{"id":13365,"date":"2020-10-23T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=13365"},"modified":"2020-10-22T09:15:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T09:15:39","slug":"kurt-baker-after-party-wicked-cool-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=13365","title":{"rendered":"KURT BAKER \u2013 ‘AFTER PARTY’ (Wicked Cool Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>IF Kurt Baker is a new name on you then I suggest you sit up, Pay attention and get your purse at the ready. How could you not agree with that statement? It doesn’t matter what guise Baker releases music under be it solo or Combo or whatever the guy can do no wrong.\u00a0 He has a fine ear and knows exactly what is required to make a sumptuous ear caressing tune.<\/p>\n

What began as noises emanating from a Maine basement is poised to be the soundtrack to a pandemic as Kurt Baker gets back to his roots on this rocking new album.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea for the Combo was always to be a band that showcased my more Garage\/Pub Rock\/Punk side, while the U.S. group is firmly rooted in Rock\/Pop\/Power Pop,\u201d explains Baker. Counting those two albums with the Combo, ‘After Party’ is the artist\u2019s sixth full-length record, in addition to his previous work with Pop\/Punk band The Leftovers.<\/p>\n

After heavy airplay on\u00a0Little Steven\u2019s Underground Garage\u00a0and touring in Europe and the U.S. It seemed that the wider world was in on our little Rock and Roll secret that’s been cooking for a while over there.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Funderburk, who produced, engineered and mixed the record, also played guitars and co-wrote all the songs with Kurt. The pair previously collaborated on songs for many of Kurt\u2019s releases before he moved to Spain. \u201cThe fact that the songs came to us so easily, after such a long time not working together, made me realise how special this collaboration is,\u201d Kurt recalls.<\/p>\n

Keyboardist\u00a0Kris Rodgers\u00a0is now a successful Wicked Cool recording artist in his own right. The recent single \u201cShe Likes To Party\u201d by\u00a0Kris Rodgers and The Dirty Gems\u00a0follows up \u201cEvery Little Crack,\u201d which\u00a0Stevie Van Zandt\u00a0declared the number one\u00a0Coolest Song Of The Year\u00a0for 2018. \u201cKris shines with his vocals on \u2018Wandering Eyes\u2019 and piano on \u2018A Song And A Drink.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on guitars is\u00a0Geoff Palmer, well known to Underground Garage listeners with his band\u00a0The Connection, who\u2019ve received Coolest Song honors multiple times. \u201cHis guitar playing is just so Geoff and he makes sure you know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Sala, who has played with everyone from\u00a0John Entwistle\u00a0to\u00a0Captain Kangaroo, rounds out the group on drums. \u201cHe tracked all the songs in a couple hours \u2013 a few in just one take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the album was recorded in the basement of Kurt\u2019s parents\u2019 house in Portland last year. Funderburk tracked drums and finishing touches in his Nashville studio. \u201cThe best thing about these sessions was when we were all together singing into the same microphone, each of us doing our vocal parts, with Wyatt coaching us like Brian Wilson during a Pet Sounds session,\u201d Kurt recalls.<\/p>\n

Kurt rode out the terrifying early months of the pandemic in his Madrid apartment, amidst the epicenter of the first wave in Spain, where restrictions were serious. \u201cEven when I\u2019d go for a five-minute walk to the grocery store, the police would stop me to question what I was doing and what I was going to buy! It was a bit surreal. One thing that saved me during the lockdown was that each day Wyatt would send me a new mix of the record. This kept me positive and excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The record opens up with ‘New Direction’ Nah he’s not gone death metal or techno, however, I’m sure if he did then he’d pull it off and make it most listenable. Anyway where was I? oh yeah, ‘New Direction’ immediately lockdown doesn’t quite seem so bad after all. The keys are light behind the big backing vocals and meandering guitar licks its classic power pop.\u00a0 Had Cheap Trick opened their new album they’d be back playing enormadomes. The middle breakdown is cool with the spoken words just smile and chew your bubblegum with a bit of attitude.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘I Like Her A Lot’ has a bit of punch like Baker had been playing some Green Day perhaps for inspiration. The song motors along and sounds fresh as. You’ll be singing along before the first play is over. It’s a shame chart music isn’t full of songs like this anymore.\u00a0 If the kids only put down their game consoles and played some sunshine Rock and Roll maybe the world would be a better place, there would be more parties that for sure. Love the hook on the chorus and they nail those backing vocals. ‘Wandering Eyes’ is a killer track.<\/p>\n

Baker drops a line in the inspiration pond and pulls out a staple from the fab four songbook for the light ‘Waiting For You’.\u00a0 We then build it back up with the new wave tones of ‘Good’ sure Costello looms large here but its shaping up to be such a great record so far and we’re only half way through and we’ve ventured through several of the power pop subgenres and done it with that seal of quality that comes with a Kurt Baker record.<\/p>\n

The record continues to ebb and flows really nicely from the easier listening of ‘Used To Think’ with its doo wap diddy BVs through the synth-heavy ‘Keep Dreaming’ to the harder rockin Ramones meets Green Day vibe of ‘She Don’t Really Love You Dude’. ‘A Song And A Drink’ is a strange one something of a jazzy barroom number with a really dreamy vibe but an impressive vocal from Gina Brown to bring this one home and something that sits nicely on this record but not something I’d generally gravitate towards but hey, there’s a first time for everything.<\/p>\n

To close this record off Baker pays tribute to Single Bullet Theory and it leaves you filled with hope at the end of the record and no matter if you’re feeling lousy this will pick you up as it builds and builds and confirms Kurt Baker as something of a power-pop genius and once again hes crafted along with the help of some supremely talented friends and musicians that ever clud indeed has a silver lining and ‘After Party’ is a lockdown tonic we should all take a swig of. Get on it!<\/p>\n

Facebook<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Wicked Cool Records<\/a><\/p>\n

Pre-save\/Pre-add ‘After Party’ <\/strong>Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Stream the single ‘Over You’<\/strong>\u00a0Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Dom Daley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IF Kurt Baker is a new name on you then I suggest you sit up, Pay attention and get your purse at the ready. How could you not agree with that statement? It doesn’t matter what guise Baker releases music under be it solo or Combo or whatever the guy can do no wrong.\u00a0 He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2144,6010,995,180,3583,3579,272,6011],"class_list":["post-13365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-geoff-palmer","tag-john-entwistle","tag-kris-rodgers","tag-kurt-baker","tag-little-stevens-underground-garage","tag-stevie-van-zandt","tag-wicked-cool-records","tag-wyatt-funderburk","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13736,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13365\/revisions\/13736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}