| The Green Pajamas — Death By Misadventure (2012) |
The Green Pajamas — Death By Misadventure
≡ “ The Pajamas somehow manage to sound like holding two kaleidoscopes side by side and using them as binoculars to see the future of rock'n'roll ” — Phil McMullen, Bucketfull Of Brains magazine, July 1987
Formed: 1984 in Seattle, WA
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Album release: July 17, 2012
Record Label: Green Monkey Records
Duration: 54:17
Tracks:
01 You Can't Look 4:13
02 Ring Around the Sun 1:47
03 The Universe is Full of Noise 1:40
04 Shy Blue Balloon 3:52
05 The Queen's Last Tango 3:48
06 Silk's Last Hour 2:35
07 The Queen Bee Is Dead 3:18
08 Wrong Home (Eric Lichter) 4:10
09 A Piece Of A Dream 4:57
10 Carrie 3:30
11 2nd To The Reward 3:32
12 Beat Me Sally (Eric Lichter) 2:53
13 Supervirgin 3:08
14 Christabel 2:03
15 In the Moonlight Dim 3:40
16 The Spell 5:19
Band members:
• Jeff Kelly – guitar, vocals, keyboards
• Joe Ross – bass, vocals
• Scott Vanderpool – drums
• Eric Lichter – keyboards, percussion, vocals
• Laura Weller – vocals, guitar
Former members:
• Karl Wilhelm – drums
• Steven Lawrence – guitar, vocals, bass
• Bruce Haedt – keyboards, vocals
Credits:
• Tom Dyer Mastering
• Jeff Kelly Composer, Producer
• Susanne Kelly Paintings
• Eric Lichter Composer
• Carlton Lonergan Iv Photography
Website: http://thegreenpajamas.net/
Secret Day: http://www.secretday.com/
Psychedelic music: http://www.psychedelic-music.net
Jeff Kelly bio: http://www.enotes.com/kelly-jeff-reference/kelly-jeff
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheGreenPajamas?fref=ts
Press contact: Tom Dyer
Reservé agent: Joe Ross
Description:
¶ Though its focus has always been on recording, the band has often performed in its home town and at the Terrastock festivals in San Francisco, London, Providence and Seattle, as well as in Austin, Boston, Vancouver and other cities.
The Green Pajamas, whose long run and prolific output have earned them the title, "legendary" from The Seattle Post Intelligencer, have relase three albums in the last year, Green Pajamas Country, Summer of Lust and Death By Misadventure.
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By Sian Owen (http://www.americana-uk.com)
¶ The Queen Bee is dead! Long live the Queen Bee!
¶ Death By Misadventure is a wacky exercise in psychedelia. A beautiful, crazy concept album about the life cycle of a bee colony (kind of).
¶ Quirky? Yep. Dark and tormented. Indeed.
¶ Oh, and it’s the 30th album by Seattle stalwarts and psychedelic enthusiasts The Green Pajamas.
¶ It’s starting to make sense now…
¶ Well, it makes sense to a point – if you’re in a certain mindset or mood when you take the album in. Even the songs about sunshine and summer have sinister undertones. It’s all very disconcerting, but you get the distinct impression that The Green Pajamas had every intention of it being this way.
¶ Part One is ‘The Fall of the Queen Bee’, set in a land called Colony. Here, the Queen suffers ‘death by decadent misadventure’, described in gloriously graphic detail in ‘The Queen Bee’s Last Tango’. “She strips off her girdle, slips off her swastika ring/While 17 boys dressed up as dolls and toys blow the king/In the opium fog, the prince and his dog start to sing/And there’s no sense of the sorrow to befall them all tomorrow” … yep, it sounds like quite a party.
¶ In the aftermath, the Queen was fried in batter and eaten by her subjects, which she preferred to a good hanging. You have to cut through some killer tunes to get to the storyline, but this is certainly no chore!
¶ The second half of the album is ‘Cruel Dreams, Cruel Things’. This is the half that has a stronger pop sensibility. That’s not to say it reverts to more traditional subject matter – Jeff Kelly’s lyrics are still full of supernatural references – tales of faerey, witching hours, myths, legend, romance and some good old sleaze. But again, the killer tracks will have you tapping your feet and the tunes will worm their way into your head.
¶ But really, you’re best off not thinking about things too much. Just accept that the moon is made of cheese and give Death By Misadventure a good listen, it’s well worth it. / Rating: 8/10
Website: http://thegreenpajamas.net/
Biography by Jason Ankeny
¶ The neo-psychedelic band the Green Pajamas were founded in Seattle in 1984 by Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross. A lifelong music fan, Kelly began composing his first songs at the age of 11, forming a group called the Electric Garbage Cans; after his parents purchased him a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he spent his teenage years compiling literally hundreds of cassettes of original material. After graduating college, Kelly briefly joined a new wave band dubbed the Larch; he met Ross at a party soon after, and formed the Green Pajamas, informed by their mutual love of the Beatles and inspired by the Los Angeles "paisley underground" community.
¶ After debuting in 1984 with the cassette Summer of Lust on the Green Monkey label, the group issued a flurry of tapes before recording its full-length debut, Book of Hours, in 1987. After 1990's Ghosts of Love, the Green Pajamas went on hiatus, and Kelly issued the solo LP Coffee in Nepal in 1991; finally, in 1997 the band resurfaced with Doctor Dragonfly as well as Indian Winter, a compilation of singles and compilation tracks. All Clues Lead to Meagan's Bed followed in 1999 and Seven Fathoms Down and Falling arrived in 2000.
¶ The following year the Green Pajamas released the In a Glass Darkly EP, which was inspired by J.S. Le Fanu's writing, as well as the full-length This Is Where We Disappear. A mishmash of discarded singles and outtakes, Narcotic Kisses was released in 2002 along with a full-length album, Northern Gothic. The band celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004, commemorating the event with a 14-track retrospective disc, Through Glass Colored Roses, and a live in-studio album, Ten White Stones. Another full-length studio effort, the unabashedly psychedelic 21st Century Séance, was released the following year. In 2006 the band released yet another compilation disc, Night Races into Anna, followed by the all new conceptual piece Poison in the Russian Room in 2009.
Discography:
¶ Jeff Kelly has also recorded several solo albums, and two with Laura Weller as Goblin Market.
• Summer Of Lust (1984) Green Monkey cassette (US) – re-issued 1989 on LP by Ubic (UK)
• Book Of Hours (1986) Green Monkey LP (US) – re-issued 1988 Di Di Music LP (Greece), 1989 A-Go Go Records LP (Australia), 1989 Bouncing Head LP (Germany)
• November (1988) Green Monkey cassette (US)
• Ghosts Of Love (1990) Green Monkey/Bomp LP (US), Di Di Music LP [Greece] – re-issued 2000 on Get Hip – CD (US)
• Strung Behind The Sun (1997) Camera Obscura – CD (Australia)
• Indian Winter (1997) Get Hip – CD (US)
anthology of first three singles, plus tracks previously appearing on compilations
• Strung Out (1998) Camera Obscura (Australia), Endgame (US) extended play CD
• All Clues Lead To Meagan's Bed (1999) Camera Obscura – CD (Australia)
• Seven Fathoms Down and Falling (1999) Woronzow LP and CD (UK), Rubric CD (USA)
• Narcotic Kisses (2000) Camera Obscura LP and CD (Australia)
• The Carolers' Song (2001) Hidden Agenda – CD EP (US)
• This Is Where We Disappear (2001) Woronzow CD (UK) / Rubric CD (US)
• In A Glass Darkly: Songs Inspired By The Stories of J. S. Le Fanu (2002) Hidden Agenda – US CD EP, homage to author Sheridan Le Fanu, co-written with Laura Weller
• If She Only Knew (2002) Luna – US CD EP
• Lust Never Sleeps (2002) Endgame – US CD
• Northern Gothic (2002) Camera Obscura – Australian CD
• Essence Of Carol (2003) Luna – US CD EP
• Through Glass Coloured Roses: The Best Of the Green Pajamas (2003) Hidden Agenda – US CD
• Ten White Stones (2004), Hidden Agenda – US CD
• 21st Century Seance (2005) Hidden Agenda – US CD
• The Night Races into Anna (2006) Hidden Agenda – US CD
• Box of Secrets: Northern Gothic Season 2 (2007) Hidden Agenda – US CD
• Hidden Minutes (2009) Camera Obscura - LP (Australia)
• Poison In The Russian Room (2009) Hidden Agenda – US CD
• Red, Red Rose (2010) Green Monkey - US CD
• Green Pajama Country (2011) Green Monkey - US CD
• Summer of Lust (2012) Green Monkey - US CD
• Death By Misadventure (2012) Green Monkey - US CD
| The Green Pajamas — Death By Misadventure (2012) |