BAD PENNY OPERA
[expand title=”The Cherry Bluestorms Return !”]
The Cherry Bluestorms Return!
– FEBRUARY 20, 2014
(ARIZONA) I had the pleasure of first catching The Cherry Bluestorms during last years International Pop Overthrow at The Sail Inn and I was immediately hooked on their psychedelic retro sound. They harken back to the mid to late 1960s in no uncertain terms and absolutely by design, right down to their entire look and dress–each of their albums has included a cover from that era as well. This is definitely my bailiwick and I guess I’m proving this by writing about them as the first band that is not local to get a full feature here, but I love their music and their style and they will be here this Friday. The Cherry Bluestorms are from Los Angeles and they consist of three musical vets who produce a set of song out of a labor of love for the sound itself. Deborah Gee is the leading chanteuse, Glenn Laughlin (The Dickies) is the multi-instrumental genius behind guitar, vocals, bass and keyboards and Mark Francis White (The Furys) is the drummer. Together they are The Cherry Bluestorms and they will be at Long Wong’s this Friday as special guests of Fairy Bones during the third installment of their FBOM residency.
While it is rumored that The Cherry Bluestorms are working on their third release, their most current record is the brilliant Bad Penny Opera released on Roundhouse Recording in 2012. Upon a single listen it’s not difficult to understand why the legendary David Bash heartily recommends this band and raved about their debut Transit Of Venus. I would have to completely agree without apology. Bad Penny Opera is a concept album, a song cycle that chronicles “Penny’s” journey South in search of herself–across thirteen tracks and 52 minutes the story is told with knowing nods to all of their influences and yet the great thing is, barring a cover that they make their own, you’d be hard pressed to say that any of it was derivative or plagiaristic. They simply have a knack for taking the influences of the mod, mod, mod world they adore and make it their own–hell, they even step into the 70s for a few moments. For anyone that digs mod-rock, Britpop and retro angl(o)ed outfits, I have a feeling that The Cherry Bluestorms may be your new favorite jam.
First of all it’s been a long, long time since I heard a band start an album with an overture. I was raised on Tommy, so I think that more albums should begin this way anyway. “Bad Penny Overture” is absolutely delightful if for no other reason than Laughlin’s brilliant groovy bassline and hypnotic guitar surrounded by swirling keyboards–rarely do you hear a song where The Who meets ELO, but here you have it. It borders a bit on prog rock honestly and here The Cherry Bluestorms are dipping their toes in the 70s swimming pool, but it builds your anticipation for whats to follow in no uncertain terms. The heartbreaking duet between Gee and Laughlin “By Your Leave” really starts things off brilliantly, I’m not sure styling like this has existed since the 60s, but it feels current and authentic. “Penny” is leaving her past and her lover who stayed to long, this sets the stage for what is to follow. One thing I have to hand to them is that this is humanly realistic, because the next song “A Better Place” is about “Penny” sleeping with her former lover one last time and after it was already over, coming to peace with the division. I am certain that many can relate: “It’s alright, you spent the night, and I like to think your grace has left us in a better place.” Artfully brilliant, it’s always hard to start at the end. This also has an amazing horn section going for it as well, a great jaunty number that is the happiest tune about dissolution I have heard
Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” was never really a “rock” song, until now and once more an amazing horn section that brilliantly highlights everything. I love everything Donovan has ever done and this cover is absolutely amazing because they make it their own–they take it like a mod rock band of the era would have and make it rock. In “Penny’s” story I imagine it is the start if her journey. “A True Heart Wears A Thorny Crown” is the first song on the album where Laughlin takes the vocal lead. It speaks of the vulnerability one places oneself in when you search for yourself in travel and experience–open to life, open to love, open to everything including a great amount of pain, hurt and the willingness to stay afloat despite such damages. Gee is back on vocals for “Sunday Driving South” and the song sounds literally like a Sunday driving South as you leave your life behind, think about all that you are shedding, both in emotional wait an the pain that was holding you down. There are also beautiful references to Piper At The Gates of Dawn, “Arnold Layne”, Mr. Toad and Ken Kesey. It all ends beautifully with a kaleidoscope guitar outro that makes my heart swoon. Laughlin takes the vocal lead on “The Country Man” and it seems to me that this is where “Penny” has reached the outlands in the drive to escape her former reality, it is a world of witch drownings, abject poverty, a place where they “Yield a hearty crop of pathos and fear.” Here again The Cherry Bluestorms take an incredibly bleak topic and turn it into a downright jaunty pop tune. But that’s how they used to do it–the music wasn’t sad when it spoke of social discomfort, it was upbeat, tight and right–it used that catchy hook heavy as hell technique to deliver devastating words to their listeners. I wish that ethos would return.
“World Going Mad” is another song in that vein. With a riff that seems very reminiscent of The Police, with flower power flourishes (no one does that), talks of the madness that “Penny” encounters now on her own. Her past behind her she discovers that the world is drenched in insanity everywhere she turns. In trying to find herself, perhaps to ease her own state of mind, she discovers society is far more unstable than what she imagined. Laughlins maudlin delivery of this sentiment is brilliant in every way. The driving rhythm and guitar of “As Above So Below” is enough to get you going and with Gee on lead, this is pure single material. Easily one of my favorite songs on the album not only musically, but lyrically as well. “Penny” seems to have gone down the rabbit hole at this point with references to magic and the lore way, visions of hanging on a cloud and understanding the difference between the self and other with a brilliant backmasked ending. “London Bridge” with Laughlin on lead is not the same old song that you would think it was. I’m not sure where it falls into place with the song cycle, except for a psychedelic perception that no matter where you go, you’re still there and that you can change the scenery, but the faces are the same. It’s like the the musical equivalent of saying that the only common link to all of your failed relationships is you. Brilliant.
While most of the album sticks to a 60s ideology “To Love You Is A Crime” explodes with the ferocity of My Bloody Valentine and the Creation artists that surrounded them. Another Laughlin lead, there is a brilliant musical complexity here structurally and I love it. One of the fiercest tracks on the album by far and by far the furthest removed from their roots. It is a tale of loving someone that feels should not be loved and “Penny” does indeed love this new lead in her life, despite all resistance. “Start Again” is exactly what it says it is in the realm if the concept and its probably Laughlin’s best lead on the entire album. It definitely verges on Beatles/Oasis territory, but with darker chords, and it’s that, the darkness that makes it unique, save for the chorus: “Let it all in, let it all out again, let it in your heart, then you can start to let it all in, let it in and out, never have the heart, if you have the heart to start again.” Beautiful. In a peculiar turn and a bit of striking realism in turn, the opera ends with “Bad”, a tale of regret and sorrow for having been so open. You may easily recognize the funky bass line from the overture at the start as everything comes full circle. It’s unclear that “Penny” is reminiscing about the love that drove her away in search of herself or the love she just found, but the ambiguity is wonderfully amazing and it doesn’t matter in the least, because love cycles are like that. If anything the song echos the echos that are repeated patterns in our lives with love and relationships. Was it the new beau or was it the old? Is there a difference? Isn’t the loss exactly the same.
I don’t know if my interpretation of these songs is even remotely close to what The Cherry Bluestorms intended and I truly invite you to listen to the album and draw your own perceptions. No matter what Bad Penny Opera is an amazing album that has me mesmerized. I encourage everyone that reads this to head to Long Wong’s on Friday night to catch them in action. Hell, I want to go to pick up a copy of Venus In Transit because I can’t wait to hear their cover of The Beatles “Baby You’re A Rich Man.” That night you’ll also have Fairy Bones of course, as well as Stereoblind, Sister Lip and The Haymarket Squares! What a great fucking night! Seriously, get there early and stay late.
http://soundsaroundtown.net/
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[expand title=”Cherry Bluestorms put twist on mod music”]
Cherry Bluestorms put contemporary twist on ‘mod’ music
BY JOSHUA TEHEE
The Fresno Bee January 15, 2014
“We’re trying to come up with these iconic riffs,” says Laughlin, guitarist for the Los Angeles retro-pop band The Cherry Bluestorms.
In the 1960s, pop music was full of iconic riffs. Bands like the Beatles, the Byrds and the Kinks wrote guitar parts that were every bit as memorable as the song’s vocal melodies. That kind of writing and playing is mostly missing from contemporary American bands, Laughlin says, though you heard it in the ’80s and ’90s from English groups like The Smiths, Oasis and The Stone Roses.
And you’ll hear it from The Cherry Bluestorms.
The band, which plays Sunday night at Full Circle Brewing Company, formed as a collaboration between Laughlin and singer Deborah Gee.
Gee was working as a solo artist at the time and had a development deal with A&M Records. She had songs, but no band to play them.
She was introduced to Laughlin, who had just finished a stint playing guitar for punk band The Dickies, and hired him to play on her solo album. It took one track for the pair to realize they needed to form a band.
Both Laughlin and Gee have a deep love for ’60s power pop, and the band reflects that, with a psychedelic quality, heavy on guitar riffs and rich vocal melodies. It’s a contemporary take on ’60s mod music.
And it’s finding an audience. The band’s debut album was named as one of the top 125 independent albums of 2007 by David Bash, founder of the International Pop Overthrow, a music festival dedicated to contemporary power pop.
Its latest album, “Bad Penny Opera,” ranked 22 on the 2013 list.
It can be a challenge to make this kind of retro-pop accessible to the mass public, Laughlin says, but there will also be those who appreciate what they are trying to do.
After all, there’s a reason bands like the Beatles are considered great. They weren’t above experimenting. That led to ideas that were remarkably different than anything that came before them, Laughlin says. Some of that was the results of the dynamic social climate of the time, but that doesn’t let current musicians off the hook, he says.
“Not having that social climate is no excuse for making boring music. I’d rather exercise some imagination and ambition and fall on my face than make another three-chord record.”
Show information
The Cherry Bluestorms play a Food Not Bombs fundraiser, 6 p.m. Sunday at Full Circle Brewing Company, 620 F St. $10 donation at the door. Details: (559) 264-6323, fullcirclebrewing.com
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[expand title=”Review”]
The Cherry Bluestorms – “Bad Penny Opera” 2013
BY SPARKY SHOCKPOP
January 24, 2014
Never boring and often surprising in it’s melodic twists and lyrical turns … I’ll file The Cherry Bluestorms’ 2013 release “Bad Penny Opera” under “Psychedelic-rock with Prog-folk underpinnings”. Musically, the compositions evoke the finely honed psychedelic-rock of the late 60s with a modern pop sensibility – and while Deborah Gee and Glen Laughlin’s vocal stylings are unique and memorable in their own right, when combined on tracks like “By Your Leave” a higher folk-tinged cosmically-pop harmonic level is attained – and that’s mighty sweet to my ears! Well worth putting on “repeat” and letting it play over and over, “Bad Penny Opera” is a nugget of newly minted psychedelic-folk/rock gold and that’s my two cents worth.
http://mrsparkyshouse.blogspot.com/ [/expand]
[expand title=”Interview”]
Cherry Bluestorms put contemporary twist on ‘mod’ music
BY JOSHUA TEHEE
The Fresno Bee January 15, 2014
Glen Laughlin works hard on his guitar sound. Harder than he should, perhaps. He has to in order to create the type of music his band is looking for.
“We’re trying to come up with these iconic riffs,” says Laughlin, guitarist for the Los Angeles retro-pop band The Cherry Bluestorms.
In the 1960s, pop music was full of iconic riffs. Bands like the Beatles, the Byrds and the Kinks wrote guitar parts that were every bit as memorable as the song’s vocal melodies. That kind of writing and playing is mostly missing from contemporary American bands, Laughlin says, though you heard it in the ’80s and ’90s from English groups like The Smiths, Oasis and The Stone Roses.
And you’ll hear it from The Cherry Bluestorms.
The band, which plays Sunday night at Full Circle Brewing Company, formed as a collaboration between Laughlin and singer Deborah Gee.
Gee was working as a solo artist at the time and had a development deal with A&M Records. She had songs, but no band to play them.
She was introduced to Laughlin, who had just finished a stint playing guitar for punk band The Dickies, and hired him to play on her solo album. It took one track for the pair to realize they needed to form a band.
Both Laughlin and Gee have a deep love for ’60s power pop, and the band reflects that, with a psychedelic quality, heavy on guitar riffs and rich vocal melodies. It’s a contemporary take on ’60s mod music.
And it’s finding an audience. The band’s debut album was named as one of the top 125 independent albums of 2007 by David Bash, founder of the International Pop Overthrow, a music festival dedicated to contemporary power pop.
Its latest album, “Bad Penny Opera,” ranked 22 on the 2013 list.
It can be a challenge to make this kind of retro-pop accessible to the mass public, Laughlin says, but there will also be those who appreciate what they are trying to do.
After all, there’s a reason bands like the Beatles are considered great. They weren’t above experimenting. That led to ideas that were remarkably different than anything that came before them, Laughlin says. Some of that was the results of the dynamic social climate of the time, but that doesn’t let current musicians off the hook, he says.
“Not having that social climate is no excuse for making boring music. I’d rather exercise some imagination and ambition and fall on my face than make another three-chord record.”
[expand title=”San Diego Troubadour-Review”]
San Diego Troubadour
By Bart Mendoza, November 2013
This month FYI reviews a few recent releases that have come across our desk
The Cherry Bluestorms – Bad Penny Opera (Roundhouse)
Thirteen tracks, opening with the killer instrumental “Bad Penny Opera,” sort of a cross betweenDeodato, Spencer Davis, and the Who’s Tommy, Ken Russell edition. Garage/Psyche fans will love it – I can see this one going over big in certain dance clubs. The Cherry Bluestorms are Deborah Gee and Glen Laughlin (ex-the Dickies, the Furys) with five friends contributing horns, drums, strings, and organ. Both Gee and Laughlin sing lead, each with very distinct voices, well matched in their harmonies. The album paints a wide stylistic brush, from folk duo material (“By Your Leave”) to organ-tinged jangle pop (“A True Love Wears a Thorny Crown”) to epic mellotron-backed ballad (“Sunday Driving South”). The album’s single is easily “As Above So Below,” which is all chiming 12-string lead hooks and sinewy, melodic vocals. A master class in production touches, note how the simple addition of tambourine at 1:10 lifts an already driving song up a notch. The album also includes a nicely arranged, horn-driven version of Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” but the Cherry Bluestorms excellent originals are what you’ll be returning to.
www.thecherrybluestorms.com[/expand]
[expand title=”Pop Stereo Blogspot-Review”]
Pop Stereo Blogspot
I have to admit, Cherry Bluestorms didn’t make an impressive first impression with me when I received their album, Bad Penny Opera. I mean look at that cover. It’s horrible. It ranks up there with Cancer’s To The Gory End as worst album covers ever. So with that image securely tucked away in my brain this band already had one strike against them.
Musically, they kind of swung and missed as well. While not completely folky, the band have this sort of slightly theatrical version of folk music that’s not amazing, but not too bad either. What’s weird about all this is that the first track on the album, “Bad Penny Overture,” is an impressive instrumental set up. Unfortunately, the album falls off a cliff soon after. Bad Penny Opera is a middle of the road kind of thing that’s pretty mediocre. It’ just of kind of plods along with an almost singer songwriter feel about it. I want to say that this is loosely some sort of concept album, but I wouldn’t guarantee that.
Anyway, despite it’s overwhelming sense of just existing there are a few good moments on this record. “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” is a stomping, horn laden pop tune that’s a thrilling rush in a sea of mediocrity. Bad Penny Opera clearly has potential and is on the cusp of something better it just never gets there. The Cherry Bluestorms have great tunes within them, they just struggle to set them free. Hopefully, they can let this Bad Penny Opera go and crank out a true opus.[/expand]
[expand title=”Examiner”]On Sunday June 23, 2013 at approximately 5:20 p.m., The Cherry Bluestorms took the stage at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub & Import Room in Los Angeles, California. This was a special event to premiere their first live performance of songs from their latest album Bad Penny Opera.
For those not up on their indie artists, The Cherry Bluestorms were founded by singer-songwriter/guitarist Deborah Gee (lead vocals) and ex-Dickies guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Glen Laughlin (guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). They appeared with their current drummer Mark Francis White, bassist Steve Giles, keyboardist Bobby Victor and narrator Michael McShane.
Bereft of his sexy sidekick sparkling Mary Sparks and armed with only an ice cold emerald can of energy your regularly reclusive writer braved the fearsome freeways of the land of fruits and nuts once more to see this band perform live. Arriving uncharacteristically early despite the best efforts of L.A. taxi drivers and people who precariously park one narrow two-lane one-way streets, your hero hermit quickly inquired with the imbibing establishment’s esteemed doorman regarding parking before making his way through the dark, atmospheric pub in an attempt to locate the stage.
Your inquisitive insider stumbled through a seemingly locked door to find himself face-to-far away face with The Cherry Bluestorms in the midst of a late soundcheck. Soon surprised by Reuben Vigil, lead singer and guitarist for Big Shot Reub and The Reloaders, who graciously bought your rather reclusive writer an apropos beverage with which to enjoy the show.
Now regular readers know that your all too often penned-up penman doesn’t provide a song-by-song analysis because he actually attempts to enjoy the rare live event rather than over-analyze them or document them in detail. (Besides, a discussion of the entire album’s audios can be found in a previously published edition of the “Track-by-track” series.) This, however, was more of a musical performance and not just a normal club gig.
Before the “Bad Penny Overture” to Act I was over, there was a Standing-Room-Only audience of family and friends, hot chicks and old hens, those in jeans and those with means, one and all had gathered around , black and white, yellow and brown. (Lest we forget, the use of a live narrator, McShane, was a nice touch that added a bit of theatre to the performance. It was a Moody Blues moment with a different dialect.)
While the order was different than that on the disc, the playlist was probably arranged in such a way as to more easily accommodate smooth transitions between songs without too much inconsequential chatter. The songs from the CD, such as “By Your Leave”, still seemed to fall into place as the band began their story-song about the perils of Penny. “Critic’s Choice” came next in the familiar form of the duo’s collaborative composition “A Better Place” which was well-received by the attentive audience.
As the band broke into “A True Heart Wears A Thorny Crown” that this was drama and not background music for drunken dancing even if there were moments when those standing in the back felt the urge to groove a bit to the 1960s-influenced material. The tributary “Sunday Driving South” and classic cover of Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” were also included as the act came to a close.
McShane’s narration opened Act II after which Gee reminded observers that she was more than a pretty (albeit mustached) face by picking up a guitar to support her partner on “The Country Man”. The group next went mad with “World Going Mad” which worked just as well without the near Spector-like studio production on the CD. It was followed by energetic presentations of the groovy, upbeat “As Above So Below” and the prerequisite “London Bridge”.
“To Love You Is A Crime” throws in that pre-1967 influence even in concert and Laughlin’s vocals here had a certain je ne sais quoi here that seems absent on the actual album. The show all too soon drew to a close with “Start Again” which highlights the end of our protagonist’s purposeful pilgrimage and “Bad” (which ironically provided this performance piece with a good ending).
Although the team’s tuneful tale had concluded the band did take the stage again to perform an encore which included the song “Daisy Chain” which—complete with Townshend-like windmill work– was more interesting live than on their debut disc Transit of Venus.
Overall, the event—which ended shortly before 7:00 p.m. — was both wonderfully retro and yet new and original. What little may have been absent in terms of studio polish was more than made up for with the honest excitement of both the audience and the band members themselves. The CD fails to reveal Mclaughlin’s Brit-like live presence and cannot translate Gee’s occasional snake-like wiggles exhibited in their (ahem) vested live efforts. Simply put, The Cherry Bluestorms’ live rendition of Bad Penny Opera was all good.
My name is Phoenix and . . . that’s the bottom line.[/expand]
[expand title=”Daggerzine”]
Daggerzine
6.24.13
The Cherry Bluestorms
BAD PENNY OPERA-(ROUNDHOUSE RECORDINGS)- I thought this LA duo’s debut from a few years ago was certainly solid, but they have stepped it up a notch on this sophomore effort (which is basically a rock opera of some sort). The band is essentially the duo of Deborah Gee (vocals) and Glen Laughlin (longtime Dickies member) on vocals, guitar, bass and keys with some other friends helping out. You can tell that they are influenced by a lot of the 60’s pop that came out of their hometown of Los Angeles (I hear some nods to Love) as well as Britsters like the Beatles (‘natch) and even some Pink Floyd as well as The Kinks. The record opens with the prog-ish instrumental “Bad Penny Overture” then into the folky “By Your Leave” (not my favorite song on the record) then into the supremely poppy “A Better Place” (definitely my favorite song on the record). From then on the record wavers between dark pop and darker folky (“Wear Your Love Like Heaven” mixes both, and happens to be a Donovan cover while “Sunday Driving South” is pure Fab Four. If 60’s UK music is your bag then check this one out, it might not get a much props as it deserves (being self-released and all) but is certainly worthy of your attention. www.thecherrybluestorms.com [/expand]
[expand title=”Sister Bluebird”]
Friday, 26 July 2013
CD Review – Bad Penny Opera by The Cherry Bluestorms
If you are seeking a 60s garage sound with a modern twist to play in your car on sunny summer days this album fits the bill. In fact even if it’s raining and you’re stuck indoors it will help you pretend it’s a balmy summer day if you let it take you on that journey.The distinctive vocals and groovy harmonies evoke the spirit of the best bits of the 60s garage band sound, but with better production. The layers of production hide subtle hooks and riffs which burrow into the psyche and attach the songs to the memory, demanding your attention in the most pleasant of ways.Things to listen out for — The fab guitar sound on Bad Penny Overture, an instrumental track that sounds like a modern take on a classic film or TV theme that you can’t quite put your finger on.– Horns adding a subtle punch in the background of A Better Place
– Haunting mellotron and strings adding extra dimensions to Sunday Driving South
[expand title=”Berkeley Place Blog”]
Berkeley Place Blog
June 27, 2013
THE CHERRY BLUESTORMS-Badpenny Opera
Badpenny Opera is the latest from The Cherry Bluestorms, an album six years in the making. It’s a folk opera. Yes, you read that right. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one before. The album tells a story, but the songs work fine on their own as well. Crisp folk-y pop that recalls Aimee Mann, the lighter songs of Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Mammas and the Pappas, and, of course, Donovan. Because they do a terrific cover of his hit, “Wear Your Love Like Heaven.” It’s slightly faster than the original, and it has a horn section and swells. Very cool.[/expand]
[expand title=”Gonzo Reviews”]
Penny for my thoughts: The Cherry Bluestorms deliver yet again
You can hear some of the above sounds, as well as some older, equally awesome tracks by visiting their Soundcloud page and for more info and further insight into a fantastic band, go visit TCB website, like them via their Facebook page or follow them onTwitter, I promise you won;t regret it!
Posted by Ant Standring at 10:48 [/expand]
PowerPopaholic
The Cherry Bluestorms “Bad Penny Opera”
The Cherry Bluestorms are the duo of Glen Laughlin (The Dickies) and Deborah Gee, and both shared a love of 60’s guitar-based melodic rock. Its been a long time since I heard a full length rock opera concept, and this LP is epic in scope – the story is roughly about a girl leaving behind her home in 60′s Britain and trying to find a fresh start. Starting with an “Overture” past the 5 minute mark, it highlights Laughlin’s guitar mastery, evoking Pink Floyd and The Beatles simultaneously.
Then it transitions to acoustic guitar and the dual vocals of “By Your Leave” similar to Jefferson Airplane or Dreamboat Annie-era Heart if it was lead by Amiee Mann. “A Better Place” is a packed with horns backing up Gee’s crisp vocals. Next is a fast-paced cover of Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven.” Gee’s vibrato sounds great on “Sunday Driving South,” a mid-tempo gem. “The Country Man” is Glen’s vocal highlight, a neo-hippy guitar anthem. Other tracks need a few more listens to appreciate, but the back half of the album drags a bit. Parts of songs are just brilliant, like the opening chords of “To Love You is A Crime,” or the chorus to “World Going Mad.” Definitely worth a place on your music playlist.
Spin it or Bin it
The Cherry Bluestorms – Bad Penny Opera
Knowing The Cherry Bluestorms as a great live band, with first and foremost lots of Grade A psychedelic guitar at the foundation of the band, it comes as a surprising ear-opener to hear this sophomore album kicking off with a Kraftwerk like intro on the “Bad Penny Overture”. It’s not long before the inventive guitar licks of Glen Laughlin find their way in though.
Liverpool Sound and Vision
The U.K. had two versions of the 1960s. The first which revolved around Swinging London, Carnaby Street, the advent of women’s liberation and the pill, short skirts, sexual freedom, relaxation of antiquated laws, The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks. This world was there for the people of the U.K. to see but very few saw that glimpse of hedonistic Britain outside of the silver screen, news items and their dreams. For others, it was the second version, the world of Rita Tushingham and A Taste of Honey, The Wednesday Afternoon Play, Cathy Come Home, Carol White, Saturday Night, SundayMorning, social deprivation and unrest, sex scandals in Parliament, train robberies, Profumo and the threat of nuclear war between two superpowers either side of the U.K. It’s no wonder that people prefer to remember the sixties as a golden time in Britain compared to real life.
Mixing the reality of sixties Britain with their own psychedelic twist and clever narrative, The Cherry Bluestorms release their new album Bad Penny Opera, a concept album that sweeps the listener of their feet and takes them on a long journey from somewhere in the North of England to the illusion of what London was, a vision that hasn’t changed since a certain young gentleman was told that the streets were lined with gold. Bad Penny may be the subject of the concept but without The Cherry Bluestorms infallible way of making music, the originality in which they conduct the narrative, it’s doubtful whether Bad Penny would have ever taken shape.
The illusion to the penny dreadfuls of the late Victorian era mix well with the idea of a girl leaving behind unhappiness in sixties Britain and trying to find a fresh start is pure Vaudeville, a marvellous hark back to theatre and yet it took a marvellous pair of musicians from across the Atlantic to put this vision into shape and in respect to The Beatles and the emotive She’s Leaving Home, a look at the other side of life in the U.K., the side that was only ever documented in black and white, something that was only just one step on from George Orwell’s look at the northern cities in The Road To Wigan Pier.
Even though there has been a major gap between the two albums, Bad Penny Opera relishes the challenge made by its predecessor and in the songs, A Better Place, the excellent Sunday DrivingSouth, To Love You Is A Crime with its undertones of a time before the repeal act of 1967 and World Gone Mad, both Deborah Gee and Glen Laughlin and the assortment of players give seriously brave and wonderful performances.
It can only be hoped that there isn’t another huge gap between Bad Penny Opera and the next album as the Cherry Bluestorms are a band that don’t deserve to languish in the background.
Ian D. Hall
BPO FAN REVIEWS
5.0 out of 5 stars A First Class Tour Round The High Roads Of British Psychedelia, April 27, 2013
So here it is at last. Some six years after their well-received debut album we have the second coming of the Sunset Boulevard Branch of the Village Green Appreciation Society. A baker’s dozen of postcards from the old country, Bad Penny Opera loosely follows the character of Penny, who after a broken relationship travels from the north of England to London. She acts as a sort of cipher for an American rootlessness and the quest to connect to an illusory England. It’s a pilgrimage firmly rooted in the soil of melodic sixties’ rock, but with timeless lyrics. Lightly psychedelic, but nothing chemically informed or any anachronistic tomfoolery.
The Bad Penny Overture sees us on our way, bearing something of The Small Faces. It’s an excellent start. A swirlitzer of an opening leads into a Charlatans-like heavy groove: yes, it’s decidedly danceable. But there’s a distinctly ominous feel to it as riffing vignettes point to the road ahead. It’s clear the journey we’re embarking on isn’t going to be entirely smooth. Covering the bases it does, it’s hard to tell from the Overture where we’re immediately heading. A sign homes in to view reading By Your Leave and it transpires we’re somewhere in the area of acoustic-bucolic reflection blueprinted by Nick Drake, and here resting on a rising bed of hammond organ. Glen and Deborah harmonize wistfully as lovers calling it a day. Lovely. Next up, A Better Place is ostensibly a sad song venting emotions in the aftermath of a friend passing away. But by employing a brass-fuelled music-hall feel in the vein of The Kinks’ Dead End Street, it’s also strangely uplifting and conducive to the belief we can go to, and leave this world, a better place. This is a Laughlin-Gee composition, and the only other track not solely written by Glen Laughlin is an energized makeover of Donovan’s Wear Your Love Like Heaven, replete with horns and with Deborah on lead vocals. It works a treat. Sunday Driving South is a melotronic bittersweet beauty featuring a MacCartneynesque bass line The tension and regret of a foundered relationship eventually resolving to escapism on the road, ‘Passing Mr. Toad’, on a quest for those psychedelic summers of love. And so the quality continues. World Going Mad chops to and from a rock-reggae rhythm reminiscent of The Police and has a great vibraphone part. As Above So Below is a fast busy number that kicks behind and would have suited The Monkees. Until the ante is upped further still when we arrive with Penny at London Bridge – ‘falling down’. An impeccable song from its fade-in with Space Oddity strumming, to its whimsical fairground interlude, to the mocking laughter of Mr. Punch that sees it out. It might be the other side of the penny to Waterloo Sunset, but this one really holds up against its classic swinging London antecedents. But hot on its heels comes To Love You Is A Crime. A wall of sound crashes in before giving way to a rubbery bass line. Burbling keyboards and a blissed and yearning chorus filtered through Madchester make this another of the album’s biggest stand outs. Then as we near the close guitar bleeds in for Start Again, recognizably an anthemic heart-stirrer to bring the curtain down; sounding like Matthew Fisher assisting The Beatles around the time of Hey Jude. Hope and melancholy vie for eternal supremacy as the song soars and finally ebbs away leaving just valedictory strings. Only it isn’t quite the end as like a Bad Penny the Overture returns with a vocal reprise to complete the cycle: invective making manifest what was hinted at the very beginning.
It’s been a fabulous journey, an embrace and tour of musical influences and themes fated to recur again and again. Just as you will find Bad Penny Opera has a habit of returning to your music player.
I have been listening to The Cherry Bluestorms’ new song-cycle CD, Bad Penny Opera. The CD showcases what I believe to be the Cherry Bluestorms’ strongest, most appealing songwriting to date — assured, fully fleshed out lyrics, which at times keenly bring to mind Lennon/McCartney’s deliberately playful toying and larking about with ambiguity. Glen Laughlin’s full-bodied, robustly confident, contemporary production brilliantly evokes Bad Penny’s milieu, the interstitial period of Britain’s psychedelic nascence, while never falling prey to being slavishly “of” or hamstrung by that period. Deborah Gee’s vocals find her singing with fresh vigor and aplomb, at her apex, while the band’s vocals in general are polished and perfectly attuned to the period mentioned above without coming off as affected. The Cherry Bluestorms’ playing likewise is impeccably better than ever before, and of a piece with the eerily pendulous psychological sweep and return, only to sweep ever closer to the point of no return that sums Bad Penny Opera’s unrelenting momentum. The instrumentation/arrangements, (especially vividly rendered horn parts), further invite the listener along into the swirling eddy (or eddylike swirl!) of Bad Penny’s chiaroscuroesque journey — a vivid musical postmodern cautionary tale that ultimately neither takes nor offers quarter.
TRANSIT OF VENUS