Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends – Dark Passengers.
An 11 song record about depression and mental health. On Learning Curve Records.
You can stream the available tracks and pre-order at: https://neutronfriends.bandcamp.com/album/dark-passengers
Dark Passengers (LCR077-1)
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Protons and Electrons: Atom 11 – The Vig / Cartographer – Turnip, The Cloth ClownProtons and Electrons: Atom 11 – The Vig / Cartographer – Turnip, The Cloth Clown
Protons and Electrons Atom 11 is now up for listening and pre-order: It’s Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends (Conan Neutron, Tony Ash, Dale Crover) with The Vig, and Cartographer with Turnip, The Cloth Clown.
I believe this is the first Cartographer release in 8 years. So there you go!
Cartographer is very closely tied to the NeutronFriends mythos, by nature of Conan being bandmates with Ben and Chris in Replicator, and with Chris and Andre in Mount Vicious. Without Replicator (and to a lesser extant Mount Vicious), there would be no Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends in any capacity.
Cartographer is burly, aggressive and uncompromising noise rock. While the band members don’t take anything too seriously, the music is serious as a heart attack. Pummeling drums, jagged guitar and bass that evokes pure sleaze and menace make a fully formed package of Noiserock(TM) delivery. I believe their song is about a birthday clown that wants to have sex with a young Ben Adrian’s mom.
The Neutron Friends tune is an homage to a classic gambling term. The Vig (short for vigorish) is interest principal amount owed on a debt or loan, always at a usurious rate, with the idea being that the borrower never ends up paying down the principal and is indebted to the lender by just just covering the interest. The conceit of the song is applying those principles to psychic costs, but it probably works as a more dead on interpretation too.
The EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander, features prominently in the “proggy” chorus bit. While, I think the guitar sound in the verses are just straight into a cranked Bassman.
Anyway, vinyl ships in September but you can listen to the tunes on bandcamp now.
The Enemy of EveryoneThe Enemy of Everyone
This record was written and mostly arranged between June 22nd and September 7th 2014 by Conan Neutron. Tracks were recorded at Sound of Sirens studio in Sun Valley, CA between September 11th-15th, 2014 by Toshi Kasai. Vocals for Fight Math were done at Antisleep audio, Oakland, CA by Mr. Eugene Robinson on October 8th, 2014. Those were tracked by Mr. Scott Evans. Mixing was done at Sound of Sirens between October 10th-15th. 2014 by Toshi Kasai.
Mastering was done at Golden Mastering between Jan 27th and Feb 3rd, 2015 by JJ Golden.
Dedicated to the memory of Clay Wofford. R.I.P. (1977-2014)
The Butch Cassidy to my Sundance Kid,
A best friend, a wild heart, an untamed beast and a cautionary tale.
You truly were the enemy of everyone, and this record… my friend, is for you.
credits
released 13 January 2015
Engineering/Production: Toshi Kasai
Vocals/Guitar: Conan Neutron
Bass: Tony Ash
Drums: Dale Crover
Additional Percussion and Vocals: Toshi Kasai
Additional Percussion: Dale Crover
Protons and Electrons: Atom 6 – Petulant Messiah / Rally – HVACProtons and Electrons: Atom 6 – Petulant Messiah / Rally – HVAC
Rally, a simple one word name, but a hell of a band. They are both catchy but have some skronk and grind. Michael from Rally has been a NeutronFriends sideman on the guitar numerous times, drummer Dan not only ran Conan and Tony’s old label… but he has sat in with NeutronFriends on drums as well. I’m pretty sure this is their first release, looking forward to many more!
Oh yeah, NeutronFriends side is about messianic figures that turn out to be total jerks. It happens. The badass leads at the end are all NeutronFriends live guitar player Erica Strout of Motherfucker.