Tag Archives: Golden Boys

Flashlite #465 – The Best Albums in 2017 (Part One)

Best of 2017The Little Lighthouse presents best albums in 2017. A good way to usher the new year is to put together a list of best albums in the previous one. We’ve been doing this for a long time with more or less discipline, but the criteria is always personal and the lists simply collects albums that I’ve kept coming back to most frequently. This time we cover positions 35-15 and tune in next week for the top 14. Today we cover one of four albums that was put together by the productive and controversial Matthew Melton (Warm Soda), heavier rock records from The Obsessed, Elder, Motorpsycho All The Witches and Ruby The Hatchet show a modern approach to head banging, twisted Americana of Ethan Daniel Davidson, Yawpers and My Buddy Moose represent a fresh approach to a genre that needs reinvention badly. Strong lyrical works from Daniel Romano and John Wesley Coleman III are the best to enjoy while reading and musing on the inner sleeves. Bully, Lost Balloons, Sheer Mag, Needles//Pins show that indie rock still has something to say. Beautiful vocals of Dead Rock West are to admire. Ty Segall had an album of his career. Baby Shakes simply have short and fun record that makes you wanna play on and on. Newcomers Improbables and experienced Golden Boys hail from their garages with high octane garage rock and of all experiments from King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, their Microtonal Banana was the most fun.

15 Baby Shakes - Turn It Up
16 Daniel Romano - Modern Pressure
17 John Wesley Coleman III - Microwave Dream
18 Ty Segall
19 Lost Balloons - Hey Summer
20 The Improbables - Object To Be Destroyed
21 All Them Witches - Sleeping Through The War
22 The Obsessed - Sacred
23 Motorpsycho - The Tower
24 Golden Boys - Better Than Good Times
25 The Yawpers - Boy in a Well
26 Elder - Reflections of a Floating World
27 My Buddy Moose - IV
28 Dead Rock West - More Love
29 Needles//Pins - Good Night, Tomorrow
30 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana
31 Warm Soda - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
32 Ruby The Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
33 Sheer Mag - Need To Feel Your Love
34 Ethan Daniel Davidson - Crows
35 Bully - Losing

Bully – Either Way;
Ethan Daniel Davidson – Beast;
Sheer Mag – Just Can’t Get Enough;
Ruby The Hatchet – Killer;
Warm Soda – To Be With Ramona;
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Melting;
Needles//Pins – Time and Tide;
Dead Rock West – Boundless Fearless Love;
My Buddy Moose – After The Feeling Has Gone;
Elder – Thousand Hands;
Yawpers – Reunion;
The Golden Boys – So Cowboy;
Motorpsycho – The Maypole;
The Obsessed – Be The Night;
All Them Witches – Don’t Bring Me Coffe;
The Improbables – Crawl With Me;
Lost Baloons – Not My Time;
Ty Segall – Freedom;
John Wesley Coleman – Shovel;
Daniel Romano – Dancing With The Lady In The Moon;
Baby Shakes – Baby Blue.

Flashlite #462

Dream MachineWhat a year for Matthew Melton. He put out four albums, one with Warm Soda, two with Dream Machine and one new solo. His lovely Yugoslavian wife Doris got unjustly accused for fascism, Castle Face them both out of their label and then they relocated from Austin to Netherlands. And one of those Dream Machine albums is also new. We check that out in today’s show and wish them better luck with the new label. We also have new music from The Golden Boys (also from Austin) and Steelism. We also introduce The Hooten Hallers. But the biggest new album this week is the brand new one from Harlan T. Bobo. It’s called Hector, The History of Violence, and it’s perfect. At the end of this episode, we say goodbye to Johnny Hallyday who passed away last week after a long battle with colon cancer.

Bash & Pop – Saturday;
The Hooten Hallers – Garlic Dream;
The Golden Boys – Dear Work;
The Golden Boys – We Are Young;
Tall Juan – Another Juan;
Harlan T. Bobo – Drank;
Harlan T. Bobo – Nadien;
Steelism – Eno Nothing;
David Nance – A Cruel Kind of Love;
Chris Bell – I Don’t Know;
Matthew Melton – Afraid Of Myself (Without You);
Dream Machine – Lost in the Thrill;
Warm Soda – To Be with Ramona;
Shocking Blue – Hot Sand;
Tin Foil – Can’t Stay Here;
Bully – Hate And Control;
Johnny Hallyday – Mal (Hush);
Johnny Hallyday – A Tout Casser.

The Golden Boys – Dirty Fingernails

The Golden Boys - Dirty FingernailsGolden Boys are a five piece from Austin, Texas. The best known name in the band is John Wesley Coleman III, who is known in Austin and elsewhere not only as one of the Golden Boys, but also as a singer songwriter, stand up comedian and a trash poet. But, according to what I could find about the band, it seems that Matt Hoopengardner and Bryan Schmitz, on two guitars and main vocals, are the main driving forces behind the Golden Boys.

Dirty Fingernails is their fifth album and it could be said that it’s the most mature of them all so far. One can find a wide berth of musical genres, from power pop, garage rock and punk rock. The rhythm is fast and the sound is amplified, drum and keyboard driven. Song Outta The Dark even has some horns. Daddy’s Horsewife sounds like a hardcore punk parody. But other than that the topic is mostly love and in general.

The songwriting is very pedant, although the sound is decidedly sloppy.

Garage rocking Curtains, sounds like something that could be on legendary Spoons album Voxin’, although I would be very surprised that the Golden Boys made a conscious connection there.

The first tune on the B-side is Older Than You, obviously on the topic of age difference between the two lovers. It has an extremely catchy one guitar string riff, reminding me on Empire’s Bob Andrews, something that he would employ on Expensive Sound.

The last tune on the record We Are Young is a perfect closer, the unofficial greatest hit of 2012 in my mp3 player. It’s another song on the record about getting older, an anthem about growing up, a sort of a sister song to the Replacement’s Bastards of Young. It is definitely a standout on an album that is nevertheless excellent. With Older Than You on position B1 and We Are Young closing the record, we get a full circle on one side of the record and the topic of coming out of the age becomes the dominant one. Still, it’s not definitely not a downer. It’s a celebration, and it a fun record to play on repeat.

Technical note: the vinyl record is duplicated at the United Records Pressing plant from Nashville TN. Their prints are all over the place – some the best around, some are substandard. My copy of the Golden Boys is very well done – no complaints sound-wise although there are specked scratch patterns on the surface, which is something one just has to get used to at the United Records.

First published on rockxs.com.