THE CHERRY BLUESTORMS
Currently recording the follow-up to their well-received debut, “Transit of Venus”,
The Cherry Bluestorms are poised to make 2009 a watershed year.
Transit of Venus was noted as one of the top 100 indy albums of 2007 by David Bash, with “Violent Heart” being placed by Stephen Cannell in one of his hit TV shows. The band subsequently played International Pop Overthrow (IPO) 2007 in Toronto Canada.
2008 saw the band playing for a capacity crowd at The Cavern Club, The Beatles’ home in Liverpool. They also played a packed house in L.A. for IPO.
The Cherry Bluestorms’ seeds were planted when Deborah Gee met Glen Laughlin at a coffeehouse. Having placed a number of songs from her debut solo album in TV and films, Deborah was looking for a collaborator for her second solo album. Glen had been performing with punk pop legends The Dickies (A&M) and former The Pop frontman David Swanson (RCA). He was also producing other artists at his studio, Roundhouse Recording. Their collaboration led to the formation of TCB. The band was spotted at their first L.A. show by a promoter, whereupon their second show was before a festival crowd in New Hampshire.
Here’s what people are saying:
“It's worth tracking down the Cherry Bluestorms' 2007 CD, Transit of Venus (Roundhouse Recording), starting with a glittery makeover of the Beatles' "Baby, You're a Rich Man," which is blown up by ex-Dickies guitarist Glen Laughlin's crunchy, hard-bubblegum production and frosted with Deborah Gee's sweetly reproachful vocals. The tune sounds fresh again and would probably already be in television commercials everywhere if the duo had any connections. In their best original songs, such as "Fear of Gravity," Laughlin surrounds Gee's desperately yearning vocals with swirling arpeggios and doomy, dramatic descending chords. On "Daisy Chain," they get away with chanting giddy lyrics like "The moon and all the stars watch Venus dancing home to Mars" because there is real power in their power pop…”
Falling James, L.A. Weekly
“Baby, You’re a Rich Man: Urgently kicks in with an unmistakably modern sounding edge that surely comes from its sharp mix/production quality. Daisy Chain: It's epic and it’s not just accessible, it’s enticing and by gad it ROCKS! Just a Kiss Away: A ‘Voice of the Beehive’ sounding track sneakily and delightfully approaches Jefferson Airplane territory with some kick-ass guitar and voluptuous vocals that all serve to show yet another dimension to the incredible TCB sound. It is what we’ve been waiting for! And to enjoy it thoroughly I have to recommend that you forget your neighbours and crank up the volume! (TCB) have produced something special here and I’m made grateful once more for my oh so precious, fully functioning ears! And to TCB too of course!”
Ant Standring, Glasswerk UK
Radio play:
XM Radio The Radar Report “Just A Kiss Away”
CSUMB campus radio “Baby You’re A Rich Man”
Castle Rock Radio (entire album in rotation)
Preview song from 'Tucson Moonshine' album, produced by JD Foster & feat. Calexico members Joey Burns, John Convertino & Jacob Valenzuela plus Nick Luca. Photos by Susie Hug. Photos of Susie Hug by Joey Burns. Recorded at Wavelab Studio in Tucson, Arizona. Engineered by Chris Schultz & Mixed by Craig Schumacher [who also played harmonica].
Hey guys, cool blog Glen, enjoyed reading the guitar notes, very interesting! Definitely follow up with the amp/pedals edition sometime soon. FYI, I've recently started a blog revolving around the shows I've been playing (including the last two shows I did with y'all). If you're interested it's at http://steve-giles.livejournal.com/ and if not I understand :).