Sunny Day Roses / Marathon Records
April, 1996 Newsletter


"as you travel along life's way, don't forget to stop and hear the Roses!"

Sunny Day Roses album news

The full-length "bLOOMsHINe!" CD is here! The album contains 13 full songs, in addition to nine sections of transitional music, and clocks in at 61:47. We're celebrating with a release party at the Coconut Teaszer in Hollywood.

These bundles of sunshine are the end result of what will be henceforth known as "The Mother of All Recording Sessions" . Believe us, after this fiasco, we -want- you to hear bLOOMsHINe! We want -everyone- to hear bLOOMsHINe!

The eight songs from Sunny Day Roses' 1995 cassette EP have been individually digitally re-mastered (Dig also has a couple of new vocal tracks), and are contained on the bLOOMsHINe! disc. The additional studio work was a great benefit to these songs. In particular, the rhythm section and low end received a kick in the pants, and a bit more sparkle was added to the top end of several cuts. The new songs have been field-tested in many concerts since our Cornerstone '95 show, and have proven to be favorites for the crowd and band alike.

The bLOOMsHINe! track listing follows. So many folks ask what the band sounds like, I'm actually going to try to describe the sound of these. Vaguely. To me, they sound like Sunny Day Roses... :)

Post-EP songs have a "*" listed next to the title. Transitional music pieces have a "&" listed next to the title.

Want * Melodic/edgy. Sorta 77s, Rush, Choir, P. Gabriel.

Cross * Upbeat pop/funk groove. Hint of Sly & Family Stone?

w/ Andy Carter (Elektra Records' Aunt Bettys)

Raining&

Skin Ethereal hypno-moody vibe. Choir/Cranberries-ish.

Rope Poppy funky jazzy thingie. Killer bass & guit solo.

Redeye &

Bloom Acoustic pop, alternates between latin & swing feel.

Pegleg &

Blue Weird prog pop song. Fixx-ish? Neato backward solo.

Lullaby&

Rest Groove shakin' prog jam. Gabriel-ish.

Dialogue&

Call * Floyd-ish, moody. Andy Carter. Chorus carries me...

Drungo &

Dig Earthy acoustic. King's X/Alice in Chains. Chris Scott sings.

Sukiyaki&

Bean Mod/prog rock. A bit harder. Cool spacey ride-out.

Lo * Instrumental. It's a samba, as far as I know.

Hedge&

Me Re-tooling a Farewell to Juliet song. Groove heavy.

Shine&

Pop * A goofy, happy pop song. Acoustic guitars, harmony.

Also for those who've asked, SDR thinks it's influenced by a bunch of other bands and styles that make no apparent sense when listed together. We took a survey of some of our individual favorite bands, and came up with stuff like this: Choir, King Crimson, P-Funk, Gypsy Kings, Peter Gabriel, Catherine Wheel, Rush, Abraham Laboriel, Police, Sting, Cranberries, Midnight Oil, Adam Again, Chili Peppers, 77s, Over the Rhine, Queensryche, Scaterd Few, Jars of Clay. Lewis says I need to add Jane's Addiction to the list, since he's a Dave Navarro nut.

If you're interested in having one of our discs, please e-mail SunnyRoses@aol.com for the info. bLOOMsHINe! is available directly from the band at the address listed below.

Sunny Day Roses

c/o Marathon Records

PO Box 1222

El Segundo, CA 90245-6222

USA

Furthermore, bLOOMsHINe! is available from the harried yet happy crew at True Tunes, Etc. , who can be reached in the USA at (800) 669-TRUE , and internationally at (708) 665-3866 . You can also get a copy from the excellent folk at Rad Rockers Distribution . Call them at (313) 439-7029 (e-mail radrock@tfs.net ). Rad Rockers also carries tons of other great out-of-print music you can't get anywhere else. Furthermore, bLOOMsHINe! is available at
Living Stones Bookstore on Cunningham Ave. in Urbana, IL

Periscope Records on Neil St. in Champaign, IL

Golgotha Music Center in Buena Park, CA

Virgin Records Megastore at the corner at 8000 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA

The cover art for bLOOMsHINe! is an interpretational painting done by Doug TenNapel , and it's brilliant. Beautiful and disturbing at the same time; you'll have to see it. Doug has done album art for Daniel Amos (all interior art on BibleLand ), among others. Doug is also THE creator and lead animator of the popular video game character Earthworm Jim , which is now also a Saturday morning cartoon on the Warner Brothers television network, and is also a line of toys. Doug is currently working on a series of new projects for none other than DreamWorks SKG at his own new company, called the Neverhood . He's a bigshot now, slapping backs and giving wedgies to people like Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg .

Sunny Day Roses is keeping a busy schedule playing around the west coast. We've got a regular thing going at the Coconut Teaszer in Hollywood, and we're planning to hook up with the Love Coma (great band, must see) tour later this Spring. We'll be back at Cornerstone in '96 as well, and hope to make a legitimate tour centered around the event, and a couple of other festivals.

We're trying pretty hard to get the word out about our band, the disc, etc. Check out these brilliant publications in the coming months, who should be mentioning the album: CCM, True Tunes News, VoG, HM, & The Lighthouse e-Magazine . Thanks to True Tunes, VoG, HM, BAM, Linenoise, Zinograffiti, TLeM, The HIPP , and others for putting the word out already.

In addition to the usual band memoribilia (CDs, shirts, stickers, cassettes, photos), Sunny Day Roses now also has (fanfare, please) its own plush toy . It's a ten inch stuffed sun that looks like our logo from the cassette and T-Shirt. It'll make you happy just to look at it, but it's great for chucking at the TV during those stupid Whitewater hearings and 1-800-COLLECT commercials, too.

Farewell to Juliet

That recording contract we had nailed down seems to have been a figment of our imaginations, after all. Nonetheless, FTJ is developing material for a follow-up project, to be recorded sometime in '96. We were going to call the record either "Ex Nihilo," or "Please Don't Eat the Cat," or maybe "Phone Call for Reverend G," unless one of us actually gets a legitimate idea before the artwork is finished. Brant Hansen says he prefers something a bit more respectable than any of those. The band photo for this record alone should be worth the cost of the disc, complete with live cats and dinner plates. FTJ hopes to play some shows this summer. The Official Farewell to Juliet website should be completely renovated by the time you read this, with new audio clips, new articles, lyrics, photos, etc.

Hansen and John Bretzlaff are keeping very busy doing acoustic shows while Jeff Elbel is busy with Sunny Day Roses, and the duo are going over huge-ly. Their shows fall somewhere in the realm of folk-progressive-pop-gospel-parody- performance art. Anything goes, everyone gets heckled, children dance around in costumes to schmaltzy renditions of Michael W. Smith's Friends , and chickens get confused.

Meanwhile, Jeff Schmale is busy learning how to be a new father. Somebody make sure he remembers how to play the drums, in between all those diaper changes...

Animator

Animator is preparing over an hour's worth of new material for the studio. The band's follow-up to Gallery has received interest from Sony 's Magna Carta sub-label, although no contract has yet been signed. We'll see. I've heard much of the new material, and MC would be crazy to pass it up; this is world class art-rock. The new material isn't as entrenched in the 70's progressive style as Gallery was. In addition to the ELP, early Genesis, and Yes influence, you'll hear shades of Dream Theatre, Queensryche, and King's X. The guys wanted to do In the Cage one better, and have developed a single piece of music which is over 20 minutes long. The interplay between keyboard and guitar is more pronounced on the new material, although the band recently bade farewell to Stacey Krejci , a personal hero of mine on the keys. I hope to see the current Animator line-up hit the studio by the end of summer.

Soulstice

Soulstice has released the 7 song, 40 minute Bill's Toasty EP, recorded essentially live to eight track. This collection rips. For the uninitiated, Soulstice have been frequently compared to Hootie and the Blowfish, which I find to be a woefully inaccurate description of anything other than the inter-racial make-up of the band (which is a ridiculous thing to have to point out, anyhow). Soulstice' modern rock style is adventurous, while maintaining contact with its roots in blues-based rock. Influences include zillions of groups, such as Living Colour, Rolling Stones, Santana, Hendrix, Phish, etc. Soulstice is a mainstream band, and Brandon Washington says a naughty word in the first song, Clean , so please cover the younger ears. My prediction is that this will be the first Marathon band to go to a major label (but not the last!).

The Electric Revival

The three Brits had a big year in '95, based upon the strength of their Learning to Drown disc, and their tireless playing schedule, including featured spots at the Greenbelt and Flevvo Totaal festivals. TER rides along the lines of early U2 and Alarm, while newer material bears the mark of guys who've listened to a lot of R.E.M. and Oasis lately. TER drummer Andy's wife, Julia, had a little girl in October, named Bethany Hope. Bethany was 8 pounds 11 ounces! TER is currently on sabbatical for personal reasons such as this, but expectations are high for their return in the near future, pumped for album number two.

=========

Able Cain

Able Cain is planning a full length live CD, to follow up their five song debut studio EP. Fans of the Fixx, Simple Minds and King Crimson should look for the new project in '96. Guitarist and "asynchronous loop"-meister Matt McCabe is also developing his King Never project, in addition to working his way into the session-musician scene. So, if you're working on an album and you need a guy with a serious Robert Fripp fixation, give Matt a call. He delivers.

Marathon Records on the Web, and elsewhere: 

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|           http://www.netads.com/music/marathon           |
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|  Jeff Elbel   |  SunnyRoses@aol.com  | w (310) 525-5518  |
|               |                      | h (310) 355-0533  |
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Marathon Records * PO Box 1222 * El Segundo, CA * 90245-6222
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"If all the trees were bread and cheese, there would be considerable deforestation in any part of England where I was living." - GK Chesterton
Last updated: 03 August 1996
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