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By Chris Pacifico
Apollo Sunshine
S.Cohen, S.Alyward, J. Black, J. Gallagher |
In a day and age where most artists take themselves too damn seriously, it sure is nice to see a most utterly and freewheeling quartet like Boston-based Apollo Sunshine come along. Composed of Jesse Gallagher (vocals, guitar keys), Sam Cohen (guitar, vocals), Jeremy Black (drums), and Sean Alyward (bass, guitar, vocals), their most recent self-titled album (Spin Art) is laden with colorful melodies, Kinks-style wit, and the all around kaleidoscopic aura of The Flaming Lips.
"We never try to stay within a genre," Gallagher explains. "We just like to go wherever the music takes us." And take you places it will.
Apollo Sunshine :: 12.31.05 by Jon Bahr |
Although I love my iPod, it is hard to overlook the fact that the true art of the album is an endangered concept. However, Apollo Sunshine is an album lover's album that in a way can seem like a rollicking opus. "Eyes" bounces about with Alyward's bubbly bass lines and some sugary yet idiosyncratic funk harmonies. "We never intended for it to sound like it does on the album," recalls Gallagher. "After a while we were just like Holy Shit! This sounds like 'Hey Ya.' Other album highlights include splashy power-pop nuggets like "Flip" and old timey alt-county stompers such as "Magnolia."
Before releasing their debut Katonah in October 2003, Apollo Sunshine was flown out to California and offered a lucrative six-album deal on an MCA subsidiary. They declined the deal and made a home for themselves on the Spin Art label so that they could hold on to their masters. As Cohen reminisces about the major label offer, he simply states, "It just wasn't solid looking to us." From there, Apollo Sunshine hit the ground running, playing over 300 shows in support of the album as well as giving up their homes for two years in order to stay on the road. Even though the reviews were solid, Katonah was almost universally compared to the music of the scattered, dreamy indie-pop consortium Elephant 6 Collective. Gallagher says that no one in the band knew who they were. "We were like 'Who the fuck is the Elephant 6 Collective and why are we being compared to them?'"
Apollo Sunshine by Greg Morris |
Cohen nonetheless is an amazing guitar player to the point where it would be modest to label him as a virtuoso. Throughout Apollo Sunshine's songs, one can see that the 26 year old has perfected the craft that merges psychedelic wizardry into true rock and roll, but Cohen also proves to be equally adept at getting his twang on with the pedal steel guitar. Cohen cites the unjustifiably overlooked country slide guitar legend Speedy West as one of his first influences for wanting the instrument as well as Sneaky Pete Kleinlow of the Flying Burrito Brothers, who he declares is "one bad motherfucker."
Just by talking to these members of the band one cannot help but see where the jovial spunk in their music comes from. Even though I did conduct this interview on the phone, I couldn't help but notice the utter laid back and salt of the earth vibe in the voices of Cohen and Gallagher. Gallagher speaks in a tone as if he is sitting on top of the world without a worry in site, and Cohen talks like he is just one of those life-of-the-party people yet remains cool, calm, and vibrant all at once.
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We can get pretty ridiculous there [Fox News], and their news coverage is just downright retarded. It was a really weird juxtaposition being there because it was 7 in the morning, we just smoked a joint in the van, and we were running around in suits.
-Jesse Gallagher
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Apollo Sunshine by Eric Levin
Apollo Sunshine by Deb Safron |
They also don't hold back the candor in any of their tour stories. Once they played a gig at a bar in Cincinnati where they figured no one would show, but as it turns out, a bunch of fans showed up and thirty to forty of the attendees as well as the band were tripping on acid while they were playing. "We just showed up at the venue, and it had this sort of static electricity in the air that we couldn't figure out why," says Cohen. "But it was a gig to remember."
Speaking of gigs to remember, these boys were also the first people to play and jam with ragtime/folk hero Leon Redbone in over twenty years when they bumped into him in Northampton, MA one night and convinced him to go on stage with them at an open mic in the city. They also attended a chic LA party and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Duff McKegan, and Christian Slater. Even Iron Mike Tyson himself rubbed his forehead up against Gallagher's.
Apollo Sunshine by Aubrey Lennon |
But if you want to hear some real irony, would you believe me if I told you that Apollo Sunshine was on the morning show of an affiliate of America's top conservative propaganda network known as Fox News?! Somehow they were able to get booked on the morning news show of Boston affiliate WFXT. Gallagher hopes they can go back again because, "We can get pretty ridiculous there, and their news coverage is just downright retarded. It was a really weird juxtaposition being there because it was 7 in the morning, we just smoked a joint in the van, and we were running around in suits." They even bumped into soul legend Smokey Robinson who was on the show promoting his new cookbook and then gave each member a big hug. "We were just surprised to see him there with those glassy blue eyes of his," reminisces Cohen. Not only did they get to read out of the mailbag on the air, but they played their song "Phoney Maroney," an acoustic barn-burner which has its own dance, and even got one of the anchors to start dancing along to it in his chair. While they agreeed with my assesment that Fox News is nothing but a bunch of spineless journalists waving their pom poms for the Bush Administration, Cohen looks back on it with good spirits saying, "It was just a good way for us to infiltrate the other side of things."
So there you have it boys and girls. Apollo Sunshine may seem like music to some, but to these guys, it's a way of life. Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it." If America's most lovable hooky player couldn't convince you of that, just listen to Apollo Sunshine for ten minutes. The members of Apollo Sunshine don't need to make music, but music is at a stage right now where it needs Apollo Sunshine.
Apollo Sunshine recently performed with The Slip on NYE and will meet up again with the band for part of their Spring Tour.
APOLLO SUNSHINE TOUR DATES
HEADLINING DATES:
2.03 | Agora Conference Center | Conway, AR
2.09 | The Paradise | Boston, MA
2.11 | Mercury Lounge | NYC, NY
2.24 | Iron Horse | Northampton, MA
2.25 | Ralph's Diner | Worcester, MA
SUPPORTING THE SLIP:
03.01 | Castaway's | Ithaca, NY
03.02 | Main Hall | Montreal, Canada
03.03 | Higher Ground | Burlington, VT
03.04 | Red Square | Albany, NY
03.05 | Mezzanote | Syracuse, NY
03.06 | The Icon | Buffalo, NY
03.07 | Mr. Small's Theatre | Pittsburgh, PA
03.08 | Grog Shop | Cleveland, OH
03.09 | Little Brothers | Columbus, OH
03.10 | Martyr's | Chicago, IL
03.11 | Mojo's | Columbia, MO
JamBase | Worldwide
Go See Live Music!
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