Chuck Prophet of cult 80s neo-psychedelic band Green On Days is today announcing his latest album ‘The Land That Time Forgot’ and sharing the first single, ‘Marathon’. Throughout his lengthy career, the Californian musician has been busy turning out country, folk, blues, and Brill Building classicism. Now, following on from 2017’s ‘Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins’, he returns with the 12-track ‘The Land That Time Forgot’ LP, due for release May 15th via Yep Roc Records. You can stream the new single & video ‘Marathon’ here: https://ffm.to/landtimeforgot. In support of the new album, Chuck is also now announcing an UK/EU tour in May and June. The full list of dates can be found below.
‘The Land That Time Forgot’ has deep roots, from the Southern Delta to the discos of Munich. There’s a kind of folkish inevitability to it–”there’s lots of acoustic instruments, on top of each other and side by side”–but as much as folk music is the soil all music grows from, it never hurts to have a boiler room. As such, there’s always a rhythm section shuffling under your feet here. Take new single ‘Marathon’, out today. Chuck says of the song: “It’s all Krautrock bass and Everly Brothers acoustics. I threw all my rockabilly, space-age, Roxy Music tricks in there. I don’t know if you’re hip to the dance marathons during the Great Depression. They were the first reality shows. So, that’s what this song started out being about… Not all that much different than the gig economy or Task Rabbit, really, though. History repeats.”
Priced out of recording in his beloved hometown, San Francisco, Prophet found himself re-energised in Upstate NY, just a few miles from the Vermont border, and made a record that he describes as “just as much a 21st-century exorcism as it is Americana.” The songs inhabit a world where the protagonists might be on the run from the truant officer, a handsy boss or the Immigration Service. These are love songs that turn political on a dime, told through Chuck’s personal history; one greatly informed by an upbringing with Republican Party members as parents. In his singular way, the album charts the slow-collapse of the party: be it songs about ‘Honest Abe Lincoln’s’ funeral train through to stories about growing up in Nixon’s hometown and ending with an attack on the current clown who sits in the Oval Office.
Written mostly with longtime co-conspirator klipschutz, this LP steps out of Chuck’s comfort zone (“two guitars, bass, and drums”). After nailing three tracks in S.F. with Grammy-winning alchemist Matt Winegar, Prophet confesses, “We hit a wall. Schedules. Money. Towed vehicles: a thousand large to get one van out of lockup.” So, he went out on tour, a solo tour, to raise some much-needed funds. Driving through the Catskills he ended up dropping into Kenny Siegal’s Old Soul Studios to finish the record, with some great company too: “At Old Soul, musicians drop in, sometimes complete blind dates. We did everything live. The drummer gigs with Kevin Morby. The bass player, out of some jazz scene. Piano player, an honorary Bad Seed. A mish-mash of personalities and styles. Turns out you can make a lot of noise with acoustic instruments, if there are enough of them.”
‘THE LOND THAT TIME FORGOT’ TRACK-LIST
Best Shirt On
High As Johnny Thunders
Marathon
Paying My Respects to the Train
Willie and Nilli
Fast Kid
Love Doesn’t Come from the Barrel of a Gun
Nixonland
Meet Me at the Roadbout
Womankind
Waving Goodbye
Get Off The Stage
CHUCK PROPHET UK/EU TOUR-DATES
May
25 Birmingham – Hare & Hounds
26 Bristol – The Fleece
27 Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
28 Glasgow – St Lukes
29 Bury – The Met
30 Suffolk – Red Rooster Festival
June
1 Raalte, NL – Blues & Ribs Festival
2 Leffinge, BE – De Zwerver
3 Utrecht, NL – Ekko
4 Oslo, NO – Loaded Festival
6 Zaragoza, ES – Oasis (Lucinda Williams support)
8 Barcelona, ES – Sala Apolo (Lucinda Williams support)
12 Nottingham – Metronome
13 London – Lafayette
CHUCK PROPHET LINKS