Hello fellow Humans –
Welcome to the August addition of the GMR AotM. We are currently embroiled in a most colorful election season here in the USA. Well, not to worry, you get a little break from all that here. We have lots of great news for you that involves nary a politician!
First up, we have a brand new web site for the label. I was convinced that in 2016 we needed a flexible web page that would work on all devices – 65” 4k televisions, computer screens, iPads and – gasp – phones! Our old page was several layers of stuff cobbled on top of other stuff that needed a fresh start. Well we have that – thanks to Scott Rockwell of Burnseer (more about them later). It’s taken about six months to get it done while moving to Olympia, but I think it is in pretty good shape. Because we have a ongoing historical perspective of the Northwest music scene, we have ported over all the content from the old page – you can still go back and look up Red Dress, who we featured as Album of the Month in November 2009. We will be rolling out a few new features over the next couple months, but in the meantime if you run into something that doesn’t work, bad link, etc. please drop a quick note and we will fix it up!
Next up – for August we are delighted to feature Joey Kline’s new album Forever Blowing Bubbles as GMR Album of the Month. Joey is a Northwest institution – he first showed up in Seattle from Missoula, Montana as a member of Boy Toast in the early 80’s, put out the first vinyl release on Green Monkey with Prudence Dredge (Don’t Stomp Away/Problem Child 7”) and has been putting music out ever since, notably with the Squirrels and Roy Loney. His latest is a charming slice of retro entertainment – highlighted by my favorite, the delectable “ You Make me Feel Brand New.” Joey will have a record release party out at Darrell’s in Shoreline on September 18 with the whole damn band – should be plenty of fun.
Next! Saturday Sept 10 we are going to have a Green Monkey End-O-Summer-Bash! down at Slim’s in Georgetown. It is gonna start early – 8:00pm because we are shoehorning in EIGHT bands. Lordy may! The Green Pajamas, The Queen Annes, King County Queens, Gary Minkler, The Fuzz, The Navins, Burnseer and Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods (not necessarily in that order). The action will be fast and furious. If it’s nice out we may get to be outside, if not inside it is! Either way it is a super-duper entertainment value. It will rock.
Now what? Upcoming releases! I know you are digging the this year’s great GMR releases (The Navins, Liquid Generation, The Queen Annes), but we are just warming up. For September we will be releasing a new Green Pajamas album, To The End Of The Sea. I think it is absolutely one of their best. We will be releasing it on CD and download – shortly thereafter, it will be released on limited edition vinyl by Sugarbush Records in the UK. Mr. Kelly is working on a couple videos for it as we speak. Really great!
October marks the return of Jim of Seattle, whose first album We Are All Famous made several top albums of 2013 lists. The new album Both The Planet Frank And The Chet Lambert Show is everything you ever hoped for in a second album and more. November we will be releasing the debut album of noisy popsters Burnseer, December the annual Xmas album will appear magically, January we are ready to release our first album with Seattle legends AAIIEE. Then…? Oh yeah, when I can fit it in I finally got a license for the two Hendrix tunes that were recorded by the New Pagan Gods and will get them out to you.
See you at Slim’s!
td
August 2016
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Joey Kline – Forever Blowing Bubbles (buy it here)
1. Try a Little Swing
2. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
3. Smile
4. High Horse
5. I Saw the Light
6. Almost Like Being in Love
7. Circle in Time
8. Misirlou
9. When the Red Red Robin
10. You Make Me Feel Brand New
11. Dim Sum
RECORDED AT EGG STUDIOS BY CONRAD UNO MASTERED AT ULTRAVIOLET STUDIOn BY STEVE TURNIDGE
SUNG BY: Joey Kline, Cathy Sorbo ( tracks 1.2.4.5.8 and 9),
Laura Moreau (2nd lead vocal on track 10, + tracks 5,6 and 8,
Clayton Coleman, Fiia McGann (tracks 5,6,8,10)
MEN’S CHORUS On TRACK 1 : Richard Mockler, Rob Morgan,Conrad Uno, Ric Penttila, Kevin Crosby
PIANO, KEYS: Bruce Laven, TROMBONE: Greg Schroeder, DRUMS, PERCUSSION: Chris Leighton
TENOR SAX: Tom Vail, BASS: Kevin Crosby, TRUMPET: Ric Penttila, CLARINET: Nathaniel Paul Schleimer
BARI SAX: Shawn Brockman, KAZOO: Rob Morgan
GUITARS, 6 STRING BANJO, UKULELE, WHISTLE: Joey Kline
A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH MR. KLINE
Hi Joey –
TD: You are a long running Seattle music dude, going back to Boy Toast, who came over from Missoula, Prudence Dredge (we put out a couple Dredges!), the Squirrels and god knows what else. What have I forgotten?
JK:I am a longtime member of Roy Loney’s Longshots, and have fronted some rock bands, including The Strike Three and The Plaintiffs.
TD: If I was to look at your body of work, I would say it leans toward the humorous, but it is not that exclusively. I don’t consider you primarily a comedian, I think of you as a musician first. Would you differ with that assessment?
JK: I am a singer, a smartass and a guitarist, in that order.
TD: What’s the story behind Forever Blowing Bubbles? This is a pretty swinging album and rather different from your previous work. Listening to your song choices, I feel like these are songs you really love.
JK: I do love all of these tunes. My goal was to create a record that would have lived on a jukebox in my grandfather’s rumpus room in 1971. I selected soft pop nuggets spanning the last century, and wrote a few to fill it out.
TD: How was the album recorded? It has such a nice groove that it feels like is was recorded pretty live.
JK: We did piano, bass and drums live, and then overdubbed horns and stringed instruments and vocals. We made it kind of a party in the studio.
TD: Are you gigging this album? Where can the Kline-ists hear this stuff?
JK: My official CD release party will be Sunday Sept. 18 at Darrell’s Tavern in Shoreline, including the full band from the record. I will be doing solo shows as well here and there.
TD: Last year you put out a much different album, Rude Is The New Polite, with your brother John of The Music Therapy Experiment. It sounds pretty straight forward, like two brother sat down in a room and played some songs while rolling in record. Was it done as simply as it sounds?
JK: It was done very simply and quickly at my brother’s home studio in Mobile, Alabama.
TD: Anything you would like to add?
JK: I’m hoping to sing more with large swing bands, and do some solo gigs with my 6 string ukulele.
TD: Thanks!
Joey Kline – A Partial Discography (courtesy Career Records)
1985 – Prudence Dredge- Don’t Stomp Away – 7 inch- Green Monkey Records
1986- Monkey Business – Prudence Dredge- Green Monkey Records
1986 – The Squirrels- Five Virgins – Popllama
1987 – Prudence Dredge – Big Ellen – LP – Green Monkey Records
1988- Joey Kline Pomp & Circuspants – LP – Popllama
1989- Prudence Dredge – Detroit Rock City – 7 inch – Popllama
1989- Prudence Dredge – Special Shovel – LP – Popllama
1989 – Joey Kline- Derailed – cassette- Popllama
1989- Joey Kline- Eye Of The Needle- Vagrant
1989- The Squirrels- Oz On 45 – 7 inch- Popllama
1989- Little Boy Goes To Hell- The Musical- Popllama
1990- Squirrels – What Gives? – CD – Popllama
1990- Joey Kline- Makin’ Wishes 7 inch – Popllama
1991- The Squirrels- Beautiful Sunday- 7 inch- BLOBS
1991- Joey Kline- “The Joseph D. Kline of Western Civilization”- cassette- JK
1992- The Squirrels- Harsh Toke – CD- Popllama
1992- Shotgun Barbeque- The Tractors- CD- Bands We Like
1993- Hey Joe- Seattle Coffee Compilation-
1994- The Saltine Falcons-We Want The Airwaves- CD- Munster
1994- Joey Kline & The Saltine Falcons- It’s Clobberin’ Time-CD- Bands We Like
1994- Roy Loney & The Longshots -“Full Grown Head”CD- Shake
1996- Roy Loney & The Longshots- “Kick Out The Hammons” – Imposible
1998- Joey Kline & The Strike 3- “Lights Out” – Rockboss
1998- Roy Loney & The Longshots – Record Party- 7 inch- Munster
2000- The Squirrels- “Not So Bright Side Of The Moon” – CD- Popllama
2000- Donovan’s Brain – “Man We’re Glad We Know You, A Man Band Tribute” – CD- PGRS
2003- The Plaintiffs- “To Helen, A Handbasket”-CD- Plaintiff
2004- Roy Loney & The Longshots- Drunkard In The Think Tank- Career
2005- Plaintiffs- La Familia – Career
2009 – Prudence Dredge – Problem Child – It Crawled From The Basement: The Green Monkey Records Anthology – CD – Green Monkey Records
2015 – Joey Kline – Rude is the New Polite
2016 – Joey Kline – Forever Blowing Bubbles
plus additional compilation tracks and guest appearances with Teengenerate, YFF, Smugglers, Muddy Frankenstein, and others numbering in the dozens. I may have some of these dates wrong, as it’s been a long 20 years, with a beverage in hand.
