California places a distinct sonic stamp upon the music born with in its boundaries.
Owens had his Bakersfield, Parsons his Joshua Tree, and Malkmus his Stockton,
and in their tunes you can hear dust, desert highways, and skateboards gliding over suburbia. The Donkeys have San Diego, and from that environment have woven a fundamental ease in their music - a rock, a roll, a sway, a slide - you could even call it a breeze. On Ride the Black Wave, The Donkeys continue their easy rolling, classic vibrations, but add a mystery and tension that make this record their most lyrically and instrumentally compelling.
Ride the Black Wave embodies what Jack Kerouac described of California's coast
as having an "end of the land sadness." The Donkeys stare out at the ocean in a
"fantastic drowse" - a kind of pensiveness towards their environs that summons the
elements of sound and style that belong only to them. In "Blues In The Afternoon",
a collective mantra, the band runs out of land and asks of the ocean to offer
suggestions about their fate. It is songs like these that prove the Donkeys are a band in the true sense of the word, sharing each other's worry and wonder. WithRTBW, The Donkeys have further caged their craft and have accomplished the delicate and artful challenge of taming the captured, while also letting it be wild.
Recorded at San Diego's Singing Serpent and mixed by LA's Thom Monahan,
the Telecasters have a golden shimmer, the drums seem to echo with a regional
reverberation. The notes coming off the Rhodes float on like beer-buzzed
afternoons, but just when you get lost in the hypnotic swirl of "Sunny Daze" the
churning guitars begin to circle like sharks, reminding us of the realities beneath all
beautiful surfaces. Ten tracks deep, Adrianne Verhoeven of San Francisco's Extra
Classic appears like the mythic Calafia herself, delivering a vocal that would bring
Cortez to his knees.
So, it is with Ride the Black Wave that The Donkeys add their own stratum to
California's ever expanding musical frontier, while maintaining their golden
"shine" as well as interjecting a tension with the sun and beauty. The record
hypnotizes as much as it awakens; it poetically puts us at ease while we sit in traffic, peck at our keyboards in cubicles, or conversely, it accompanies us as we ride along desert highways, or sway with our lovers. It is about home; it is about waves, and surrendering to their movements, trusting that they will take us to where we truly belong.
Owens had his Bakersfield, Parsons his Joshua Tree, and Malkmus his Stockton,
and in their tunes you can hear dust, desert highways, and skateboards gliding over suburbia. The Donkeys have San Diego, and from that environment have woven a fundamental ease in their music - a rock, a roll, a sway, a slide - you could even call it a breeze. On Ride the Black Wave, The Donkeys continue their easy rolling, classic vibrations, but add a mystery and tension that make this record their most lyrically and instrumentally compelling.
Ride the Black Wave embodies what Jack Kerouac described of California's coast
as having an "end of the land sadness." The Donkeys stare out at the ocean in a
"fantastic drowse" - a kind of pensiveness towards their environs that summons the
elements of sound and style that belong only to them. In "Blues In The Afternoon",
a collective mantra, the band runs out of land and asks of the ocean to offer
suggestions about their fate. It is songs like these that prove the Donkeys are a band in the true sense of the word, sharing each other's worry and wonder. WithRTBW, The Donkeys have further caged their craft and have accomplished the delicate and artful challenge of taming the captured, while also letting it be wild.
Recorded at San Diego's Singing Serpent and mixed by LA's Thom Monahan,
the Telecasters have a golden shimmer, the drums seem to echo with a regional
reverberation. The notes coming off the Rhodes float on like beer-buzzed
afternoons, but just when you get lost in the hypnotic swirl of "Sunny Daze" the
churning guitars begin to circle like sharks, reminding us of the realities beneath all
beautiful surfaces. Ten tracks deep, Adrianne Verhoeven of San Francisco's Extra
Classic appears like the mythic Calafia herself, delivering a vocal that would bring
Cortez to his knees.
So, it is with Ride the Black Wave that The Donkeys add their own stratum to
California's ever expanding musical frontier, while maintaining their golden
"shine" as well as interjecting a tension with the sun and beauty. The record
hypnotizes as much as it awakens; it poetically puts us at ease while we sit in traffic, peck at our keyboards in cubicles, or conversely, it accompanies us as we ride along desert highways, or sway with our lovers. It is about home; it is about waves, and surrendering to their movements, trusting that they will take us to where we truly belong.
THE DONKEYS
6/6 - San Diego, CA - The Irenic
6/7 - Los Angeles, CA - The Church On York
7/2 - Tempe, AZ - Yucca Tap Room
7/3 - Albuquerque, NM - Low Spirits
7/5 - Norman, OK - Opolis
7/6 - Dallas, TX - Three Links
7/7 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
7/8 - Houston, TX - Mango's
7/9 - Baton Rouge, LA - Mud And Water
7/10 - Birmingham, AL - Parkside
7/11 - Athens, GA - The World Famous
7/12 - Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
7/13 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
7/14 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar upstairs (early show!)
7/15 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle
7/16 - Brooklyn, NY - The Knitting Factory
7/17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Smiling Moose
7/18 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland
7/19 - Chicago, IL - The Hideout
7/20 - Kansas City, MO - The recordBar
7/21 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
7/22 - Salt Lake City - Urban Lounge
7/23 - Boise, ID - Neurolux
7/24 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
7/28 - Bellingham, WA - The Shakedown
7/29 - Seattle, WA - The Sunset Tavern
7/30 - Eugene, OR - Cozmic Pizza
8/1-3 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
6/6 - San Diego, CA - The Irenic
6/7 - Los Angeles, CA - The Church On York
7/2 - Tempe, AZ - Yucca Tap Room
7/3 - Albuquerque, NM - Low Spirits
7/5 - Norman, OK - Opolis
7/6 - Dallas, TX - Three Links
7/7 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
7/8 - Houston, TX - Mango's
7/9 - Baton Rouge, LA - Mud And Water
7/10 - Birmingham, AL - Parkside
7/11 - Athens, GA - The World Famous
7/12 - Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
7/13 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
7/14 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar upstairs (early show!)
7/15 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle
7/16 - Brooklyn, NY - The Knitting Factory
7/17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Smiling Moose
7/18 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland
7/19 - Chicago, IL - The Hideout
7/20 - Kansas City, MO - The recordBar
7/21 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
7/22 - Salt Lake City - Urban Lounge
7/23 - Boise, ID - Neurolux
7/24 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
7/28 - Bellingham, WA - The Shakedown
7/29 - Seattle, WA - The Sunset Tavern
7/30 - Eugene, OR - Cozmic Pizza
8/1-3 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
The Donkeys
Ride The Black Wave
(Easy Sound)
Street Date: June 3, 2014
Pre-order it here
1. Sunny Daze
2. The Manx
3. Nothing
4. I Heart Alabama
5. Scissor Me Cigs
6. Imperial Beach
7. Ride The Black Wave
8. Brown Eyed Lady
9. Blues In The Afternoon
10. Bahamas
11. Shines
THE DONKEYS LINKS:
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