Ok. It’s June and time for our first ever unified-date release.
So what do we have for June? How do you follow up something as beautiful as The OF’s Escape Goat? Well, pilgrim, that is easy – with an all-new super-fantastic Jimm McIver album, Sunlight Reaches. This is Jimm’s first new release in like, eight years and as he recently pointed out, his second all-new GMR release (the last was 1987’s Alone by The Life). As you can hear – Sunlight Reaches is a delightful pop/rock confection, with a palate full of flavors ranging from the slightly macabre to the wistful and the culinarish. Jimm started the album off as a
successful Kickstarter project over a year ago, as long-time devotees of his music, we at GMR were happy to pick up the project and take it to the next level – conquering the whole damn world.
Besides great tunes, we’ve got videos for the album! First, the super-funWitchcraft that we are releasing today. No children were killed or otherwise harmed in the making of this video, though one was a trifle grumpy. We also have a tell-all Jimm gets interviewed about the album which you can watch right this minute right here. It is most insightful.
Wait a minute you say, I want the album, I want the videos but I want MORE! We hear ya. That is why on Friday, July 17 at Slim’s Last Chance in Georgetown, Jimm is going to pull together Mallets of Forethought, the very same people who played on the damn record and actually play it in public. That’s right. All 12 songs and definitely more (I have a promise we shall hear “Renee” from Polaroid Angel). The show is going to start early 8:00 with first Walter Salas-Humara, formerly of The Silos and then longtime Seattle favorite Christy McWilson opening up, with songs from her new album Desperate Girl. Do not be late.
Finally, on the McIver front, we are making two of his wonderful previous relases available through GMR – 2001’s Polaroid Angel and 2006’s Sweet Petunia Modern and The Holograms of Düm.
In other GMR news, if you have not yet watched John Carey of The OF’s interview yet I dare ya – just click here and get it done. Once you have learned the secrets of the colander, you may find yourself in a cold sweat, craving your own head ornament. And their albums Escape Goat and Oh It’s The OF.
Next month we will release the second greatest album of all time, History of Northwest Rock Vol. 1 1959-1968 by Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods. There is not one new song on the entire album. Just fifteen slabs of NW greatness delivered in a consistently excellent manner. Until you have heard that Tom Dyer fellow sing “Angel of the Morning”, you really haven’t heard anything. At all. Ever. We will have a one-time-only show for the release on Saturday, August 22 at Easy Street in beautiful West Seattle!
td
June 2015
GMR Facebook page
GMR Facebook group
GMR Video YouTube Channel
GMR Radio YouTube Channel
GMR Tweets
Sunlight Reaches (GM1030)
1. I Wonder If She Knows (Hall, McIver, Wittgens) © Possession Songs, James Scott McIver, Andrea Louise Wittgens
2. Welcome Home (Cooper, Kanis, McIver) © Stephen Cooper, Eyes of da Vinci Publishing, James Scott McIver
3. Sunlight Reaches (Greenberg, Hall, McIver, Wittgens) © Seeing Green Music, Possession Songs, James Scott McIver, Andrea Louise Wittgens
4. The Real Me (McIver, Wittgens) © James Scott McIver, Andrea Louise Wittgens
5. Suzanne Taliban (McIver) © James Scott McIver
6. Hannah (McIver) © James Scott McIver
7. A Fun One (Gates, McIver) © Innerfood Music, James Scott McIver
8. Witchcraft (Gates, Hall, McIver, Vox) © Innerfood Music, Possession Songs, James Scott McIver, Obus Music
9. Up and Coming Killer (McIver, Sonnets, Wittgens) © James Scott McIver, Vee Sonnets, Andrea Louise Wittgens
10. Temptation (Hadley, McIver, Sonnets) © Hadley Six Music, James Scott McIver, Vee Sonnets
11. Peanut Butter is a Gateway Drug (McIver, Sonnets) © James Scott McIver, Vee Sonnets
12. Ocean In Twelve Notes (Gates, McIver, Wittgens) © Innerfood Music, James Scott McIver, Andrea Louise Wittgens
Words & Music
© 2015
Produced by Vincent Gates and Vee Sonnets
Recorded and mixed by Vincent Gates at Common Tone Studio Seattle, WA
Additional recording by Andrea Wittgens, NYC
Mastered by Mark Guenther, with special thanks to Levi Seitz and Black Belt Mastering Seattle, WA
Cover art and layout: Gazelle Samizay
Inner sleeve photograph: Mark Guenther
Cover photo: Barbara Horner Kaftan
Mallets of Forethought are:
Vincent Gates – Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Harmony Vocals
Vee Sonnets – Electric Guitar and Vocals
Andrea Wittgens – Keys and Harmony Vocals
Mark Guenther – Drums and Percussion
Walter Singleman – Bass Guitar
Jimm McIver’s Music Facebook page (“like” us)
About the album:
Many of these songs were written at The Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, WI, home of Steel Bridge Songfest, Dark Songs, and Love on Holiday. My participation in these collaborative songwriting events has not only made me a better writer, it has also given me the gift of a whole new community of kind and talented people that I now call family. Long live The Michigan Street Steel Bridge, and the memory of our brothers Chris Aaron and Billy Triplett!
Special thanks to my generous Kickstarter supporters:
Vincent Gates & Sue Corcoran, Susan Duffy & Bruce Lamka, Erik & Wendy Heipt, John & Kris Kaylor, Aggie Clark, Sam Skrivan, Juliet McIver-Tigner, Steven & Nuca Fox, John L. McIver, Dan Black & Karin Zaug-Black, Marty Unger & Margaret Duffy, Hilary Towner Gilkinson, Denny Cearns, Cindy Sangster, Steve & Linda McIver, Melissa Shaw, Steve Ball, Luke Burbank, Amy Riley Gadoury, Racquel Yerbury, Conrad Uno & Emily Bishton, Peter George, Howard Lichter, David Cox, Beth Award & Jay Smith, Jill Chelimer & Dan Johnson, Heather Lavin, Gary Lee Watts, Michelle Lichter, Anissa Fagan, Robin McGilveray, Tom & Vicki Dyer, Lance Morgan, Jeff Blancato, Fran Wittgens, Rabah Boukhlifa, Gerard Parr, Dan Gadler, John Helde, Rachel Lee, Casey Allen, Gary Minkler, Brenda & Joe Augustavo, PJ Doucette, Jeff & Susanne Kelly, Marco Savarise, Aaron Wheetman, Keith Livingston, Phil Burr, Carolynn Delany, Steven P. Link, Steve Hamilton, Joel Grow, Todd Soliday, Heather Catchcart, Joe Kaftan, Annette Deymonaz Lopez, Jim Prucey, Jay D. “Jaybo” Shaw, Shawn Humphrey, Carl Allen, Kelly Palletta, Joys Maclaurin, Cynthia Long, Dan Sexton, Jacqueline Sugita, Mimi Sturman, Gregg Watts, Tui Snider, Josh Kairoff, Stacy Liane Powell, Louis Chirillo, Jeanne Laessle, Anny Hunt, Lish Whitson, AJ Tigner, Lisa Bertini, Charles Borwick, Heather Young Bauer, Robin Daly, Louise Goffin, Bonnie Entringer, Dan Bolstad, Kathie Whitehall & Jennifer Jasper, George Florakis, Scott M. Manson, Kat Meyers, Howard Wahlen, Loren Lyons, Dave Guinn, Victoria Vox, Aimee Sutton, Chris Phillips, Joe Panzetta, Kerry Hendrickson, Peter Ace Byerlein, Eric Lichter, Teresa Young, Tracy Soinger, Wendi Dunlap, Steve Salkovics, Cara Mia Villalobos, Curtis Chandler, Mark Guenther, Andrew Baker
Extra special thanks to Von Piglet Productions for the Kickstarter video production!
And most of all, thank you to my love, Caitlin Duffy, and our two beautiful boys, Lockie and Dash.
In memory of my beloved mother Mary Ann McIver.
We didn’t want to see these disappear so, Jimm McIver’s other fine albums are now available from Green Monkey Records.
