2020: the year of work and love

After a busy year of playing, writing, arranging and recording, we're happy to announce that our second album, Work and Love is shaping up well. The actual recording and overdubs were wrapped up by the end of 2019, and at the time of this writing (12:51pm, Jan. 11), the 12-song album is halfway through the mixing process. Once again, Matt Allison has made us sound like a world class rock trio. Susan Voelz and Anna Steinhoff have added strings to three songs 

The Boys are back... in the studio

After a year of writing and practicing a batch of new material (and recovering from little things like back surgery and pneumonia), we're happy to report that our next record is well under way. We're once again working with the incredible Matt Allison, and we've done a phenomenal amount of tracking so far -- including vocals and extra bells and whistles like shakers, acoustic guitars and a big beautiful grand piano. Even at this very early stage, we're loving what we're hearing. 

Just between you and me, we're headed back to record a new number (we felt there was a "one of these things is not like the other" quality to one of the 12 songs in our batch; plus we had a late addition that we felt never got a proper shake in the practice space), and re-record one from the initial sessions, with a little more oomph. We're going to complete the soon to be orphaned track and save it for something else down the line. 

We've been productive and we're crossing our fingers and thinking that we might be able to wrap this record up (save the mixing and all that) in just a couple more sessions. Then we're going to figure out how to get our promotional ducks in a row, while lining up the elements of our Indie-GoGo pre-ordering campaign. We're going to shoot videos, too. The whole deal.

And did we mention... the new record is called Work and Love. Arriving in earlyish 2020.

 

Witness our insane behavior as we record

Downloadable lyric sheets! Handwritten! Scanned! Autographed!

B.L.O.G.

Record Release Weekend 

What a whirlwind 24 hours the Sunshine Boys have had! We celebrated Blue Music's release with an intimate acoustic show at Freda's apartment with several dozen fans and friends on Friday night, and it could not have been a more enjoyable evening. We liked playing the entire album in order so much that we did it again on Saturday at Rediscover Records in Elgin! Thanks so much to Rich for hosting us, Ian for making us sound so good, and for all the folks who came to see us! Incredibly, there was even a Blue Music cake.  Our second record store show of the day was at the incredible Val's Halla in Oak Park (Note to self: allow more time when driving from Elgin to Oak Park), and we loved playing Blue Music songs for all the folks who came out to see us (some of whom attended two or even all three of these shows!)  

Thanks again to everyone who Pledged to enable us to bring Blue Music to life - your support means the world to us! If you don't already have a copy, may we suggest https://sunshineboys.bandcamp.com/album/blue-music for all your Sunshine Boys needs?

Feb. 24, LiveWire Lounge 

Dag here, with a brief recap of our Feb. 24 gig. We were quite happy to have been asked by the magnificent John San Juan to be a part of this bill. My personal gratitude extends even further, as John bailed me out of a kind of standard rock nightmare: the one where you're walking on stage to discover that your amplifier has decided to crap out. Everyone in the room is looking at you, your bandmates are itching to start the show, and the slow motion frenzy begins. Frantically flicking the amp on and off, checking cables, changing batteries, trying every possible thing, to no avail. The ridiculously expensive boutique amplifier, with, what, three gigs under its belt, is taking a dive? NOW? A unique tapestry of spontaneous curse word poetry is woven, and people begin checking on your well-being. And then of course, wisely and calmly, the aforementioned JSJuan offers you his already in place, road worn, solid-ass Hi-Watt amp to use. You accept, and off you go, counting off 'Questions' and never looking back.

And now, Monday night, the amp gets a new fuse, powers up and asks you how the gig went. You give it the stink eye and fling a baggie of fuses into your guitar case, lesson learned.

A good show, though, ultimately, with a number of Sunshine Boys enthusiasts in the house, including our freshly minted Fan Club President, Karen. You'll meet her soon. John's set was spot-on, featuring a number of selections from his amazing SMASHED record and mind-melting Scott Walker cover. They're a great band and we are itching to hitch our wagon to them for some more shows. And speaking of Walkers, thanks to Jason Walker for his bass amp. There was also some cutthroat pinball being played by 2/3 of the band on a Metallica pinball machine, which seemed to have artwork by Peter Bagge, or at least someone who has appropriated his signature style.

Next show is March 23, our record release! Very very limited seating, but tickets are available. Interested? Well, go ahead and email dag@sunshineboys.net for complete information. We would love to see you there. Until soon! dj