Baby Robot Media

Client Press

by

Exclaim! premieres Book Club’s “I Don’t Need to Travel”

Book Club press photo One-Way Moon Folk, Indie, Country Robbie Horlick, Rachel Buckley, Matt Jarrard, Todd Kerstetter, Gus Fernandez baby robot media

Most indie bands make their living by touring, but Atlanta roots-pop outfit Book Club have declared “I Don’t Need to Travel” on a newly unveiled track from their upcoming album One-Way Moon.

This folksy ditty features a rustic arrangement of acoustic strums, twangy banjo, sweet piano plinks, and some harmonies and strings. The lyrics reflect on some beautiful holiday destinations, with the frontman Robbie Horlick ultimately deciding that he doesn’t feel any inclinations to travel.

One-Way Moon will be out on February 17 via the Cottage Recording Co./Bear Kids Recordings. It was recorded live in the studio with producer Matt Goldman and showcases a stripped-down sound. But as Horlick explained in a statement, “We’re not chasing any sound. We’re being true to what comes out of us. Hopefully that strikes a chord.” LISTEN HERE…

by

WXPN’s The Key spotlights the new Thirty Three and Third limited-edition 7-inch covers box set. Listen to Eeel Bros (aka) Man Man’s Honus Honus and Hot Karate’s King Cyrus cover The Nerves’ power-pop classic, “Hanging on the Telephone.”

SUB POP NOISE PUNKS NO AGE, EEL BROS (ft. MAN MAN'S HONUS HONUS), ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD'S SEAN BONNETTE & ROZWELL KID RECORD EXCLUSIVE NEW COVERS FOR LIMITED-EDITION 7-INCH BOX SET, THIRTY THREE AND A THIRD Chicago designer Dana Lechtenberg The Nerdist Gallery 1988 Los Angeles Black Flag, Gun Club, The Nerves, Misfits, Danzig, Modern English, Wheatus & Graham Nash Eel Bros Man Man Honus Honus & Hot Karate’s King Cyrus Hanging on the Telephone The Nerves Blondie Blood and Tears Danzig No Age Six Pack Black Flag Sex Beat The Gun Club Sean Bonnette Andrew Jackson Jihad I Melt With You Modern English London Dungeon Misfits Rozwell Kid Teenage Dirtbag Wheatus Simple Man Graham Nash

Man Man‘s Honus Honus teamed up with Hot Karate‘s King Cyrus on a cover of The Nerves’ “Hanging On the Telephone” for a new vinyl box set. Recording as Eel Bros, the pair are joined by No Age, Sean Bonnette (of Andrew Jackson Jihad) and Rozwell kid in the collaborative tribute to classic punk, eighties rock and nineties alt-rock.

The box set was curated by Chicago artist Dana Lechtenberg for the third annual Thirty Three and a Third art show in L.A. Eel  Bros’ version of “Hanging On the Telephone” updates the 1976 classic with an iPhone ringtone replacing the classic pay phone sound bite and keeps Man Man’s upbeat, bouncing-on-their-seat tempo. LISTEN HERE…

by

Glide premieres Willie and the Giant’s ”Loose Ends”

willie and the giants Ain't Gonna Wait Poor Boy Will Stewart, Jon Poor, Mac Kramer baby robot media Grant Prettyman

The self-titled debut album from Willie and the Giant is a double shot of vintage rock and soul. The retro-minded Nashville band cut these new songs at all-analog studio Welcome to 1979, where an impressive list of legends and contemporaries have recorded before them—Todd Snider and Dave Schools’ Hard Working Americans, The North Mississippi All-Stars, Those Darlins, Jason Isbell, even Animals frontman Eric Burdon.

We wanted that warm, saturated sound that you can only get from tape,” frontman Will Stewart says, ” and Welcome to 1979 specializes in just that. It was cozy, too. Everything there is intentionally stylized to take you four decades back in time.”

“It definitely felt like a special place,” adds six-foot-five lead guitarist Jon Poor (aka The Giant). “From the minute we walked in, we were instantly at ease.”

This positive feel carried over to the sessions, which found the Nashville group’s Alabama roots on prominent display. Both Stewart and Poor were veterans of the Birmingham scene before relocating to Nashville, striking up a friendship and starting Willie and the Giant. For their self-titled debut LP (out April 21 on Cumberland Brothers Music), the band’s two singer-guitarists, plus bassist Grant Prettyman and drummer Mac Kramer were joined in the studio by friend and ‘Bama staple Matt Slocum—who tours with Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson—on keys. LISTEN HERE…

by

The Portland Mercury previews The Handsome Family’s show at The Doug Fir on 4/30

The Handsome Family Husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks Americana Albuquerque Baby Robot Media

THE HANDSOME FAMILY, WILDEWOOD, LEWI LONGMIRE
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) The husband-and-wife duo known as the Handsome Family have been making odd Americana albums for the past 21 years. The songs are led by Brett Sparks’ deep baritone voice, but it’s largely Rennie Sparks’ lyrics that make them so notable. From historical fiction to odes to inanimate objects, they combine a gothic taste for the macabre with dry, absurdist humor. Their mix of sincere folk tradition and clever alt-country has made them a difficult band to pigeonhole—too weird to fit among Steve Earle or Gillian Welch, not over-the-top enough to be on a playlist with Silver Jews or the Magnetic Fields. While they’ve been critically acclaimed and widely covered for years, it’s the use of their song “Far from Any Road” as last year’s True Detective theme that’s brought their music to a wider audience. Tonight, expect a curious convergence of wide-eyed newcomers and long-time obsessives. READ MORE…

by

SF Chronicle: The Handsome Family brings their act to S.F.

The Handsome Family Husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks Americana Albuquerque Baby Robot Media

The Handsome Family’s hometown, Albuquerque, has long been dry. But tap lyric writer, bass player and banjo picker Rennie Sparks for water conservation tips, and talk quickly turns toward the area’s vast subterranean oceans.

“If you have a green lawn here, people send you hate mail,” the fast-talking Sparks says from her home, before diving into her real source of fascination. “I can’t wait to swim with the ancient creatures in those oceans — though when we eventually go down there to steal their water, there will be trouble.”

Nevertheless, no tributary is too troubling for Rennie and her husband, vocalist-guitarist-keyboardist Brett Sparks. A deep reserve of dark, lyrical storytelling inspiration seems to have always flowed for the gothic-country duo, perhaps best known for their “True Detective” theme, “Far From Any Road.” Trouble, doom and disaster — whether of the magical, catastrophic sort visited upon the “Far From Any Road” narrator or the ilk born of everyday struggles — are familiar food for the characters that bob to the surface of the duo’s songs.

On 2013’s “Wilderness,” those protagonists include flies, admiring the blood-spattered beauty of their feast, a dead George Custer, before we flash-forward to the Walmart in the spot where the cavalry commander fell (“Flies”). Mary Sweeney, the “Wisconsin Window Smasher” of the 1890s, is conjured up by thoughts of the peckish birds of “Woodpecker,” while in “Owls,” a shut-in is comforted then worried by the fowl that may have made off with his meds.

All creatures, big and small, are rendered with infinite dignity and just a hint of humor by Brett Sparks, who writes all the music.

“Wilderness” gave Rennie a chance to flex her creative muscles and “to turn this little diamond around and get a different flash of life,” within the concept of wildlife, with a companion book of essays and artwork. It’s slightly ironic, then, that of all the creatures she passionately discusses, the silent eels are the ones she strongly identifies with. READ MORE…