Holy moly-ville!

The weather begins to turn. The leaves begin to drop. I think the fall is upon us. And what is a better fall joy than an all-new Green Pajamas album, eighteen snippets of pleasure.

To that end, we are thrilled to present To The End Of The Sea, The Green Pajamas’ first new studio album (buy it here) since 2012’s Death By Misadventure. We are releasing the album (the PJs thirty-third) on CD and download. The album will also be released in a 300-copy limited vinyl edition with Sugarbush Records of England (date TBA). As is usually the case, we have 50 numbered and autographed CD copies available direct from Green Monkey – first come first serve!

For this album, head-Pajama Jeff Kelly went to his roots, re-embracing his love of 1960’s pop. It takes much more of an organic approach to the recording process than his work of recent years. Jeff wanted to reach back to Pajamas albums like Strung Behind The Sun and All Clues Lead To Meagan’s Bed and go with that sort of aesthetic again: sound effects, backwards guitars, lots of vocal harmonies, violin and cello.

To The End Of The Sea tells the story of a lighthouse keeper, the mysterious woman he finds on his beach after a storm one night and what happens from there. Who is Juliet? Fallen from a star, a mermaid or maybe just a mysterious woman? It’s a sort of a sci-fi romance micro-rock opera, seasoned with a pinch of the gothic (the cover shot comes from the Hubble telescope via NASA). Most of the 18 songs are short and sweet, tied into two long medleys. Many were in fact recorded in that fashion, with one song running right into the next and then on to the next song.

I have been making records with Jeff for a long time. This is one of his best.

The first video from the album is “Ten Million Light Years Away” with two more in the works; there are plans for a ridiculous 7:00AM ocean shoot at Grayland in the works.

In other GMR news, we have a new digital single of Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods doing two Hendrix numbers from Axis Bold As Love – “Spanish Castle Magic” and “Little Wing” (buy it here). As you no doubt recall, one year ago we released Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods – History of Northwest Rock Vol. 1, 1959-1968. It got some really great press, a little airplay and a lot of love. When we were recording the album, we also did the two Hendrix songs. Of course, they sounded 100% New Pagan Gods. While it is worth stating the obvious, these versions are in no way superior to the originals, there is a purity in both intent and execution that is worthy, particularly in the beautiful lead guitar playing of Mr. Scott Sutherland.

Two months before the release date, we thought these songs were going to be on the album. “Spanish Castle” would lead off the album. One problem. We could not get a license to release the songs and they were scrapped. We now have said license and we now have liftoff. The single is available direct from Green Monkey Records today and will be released worldwide in all the usual iTunes-ish places on September 18, the anniversary of Mr. Hendrix’s departure from this planet Earth.

Last Saturday we had a pretty great Green Monkey show at Slim’s in the upper Georgetown region with bands galore. We made up some “New Logo” T-shirts and have a few left. If you think you need one these for your next fashion soiree, they can be had for a mere $15 bucks.

Upcoming releases? Well, next month we will have Jim of Seattle’s second album, Both The Planet Frank And The Chet Lambert Show. It is cool as hell, perhaps even better than his first, if such a thing is possible. November looks like we are on track to release the debut album of Burnseer, one of the very top bands coming from the 90th and Dibble area of Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood! They rock hard and wanted to rock harder so they got the King of The Fastbacks Mr. Kurt Bloch to play some pretty shred-o-matic guitar on a few numbers. Oh my.

There will be a jolly charity Xmas album again this year, so if you know of humans with a great Xmas song lying around, it is time to have them send their stuff my way.

That’s it for now!

td

September 2016

The Green Pajamas – To The End of the Sea

1. Will The Ships Go Down
2. Si Sigues La Luna (If You Follow the Moon)
3. White Lighthouse
4. Sea of Secrets 1
5. All Of The Starry Sky
6. Who is the Girl
7. Madness to Burn
8. When Juliet Smiles
9. A Mouth Full of Honey
10. Sea of Secrets 2
11. Ten Million Light Years Away
12. Anyone But Me
13. Got To Go Away
14. Big Black Storm
15. (Dusk)
16. Why Did I think I Could
17. Over Here
18. Hasta Al Fin De La Mar (To The End of the Sea)

PRODUCED BY JEFF KELLY; MIXED BY TOM DYER AND JEFF KELLY; MASTERED BY TOM DYER

PERFORMERS:

NATALIE GRAY: VIOLIN
ELISE HIRSCHI: VOCAL ON “SI SIGUES LA LUNA” AND “HASTA AL FIN DE LA MAR”
PHIL HIRSCHI: CELLO, VOCALS ON “WHY DID I THINK I COULD”
VITO INMAN: TRUMPET
JEFF KELLY: VOCALS, PIANO, GUITARS, MELLOTRON, SYNTHESIZER, PERCUSSION
SCOTT VANDERPOOL: DRUMS
LAURA WELLER: VOCALS, PIANO, MELLOTRON, FLUTE

Credits:

FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA/JPL-CALTECHALL
OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREA OLSHESKIE-GRAY

SET DIRECTION BY SUSANNE KELLY

PAINTING “END OF THE SEA” (OIL ON CANVAS) BY SUSANNE KELLY

ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY JEFF KELLY EXCEPT:

“SI SIGUES LA LUNA” AND “HASTA AL FIN DE LA MAR” BY ELISE HIRSCHI AND JEFF KELLY;

“SEA OF SECRETS 1 & 2” BY LAURA WELLER; “GOT TO GO AWAY” BY PHIL HIRSCHI AND JEFF KELLY

AND “WHY DID I THINK I COULD” BY JEFF KELLY AND LAURA WELLER

ALL SONGS © ST. BRIGID PUBLISHING / BMI EXCEPT “SEA OF SECRETS 1 & 2” © LAURA WELLER / BMI

“STAR KIC7671081B LIGHT CURVE WAVES TO SOUND” AND “SOUNDS OF ENCELADUS” COURTESY NASA

THANKS TO TOM, MARKUS AND SUSANNE

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