tyde :: Season 5

Spiritual Pajamas is thrilled to announce the new album "Season 5" from The Tyde

Pre order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital download at:

https://thetyde.bandcamp.com/album/season-5

The Tyde Embraces Floridian ‘SUAVE NOUVEAU’ In “Season 5”

"You just got to learn to go with the heat, Rico. It's just like life. You just gotta keep telling yourself, no matter how hot it gets, sooner or later there's a cool breeze coming in.” — Sonny Crocket, Miami Vice

In “Season 5,” the long-awaited fifth full-length by beach-pop project The Tyde, frontman Darren Rademaker unveils his vision of an ‘80s-inspired Suave Nouveau, with a clutch of sweet, melancholic love songs evoking lush mustaches, mellow macho, the ghost of Jimmy Buffett, white sand beaches, flamingos swooping across a cerulean sky, speedboats cutting through the bay and pastel linen suits billowing in the breeze as the sun dips beneath the horizon.

Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León “discovered” Florida in 1513, naming the peninsula La Florida, the flowering land. In “Season 5," Rademaker reflects on his own return to the flowering land, and the artistic diaspora that caused him to quit California in 2020 in search of a New World of his own. “I lived in Florida from the ages of 10 to 25, but never really got to explore it,” he says. “When I came back, I decided to really embrace the whole Florida aesthetic. I moved into an art deco home in Sarasota with pink seashell lamps. I visited Key West, like seven times. I also quit smoking weed and cigarettes, and stopped saying shit like “LOL" and “amazeballs.” It felt different. It felt good.”

He started developing the tracks on “Season Five” during lockdown—just him, a Casio keyboard and re-runs of Miami Vice and Magnum P.I. “In the past, I have always looked to California for inspiration, with surfing and the Neil Young coastal vibe. But I knew I wanted these songs to be less California, and more about the islands.” The result is a sonic diary, high on the fumes of memory, filled with longing for things that are vanishing amid a quietly collapsing America, juxtaposing the allure of peachy sunsets with a sense of negative space, a psychic and temporal dislocation, the feeling that a golden age has slipped away, and the vagabond years are over.

The record features the talents of many good friends, including Dan Horne, Colby Buddelmeyer, Matt Correia (Allah-Las), Clay Finch (Mapache), Albert Hickman, Derek James (The Entrance Band), Alex Knost (Tomorrow’s Tulips) and Adam MacDougall (Circles Around the Sun/Black Crowes), with artist/ musician Matt Fishbeck (Holy Shit) designing the deco-inspired album artwork.

Tracks like “Heal Thyself” compel you to close your eyes, disconnect from social media, and imagine yourselves somewhere far, far away from the city, somewhere that’s gentle on the soul. “Tropical Madness” is sweet as a Piña Colada on the beach at sunset, while the instrumental “Legend of the Lost Art” transports you directly to a baggy Madchester sunrise during the UK’s Second Summer of Love, circa 1989. 

And as much as they are inspired by the past, these songs are keenly aware of an uncertain future—because there is no such thing as a time machine, and there is no going back. Ultimately, “Season 5” asks the question—where do we go after the sun sets on our dreams? Where the fuck is the New New World? In Rademaker's eyes, it no longer exists in any specific American geography—rather, all hope remains in the timeless, unending power of music, and its power to take us to the places we wish we could be. Even if they don’t exist anymore.

Words by Caroline Ryder

Release Date 3/8/2024

Spiritual 030 :: Dan Horne :: Count The Clouds

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the vinyl release of “Count The Clouds” the debut album from Dan Horne.

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl at:

https://danhorne.bandcamp.com/album/count-the-clouds

Record producer and electric bassist Dan Horne returns to his Lone Palm a.k.a. Liberty Hair Farm studio in Echo Park, Los Angeles for the vinyl release of his debut full-length studio album, Count The Clouds.  Recorded in 2020 - 2021 before his touring schedule kicked back into high gear with Circles Around the Sun and Grateful Shred, Horne unveils Count The Clouds featuring eight songs with the multi-instrumentalist vibin’ out on all the guitars, drums, pedal steel, and keys. A flashback to mid-1960s psychedelic folk, Count The Clouds includes special guests Ny Oh from Harry Styles’ band, Raze Regal, and Frank LoCrasto.

Count The Clouds opens with “Leave The Light On,” a floaty hook-laden song with a hopeful theme of leaving the light on even when your dreams are broken and you feel left behind. “Dontcha Know” was stuck in Horne’s head for years before he finally laid it down in the studio. “I love how this single is at the top of the album,” says Horne. “I don’t think people who know my music will expect this kinda sound from me. At the core, the track is about moving on from relationships and not being bitter about it.”

 “Hedgehog’s Song” is a whimsical Horne cover of the hit British folk act Incredible String Band from their lauded album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. He enlists keyboardist Frank LoCrasto for “Hedgehog’s Song,” a player known for collaborations with Fruit Bats, Greg Osby, and Pat Martino. The track eases into a companion dreamscape piece with epic solos and Horne’s thick bass lines driving an epic jam on “Hedgehog’s Dream.”

“Bicycle Rider” was written while riding his bike down by the LA river and through Elysian Park enroute to his studio. His daily bike rides have become “clear my head” rituals. Guitarist Raze Regal guests on the song. At the heart of “Pieces,” Horne brings the ethos of “peace” back into people’s consciousness with a synth-laden track featuring guest vocalist Ny Oh (Harry Styles). With all the modern talk about politics and the world’s problems, Horne reflects on the biggest thing missing, “dialogue about peace and how central that was in the 1960s.”

Originally written to be played by another band as the Dan Horne Band walks on stage and exits after their set, "Hair Farm Blues” is now a staple encore for their live shows. “Ode to the Road” is a trip down memory lane from all the tours Horne’s been on. The stories are all true as he reminisces about everyone he’s met and hung out with along the way.

Horne is gaining recognition on the Echo Park scene as a producer at Lone Palm a.k.a. Liberty Hair Farm working with artists Mapache, Chapin Sisters, Pacific Range, Allah-Las, and others. On the national live music circuit, he’s a founding member of Circles Around the Sun, the Dead tribute band Grateful Shred (who’s selling out venues all across the country), and a key player with bandleaders Jonathan Wilson, Ben Kweller and Conor Oberst.

Spiritual 025 :: Lauren Barth :: Stormwating

 Spiritual Pajamas is beyond excited to announce the upcoming release of “Stormwaiting” the amazing new album from Lauren Barth

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital at:

https://laurenbarth.bandcamp.com/album/stormwaiting

Driving up the coast highway from LA, once you hit Santa Barbara you are struck with a noticeable change in landscape. It is the gateway to the Central coast, where the contours of the land begin to take on more dramatic inclines and feelings burn like wildfires. This was the childhood home of Lauren Barth, ranch living and horse riding amongst the golden and dusty open ranges that still expand through parts of California. It is at these gates of change that Lauren Barth explores on Stormwaiting, her second solo effort and first on the Spiritual Pajamas label.

Behind the musical landscape of Stormwaiting, Lauren drew from a backstory she created as inspiration. A young woman and spiritual leader of a commune, blind yet finds her way by a heightened sense of awareness, is caught between the physical world of “Rialto” and the spiritual—“Morian”. “Stormwaiting” is slang for living in Rialto and the storm is the tempest within Morian. The cult’s most important message is one of Awareness. Like her protagonist, Lauren steps through these contemplations of change coming, treading one step at a time between the physical and spiritual realms, in a bittersweet anticipation of something upon us. Each song is like a deep breath in, an exhale, a pondering of the past and a wonder about the future with an acute awareness of each passing moment.

On the title track, Lauren explores the question of who she is and where she is in juxtaposition to another, and it is these questions she answers throughout: “Leave me alone, you are the tower, I am the storm”. But follows with “I am the mountain, green grass all around... I will take you home”. Parts of her past she willingly lets go and other parts she can’t. In Leave Behind “little girl lazy coming up the road to see me, I was once a traveler too. All these old memories taken by the sea, still don’t know what path to choose. Wake me up from this dream I can’t leave behind.” On Durango, she is resigned to her own state of floating through storm:

I’m drawing shadows on walls
My baby’s still gone
And it’s much too late to go home
Guess I’ll drive to Durango
Spent so many hours awake with you 
Now I’ll never sleep, now I’ll never sleep again

The more serious moments are contrasted by some fun in the Family Chant series, a palpable impromptu romp of friends harmonizing along with Sam Blasucci from Mapache reading spoken word of an old Dark Star magazine.

Barth is a true seasoned folk music player, evoking the California folk movement of the late 1960s like David Crosby (who also hailed from the Santa Barbara area), while also calling upon British influences such as Bert Jansch, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Pentangle, and the later American progressive folk music of Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, and early Bonnie Raitt. In the time since her last solo record in 2017, she picked up the bass with Farmer Dave and the Wizards of the West, and with her own music gained experience with the process of composing, recording, arranging, and ultimately the confidence to allow her creative instincts to flourish. She found the perfect partner with producer Lewis Pesacov, recording in his Echo Park home studio and has worked with artists such as Pearl Charles, Best Coast, Fidlar, and also works in the world of classical and world music. Tellingly, Stormwaiting has an expansive spirit, a document of a woman and creative spirit finding and embracing her voice beyond folk music and into her own spiritual universe. 

-Scary Flowers

Release date 4/14/2023

Spiritual 026 :: Nico Georis :: A Rainbow In Curved Air

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the release of Nico Georis A Rainbow In Curved Air

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl and digital at:

https://nicogeoris.bandcamp.com/album/a-rainbow-in-curved-air-2

It was never supposed to happen. No one was supposed to reimagine Terry Riley’s A Rainbow In Curved Air - a piece of music that, until now, has existed in its own class of expression. No one was supposed to scale the perilous heights of the citadel and come back with another document of the strange festival scenes within. With the release of Nico Georis’ A Rainbow In Curved Air it’s clear now that this piece of music is a place that you can go to, a kind of astral sanctum that can be visited again and again so long as you know the mysterious paths that lead to it.

 

Doing away with the production tricks used on Riley’s original recording (just intonation, mirror image delay, half-speed tracking of all lead parts) Nico Georis confronts the central seven time theme with a new transparency that gradually complexifies into astonishing Persian carpet displays of patterned musical awareness. This is music of the plenum and not the void: it is teeming with forms that behave in ways that recall descriptions of elaborately jeweled DMT hyperspace; sonic shapes that are driven by the pure uplift and force of infinite, unconstrained autotransformation. In this way it is similar to the original but the pace is way less manic, way more listenable as it rides forward on a calm surge of dazzling zero point energy.

 

The three other songs on the record are Georis originals. Vapor is a moment of twilight abstraction, a plant music duet that features Nico playing along with the plaintive washes of sound produced by a cannabis plant connected to a biodata sonification device. This song was composed spontaneously as it was broadcast live over Nico’s Big Sur based pirate channel, Milky Way Radio. Side B contains two remarkable songs, Hot Slots and 777, that are built mostly out of samples of the slot machine sounds. They are both lush holograms of hallucinated beauty and convey something about the spirit of luck, abundance and possibility.

 

This is music for feast days that celebrate the creative selection and birth of new realities.  We are just beginning to remember how full music can be, how freighted with spirit forms and attention. We are just now becoming civilized enough for the ecstasy of this music. Now that our species has had enough time to experience this kind of fullness we are perched on the edge of this realization:

 

There has only ever been one song.

 

Occasionally, with adequate preparation and clarity of vision, a musician can usher their consciousness, shamanic, into communion with the living texture of this song. If they survive (it can be dangerous!) and if they have the presence of mind to push the record button at the beginning of their journey then they may return with something remarkable, an account of what they experienced in that other place. Music like a kind of phosphene twilight language autotransforming in the dark, songs written in rainbow black fire on white fire, an inaudible flapping of wings. This is one of those rare documents. Forbidden yet welcoming it spins before you with the uncanny familiarity of a stranger smiling at you in a crowd. Drop the needle and enter again into the spiral stream of giddy, tessellated sensations. It is waiting for you here. Now listen.

Matt Baldwin

Release date 7/29/2022

Spiritual 027 :: OSEES :: Live in Big Sur

Spiritual Pajamas is thrilled to announce the vinyl release of OSEES - Live at Henry Miller Library, Big Sur

Preorder your copy of the limited edition vinyl at:

https://ohsees.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-henry-miller-library-big-sur

"When we finally decided to bite the bullet during Covid’s initial shut down and subsequent clubs shuttering, we thought we should play some lovely and close to our heart spots to keep it interesting.

Henry Miller library fits that bill perfectly.  Lovely place, lovely people & general good vibes. A perfect place for us to set up and record.  Also, included here are the covers we did because why the fuck not."

"We’ve dipped deep into the dark waters of our song-sack of holding and found several more never-before-performed-live tunes & paired them up with some oldies we’ve knocked the dust off of, as well as some fan favorites and general surprises to make the merry very.  That’s right, we’ve been paying attention. Recorded from dusk till dawn 2 at the gorgeous Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Same killer crew, similar killer vibes. An enchanting pre-holiday evening to tell you that we miss and love you. Play it loud and have one on us. And keep your chin up for goodness sake.

Be well out there

OSEES

Release date 6/3/2022

Spiritual 020 - Farmer Dave Scher - Speak Of Love

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the new EP from Farmer Dave Scher

Order your copy of the limited editon CD or digital download at:

https://farmerdavescher.bandcamp.com/album/speak-of-love

This is a message of love from the West.

Farmer Dave Scher (Beachwood Sparks, The Skiffle Players, Kurt Vile and the Violators) has a message to send. And that is simply — love. Speak of Love, Farmer Dave’s new 4-song EP on Spiritual Pajamas is woven with the one simple truth of love in both words and music. A different state of consciousness awaits if you listen, close your eyes and imagine.

The story of the Speak of Love EP starts some years ago, when Neil Young appeared on television and spoke directly into the camera with a telepathic gaze and asked “Who is going to stand up for the land? Who is going to sing for mother earth?”  Farmer Dave took this as a direct call to action. Seeing an alternate future of a barren, scorched earth that was used and thrown away, he decided to introduce a different path into his music. After spending time with plant medicines in Peru, Farmer Dave came back to California, dispatched most of his earthly possessions to live in an Ojai commune, wandered the wilderness outside of Los Angeles and found his own cosmic cave to meditate and work out this batch of songs devoted to Mother Earth. The result is a Farmer Dave rave up intergalactic honky tonk -- a phantasmagoric intersection of past and present where aliens dance with the Chumash and the Santa Ana winds still blow ancient spirits through the strip malls of Venice Beach. And Farmer Dave, the modern Californio time traveler, can be seen trekking down the coast copiloted by Alan, his pet bearded dragon.

Speak of Love was recorded at Electric Duck, Kelley Stoltz’s studio in San Francisco’s Mission district, Earthstar Creation Center and The Dojo in Venice Beach, and Golden Void Studios in Van Nuys.  Along with sounds from the Amazon rainforest and cetaceans, Farmer Dave is joined by friends Kurt Vile and fellow Violator Rob Laakso, and members of The Skiffle Players; Cass McCombs, Dan Horne and Aaron Sperske.

During a time when truth is hard to find, Farmer Dave’s words speak an eternal truth, arriving at a perfect time to deliver his message of love.  Plant the seeds, brothers and sisters…the loving, dreaming kind.

Release date 10/2/2020

Spiritual 024 - The Skiffle Players - Skiff

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the new LP from The Skiffle Players.

Order your copy of the vinyl, CD or digital download at:

https://theskiffleplayers.bandcamp.com/album/skiff

Their second LP, “SKIFF” is a new direction for The Skiffle Players. Now, they all sing and write. There is NO LEADER.

Recorded at Infinitespin Recorders in Van Nuys CA, with engineer Matt “Linny” Linesch, SKIFF begins with a bold opening; the Farmer Dave penned ‘Cara’, heavy information for the soul. Then, into classic Cass insanity on ‘Local Boy’, a wild ride on the run from the cops. Third is a touching tribute to a bygone companion, ‘Miss It When It’s Gone’, written and led by Neal.

SKIFF’s revolving perspective continues to bounce around, leaving no apparent land to stand upon. In that, it is deeply subversive. For there is nothing to defend, but the ability to transform and imagine.

The album continues to unfold back to Cass with a satire on justice, ‘The Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe’. From the saloon ‘Long Horns, Long Necks, Long Legs’, to the rainforest ‘Herbamera’. Neal blasts in again with the sun-bleached rambler, ‘Los Angeles Alleyway’. Farmer Dave’s ‘Skiffleman’ “sings a song for everyone”. Cass plays with memory in a song about coming of age in the Bay Area on ‘Oakland Scottish Rite Temple Waltz’. Penultimately, ‘Santa Fe’, an elliptical broadside about materialism and waste. SKIFF concludes by pushing off again, out into the familiar waters of a traditional skiffle number, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’, each member taking a perhaps all-too casual solo.

This is acoustic dance music at its finest. It is also refreshingly contradictory. Irreverent and mystical. Deeply personal and communal. Traditional and profane. The ever revolving and disintegrating ship known as SKIFF.

STORY OF THE SKIFFLE PLAYERS.

Once upon a time, Mollusk Surf shop asked Farmer Dave Scher to put together a band for a concert in Big Sur. Thus the Skiffle Players were born, selected from friends of both Californias - Northern (Cass, Dan) and Southern (Dave and Aaron) plus a New Jersey transplant to Ventura County (Neal) - each meeting at the metaphorical heart of the state, the mythical SUR. The origin concept of the band was to create a new folk fabric from the ashes of tradition - whatever the ashes of tradition means to you.

WHAT IS SKIFFLE?

A matter of debate.  Although The Skiffle Players approach the definition as, broadly, ‘street music’.  Busking. Singing for one’s supper.  Entertaining the passers-by. Make em dance all the way home. The term may have its origin in Memphis jug band music of the 20s. It seems to have emigrated to England with the US soldiers during WW2, and was taken up by a new generation, beginning with Lonnie Donegan, ending with The Quarrymen aka The Beatles. The term then somewhat disappeared.

SO, THEN, WHAT IS WEST COAST SKIFFLE?

The Skiffle Players are the very ash to explore that question. From the beginning, no rules. No song off-limits. Everybody sings. No idea is silly enough, for sometimes the absurd is the very device for a cataclysmic rift in the fabric of sound. Of course, it can also end in hilarious catastrophe, and often does - a necessary, cosmic comedic consequence to this fearless approach. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Bo Diddley sharing a surfboard, something interesting is going to happen.

Personnel (in alphabetical order):

Neal Casal - acoustic guitar
Dan Horne - bass
Cass McCombs - acoustic guitar, harmonium, banjo
Farmer Dave Sher - melodica, lap steel, keyboard
Aaron Sperske - drums

Check out each of these musicians’ history. It is vast. From Beachwood Sparks to Cass McCombs’ ten solo albums to Circles Around The Sun, The Skiffle Players are the sum of these adventures.

Release date is 10/26/2018

Spiritual 023 :: Mattson 2 :: Play "A Love Supreme"

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the new LP from Mattson 2.

Order your copy of the vinyl, CD or digital download at:

https://themattson2.bandcamp.com/

Identical Twins Jared & Jonathan Mattson Create a Bold, Modern Reimagining of John Coltrane’s Revered Masterpiece A Love Supreme

On Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme,” out August 17, 2018 via Spiritual Pajamas, the brothers translate the iconic saxophonist’s spiritual vision into a thrilling 21st-century electric exploration

John Coltrane’s 1965 magnum opus A Love Supreme is one of the most revered and influential recordings in the history of jazz, widely regarded as the iconic saxophonist’s masterpiece. It might seem audacious at the very least to undertake a new recording of such a foundational album, but twin brothers Jared & Jonathan Mattson are nothing if not sonic risk-takers.

With their new release Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme,” the duo reimagines Coltrane’s avant-garde epic through a 21st-century lens, creating a new interpretation that remains faithful to the questing spirit of the original while pushing the music into bold new territory – which itself is fully in keeping with the composer’s forward-looking vision. The album, due out August 17, 2018 via Spiritual Pajamas, translates the Coltrane Quartet’s acoustic jazz explorations into a modern language swathed in a haze of analog synths, ecstatic guitars, transcendent grooves and enveloping atmospherics.

“The purpose of our reinterpretation of A Love Supreme was to lean into the spirit of exploration and transformation that’s embodied in jazz.” says Jonathan Mattson. “We don’t claim to be traditional jazz musicians, for us it’s about creatively adapting the art form, decontextualizing it, and exploring the genre in new ways. Jazz has been confined to such a narrow definition over the years and we want to make sure the genre continues to grow and evolve. It should be a living, breathing thing.”

That mission certainly fits with Coltrane’s own intentions for the piece, which is less a set composition than a framework for spiritual communion through improvisation. The Mattson brothers have a particular advantage when it comes to achieving that level of communication: the unique telepathy that exists between identical twins, an unspoken empathy that they refer to as “twinchronicity.” In A Love Supreme, the Mattsons saw a way to channel that rare connection into expansive new horizons.

The duo undertook an intensive study of the original composition, Coltrane’s notes, and every available recording by the Coltrane Quartet as well as later versions by the likes of John McLaughlin, Branford Marsalis and Alice Coltrane. They used that vocabulary to create their own take, which they honed through invaluable live performances before audiences largely unfamiliar with the original. “It was so incredible to see the way that a rock fans connected with the music,” Jonathan recalls. “There was yelling and crying, people getting really stoked and devouring every note we were playing. Seeing people’s minds getting blown by Coltrane’s music, was an inspiration for us.”

Those visceral reactions attest to the continuing impact of Coltrane’s bold vision. Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme” channels that vision with both reverence and inventiveness, creating a vibrant and electrifying new interpretation that will resonate with new generations of open-minded listeners.

Spiritual 022 :: The Skiffle Players :: Piffle Sayers EP

Spiritual Pajamas is thrilled to announce the next EP from The Skiffle Players

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital download at:

https://theskiffleplayers.bandcamp.com/album/piffle-sayers-ep

After the instant classic and record store rare find "SKIFFLIN’" (2015), The Skiffle Players are ready to release two new works.  On July 20th, the "PIFFLE SAYERS" EP.  The "PIFFLE SAYERS" EP is made up of a few gems from the SKIFFLIN’ sessions, and can be considered a companion piece to their debut LP.  This foreshadows the release of a new full length album scheduled for this fall.

Supergroup, side project, high-school-garage-band-of-brothers-from-other-mothers, whatever you wanna call it, the band formed to play a one off show in Big Sur and had so much fun they’re still at it.  On guitar, Neal Casal (Circles around the Sun) sticks mostly to the acoustic allowing his elegant affinity towards melodic craft to shine. Cass McCombs’ guitar wizardry and acclaimed compositions are at their peak, and his raw, mostly first take vocals bring the core of the song to the forefront.  And when you ask yourself – “What the hell was that sound I just heard!?” - it was probably Farmer Dave, the official leader and founder of the band, his keyboard/lap steel/harmonium work is the glue that holds the flotsam together.  Dan Horne’s bass (Circles around the Sun) and Aaron Sperske’s percussion (Beachwood Sparks) are so intertwined it sounds like each of them are both playing drums and bass at the same time.

STORY OF THE SKIFFLE PLAYERS.

Once upon a time, Mollusk Surf shop asked Farmer Dave Scher to put together a band for a concert in Big Sur. Thus the Skiffle Players were born, selected from both Californias - Northern (Cass, Dan) and Southern (Dave and Aaron) plus a New Jersey transplant to Ventura County (Neal) - each meeting at the metaphorical heart of the state, the mythical SUR. The origin concept of the band was to create a new folk fabric from the ashes of tradition - whatever the ashes of tradition means to you.

WHAT IS SKIFFLE?

A matter of debate.  Although The Skiffle Players approach the definition as, broadly, ‘street music’.  Busking. Singing for one’s supper.  Entertaining the passers-by. Make em dance all the way home. The term may have its origin in Memphis jug band music of the 20s. It seems to have emigrated to England with the US soldiers during WW2, and was taken up by a new generation, beginning with Lonnie Donegan, ending with The Quarrymen aka The Beatles. The term then somewhat disappeared.

SO, THEN, WHAT IS WEST COAST SKIFFLE?

The Skiffle Players are the very ash to explore that question. From the beginning, no rules. No song off-limits. Everybody sings. No idea is silly enough, for sometimes the absurd is the very device for a cataclysmic rift in the fabric of sound. Of course, it can also end in hilarious catastrophe, and often does - a necessary, cosmic comedic consequence to this fearless approach. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Bo Diddley sharing a surfboard, something interesting is going to happen.

Spiritual 021 :: Mapache

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to announce the debut album from Mapache!

Order your copy of the vinyl, CD or digital download at:

https://mapachesounds.bandcamp.com/album/mapache

Close your eyes and imagine the Everly Brothers wearing Tied Dyed Nudie Suits. Okay, now open them. There's Mapache.

Youngn's Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci, the Mapache boys, are barely in their 20s and are already rising to the top of the new wave of West Coast Cosmic Americana. Born and raised in Glendale, California, their breathtaking harmonies and heartfelt yet heady sound, was honed by surfing the beaches and exploring the deserts and canyons of their native California.

Clay spent time at Chico State while Sam missioned in Saltillo, Mexico, living out what would become the songs on their debut album MAPACHE on the Spiritual Pajamas label.  The lineage of MAPACHE has blood running back to the first wave of psychedelic country revivalists Beachwood Sparks. Clay is a cousin of Beachwood main man Chris Gunst. Chris and I went to bat for MAPACHE by helping them score their first club shows and recording sessions with Dan Horne.

Dan eventually produced this album at the vintage analog halls of legendary Valentine Recording Studios, where the tape rolled and captured the live spirited harmony, skillful strumming and genuinely well-crafted songs that everyone from Chris Robinson to Jonathan Richman have fallen in love with. The real charm lies in the simplicity of their voices and the songs that recall a young Gene Clark, The Louvins, Crosby, Stills and Townes ... it's all there and more.

One memorable night they showed up to a GospelbeacH gig with deep surfer tans and big white circles around their eyes just like raccoons...(Mapache is Spanish for Raccoon). The boys set up on stage, sang and played their timeless and soon to be classic songs into a single microphone. Time stood still, and the normally chatty LA crowd closed their mouths and opened their ears and their hearts to Mapache. At that very moment I knew they were on their way.

Brent Rademaker
Los Angeles 2017 

The album will be released on October 6, 2017

Spiritual 019 :: Light Fantastic :: Out of View

Spiritual Pajamas is proud to announce the new record from Light Fantastic!

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital download at:

https://lightfantasticband.bandcamp.com/

You can either take a dreamy glide on the waves of the Pacific Ocean or you can let the waves engulf you...either way your senses take in something that’s not unlike the sparkling music and voices of Light Fantastic.

The sophisticated yet innocent jangle of their debut long player “Out of View” on the Spiritual Pajamas label is a fresh neighbor to the trippy head music for which San Francisco is usually known.  But somehow it lives quite happily in the midst of giant Redwoods, the thick cold waters of the foggy coast, or the laid back urgency of a late night out in the Mission with your head in the clouds.  From The Fillmore, to The Whisky a Go-Go, to The Hacienda in Manchester, the 10 songs on “Out of View” work as a sort of View Master/Time Machine..."feels like I’ve been here before"…and you wanna stay for a while and smile.

Terry Sowers, chief songwriter armed with his trusty Rickenbacker 6-string and melancholy vocal/lyric delivery, powers the Light Fantastic.  Bassman Jeremy Bringetto hooks you in with his super melodic but well-rounded bass lines while Rachel Hoiem twinkles and pads the songs with her keyboards and harmonies.  Recording mastermind Rex Shelverton and his colorful guitar comes through like a light house in heavy fog lighting the way for the group and Terry’s tunes to take you on a trip.  This ain't what you call surf rock but you'll find these guys out on every swell.  And if you do surf, these are the tunes that are in your head while you’re paddling for the next wave...the next wave?  LIGHT FANTASTIC

--Brent Rademaker - Beachwood Sparks/Tyde/GospelbeacH

  Southern California, summer 2016

The release date is Friday, October 7th.

Spiritual 018 :: The Tyde :: Darren 4

Spiritual Pajamas is proud to announce the new record from The Tyde!

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital download at:

https://thetyde.bandcamp.com/album/darren-4

A lazy decade since 2006's "Three's Co." (Rough Trade) and after 3 failed attempts we bring you "Darren 4" the new record from The Tyde. Songs of sea, sex and sand sprinkled with goodbyes, divorce, truthful situations and perhaps a few laughs. Joining Darren Rademaker on this journey are familiar members Brother Brent Rademaker (Beachwood Sparks), Ben Knight and Colby Buddelmeyer along with new faces Bobby Rodriguez on keys, Richard Gowen (Jonathan Wilson, Vetiver, Nick Waterhouse) on drums, Andres Renteria on percussion and longtime friend and cohort Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals) on guitar throughout, with very special guest Bernard Butler (of 90s Brit legends SUEDE) on guitar and co-vocals on “The Curse In Reverse”. The songs are fleshed out with some lovely backing vocals from Paige Stark, Chelsea Larkin and Rachel Dean.

"LA's perennial coast and canyon outfit rinse the salt off with Darren 4, their first LP in a decade. Two decades in, led by the Zelig-like Darren Rademaker, the Tyde remain kitted out in a unique bouillabaisse of sound often imitated yet never duplicated. It's not gossip if it's true. Kooks take note."
       -- Justin Gage, Aquarium Drunkard

The release date is Friday, September 9th.

Spiritual 015 :: Cellar Doors :: Frost / Prism 7"

Spiritual Pajamas is thrilled to announce the new 7" from Cellar Doors!

Order your copy of the limited edition 7" or digital download at:

https://cellardoors.bandcamp.com/album/frost-prism-7

“Depeche Mode and Joy Division robbed the biggest bank in London, and in the safe they found Cellar Doors. I love music you can rob a bank to and this does that for me.”
                                                                           — Alex Maas (The Black Angels)

Hailing from San Francisco by way of Southern California, Cellar Doors are blowing up fast within the thriving California psych scene.

Leading exponents of what is being called the third wave of psychedelic sound; they have been coaxed out of their thriving underground scene for support slots via invitation from the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Roky Erickson, Toy, Allah-Las, Mystic Braves and Alex Maas (Black Angels), among others.

Their much anticipated debut album is one of the most hotly tipped in recent times around the Bay Area, dripping with pure power psych melody overlaid onto undulating walls of sound.  Powerful, brooding and danceable at the same time, it is at once timeless and cutting edge.

Lead single “Frost” sounds like “helicopter blades cutting through thick black molasses,” tearing out of the speakers as if it were a forgotten classic on the jukebox of some far- away planet, conveying the simple electricity of attraction while staring at one’s own life in a hall of warped mirrors.  Released in a limited edition on white vinyl by Spiritual Pajamas the single is accompanied by a video from English director Nathan Seabrook.

The 7" single will be released on February 26, 2016.

Spiritual 017 :: The Skiffle Players :: Skifflin'

Spiritual Pajamas is proud to announce the inaugural release from “The Skiffle Players”.

Order your copy of the limited edition vinyl or digital download at:

https://theskiffleplayers.bandcamp.com/

The Skiffle Players are:

Neal Casal – Guitar, vocals.  Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Phil Lesh & Friends, Circles Around The Sun – “Interludes For The Dead”.

Dan Horne – Bass.  Jonathan Wilson, Circles Around The Sun – “Interludes For The Dead”.

Cass McCombs – Guitar, vocals.

Farmer Dave Scher – Keyboards, lap steel guitar, melodica, vocals.  Beachwood Sparks.

Aaron Sperske – Drums and percussion.  Beachwood Sparks.

The limited edition vinyl comes in a gatefold jacket and will be released on February 12th, 2016

Spiritual016 :: Mammatus :: Sparkling Waters

Spiritual Pajamas is thrilled to announce the release on the new Mammatus LP, "Sparkling Waters"

Order the LP, digipak CD or digital download at:

https://mammatus.bandcamp.com/album/sparkling-waters

Heavy space rock outsiders Mammatus return with their fourth album, and their most ambitious to date.  Sparkling Waters is a double LP featuring four multi-movement pieces, each designed to recalibrate the shanga array in your mind.  In order to achieve the highest levels of sensatory clarity, the group enlisted Phil Manley (Trans Am, Life Coach) as their guiding light throughout the studio production.  As a result these tracks shimmer with a far out, casual glow, like an aural reflection of a Risan steam pool. 

On Sparkling Waters, Mammatus expand upon the astral grooves and heady riffs of their previous compositions and set a course for the furthest horizon.  Celestial arpeggiations of electric guitar ricochet infinitely across vast expanses of cosmic debris.  Heavy riffs thunder with a rhythmic groove, like the exploding coast of Ornia spoken of in days past.  Pastoral passages of mellow, slow burning psychedelia give way to Native American flute melodies and the chanting of spiritual incantations filtered through canyons of delay.  Heavenly dual guitar leads soar like a hawk gliding over a mountainside redwood canopy.  Radiant synthesizers harmonize to create a shape shifting formation of ambient space that envelops the rock and in some places completely takes over. 

Sparkling Waters is bound to appeal to a wide range of discerning listeners, as it incorporates elements of heavy riff rock, prog, and breath metal while it also features the enhancing sonic textures of kosmische sound coloration, soaring synth leads, and astral voyages through deep space.  This amalgamation of tones is presented in a way that is wholly original, casting Mammatus as the solitary practitioners of a unique sound that was invented with the express purpose of making you feel.....shanga.  So breathe deeply, strap on those headphones, drop the needle, and get far out.

The double gatefold LP will be released on November 20th, 2015

Spiritual014 :: Magic Trick :: Half Man Half Machine

Spiritual Pajamas is excited to present the new LP from Magic Trick, "Half Man Half Machine".

Purchase the limited vinyl or digital download at:

https://timcohen.bandcamp.com/album/half-man-half-machine

Sound structure or randomness will fill the mind with a certain primal need for an Evolution that inherently limits the Imagination.  Half Man Half Machine, the latest Magic Trick release, builds and then explores a sonic landscape that is constantly in bloom.  Whether it be in the slipstream and eddying of triumphant washes of melody, in the serpentining elegance of percussive brambles, or in the perseverance of the laconic lilt, woven upon revelations of transcendence and frailty from the mouth of Tim Cohen, one is invited into a landscape that shifts and grows based on its own, ulterior, nature...and one must only Listen to find it for themselves.  Listen to the kalimba, metronome, cymbal washes, shaker rattles, mercurial guitars, raga feel, glockenspiel, low frequency rumble, subtle synthesizer, tabla loops; listen to the glowing of pride, the soft self-consciousness, the deflecting surrealism of your guides tongue; let yourself feel swept in its sonic orgy of change and realization; there is form for you to hold, there is path for you to plant, you must allow these sounds, these stories, to envelop your senses, you must let them wash through you, guide you to the structure that looms elusive under the roar - it is trying to tell you something and you have no choice but to feel and listen to the tapestry enveloping you, inviting you into its myriad and continually growing current and unknown direction.  One must Listen closely to this record, there is a chemistry of sound and creativity, perched at its cups every edge, that brings an organic and expansive stroke of structure, cohesiveness, imagination and honest human transformation to a time most pummeled by the strictness of the machine.

Let its sonic humanity inspire…        --Tyson Vogel (Two Gallants/Devotionals)

The LP will be released on November 6th, 2015

Spiritual013 :: Seventeen Evergreen :: Epiphanie Solaire

Spiritual Pajamas is honored to present the new EP from Seventeen Evergreen, "Epiphanie Solaire".

Purchase the limited vinyl or digital download at:

https://seventeenevergreen.bandcamp.com/album/epiphanie-solaire

A duo comprised of Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans, Seventeen Evergreen threads their psychedelic rock with electronic experimentation.

In the last ten years, the San Francisco two-piece has put out a number of releases on UK label Lucky Number Music and their own Pacific Radio Fire imprint. The limited-edition Epiphanie Solaire is their latest EP and first on Spiritual Pajamas.

** “White kids listen up.. a cum diamond about to make you see god.. this is a solar album for sure.. fast and sad.. but with the beauty of a sinking sun.. Nephi and Caleb of Seventeen Evergreen have made something epiphonic..”   ~Dr. Diamond Breath

** “Epiphanie Solaire.. like the Chilean observatory on the cover {ALMA} brings us the stars.. Song constellations that culminate with a better version of Captain Beefheart’s ‘Observatory Crest’..”   ~John Dylan, Professor of Magic, John Wayne University

** “ Basking in the golden hour of the sun.. dream pop me.. desert rock me.. ignite me and all my fun.. let this album soothe you.. and be of taste.. sounding better in French.. tasting better at brunch..”   ~BourgieGangster

** “ While the city was busy we wanted to rest. She decided to drive up to observatory crest. We’d just saw a concert and heard all the best. We went on a ride, we got outside. The sand was hot, she wanted to dance.”   ~Captain Beefheart 

** “Give me my ALMA.. my sinking sun.. give me my apocalypse.. give me my epiphanie solaire..”   ~Chilean Prophecy