The Black Watch is back, baby! And back with a vengeance in the form of their new album titled ‘Magic Johnson’. John Andrew Fredrick, the man behind the music, has always impressed me with his various ventures since I first spoke with him in our exclusive interview.
What impresses me the most about ‘Magic Johnson’ is the way the album flows as a whole. This is what I call a ‘road trip’ album. Just put it on and let it play as you wind down the road. The vocals have an original set of harmonies and the guitar is lush, beautiful, and original as the chords ring and the sonic qualities are pure bliss. They add so many variant colors to the album that you actually wonder at times how many guitarists are in the band. the rhythm section has that certain something that displays wonderful beats and a bass that doesn’t restrict itself to staying in the root note. If you combine all of those wonderful displays of brilliance in unison you have a future classic.
‘Magic Jonson’ drops via Atom Records on August 8th, 2019.
About The Black Watch
An avowed Anglophile, author, English professor and irrepressible Los Angeles based songwriter John Andrew Fredrick is about to release his 17th full-length as lead songsmith of the black watch. ‘Magic Johnson’ is released in the UK through Atom Records on the 8th of August 2019.
It reunites Fredrick with Scott Campbell (Acetone, Carina Round, Stevie Nicks), Andy Creighton (The World Record), and Rob Campanella (The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde) released by Atom Records in the UK in August. Fredrick’s songs are infused with bittersweet sunlit vibes distinctive of what he calls a ‘quintessentially LA record’, yet its influenced by his love of 80s English post-punk, Flying Nun records, C-86 and the psychedelic works of The Beatles.
It’s preceded by the lead single ‘Mad’ in June that’s wry, infectious songwriting is a jangly, joyous celebration of a lover’s craziness, that’s sideways romping stokes the distant embers of acts as disparate as The Wedding Present, The Go-Betweens and The Cure, yet remains distinctively the black watch a band due the attention they genuinely deserve in the country that inspired much of their sound.
In 2019, the black watch issues Magic Johnson, its 17th long player, the songs (and the subjects they cover) on the new TBW LP certainly are singularly varied, if not truly weird, eerie, strange: a dream reimagined from a Thomas Hardy novel (“Eustacia’s Dream”); a breathtaking story of male violence and desire from Elizabeth I’s reign (“April Fools”); a childlike exhortation applied to adult disappointments (“Upsy-Daisy”). Anti-love songs, lovey love songs, carpe diem lullabies, a pulsating rocker mocking LA posers and trendies and “Coachella hat chicks” who are “always lonely, though never alone.”
Guitars ring, guitars sing, majestic synths poke their heads in, pianos percuss, a forlorn trumpet motif appears, fades. Andy Creighton, ace axeman and John’s friendly foil on the last two TBW LP’s (2018’s Witches! and 2017’s The Gospel According to John), wields his Telecaster as his life depends on it. It howls and growls enormously, then embroiders delicately Fredrick’s jangly choppy Epiphone Casino rhythm parts. Psychedelic, interstellar interludes mingle with big, bright, catchy melodies; startling, overdriven noises tease—courtesy longtime TBW producer Scott Campbell (Stevie Nicks, Acetone, Carina Round). And Fredrick’s unmistakable baritone conveys (often to his own high harmonies) what must be among indie rock’s top five most poetic lyrics. Lyrics and melodies, plaintive arrangements (eschewing bridges, keeping things simple), the perpetual attempt to make something truly beautiful—yes, all that. For Fredrick started writing folky-rocking dreamy-trippy pop songs that fifth-grade year he spent in bed, all those years ago. “The White Album had come out that Christmas,” he recalls, “and daily, of course, I propped my little Silvertone acoustic on my cast and tried to write songs like ‘Julia’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘Dear Prudence.’ Or rather, little tyro answers to those amazing Beatles songs.” Echoing directly Magic Johnson’s aforementioned classic quip, Fredrick laughs, says: “Man, I’m still answering them!”
‘The Magic Johnson’ sees the light of day alongside three compilations: “31 Years of Obscurity: The Best of The Black Watch: 1988 2019;” a rarities collection, “The Vinyl Years: 1988-1993;” and the band’s entire catalog, “The Completed Works: 1988-2019,” which has every TBW song ever released on a limited-edition USB thumb drive. Plus a 7″ EP, all of which will allow UK fans the chance to explore the black watch’s rich and varied back catalog.
“Should’ve become a household name a long time ago”
– USA Today“Sounds like the holy union of Guided By Voices, The Wedding Present and any number of New Zealand pop heroes. In other words, it sounds truly indie: immediate, honest and just-enough lovingly rough”
– Buzzbands L.A.“The post-punk dissonance of The Fall and Wire, with the melodic guitar ambitions of The Chameleons, early Editors, and Richard Hawley’s 2012 opus ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge”
– Popdose“They’re almost always on your mind, like the fuzzier pop version of Guided by Voices. The guitar sound here is phenomenal, giving plenty of space for Fredrick to cast his hallowed croon while the rhythm section works beneath it all.”
– Austin Town Hall
LINKS:
https://facebook.com/theblackwatchmusic
http://johnandrewfredrick.com
