Sonny gets moody about the modern age
SONNY & the Sunsets are a beautiful West Coast thing. Birthed from the sand, the surf, and twilight campfires down in Ocean Beach, their busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop’s otherworldly despair, a dose of goofball humour from the 1960s-70s Greenwich Village folkie, Michael Hurley school, and positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman.
Helmed by the singer/songwriter, playwright, author and one-time troubadour Sonny Smith, the Sunsets have featured a revolving-door line up that has included Shayde Sartin, Ryan Browne, Kelley Stoltz and Tahlia Harbour. Adopting a range of sounds, Smith’s sardonic laid-back style is interwoven throughout with his compelling songwriting and vocals.
So what is there left to tell you about this chameleon-like band… not a lot really as our Sonny does not give a lot away, only what appear to be quasihistories and failing that… nothing at all.
But that’s okay, if you like the music you go with the flow. Until the latest release Sonny & the Sunsets played something akin to different shades of garage rock. Listenable, very much so… quirky lyrics, a big thumbs up… suitable for a cult following only, yip.
To provide a little background for the latest release it is essential that we take a peek at the big issues that Sonny was mulling over prior to it being written and recorded: “The modern age sends love letters on yellowed, empty pages. It’s got telepathic advice gurus in its timeline and deep sea creatures washing up on its shores. It’s got plugs, buttons, and illusions, and a grocery store whose aisles correspond to Dante’s infernal circles, plus a nebulous sense of ephemeral weirdness.”
‘It’s got Moods Baby Moods’, and the existential angst it yields had Sonny Smith in a funk (state of great fear or panic), but he transformed it into funk (music).
Not a Prince Charles & the City Beat Band funk mind, but a more contrived 80s new wave funk a la Tom Tom Club, Jah Wobble or even Orange Juice.
This is a genetically modified funk for the modern age that doffs its cap to the post disco of A Certain Ratio. Yes we have the necessary bass line thudding or thumping away in the background, but this is not in a joyous shake your booty kind of way, more as a vehicle for assorted accompaniments to Smith’s state of the nation lyrics listing the trial and tribulations of his fabled ‘modern age’.
For the final part of this examination of Sonny & the Sunsets we will lean heavily on the promotional blurb that accompanies the album.
“Lyrically, Smith is playing with the grand themes of today. In his search for purpose in the cruel realities of the modern age, he’s trying to make sense out of chaos and suffering, and to find a way to live and be real. This is not an easy task in a time of synthetic feelings (Moods), computer created confusion (Modern Age), climate change (Dead Meat on the Beach), civil rights abuse (White Cops on Trial), and the uneasy feeling of numbness in our chaotic world (Check Out).”
But, right at the end of the album on the track The Hospital Grounds at Night, Sonny reveals the philosophy that he has subscribed to throughout his career, and also what it means to be human in any era, regardless of where we stand on subjects such as technology, spirituality, authority or art: “I’m full of love, and s**t, all the time.”
In an interview with Pryor Stroud from Pop Matters, Smith says of The Hospital Grounds at Night: “It ends with this guy trying to figure out who he is, what love is, what’s real, and I was like: ‘Wow, this is a perfect ending to a novel or something’. After having gone through all these discussions about the modern age, it came down to a trip through one per- son’s life. The ending felt very sentimental.”
Now, I am not saying everybody will enjoy Sonny & the Sunsets, it’s horses for courses I’m afraid, but those who like a challenge with a worthwhile reward at the end should give the band a listen - particularly Moods Baby Moods. If you like what you hear and want to delve deeper into the world of Sonny Smith and his Sunsets, get to see them at Sala El Loco in Valencia on September 4.