The Black Watch...any other fans?

Love these guys, or rather this guy. First got into the Black Watch in the Tatterdemalion / Icing the Snow Queen era, though haven't done a great job keeping up. I usually only find out they have a new album when Jack Rabid reviews it. The pretty recent "Orange Kicks"/"Jealously" single is good.

Everything they've done is worth your time. I've been meaning to make up a nice suggested playlist but there's so much gold on each album!

I've been binge listening to their catalog. Favorites at the moment:

Led Zeppelin Five (2011)
The End Of When (2013)
Jiggery-Pokery (2002)
Icing The Snow Queen (2008)
The Hypnotizing Sea (2005)

Wait til you get to "Amphetamines"!

I did! When I binge, I don't hold back ;) I didn't connect with it as much as the later albums.

New album! I wrote a little about it here.

http://fastnbulbous.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/black-watch-gospel-300x300.jpg

The Gospel According To John (Eskimo Record Label) Apr 21
https://youtu.be/u3vYEDSocAc

The Gospel According To John follows-up 2015’s Highs & Lows, and was recorded over the course of eleven months with Rob Campanella of The Brian Jonestown Massacre producing. It is a decidedly guitar-driven record, even for a guitar-driven group, due to the work of Andy Creighton (on loan from his fine band The World Record.)

“We’ve had a history of really great guitarists in the group,” says Fredrick, “Andy did an immense job. The new songs are so dance-y.”

The album’s first single is “Whence,” about which Frederick explains, “Keats said, ‘If poetry doesn’t come as easily as the leaves to a tree, it shouldn’t come at all. He’s being glib, I think, but ‘Whence’ is about inspiration, and how if you question it, it just might go bye-bye.”

Fans of Led Zeppelin 5 (the black watch’s 2010 album, not the non-existent Led Zeppelin record) will enjoy “Oscillating Redux,” a reworking of a haunting track from that recording. The record closes with “Satellite,” which Fredrick claims “is kind of a glorious mess. A way to end a mess of a career maybe? I can’t see recording another LP. Let it be.”

Of course, Fredrick has said this before, including during the entirety of promoting the band’s 2013 coming-out-of-retirement / going-back-into-retirement double-album, The End of When. the black watch has released several albums since.

I think it may be better than "Highs & Lows", or at least the best bits. There's a couple of tracks where John tries to stretch his singing style with mixed results.

But it's great he's still making music, despite his many threats to stop!

Album #16 (!) Witches! came out a few weeks ago. And I'm just getting around to the previous one.

It's as good as indie rock gets. This time he adds psych touches which really work. John just keeps rolling...

Surprise! A promo copy of a new album showed up in the mail recently. It's called Magic Johnson and it already strikes me as one of their best (that I've heard), remarkably self-contained from such a prolific band. Nice cover art, too. It also appends a new EP and arrived with a best-of (different from the 2013 one) titled 31 Years of Obscurity. Maybe the level of obscurity is part of what keeps the new stuff from feeling like a GBV-style self-reflexive onslaught.

Heeeey, I was coming here to post something about that as well. It gets better with each listen. The "Paper Boats" EP that it adds is totally captivating, beautiful songs that combine nostalgia and hope.

Speaking of nostalgia, there's also another release "The Vinyl Years: 1988-1993" which collects the first "St. Valentine" album, the "Short Stories" EP as well as 7" b-sides (which I've never heard!). I'm still hoping for a tour on the east coast.

New album "Brilliant Failures" is brilliant and not a failure at all. Early favorites are the title track, "Mind You Now" and "Anywhere Everywhere". The backwards guitars are great fun.

Ha, I was just playing this the other day (seems I'm still on the promo list). I shouldn't be surprised, but it's kind of incredible how good these last few albums are.