Sunshine Riot power forward through purgatory with ‘Looking at the Past’
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Boston alt-grunge band unleash new single on Friday, January 27
Listen to Sunshine Riot on Spotify
New EP ‘Loud, Bright and Violent’ set for April 2023 release
BOSTON, Mass. [January 27, 2023] -- The past few years have found Sunshine Riot coming of age all over again. After the release of 2018 album Lonely Hotel, the Boston alt-rock band settled into a sonic evolution that ran parallel to what a lot of us experience as we stumble from our teen years into adulthood: 2021 EP Electrical Tape was a brash fit of piss n’ vinegar post-grunge that echoed through halls of your local high school; 2022 EP Sparkle Baby 2000 packed up and left a decaying hometown behind, musically flirting with jangly college rock and themes that inspire us to be a little bit better than we were before. Now as we barnstorm into 2023, Sunshine Riot are set to unleash Loud, Bright and Violent, the type of record that swirls with the type of post-graduation hysteria and angst we usually feel when thrust into an unforgiving real world.
A throwback to the band’s ball-of-noise core, Loud, Bright and Violent is set for release this April, and its fiery tone is set with lead single “Looking at the Past,” an appropriately titled alt-grunge rager that hits the streams on Friday, January 27, a week before Sunshine Riot play live at the Magic Room in Norwood with Jennifer Tefft. Not long has passed since the band unveiled last fall’s Sparkle Baby 2000, which earned media praise from The Big Takeover, That’s Good Enough For Me, If It’s Too Loud, Blood Makes Noise, and others; while its trio of singles scored global internet radio play (including summer jam “Just Say So” landing on Boston Emissions’ 2022 Songs of the Year list).
New single “Looking at the Past,” like the EP that cradles it, was recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, returning to the Midwestern studio where the band concocted the equally-abrasive Electrical Tape EP. Like the person trapped in an unsatisfying real world, knowing a return to the care-free campus college days are in the past, a look back to the angst and energy of youth is fueling this new chapter for the band. And it begins anew with “Looking at the Past.”
“The song sort of exists in two pieces,” says vocalist and guitarist Jonny Orton. “The first half, I think, is the internal narrative of a character who has taken a long time to change, I suppose for the better, and is reflecting on their past while attempting to assure themselves and others they weren't too late in putting their wilder and lesser ways down.”
But like most of Sunshine Riot’s music and lyrics, additional layers run to the surface once the listener digs deeper. “The song then transitions, fairly loudly, to the story of a completely fictional character named John Prescott, who is being sentenced to death for murder and eventually finds himself in purgatory – which he determines to be a fate worse than death. Purgatory has always fascinated me; an eternity in limbo is a wild idea and I find the theological concept that there might be a group of people for whom God doesn't think it's worth the time to decide tragically funny. I think the song kind of parallels that notion of purgatory in the theological sense with the very real and earnest human experience of always being torn between two versions of oneself – which I think is part of what makes life such a wonderful chaos.”
Whether we find ourselves trapped in our surroundings or not, that type of duality exists in myriad forms across the Sunshine Riot universe. The band has two places they call home when recording a record: Galilee Studios in Cumberland, Rhode Island, where Sparkle Baby 2000 was crafted, and Albini’s Electrical Audio. This batch of songs felt big, bold, and deliberately loud to the band as they wrote them late last year, so plans to head to Chicago and put them to tape under the guiding eye and ear of Albini was essential.
“We really enjoy recording with Steve – that he's a brilliant engineer with a penchant for signature drum sounds is well known, but he's also weird just like us,” Orton adds. “We trust his instincts implicitly, but we also enjoy sitting in a room with him for 18 hours… But we rehearsed every moment we possibly could leading up to the session and by the time we showed up, we had the songs pretty well figured out. That's a fairly important box to check when you're recording with Albini – on the last EP we cut with him, he turned to us while we were tracking some overdubs and said ‘I should note that is it is generally important that you have the songs written before you come in here.’”
That was the case with “Looking at the Past,” a track whose main riff has been kicking around the Sunshine Riot rehearsal space for the past decade. The riff found a path to songhood late one night, almost by magic, and the end result is a sound that closes the gap between the previous EP and this one. It’s one of four songs on Loud, Bright and Violent, with each getting the release treatment on a monthly basis until the full record drops in April.
“I think the song is a pretty good bridge between the more blues-driven alt-country stuff we often find ourselves hanging out with, and which was really at the forefront of Sparkle Baby 2000, and the louder grunge and punk stuff we seem to be doing a lot of these days,” Orton notes. “I think we've always been interested in exploring as much of the rock and roll room (which is pretty darn big) as we can, but I've come to accept that Sunshine Riot is generally at its best when the band is loud and I am yelling.”
And after all we’ve been through over the past three years, which feel like a societal graduation process all over again, the ability to yell about the trials and tribulations of the day is something Sunshine Riot does not take for granted.
“I'm not sure we're ever trying to make any uniform statement with any record… we just do the best we can to find some songs that we hope folks will enjoy,” Orton concludes. That said, I suppose we are saying ‘Sunshine Riot ain't dead yet and our distortion pedals still work.’ We just continue to feel awfully lucky to still be making music together. Been a weird few years, in the music world and beyond, so it feels pretty darn good to put this one out.”
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to the band at booking@sunshineriot.com or Michael Marotta at michael@knyvet.com.
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‘Loud, Bright and Violent’ artwork:
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Sunshine Riot is:
Jonny Orton - Guitars, Vocals
Jeff Sullivan - Bass
Mark Tetreault - Guitar
Steven Shepherd - Drums, Percussion
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‘Looking at the Past’ credits:
Written by Sunshine Riot
Lyrics by Jonny Orton
Recorded by Steve Albini and Taylor Hales at Electrical Audio in Chicago, IL.
Mastered by Matthew Barnhart, Chicago Mastering Services.
Artwork by Steven Shepherd, Drums PhD.
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The music of Sunshine Riot can be heard on:
Bay State Rock, Blood Makes Noise, Boston Emissions with Anngelle Wood, Boston Groupie News, BumbleBee Radio with Kristen Eck, Christian’s Cosmic Corner (Mark Skin Radio), DigBoston, Everything You Know Is Wrong (Salem State), Garagerocktopia (KUCR Radio), If It’s Too Loud, I’m Music Magazine, indie617, Indie Radio YFM, Jammin with JenCat (Twisted Road Radio), Karen’s Indies (Belter Radio UK), Laura Beth’s Mixtape Show (Reclaimed Radio UK), Lonely Oak Radio, Marc’s Alt-Rock Playground (Mark Skin Radio), Mike on the Mic (WMFO), Monie’s New Music (UK), On The Town With Mikey Dee (WMFO), Only Rock Radio (Spain), Original Music Showcase (Mark Skin Radio), Radio Warfare with Tim Livingston, Rhode Island Free Radio, Rising with Skybar (WMFO), Sunshine Music iRadio, That’s Good Enough For Me, The Attic Show (KPISS), The Bad Copy, The Big Takeover, The Music Authority, Unlikely Places (Mad Wasp Radio), Virtual Detention/Rat Fever (WZBC), Your First Listen (Eardrum Buzz, KNNZ), and other fine outlets, shows, and stations.
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Media praise for Sunshine Riot:
“[‘Just Say So’ is] the song of the summer” – I’m Music Magazine
“I definitely hear The Replacements in there mixed with some other ‘90s stuff like Low, Pavement, Bob Mould and others. I guess it’s safe to say this Boston band digs the Midwest ‘90s sound. In my book that’s a pretty rad sound. More please!” – Blood Makes Noise
“If Electrical Tape was the drunken late-night party, this new EP is the morning-after hang as the bar re-opens; a little less primal, a little more reflective. It could be deemed a shift in sound for Sunshine Riot, but in reality, it’s just a natural progression for a bunch of dudes comfortable in their own songwriting skin.” – The Big Takeover
“Boston's Sunshine Riot have written one of the most earwormy songs of the year with ‘Just Say So.’ …This is alternative rock from back in the days when it was college rock, and besides The Replacements, this one is going to make you think of other bands from the era like The Posies and Galaxie 500. ‘Just Say So’ also brings in some of the killer power pop of a band like Cheap Trick, so there's more than a lot to love with this one.” – If It’s Too Loud
“Boston alt-rock band Sunshine Riot's new EP ‘Electrical Tape’ is full of ‘90s nostalgia and vibes, but with their own flair and identity.” – Rebel Noise
“Bursting with an energy and adoration for music, Sunshine Riot are a rare breed. Their talent to seamlessly skip from genre to genre with ease is something to be applauded and their ability to create music not only close to their own hearts, but also forging a connection with each listener is unique… melancholic alternative rock, brimming with '90s nostalgia.” – Middle Eight
“[Sunshine Riot] have an alt/indie sound. [‘Parole Board’] slowly evolves and gets darker and darker as the lyrics unfold. Some of it may get by you but when you get to the line ‘we have methadone now’ it will get your attention. Everything seems to come together at that moment and you realize this song is relating [to] a bleak reality.” – Boston Groupie News
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Press Contact: booking@sunshineriot.com or michael@publisist.co
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