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MP3 Dead Americans - The Boy Who Shot Out the Sun
11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Modern Rock, ROCK: Psychedelic
Details:
After two years of playing rocking shows and earning the respect of fans, promoters and bands alike, The Dead Americans are now releasing their debut album, “The Boy Who Shot Out the Sun.”
A crude, homemade copy labeled with Sharpie pen was getting regular airplay on KWVA (88.1 FM, Eugene) months before the release, and the actual copy continues to grab the attention of DJs with its spiffy 1950’s ad-art design.
Songs on the album, all written and arranged by local musican and songwriter Zak Johnson, range from the political (The Boy Who Shot Out the Sun, Destroyer, Love & War) to the personal (Keep it Fake, Snake in the Grass) to timeless (Life in Disguise, You Don’t Have to Go). The pace of the music is kept brisk with driving guitars, but toned with beautiful male-female vocal harmonies, with singer Kyra Kelly taking lead on two of the songs (Born to Burn, Life in Disguise). It’s nice to hear actual singing in a rock setting in an era where screaming seems to dominate any other type of vocal style. This makes the recording easier to listen to than most modern rock albums, and gives it a sort of haunting presence.
The production is professional, but not overdone, and the album is book-ended by sound collages. In the first track the sounds of nature are silenced by the guns of war, and in the last track, peace is restored after a hopeful finale in “You Don’t Have to Go.” These soundscapes seem to serve as a metaphorical connection between the global struggle and the struggle within the human psyche. The lyrics could sound dark or pessimistic if sung by other artists, but Johnson and Kelly give the recording a feeling of hopefulness.
In an almost exclusively local affair, Johnson employed the skills of local sound engineer Brad Erichsen for the recording and talented local graphic designer Tony Figoli for the cover design.
Dead Americans fans are as varied as the songs they play, and this release has been long-anticipated. Certainly, this is a mere introduction to the vast songwriting capability of Johnson and his counterparts, but not an introduction to be overlooked.
“The Boy Who Shot Out the Sun” proves that underground rock music is still alive and well, and its quality rivals that of any popular music on the market. The official release date is July 15th. To find out more about the recording and The Dead Americans, you can visit their myspace page at: https://www.tradebit.com
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