Rod Moody has spent the last 40+ years singing and guitaring in rock and roll bands. Swedish Finnish. Swallow. The Fuzz. Green Handshake. Deranged Diction. Runaway Trains. And eleven more, But he has never made an album under his own name…until now. Recorded over a long stretch of years, in two different home studios, The Blue Room offers up a weird-n-wild array of supersonic blasts splattered with synths, jagged guitars, and bouncy bouncy beats. The hyperactive new wave of “Conversation,” leads into the hypnotic intensity of “Circles,” which precedes the vibey lazy daze of “Perfect.” Then there’s the angry protest anthem “ICE,” a lovely pop treat titled “Treasure,” a punk song about the Pope, and the metal dance machine music of “Aluminum Heroes,: featuring the only guest musician on the album, longtime friend and TBR mixing engineer Jerry Hammack on the bass. The album is bookended by “Back To Nowhere” and “Superiority Complex,” the former a story of a lonely man, the latter the story of a man broken.
Why The Blue Room? It’s in reference to the time when a nine-year-old little shit named Rod talked administrators at West Seattle’s Alki Elementary School into letting him play a concert in the Blue Room, a utility space with blue carpet where class photos were taken. He plugged in his electric guitar and amp and played a raucous set, which ended with Chuck Berry’s 1970s “dirty version” of “Reelin’ and Rockin’”. This got him in a whole lot of trouble, but attendees still talk about it to this day with words like “legendary,” “epic,” and “whoa.” These may be same words you will utter when you listen to this album.
It’s weird, it’s wild, it’s The Blue Room, and it’s all Mr. Moody!
Next month we are excited to have the return of Throttle Body MC with All That Was. This is the first release (that we know of anyway) since 2021’s excellent Super Hits Of The ’70s. You will be diggin’ this one.
The rest of the year is looking supa busy. In no particular arrival order we will have the long awaited second album by The Purdins, the posthumous/reserected Melting Fish Anthology, a 100% new Lazy Giants (f/n/a Toiling Midgets), Brian Wahlen – The Evergreen Tapes (Howie’s late brother), JonStrongbow – Music For Intense Cities, Kaz Murphey’s all new protest album (hmm – wonder what he’s protestihg?), The Icons – Luv U! – all new stuff, maybe a release of theTelepaths catelog, Green Pajamas– Psychedelic Salad (Joe’s rarities), The First Christian Church Organ Album, Tom Dyer & Fishtrap Kill The Blues, a couple other TD albums and to finish the year, another charity Xmas album!By my count that’s 14 albums, which is more that anyone wants that fast, but I’m sure it will all becpome clearer as the future rolls forward.
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