Ball Park Music - Puddinghead release 1st June

 

 

Puddinghead

New album to be released on June 1st 2015

www.ballparkmusic.com @ballparkmusic

Released via Dramatico

 

*        3 songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2014

*        Spotify’s #9 most streamed Australian album of 2014

*        #2 Triple J Listener’s Top Albums of last year

*        Debuted at #1 on the iTunes chart and #2 on the (ARIA) Albums Chart

 

Roll up, roll up! The Australian purveyors of indie rock ‘n’ roll Ball Park Music are your honourable hosts. Their latest full length musical extravaganza is perched on the edges of your ears, about to dive in, loosen up your hips, and leave you with the biggest smile on your face.

 

Quickly ascending from the buzzing musical ecosystem of Brisbane, Ball Park Music are made up of Sam Cromack (singer/songwriter/guitarist), Jennifer Boyce (bassist/backing vocals) and Paul Furness (keys/trombone), along with twins Dean and Daniel Hanson (rhythm guitar and drums respectively). Their third album ‘Puddinghead’ - due to be released in the UK on 1st June - is comprised of 11 eclectic indie rock jams, poised to step out of Australia and stamp a surreal footprint on the rest of the world.

 

After making the respectably self-sufficient decision to record and produce the release themselves, the band leased a super-cheap ‘fibro shack’ in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. Shrugging off the intense heat and dusting away a number of terrified scampering insects, they transformed the shack into their own semi-derelict recording studio. The five-piece smashed the property’s broken door, dug out mud from the doorway, and started recording ‘Puddinghead’, with frontman Sam Cromack in the chair of producer and engineer.

 

Accompanied by the unpredictable sounds of both the outside world and the eerie sounds of whatever was still left in the building, the following process ran smoothly, as two or three songs from the record even received multiple takes. Despite the fact that the area was a far cry away from a classic, pristine recording studio, the process gave the band an almost superhuman workflow. The end result is their most varied and interesting work yet.

 

But overall, the band are already an accomplished and critically acclaimed tour-de-force on record. Always prolific, ‘Puddinghead’ is actually their third album in three years – following 2011’s ‘Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs’ and 2012’s ‘Museum’. It’s already received countless positive reviews from a variety of highly regarded publications. Alphabet Pony reviewed the album as a ‘considered and well-rounded pop record’, the AU Review stated that ‘Puddinghead’ cements Ball Park Music’s position as a ‘talented, important band’ and themusic.com praised Cromack in particular, observing that ‘without really belting at all, the front man tells 11 stories, all unique in form, but linked through a mature sense of clarity.’

 

As well as having three songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2014, ‘Puddinghead’ was also Spotify’s #9 most streamed Australian album of 2014 and #2 Triple J Listener’s Top Albums of last year. This album was released across Europe in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in February via Embassy of Music and it was FluxFM’s Album of the Week. Ball Park Music have recently performed showcases at SXSW in Austin and will play the prestigious Australian touring festival Groovin The Moo this spring.

 

 

But it’s in a live format that the band has truly excelled. As regular faces on festival main stages in Australia, they’ve become a common favourite via performances at Splendour In The Grass, Falls Festival, Southbound, Homebake and The Big Day Out. Renowned for their energetic live sets, they’ve been praised simply by Society of Sounds as ‘one of the best live acts you will ever see.’

 

Sonically, ‘Puddinghead’ aims to emulate this live energy, blending together a variety of styles. As both the first song from the album, and the very first single, ‘She Only Loves Me When I’m There’ is a hooky dance-rock, power-pop anthem, somehow managing to sound both paranoid and gloriously uninhibited.

 

On the other hand, ‘Next Life Already’ echoes the new-wave rhythmic bounce of Talking Heads, along with the trebly guitar sound of more modern bands like Vampire Weekend, whereas ‘A Good Life Is The Best Revenge’ deals in hazy psychedelics, reverb soaked textures and an atmospheric chorus mantra.

 

Moving through the album, ‘Teenager Pie’ mixes laid-back verses with lush yet raw and texturally perfect backing vocals from Jennifer Boyce. ‘Trippin the Light Fantastic’ is more akin to the first track, almost acting as a companion piece to ‘She Only Loves Me…’ with a chorus of disco oohs and sexually cynical lyricism.

 

Cocaine Lion is the opposite. As Cromack’s answer to Nirvana, the belter provides a grunge-influenced slow-burn that sounds dark, sarcastic and angry, which then feeds into the wonderfully titled ‘Everything Is Shit Except My Friendship With You’, that marries a multitude of disparate influences from a variety of sources.

 

‘Struggle Street’ is an understated blues-rocker with keyboards like The Doors and vocal melodies reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, whereas ‘Error Playin’ is a relaxed jam that begins like a mid-paced Weezer tune (a band that BPM have supported) and morphs into a chilled-out, multi-layered odyssey similar to Jeff Buckley.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

The album ends on the playful ‘Polly Screw My Head Back On’ and ‘Girls from High School’, that utilises (what sounds like) underwater keyboards and a literal farewell from Cromack, as the band sign off with triumphant dignity “I never got to say good-bye.. Bye bye!” – Girls from High School

 

As is clear, Ball Park Music draw musical inspiration from many strange places, but it isn’t just sonically that they’re inspired by the offbeat side of life…

 

‘Puddinghead’ used to be a Shakespearean insult. It’s the sort of name that would’ve been angrily bellowed at someone who was unable to do a simple task properly. Perhaps a cook may have unintentionally burned a simple loaf of bread to a charred crisp, maybe a ewerer had spilled water over an important rich person or a cottar grew tired and somehow messed up his menial swine-herding. Each of these occasions may have called for this insult, whether it be screamed from the mouth of a bloated, red faced aristocrat in breeches and a ruff, or chuckled in jest by a lowly peasant. In short, ‘Puddinghead’ wasn’t usually a good thing.

 

But now - in the case of Ball Park Music - it really is.                               

 

TRACKLISTING

 

  1. She Only Loves Me When I’m There
  2. Next Life Already
  3. A Good Life Is The Best Revenge
  4. Teenager Pie
  5. Trippin’ The Light Fantastic
  6. Cocaine Lion
  7. Everything Is Shot Except My Friendship With You
  8. Struggle Street
  9. Error Playin’
  10. Polly Screw My Head Back On
  11. Girls From High School

 

For more information contact Republic Media info@republicmedia.net 020 3213 0135 

May 19, 2015 8:17am ET by Republic Media   Comments (0)

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