- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -

  Artist:      Blue Skies For Black Hearts
  Album:       Serenades And Hand Grenades
  Label:       King Of Hearts Records
  Playtime:    40:28 min
  Genre:       Rock
  URL:
  Rip date:    2008-03-25
  Street date: 2008-05-20
  Size:        63.61 MB
  Type:        Advance
  Quality:     209 kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo

- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -

   “We're making pop music the way it should be made,” lead singer and
   songwriter Pat Kearns says casually as he returns to the board to mix
   “Siouxsie Please Come Home”, the premier track off Serenades and Hand
   Grenades, the brand new 12 song LP from Blue Skies For Black Hearts. Release
   is scheduled for May 20, 2008.

   This, the band’s fourth full-length release, began with mudding sheetrock,
   painting walls and hanging baffles, turning the back rooms of local guitar
   shop, Centaur Guitar, into PermaPress Recordings, a modern-day Brill Building
   and Kearns’ new studio. The paint on the walls had barely begun to dry when
   Kearns, bassist Kelly Simmons, lead guitarist Michael Lewis and drummer Paul
   Noel began clocking in nightly, working up arrangements to songs that Kearns
   had often written earlier the same day. Within two hours of a song's
   introduction, it was hashed out, rehearsed and basic tracked.

   With the advent of digital, today's artists frequently pile their computers
   with hundreds of tracks and takes, hoping time, reflection and deft editing
   will produce a masterpiece. Blue Skies, while embracing the functional
   advantages of modern recording technology, self imposed many of the
   limitations that fueled the creativity of rock and roll for the last half
   century. Decisions were made on the spot, focused primarily on feel and
   melody. Instruments were recorded live with ambiance and real plate reverb
   instead of relying on digital plug-ins later. Harmonies were worked out
   around the piano, moments before the entire band gathered around a single,
   tube microphone to sing the takes together. Nothing was ever added to tracks
   that needed to be “worked out later in the mix” - a common method of the
   digital generation. From the first time this record spins, you will feel the
   same intimacy and attraction that fans have longed for since the Brits
   invaded America (both times), Stiff Records scoured the pubs for talent and
   Creation Records saved rock and roll.

   That album opener, “Siouxsie Please Come Home,” is a contemporary love story
   that could only occur in the new millennium. Through melody and words, Kearns
   paints a picture of a lovelorn composer whose girl has been sent off to war
   while he remains at home, writing heartbroken love songs while surrounded by
   her boxed possessions.

   “Ambition” weighs integrity against success, an age old question that has
   become particularly complex and poignant in today’s music industry. It
   features a horn arrangement reminiscent of those heard on the great southern
   soul recordings of the 60s and '70s, while also belying the band’s obvious
   adoration of Costello and even Badfinger.

   “Someday There Will Be Better Days” is an optimistic look at the frivolity of
   divorce, taking a dark, comedic view on exes waging war through their
   lawyers, and featuring a full-blown string arrangement that would make even
   Phil Spector turn green.

- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -

  01. Siouxsie Please Come Home                                         ( 3:46)
  02. A World Without Love                                              ( 2:55)
  03. Jenny & Steve                                                     ( 4:02)
  04. Won't You Please Stay                                             ( 4:01)
  05. She'll Follow Me                                                  ( 3:17)
  06. Little White Lies                                                 ( 3:46)
  07. Ambition                                                          ( 4:09)
  08. Sweet Valentine                                                   ( 3:38)
  09. I Still Wish That You Were Around                                 ( 2:48)
  10. If I Wanted You Back                                              ( 2:17)
  11. Pretty People                                                     ( 2:36)
  12. Someday There Will Be Better Days                                 ( 3:13)

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -