Sonny & the Sunsets contribute to new West Coast comp, touring w/ Thao (dates & stream), list favorite stuff of 2013
intro by Bill Pearis
Sonny & the Sunsets released Antenna to the Afterworld last spring, a concept album about an alien visiting earth that took the band’s usually folk-leaning sound in new directions. While the prolific Smith is no doubt nearing completion on a new album, he does have a song on a brand new compilation titled I Need You Bad, which collects new songs from “a buncha bands from Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland.” The record, out now on Polyvinyl, also features Warm Soda, Jessica Pratt, Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick and lots more. (The whole thing is pretty good.) Sonny & the Sunsets contribute “Those Drawings I Told You About” which you can stream below.
The band were last in NYC for the Northside Festival and while they haven’t announced any new East Coast shows, Sonny & the Sunsets will open for Thao & the Get Down Stay Down on a few West Coast dates and those are listed below. Meanwhile, Sonny Smith sent us his “favorite stuff and events of 2013.” Some of it is musically oriented, but there’s also some current events in there too. You can read his list below.
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Sonny Smith – my favorite stuff and events of 2013:
1. Noam Chomsky still goin!
2. Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged by a US government mass
surveillance program to news publications and flees the country
3. Canada becomes the first country to withdraw from the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification
4. “The Act of Killing” Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary
5. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”
6. Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France
victories
7. The United States Sentencing Commission is hacked by Anonymous in
response to the suicide of Aaron Swartz
8. Charlyne Yi on “Conan”
9. The brains of two rats have been successfully connected so that they
share information
Sonny & the Sunsets – 2014 Tour Dates
01/10/2014 Seattle, WA Neptune w/ Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
01/11/2014 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom w/ Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
02/14/2014 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore w/ Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
02/15/2014 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre w/ Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
