Drawing predominantly from the worlds of stoner rock and psychedelic, THUNDERBIRD DIVINE provide a heavy fuzz-filled sound in “Last Laugh”. The new single is taken from their forthcoming album, Little Wars, set for release on August 30th, 2024 via Black Doomba Records. Pre-sale begins August 16th.
Listen to “Last Laugh” HERE: https://youtu.be/0hyX8VboLUU
The band comments on “Last Laugh”:
“‘Last Laugh’ is one of our older songs, written in the pre-Covid era,” says Erik Caplan, Thunderbird Divine’s guitarist/vocalist. “Lyrically, it examines how two friends in a disagreement can both think they’re correct, and when neither will budge on the issue, it becomes a stalemate. Nobody wants to admit they’re wrong. Both are stubborn. Neither will budge. When one party in the argument dies, the argument itself is dead by default. The reality is that nobody ever really wins in these situations. They both lose. And neither has the other anymore. It could be considered a cautionary tale, and the situation described here is absolutely autobiographical. And I’m definitely not laughing.”
“We certainly knew it should be a rocker, so we aimed for big, brash sounds overall, but we also wanted to introduce some possibly unexpected elements in order to keep it interesting beyond the first two verses,” Caplan explains. “For us, that could mean the addition of virtually anything from sitar to didgeridoo, but, in this case, we decided on sweeping backing vocals, lap steel guitar and piano in addition to our usual stew of guitars, bass, drums, organ and vocals. The feel from the bridge through the guitar solo has a triumphant feel, but the last statement in the song belies the idea of any kind of true resolution.
We demoed all of the songs in order to identify any potentially difficult areas, and Josh (Solomon, bass/vocals/recordist) really took the reins with scheduling and organization. Once we had a decent sketch of each track, we booked time at Retro City Studios in order to capture Mike (Stuart’s) drums and Jack’s (Falkenbach) B3 and Farfisa. The rest of the instrumentation and vocals were tracked at Josh’s East Airy Recordings. We took our time, so, for better or worse, what you hear on this record is very much where our heads were at the time of the recording.”
About THUNDERBIRD DIVINE:
THUNDERBIRD DIVINE comprises four Philadelphia musicians who came together in March of 2017 to collaborate and create riff-heavy psychedelic/stoner/doom in the spirit of artists like MONSTER MAGNET, HAWKWIND, FLOWER TRAVELLIN’ BAND, THE MC5, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD and many others. Named after the street moniker of a homeless Vietnam veteran from vocalist/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Erik Caplan’s childhood neighborhood, the band formed after the dissolution of two long-term Philly stalwart acts, WIZARD EYE (Caplan) and SKELETON HANDS (drummer Mike Stuart). Keys man Jack Falkenbach appeared out of the ether to join up in 2019, and highly experienced engineer and bassist Joshua Solomon came along just as THUNDERBIRD DIVINE parted ways with its original bassist, Adam Scott (also of SKELETON HANDS) in 2022.
Magnasonic, THUNDERBIRD DIVINE’s first release, appeared on Salt of the Earth Records (CD) and Interstellar Smoke Records (vinyl) in 2019, and its follow-up, The Hand of Man, was also released on CD by Salt of the Earth Records in 2020. The band also released a single recording of THE YARDBIRDS’ “Happenings 10 Year’s Time Ago” in the same year. Since 2022, The outfit have released recordings of “Crazy Horses” by THE OSMONDS and “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe”, by BARRY WHITE, both given the band’s signature quirky imprint.
THUNDERBIRD DIVINE is:
Erik Caplan: Vocals, Guitar, Theremin, Sitar, Banjo, Harmonica, Synth, Drones, Weird Stuff
Micheal Stuart: Vocals, Drums, Percussion
Joshua Adam Solomon: Vocals, Bass, Guitars, Synth, Percussion
Jack Falkenbach: Vocals, Keys, Violin, Melodica
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thunderbirddivine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thunderbird_divine/
Bandcamp: https://thunderbirddivine.bandcamp.com/
“Last Laugh” Credits:
Video was shot at The Reservoir by Sirius Cinema.
Recorded at East Airy Recordings with the exception of drums which were recorded at Philadelphia’s Retro City Studios.
Track Listing:
1. Pony Express
2. Times Gone Bad
3. Last Laugh
4. Black Rhino Mantra
5. These Eyes
6. Tides
7. Highway Dawn
8. Old Black Crow
9. Carousel