Normally, this is the part where I’d be all like, “OMG Sun Blood Stories are so great etc. etc.,” and hey, don’t get me wrong, that’s an awful lot of fun. I’m going to forego it — for the moment — however, because what the Boise, Idaho, trio don’t yet know is I’m planning to hit them up to stream their new record, Haunt Yourself, ahead of its Sept. 20 release? Will it happen? I don’t know. I mean, I’ll review it either way, so there’ll be plenty of duh-this-band-is-awesome blah blah verbose blah no matter what. But as for the stream, I’d hardly be able to hold a grudge if they decided to go with someone, you know, relevant instead for it. Or not to do it at all. Or whatever they want to do. It’s their album, after all.

Haunt Yourself though, is flat out gorgeous. Divided into three sections, its tracks play out with the fluidity that has typified their work all along while at the same being brought to bear with a new level of clearheadedness from the three-piece incarnation of the band, which first appeared on 2017’s It Runs Around the Room with Us (review here), but seems to have found a balance between experimentalism and core songwriting, with the vocals of guitarist Ben Kirby (also bass) and synthesist/slide guitarist Amber Pollard proving ever more essential to the overarching impression made and resonant long after the actual 12-track outing is done. Their dynamic is integral to the haunt of Haunt Yourself, in other words, but neither should one downplay the grounding effect or the swing in Jon Fust‘s drums, which as “Up Comes the Tunnel” demonstrates, is no less of a key component of the whole.

Like I said, I’m going to review the album, so I’ll cut the analysis there in the hope that I haven’t already bored you to distraction before you got to click play on Pollard‘s video for “Up Comes the Tunnel” below. If I did, sorry about that. If not, you’ll find it below, followed by a bit of background on the song and the record.

Please enjoy:

Sun Blood Stories, “Up Comes the Tunnel” official video

Up Comes the Tunnel is the first single off of Sun Blood Stories’ long anticipated new album, Haunt Yourself, to be released September 20th, 2019 (more about the album and the band below). This song was the first song to be written by the band as the idea of working on a new album started swirling around in their heads. The music was recorded in Sun Blood Stories’ basement home studio in Boise, ID, and the vocals were recorded in Dale Hiscock’s (ESC) studio about two blocks away. Up Comes the Tunnel was written and recorded by Sun Blood Stories. The song was mixed and mastered by Dale Hiscock. This music video was created by Amber Pollard of Sun Blood Stories. The featured poem was written by Ben Kirby of Sun Blood Stories.

Sun Blood Stories’ newest release, Haunt Yourself, will be available on September 20, 2019. Haunt Yourself maintains Sun Blood’s core sound and content while simultaneously sounding like nothing they’ve ever created before. No matter how you like to consume your music SBS has you covered. Haunt Yourself will be available on vinyl, tape, compact disc, digitally, and on all streaming platforms.

Sun Blood Stories are:
Vocals, Guitar, Bass Synth / Ben Kirby
Drums, Keyboards / Jon Fust
Vocals, Slide Guitar, Bass Synth / Amber Pollard

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Tags: Boise, Haunt Yourself, Idaho, Sun Blood Stories, Sun Blood Stories Haunt Yourself, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 25th, 2019 at 9:46 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.