Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam new album out 9 November 2018
Album release: 'Blackout Cowboy' by Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam
Release date: 9 November 2018
Label: By The Time It Gets Dark
More info: Band website
- Listen to the single 'All The Way Over The Edge' at Stereogum
- Album available to pre-order as DL / CD / LP here
- UK tour dates through November
Prolific Birmingham quintet Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam are today premiering their brand new single 'All The Way Over The Edge (Bros Don't Talk About Anything)' at Stereogum. On a track that makes an immediate impact from the opening riff, its febrile energy, subject matter and crushing, jerking rhythms are characteristic of an album that makes you feel something at every turn. This first track is about the importance of being able to feel like you can talk about your mental health. Lead singer and guitarist Pete Dixon says; "I think the male condition stops us from sharing emotions we tend to either make light of things or brush it off completely and typically men don't talk about our feelings until it's too late."
About the track, Stereogum says; “All The Way Over The Edge (Bros Don’t Talk About Anything) is psyched-out spin on the neurotic power pop of early Weezer and the sprawling guitar rock of Titus Andronicus... When you’re listening to this, everything feels massive and urgent but it never takes itself too seriously, thanks to some darkly funny lyrics."
What of the bands that can’t stop writing? How do you keep up? Like Bob Pollard and R. Stevie Moore before them, it’s something that must just be there, in the blood. Over the last few years, Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam have been putting out quality material at an alarming rate – 100+ songs, and if it wasn’t for the day jobs, there’d have been far more – whilst never quite fitting in to any one pigeonhole long enough to be branded with a genre. So, where to start? Here. 'Blackout Cowboy' is that record. It could as easily be their debut. A fresh slate from which to start from. A band with 100 songs distilling everything that makes them great down to just 8 new songs. Like a record from the 70’s, succinct and compact, total confidence in the material.
Early lo-fi offerings in the form of two EPs, a self-titled album, and a Halloween single secured the then three-piece a regular spot on the Birmingham music scene, as well as frequent invites to towns and cities up and down the country. A couple of increases in headcount (most recently Junior Laidley on keyboards and percussion) and the purple patch writing sessions around 'Blackout Cowboy' have allowed the band to move away from the lo-fi aesthetic they once adhered to, and are now able to work the same unique approach to songwriting into an ever expanding range of hooks, riffs and drones that fill any room they play.
Dark lyrical matter permeates throughout the record, as does black humour and the band’s gift for melody. From the power-pop rush of opener 'Running From A Ghost', through to the Malkmus-esque closer of 'Mind Control', there’s both variety and an almost endless slew of good ideas throughout. From the thick guitar tone that brings 'All The Way Over The Edge' to life, to the melodic invention across 'Blackout Cowboy' and 'Meatloaf To The Camera', there’s no let up across the record. And on 'Mrs JR Hartley' the band even channel the neurotic energy of those early Weezer songs, in contrast to that most English of references in the song title.
Some bands hit their stride a few records in, and some bands hit it out of the park entirely: this is Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam making a strong claim for the latter.