A bicycle crash left a young Sweeney with his jaw wired shut for six weeks, and in recovering, his sustenance was on an acoustic guitar. What was he chasing? Perhaps something in a progression that led to the acquisition of a Yamaha MT-50 4-track recorder, seclusion in empty piano rooms on the campus of UC Berkeley, and hosting cassette release parties in his co-op, all while logging enough California-psych gold on tape to get a stretch of Highway 1 named for him. Branching out from celebrated San Francisco bands VOWS & Montra for the release of his 2013 solo debut 'Ether Ore', Luke Sweeney swung out on a limb with a stripped-down approach that garnered blossoms of critical praise for its "distinctly handcrafted feel" and "melodies that feel like opiates for the soul" (SF Chronicle).
Yet the surface has only been scratched in revealing Sweeney's full portrait. Due for release in 2014 is a whole new sound from the troubadour's ever-spinning reels: 'Adventure:Us', a matchbox collection of electric psych-soul gems cut over two sessions in the autumns of 2011 and 2012 in Brooklyn with producer Robin MacMillan (Persephone's Bees, Shalants). Now with a cast of accomplished players Brett Eastman (x-Girls), Zach Ryan (x-Stone Foxes) and Rohini Moradi, Sweeney's band whips up the vast spectrum of his songs into a magnetic force, drawing ears who hear something familiar yet mysteriously new, as if plucked from an Earth-like planet just barely detectable on our Doppler. It's a sound that's hard to come by, thrilling to chase, and comforting to know.
A bicycle crash left a young Sweeney with his jaw wired shut for six weeks, and in recovering, his sustenance was on an acoustic guitar. What was he chasing? Perhaps something in a progression that led to the acquisition of a Yamaha MT-50 4-track recorder, seclusion in empty piano rooms on the campus of UC Berkeley, and hosting cassette release parties in his co-op, all while logging enough California-psych gold on tape to get a stretch of Highway 1 named for him. Branching out from celebrated San Francisco bands VOWS & Montra for the release of his 2013 solo debut 'Ether Ore', Luke Sweeney swung out on a limb with a stripped-down approach that garnered blossoms of critical praise for its "distinctly handcrafted feel" and "melodies that feel like opiates for the soul" (SF Chronicle).
Yet the surface has only been scratched in revealing Sweeney's full portrait. Due for release in 2014 is a whole new sound from the troubadour's ever-spinning reels: 'Adventure:Us', a matchbox collection of electric psych-soul gems cut over two sessions in the autumns of 2011 and 2012 in Brooklyn with producer Robin MacMillan (Persephone's Bees, Shalants). Now with a cast of accomplished players Brett Eastman (x-Girls), Zach Ryan (x-Stone Foxes) and Rohini Moradi, Sweeney's band whips up the vast spectrum of his songs into a magnetic force, drawing ears who hear something familiar yet mysteriously new, as if plucked from an Earth-like planet just barely detectable on our Doppler. It's a sound that's hard to come by, thrilling to chase, and comforting to know.
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