Category Archives: News

New Mommyheads Video and Blurt-Online Review!

We’re proud to play you a new video from the Mommyheads’ May 22 show in Sundyberg – a brilliant version of “Jaded,” featuring guest vocalist Charlie Emm, who did an absolutely magnificent job.

Also, Tim Hinely wrote the following very nice review of _Flying Suit_ for Blurt Online. You can get _Flying Suit_ right here, or from your favorite music e-tailer.

“This San Francisco band, which existed from the late 80’s through the ‘90s, was quite underrated and confounded many. Though they wrote good pop songs, they were never able to garner any kind of momentum to bring them the respect that they deserved (possibly because each release was on a different record label). Flying Suit was record number three (after their 1991 release, Coming into Beauty on the Simple Machines label) and just might have been their best. In addition to the 8 songs that were on the original the label has tacked on 3 more songs that were recorded around that same time period and it’s been remastered as well.

Singer/guitarist Adam Cohen and his talented crew of art-damaged popsters (Mike Holt on keys, Jeff Palmer on bass and Dan Fisherman on drums) waste no time jumping right in on the first track, “Sandman”, with its jangly guitar and sky-written keyboards while “Saints Preserve Us” takes an odd time signature and runs with it. The cascading “Bottom Out” is one of the bands best songs with terrific lyrics (“I could fix your car and impress your friends and we could all drive around in my head”) while the quirky “Worm” shows a bit of a darker side. The three bonus tracks are all worth hearing as well (especially the soaring “Over”) and though a few of the songs are a bit too unfocused, overall it works well as a whole. With a sound not unlike another under-respected band, XTC, The Mommyheads were not long for this world.

However, wait, stop press: the Mommyheads are back! Playing shows and recording for (Portland’s own) Bladen County Records, so at the next gig you make sure they don’t forget to play some Flying Suit material. It deserves to be heard.

Standout Tracks: “Sandman”, “Bottom Out”, “Henry Miller is Dead”, “Over” TIM HINELY”

http://www.blurt-online.com/reviews/view/2286/

The Mommyheads – “Jaded” from Dromedary Records on Vimeo.

More Mommyheads Video!

While on their 2010 Swedish tour, The Mommyheads stopped into The Cave in Sundyberg.

The resulting masterful performance was captured on DVD-quality audio and video, courtesy of the band’s Swedish friends. Thanks to their generosity, we’re proud to share some of the video with those of you who were unable to attend the shows.

Without further ado, here’s a clip of the band performing their 1996 classic “Bingham’s Hole.” Enjoy!

The Mommyheads – “Bingham’s Hole” from Dromedary Records on Vimeo.

Announcing: Jihad Me At Hello

On the heels of the announcement of Stuyvesant’s signing to Dromedary, we’re pleased to announce the imminent release of _Jihad Me At Hello_, a digital EP that we’ll be making available to you for *FREE* download.

We love this band. We love this band _so_ much that we want you to know about them. And so we’ve collected a few of their very best songs, a couple of rarities and unreleased tracks, and a demo from their forthcoming Dromedary full-length, put them together in one hysterically-titled digital EP that should serve as an excellent introduction to the band’s masterful brand of powerful pop.

This is the band that _The Big Takeover_ called “A zillion times over more smart and more sincere than the latest batch of ersatz flakes hogging into the limelight.” The band that Used Wigs said “…have the nice gravelly edge of Armchair Martian and evokes Ted Leo at his hyper-melodic best.”

And it’s the band that Jersey punk icon Jim Testa called a “NJ supergroup,” with “two talented singer/guitarists with slightly different styles and some powerhouse songs that make wonderful use of everyone’s talents.”

You need to hear this band.

Stay tuned, the single “Bi-Polar Bears” is right around the corner.

Dromedary Signs Jersey Power Pop Monsters Stuyvesant

We’re absolutely _thrilled_ to announce the news that we have signed Hoboken-based crunch-pop masters Stuyvesant!

Stuyvesant is somewhat of a Jersey indie rock supergroup, featuring Ralph Malanga (ex-Footstone) on vocals and guitar, Sean Adams (ex-Friends, Romans, Countrymen) on vocals and guitar, Brian Musikoff (ex-Friends, Romans, Countrymen) on bass, and Pete Martinez (ex-Coffin Daggers) on the skins. Their dual singer/dual guitarist attack, coupled with their outstanding songwriting skill, has been a highlight of the Jersey indie scene for the past five years, and we couldn’t be happier to have them join the growing Dromedary family.

The band is currently in the studio, finishing up their debut full-length for Dromedary, which you can expect in the fall. Meanwhile, stay tuned, as we’ll have some exciting news to share with you in the next week.

Mommyheads’ “Flying Suit” Recording Sessions!

A few weeks ago, Adam sent us a bunch of pictures that he had found from the _Flying Suit_ recording sessions. We also had a few lying around, from the opening night of the _Flying Suit_ tour in Berkeley, CA.

That night, a chilly Bay Area evening in September of 1994, I met up with Sam Koritz of the San Francisco band The Sarnos. He took me into Aquarius Records for a quick introduction, and then we hopped into my nondescript rental car and drove into Berkeley.

The three things from that night that I remember most vividly:

1) Anchor Steam Beer. It was, at that point, my third or fourth trip to San Francisco but my first experience with Anchor Steam. I enjoyed several. I eventually would have discovered this beer as its distribution broadened, but it was nice to be introduced to it in its native habitat. Thanks, Sam.

2) An old-school hippie, seemingly straight from 1969, was dancing wildly in the middle of the floor while the band was playing. In the middle of the instrumental break in “Broken and Glazed,” Michael Holt came down from the stage and began dancing with the man. At first, I thought Michael was making fun of the hippie, but a few measures into their dance I realized that Michael was _also_ dancing, the two of them just lost in the music and enjoying the performance.

3) The band were utterly _fantastic_, simultaneously incredible musicians and tasteful players, with articulate lyrics and an amazing ability to play as a unit yet maintain their individuality as musicians. This was, I thought, a whole new kind of indie rock. Fifteen years later, with bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and John Vanderslice carrying the torch the band lit so many years ago, I think back to that night and know I was right.

Just a few days from now, _Flying Suit_ will be available once again for the first time since the late 1990s. Remastered beautifully by Fred Kevorkian (White Stripes, Phish, Stuyvesant) and featuring three tracks that did not appear on the original CD, _Flying Suit_ will, hopefully, help revive those same emotions that indie rock stirred in us in the 90s – and introduce a whole new crop of people to the greatness of The Mommyheads.

Angels and Weathermen Live Video

The Mommyheads reunited in 2008 to perform at a memorial for original drummer Jan Kotik.

This low-fi recording of the band performing “Angels and Weathermen,” from the 2008 CD _You’re Not A Dream_ (Bladen County), complete with a cameo from a cellphone, serves as a fantastic representation of The Mommyheads’ tremendous songwriting, Beatlesque melodies, and groovy funk.

In case we haven’t said it enough, _Flying Suit_ is on the way. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be able to give this record back to you after all these years.