Big Scenic Nowhere: The Long Morrow Due Jan. 14; Preorder Available
When I interviewed guitarist Bob Balch earlier this year and he talked about the second Big Scenic Nowhere full-length, The Long Morrow, coming out in September, well, it seemed ambitious at the time. As anybody who’s tried to press, distribute or buy a record in the time since probably already knows, the manufacturing delays and materials shortages born of the Covid-19 pandemic have hardly lessened. Latest I’m hearing is that if you want a vinyl record made, it’s about an eight-month wait. Compare that to three or four weeks for a CD. Brutal.
The Long Morrow is slated to arrive Jan. 14, and to be honest, I’m somewhat relieved. I’ve already started thinking about my best of 2021 list and that thing is packed, with more still to come. One more killer release on the pile and my brain might just melt. Let this be a bit of warmth to look forward to in the dead of winter. Let it go on 2022’s list, which, yes, I’ve already started keeping notes for, because I am a sad, sad man.
On a decidedly-less-pathetic note, preorders for The Long Morrow — I love that cover art; I want a signed LP, just to have an excuse to hang it on my wall — are open now. Maybe I’ll see if Tony Reed wants to have a chat about the record sometime soon and follow up on the other interview. In any case, we’ve got some time, and Balch has copious background on the songs below.
The PR wire brought it all straight to your eyeballs:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce BIG SCENIC NOWHERE sophomore album THE LONG MORROW – presale starts TODAY
sophomore album of the “super-band” featuring members of Fu Manchu, Yawning Man, Mos Generator, Spiritual Beggars and Reeves Gabrels from The Cure/David Bowie
Today we are extremely proud to start the presale of the BIG SCENIC NOWHERE sophomore album THE LONG MORROW !!
ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS200
USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm#HPS200
RELEASED IN
20 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
150 ULTRA LTD TRANSPARENT GREEN SOLID CORNETTO VINYL
450 LTD SIDE A – SIDE B GREEN/PURPLE/YELLOW VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
“THE LONG MORROW” BUNDLE:
1x ULTRA LTD CORNETTO VINYL
1x DIGIPAK
1x T-SHIRT
1x SHOPPER
1x POSTER
DISCOGRAPHY BUNDLE:
1x “VISION BEYOND HORIZON” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x “LAVENDER BLUES” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x “THE LONG MORROW” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x T-SHIRT
1x SHOPPER
1x POSTER
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 14th, 2022
TRACKLIST:
1. Defector (of Future Days)
2. Murder Klipp
3. Lavender Bleu
4. LeDü
5. The Long Morrow
Album background:
Bob Balch here. Wanted to let you know about “The Long Morrow.”
We released the E.P “Lavender Blues” back in October of 2020. “Lavender Blues” and “The Long Morrow” are both the result of a three day jam session back in November of 2019. The players were myself, Gary Arce (Yawning Man), Bill Stinson (Yawning Man) and Tony Reed (Mos Generator). We left that session with hours of stuff to choose from. We still have tons to release!
Once 2020 hit, we started digging into what would become “Lavender Blues” with the intention to make it an EP and save the main chunk of the material for the LP which would become “The Long Morrow.” Once we released “Lavender Blues” Tony Reed and I began digging into the tunes.
All of the songs were jams at first, just two or three parts and lots of improvisation. Tony started chopping them up into arranged songs and added lyrics and a few changes. That’s where we got songs like “Murder Klipp” “Defector” “LeDu” and “Lavender Bleu.” I did a few guitar overdubs on them as well to flesh out the parts, but for the most part they are all live takes. I’m surprised that “Murder Klipp” came together so easiely that early in the morning. That time signature is bonkers, Bill Stinson had no trouble coming up with a beat that complemented it. I had to take notes and increase my caffeine intake for that one. “Lavender Bleu” is a second take for “Lavender Blues” hence the title similarity. They were both jams but “Lavender Bleu” became a structured song and the second half of it became “Labyrinths Fade” from the EP. I got to play bass on “Defector” and Tony switched to guitar. “LeDu” is inspired by Husker Du and Led Zeppelin. Gary Arce (Yawning Man) planted the main riff ideas for all of those songs on Side One. The dude is a riff machine.
“The Long Morrow” takes up Side Two. Clocking in at a little under 20 mins, “The Long Morrow” was the very first jam we did during the session. Took us about 30 seconds to fall into a groove and we didn’t surface for 30 mins.
I went home and re-recorded all of my guitar parts throughout 2020. I kept the original ideas in place but embellished them a little. After editing it down and changing guitar parts around it was sent to Reeves Gabrels (THE CURE/DAVID BOWIE) and Per Wiberg (OPETH, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS) to add guitars and synth. Then it was sent to Tony Reed (MOS GENERATOR) for vocals, overdubs and structure changes.
Mixed and Mastered by the very talented Tony Reed. I couldn’t ask for a better production. Sounds just as I wanted to hear it.
We are super proud of this album, and look ahead into the future as this is only the beginning. If we can create stuff like this the first time jamming together we can only imagine that it’s gonna get better and better! More soon!
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