Protons and Electrons: Atom 8 – Jilted Dragon / Turbo Lightning – Give a Man A Brain

Hello! This is “A Litany of Grievances” the new single from Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends (Me: guitar/Vocals, Tony Ash: Bass, Dale Crover: Drums). This is Atom 1, the first volume of a 12 volume series called “Protons and Electrons”. Each Protons and Electrons volume features a great band on the B-side that either plays in Secret Friends, Records with Secret Friends or has some heavy relevance to how Neutron Friends came to be. In this case the other band is TROPHY WIVES, their first release in quite some time. Trophy Wives features the low end majesty of Mr. Tony Ash. Tony and I were label mates with previous bands and toured on multiple occasions. If I am the brain of the Secret Friends, he is absolutely the heart. It would probably exist without him, but I wouldn’t want it too. As per always the incredible Toshi Kasai is in the producer’s chair on this one, engineering and mixing as well, and in this case Cristy Joy provided some excellent background vocals.

The B-Side song: Trophy Wives – “Tomorrowland” was always a favorite of mine live, and it’s a pleasure to have it associated with this series. It’s an ass kicker.
Bob Weston of Chicago Mastering Company mastered and cut the lacquer.

This 7” is available for immediate purchase at $8 each, each one comes in a limited edition hand screened jacket by Christopher Williams of Plastic Flame Press, shipping later in March.
You can also purchase a digital version through bandcamp or through any of the usual ways one does that (as of later this week).

To say that this is a massive undertaking is an understatement of the highest order. It has been a grueling and involved process that is now just beginning to pay off with the actual release. Take all of the hassles of one release and multiply it by a dozen, and then involve other bands as well… yeah… let’s go ahead and say I have some tales. Yet, this is the way we wanted to present this material to you, as singles… months by months as part of this series.
What you will see is a digital single every month, followed by a physical single of the same song the next one.

If you wish you can purchase a “Friends of the Neutron” subscription and guarantee yourself a copy of each one as well as copies of the entire back catalog digitally, a custom t-shirt and another fun surprise. Either way, this is here for you to listen to now, and that makes us very happy. Spread the word!

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.

“What’s in a name? Would ‘Kiss From a Rose’ by any other name sound so sweet?”
Easy concept, kids. Two bands that are idiosyncratic and unique and are frequently related to the cultural dead end of “project” team up for a wild concept.

THE MISSION: pick 3 song titles
Each band writes a song to the song title, without hearing or knowing anything about the other band’s work.

The title inspires the music, the lyrics, the entire approach. Certainly things have a chance of getting interesting, yes?

Anyway, what transpires is the results of this collaboration/challenge. Feast your ears upon it… if you dare!
DANGEROUS NOMENCLATURE.

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VINYL PRE-ORDER COMING SOON THROUGH LEARNING CURVE RECORDS, when we have a more realistic idea of the timeline when it might actually arrive. Thank all the Adele and Taylor Swift collector’s records for that.

credits

released February 4, 2022

The Erratic Retaliator Strategy
Mike – guitar, vocals
Ron – bass, vocals

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Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends:
Conan Neutron – Vocals/Guitars
Tony Ash – Bass
Dale Crover – Drums
Toshi Kasai – Backup Vocals, Keys, Synth

Recorded and produced April 15th, 2021 and September 11th, 2021 by Toshi Kasai at Sound of Sirens

NeutronFriends Heavy Industries, Worldwide.
STILL ON TOP!

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Artwork by Chris Williams – Plastic Flame Press (plasticflame.com)
Mastered by Bob Weston, Chicago Mastering Service, January 2022
Neutronfriends.com

LCR-080-1 / SW030