Available now. BACK IN PRINT. BLUE VINYL!! The Beachwood Sparks are space cowboys -- although their self-titled debut most closely recalls the sound of vintage Laurel Canyon country-rock, its shimmering twang-pop melodies and gorgeous harmonies bask in a kind of interstellar psychedelia which lends the album an otherworldly glow. The hypnotically dreamlike instrumental passages which wind their way through luminous country-pop moments like "Sister Rose," "Something I Don't Recognize," and "Old Sea Miner" completely transform the album's chemical makeup. Rooted in the earth but reaching for the stars, the group realizes Gram Parsons' "Cosmic American music" aesthetic in its truest sense.
November 26 street date. This is the previously unreleased debut album by LA-based cosmic country-rock combo the Beachwood Sparks. The album includes their first 1998 single, as well as never-heard before recordings, all carefully remastered. A must have for fans of the band, and for Southern California psychedelic pop lovers everywhere.
November 26 street date. This is the previously unreleased debut album by LA-based cosmic country-rock combo the Beachwood Sparks. The album includes their first 1998 single, as well as never-heard before recordings, all carefully remastered. A must have for fans of the band, and for Southern California psychedelic pop lovers everywhere.
December 6 street date. Double-CD version includes 12-page booklet. A masterpiece -- a funk opera! Leaping twenty feet forward, this extraordinarily diverse collection of tunes captures the full range of keyboardist Bobby Sparks 's expansive vocabulary and inexhaustible spirit. From slamming funk to slow-grooving soul ballads to forays into straight ahead jazz, fusion, orchestral and world music, his aptly titled Schizophrenia - The Yang Project covers a myriad of bases. On board the Battlespark Galactica for the exhilarating ride is a host of his Dallas homies as well as a parade of all-stars, including bassists Marcus Miller , Pino Palladino , MonoNeon , and Hadrien Feraud , trumpeter Roy Hargrove , singers Frank McComb , and James "J. Rob" Robinson , Snarky Puppy 's Michael League and Jason "JT" Thomas , guitarists Lucky Peterson and Eric Gales , and drummers Mark Simmons , Brannen Temple , and John "Li'l John" Roberts . An inspiring set of music that has finally come to fruition after a successful 20 years of supporting and influencing music of many genre, Schizophrenia - The Yang Project is Bobby Sparks II's crowning achievement in an outstanding career.
December 6 street date. Double LP version. 180 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve. A masterpiece -- a funk opera! Leaping twenty feet forward, this extraordinarily diverse collection of tunes captures the full range of keyboardist Bobby Sparks 's expansive vocabulary and inexhaustible spirit. From slamming funk to slow-grooving soul ballads to forays into straight ahead jazz, fusion, orchestral and world music, his aptly titled Schizophrenia - The Yang Project covers a myriad of bases. On board the Battlespark Galactica for the exhilarating ride is a host of his Dallas homies as well as a parade of all-stars, including bassists Marcus Miller , Pino Palladino , MonoNeon , and Hadrien Feraud , trumpeter Roy Hargrove , singers Frank McComb , and James "J. Rob" Robinson , Snarky Puppy 's Michael League and Jason "JT" Thomas , guitarists Lucky Peterson and Eric Gales , and drummers Mark Simmons , Brannen Temple , and John "Li'l John" Roberts . An inspiring set of music that has finally come to fruition after a successful 20 years of supporting and influencing music of many genre, Schizophrenia - The Yang Project is Bobby Sparks II's crowning achievement in an outstanding career.
January 19 street date. Urban Couture took two years to complete due to containing live instrumentation from various musicians from several locations. Fusions of Jazz, Neo Soul & Hip-Hop can all be traced within various layers of the project. Stretching conventional boundaries in regards to what is a modern day Hip-Hop album.
EXCL. - 1981's Whomp That Sucker was recorded by Sparks founders Ron and Russell Mael under the aegis of top disco producer Giorgio Moroder. It’s a fine example of the quirky, witty brand of pop fusion that has delighted two generation of fans.
Remastered with new liner notes.
Introducing Sparks, originally released in 1977, is the seventh album by Sparks and the only one of their 20 long-players not available on CD. Until now! The duo’s own label, Lil’ Beethoven Records, are putting it out. Finally, you can hear the much- discussed but rarely heard transitional album from Ron and Russell Mael’s near-40-year career. Introducing Sparks finds the Mael brothers, in the company of an array of top session musicians (mirroring Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan in this respect), caught between the innovative glam-prog-pop of their four early-to-mid-’70s Island albums (Kimono My House, Propaganda, Indiscreet, Big Beat) and the audacious proto-electro of their 1979 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (No. 1 in Heaven). Heard today, Introducing Sparks sounds less like made-forheavy-rotation AOR and more like a comment on, or rather series of pastiches of (all right, then: acerbic attacks on) daytime US radio-fodder: imagine Randy Newman as program
controller in charge of America’s airwaves for some idea of this satirical yet highly commercial meta-rock.
37 years after their debut LP, Sparks release Exotic Creatures of the Deep, their 21st studio album. Recorded in their Los Angeles studio, brothers Ron and Russell Mael once again display their extraordinary ability to create, to challenge, and to confound. Should it be possible for two people to be so fresh, so vital, so unpredictable, and so incomparably individual? The result of a year spent in near-isolation, Exotic Creatures of the Deep could, perhaps, be seen as a natural evolution from their last two records, on which pop-opera, rock, and high drama combined to redefine Sparks’ sound. The remarkably exceptional and notably catchy creations on Exotic Creatures of the Deep are the key that enables many more, as Sparks have said, to come and meet them.
November 25 street date (date change). First vinyl reissue of classic 1972 debut album originally released on Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Records • Produced by Todd Rundgren ! Sparks’ eponymous 1971 debut presents the singular compositional, lyrical and singing voices of Ron and Russell Mael fully formed. Originally released under the moniker Halfnelson, Sparks’ prescient debut prefigures Queen, power pop, and especially Southern California’s late ’70s skinny-tie explosion. It’s a landmark of Todd Rungren’s early production career, and clearly the backing band of brothers Earle and Jim Mankey brought Sparks’ pop idiosyncrasies to their later work with The Dickies, The Quick and 20 / 20. Infectious, daring, and delightfully flaunting camp theatricality throughout, Sparks is the first installment in an unparalleled series of some of the decade’s most classic albums. Careening melodies soar through space-detritus electronics on the strikingly original “Roger,” which evokes the early solo work of Brian Eno, but the deranged art-rock closing track “(No More) Mr. Nice Guys” is the unequivocal classic of Sparks’ early career and a staple of the band’s live set ever since. Rundgren’s restrained production wisely sets the Mael brothers at the fore of Sparks. With just subtly treated cymbal flourishes keeping the pace, album opener “Wonder Girl” is pared down and mixed to showcase two things: Ron’s twinkling piano trill and Russell’s fluttering high-register. As Rundgren perceived, and a multi-decade career confirms since, their fraternal chemistry is a consummate force.
August 18 street date. CHERRY RED BOOKS ARE NON-RETURNABLE. 'No. 1 Songs In Heaven' is the first ever biography of one of the most remarkable bands in rock history, written by Dave Thompson, the author of over 100 rock books, including best-selling biographies of Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, Cream and many more. Since the moment they emerged into the mainstream in 1974, armed with the hit 'This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us', SPARKS have endeared themselves to successive generations of fans, not only with their wry humour and offbeat quirkiness, but also with a lyrical and musical inventiveness that sees them numbered among the most influential acts ever. Celebrating forty years of this incredible act (the band originally formed in 1969), the book is the ultimate guide to the history and the mystery of Sparks. Exclusive interviews and insights trace the group from its earliest strivings in California, all the way up to their so-successful present.
Dec. 15 street date. With the release of 'The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman', Ron and Russell Mael’s 22nd album (!), the worlds of Sparks and musical theatre have finally become one. Originally commissioned by Sweden’s national public radio station Sveriges Radio to write and produce an original radio musical, Sparks created the musical fantasy based on the internationally acclaimed film director Ingmar Bergman. 'The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman' is just over 60 minutes of wonderfully original music that tells a fantasy "what if" story. Though his films’ themes have traditionally centred on matters of death, faith, God's existence, and the struggle to find love and meaning in our lives, in the musical Bergman is confronted by the lure of a mythological Hollywood seemingly at odds with all he stands for - a Hollywood that tempts him and ultimately tries to control him. What starts
as an exploration by Bergman of the possible mutual benefits of his working in Hollywood turns into a Kafkaesque nightmare, one that ends with the aid of a most unlikely savior. No CD release - a limited edition 4 LP box set will be released in 2010.
December 4 street date. Sparks - brothers Ron and Russell Mael - have endeared themselves to successive generations of fans since the early 1970s and are numbered among the most influential acts ever. Morrissey, Siouxsie Sioux, the Pet Shop Boys and many more are numbered among Sparks’ loyal disciples, while the group’s following is truly international. This collection of 12-inch versions of Sparks’ work pays homage to the extended mixes that were often contrived in the studio for use in discos. They found success in Europe in 1979 working with Italian-born producer Giorgio Moroder who, with Pete Bellotte, had turned US singer Donna Summer into a megastar with his hypnotically repetitive Eurodisco instrumental style. ‘Beat The Clock’ and ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’ were early results. They then moved on to register US dancefloor hits with the likes of ‘I Predict’ and ‘Cool Places’- a collaboration with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos. This unique compilation chooses the best versions from the various labels Sparks inhabited.
April 16 street date. Ron and Russell Mael present a double-CD souvenir of Sparks’ recent Two Hands One Mouth European tour that saw the American brothers playing shows as a duo for the first time. With no band and no computers, Ron (two hands, on keyboards) and Russell (one mouth, on vocals) captured the very essence of Sparks and their extensive catalog. This unique performance is now available on Sparks’ first live album. "While we began the tour with certain fears of not having the
safety net of a band or computers, we soon realized that the format was wildly successful (for us and for the audience) in highlighting in the purest form the core elements of what Sparks has always been - our musical world conveyed through our songs and our vocals and performed in a most aggressive way." - Ron and Russell Mael
Please note: street date is now TBA. Sparks present their 24th studio album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’. "Over the years, fans have come to expect dizzyingly witty lyrics and dazzling, ever-changing sonics from the Mael brothers. Their 24th album offers plenty of both, as well as a more pointed outlook and a slightly more down-to-earth sound than the duo's last outing, 2017's "Hippopotamus". Throughout "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip", Ron and Russel Mael riff on their history deftly, and the results are both timely and quintessentially Sparks" -allmusic.com.
Please note: street date is now TBA. Sparks present their 24th studio album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’. "Over the years, fans have come to expect dizzyingly witty lyrics and dazzling, ever-changing sonics from the Mael brothers. Their 24th album offers plenty of both, as well as a more pointed outlook and a slightly more down-to-earth sound than the duo's last outing, 2017's "Hippopotamus". Throughout "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip", Ron and Russel Mael riff on their history deftly, and the results are both timely and quintessentially Sparks" -allmusic.com.
Please note: street date is now TBA. Sparks present their 24th studio album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’. "Over the years, fans have come to expect dizzyingly witty lyrics and dazzling, ever-changing sonics from the Mael brothers. Their 24th album offers plenty of both, as well as a more pointed outlook and a slightly more down-to-earth sound than the duo's last outing, 2017's "Hippopotamus". Throughout "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip", Ron and Russel Mael riff on their history deftly, and the results are both timely and quintessentially Sparks" -allmusic.com.
Please note: street date is now TBA. Sparks present their 24th studio album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’. "Over the years, fans have come to expect dizzyingly witty lyrics and dazzling, ever-changing sonics from the Mael brothers. Their 24th album offers plenty of both, as well as a more pointed outlook and a slightly more down-to-earth sound than the duo's last outing, 2017's "Hippopotamus". Throughout "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip", Ron and Russel Mael riff on their history deftly, and the results are both timely and quintessentially Sparks" -allmusic.com.
|
Recherche de catalogue
