Tulip Frenzy

Next week, Kelley Stoltz is releasing his latest album, Triangle Time, on John Dwyer’s Castleface Records, and we can’t wait.  But hold on, what’s the meaning of the release in recent weeks of both the 4 New Cuts E.P. and an entire album entitled The Scuzzy Inputs of Willy Weird?  All we can think of is this is like that garage sale you have before moving into the new house.  And man, what gems are being taken to the curb?

On his official website, Kelley is said to be moving away from the baroque ’60s-steeped, Ray Davies influenced hand-crafted masterpieces in favor of a sound harkening to the post-punk era.  But for a lot of people, Kelley first announced himself with a note-for-note replica of Echo and the Bunnymen’s Crocodiles, so it’s not like the new album promises to be entirely a departure.

Now, we loved Circular Sounds and Below The Branches so much we accorded them high honors in Tulip Frenzy’s annual tally of the best ‘uns.  But honestly, To Dreamers and Double Exposure didn’t quite hit those high marks.  Now, though, in anticipation of a new rec, Kelley’s given us 17 new songs just to clear the way, and man, they are uniformly great! “Redirected” sounds like an outtake from Double Exposure that should have been a hit, and that’s just one of the 4 New Cuts.  And midway through The Scuzzy Inputs of Willy Weird we were forced to admit that, if this were the only thing Kelley put out this year, we’d still likely consider it for the Tulip Frenzy 2015 Top Ten List (c).

So quick, get to the garage sale and catch up on America’s foremost power-pop artisan before he puts out an album, Triangle Time, that he clearly thinks is even better.

This entry was posted on October 31, 2015 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags "4 New Cuts", "The Scuzzy Inputs Of Willy Weird", "Triangle Time", Kelley Stoltz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.