Empty Cellar Announces: Sonny & The Sandwitches – A new 7″ EP

Listen to the romantic opener – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die: [audio:http://www.endlessnest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/01-Throw-My-Ashes-From-This-Pier-When-I-Die.mp3]

Empty cellar is excited to announce Sonny & The Sandwitches, a new 7″ e.p. by Sonny Smith (out 12/14). You can pick up your own personal copy here. Pitchfork and a slew of other online hot-sheets beat us to the punch, but for those of you who haven’t heard… here is the full story:

Not long ago, Sonny Smith (Sonny & The Sunsets) survived a near-drowning off the coast of northern california. The experience affected him profoundly and led to a wealth of output including a play, a novel, and a stack of songs. Sonny’s critically acclaimed “100 Records” project is itself a direct product of Sonny’s fight with the sea. A novel he began, “Adelard the Drowned”, broke into 100 pieces. Four of those pieces come as songs on this 7″ e.p., each bound to the next by a twisted braid of water and death. Through the fog and the haze, however, there lies in these songs a shared sense of redemption, transformation, or reawakening. Featuring appearances by Heidi and Grace of the The Sandwitches and a long-lost band called The Transients, this record features Sonny’s songwriting at its strongest, staring death in the face. Perhaps, this is in part why the ocean gave him back. Recorded in San Francisco and mastered by Paul Oldham, each record includes a comic book, four full-color album covers, and a high-quality digital drownload.

Preview the intensely personal comic penned by Hank Champion and illustrated by Teppei Ando:


Secret Seven Announces Reissue of Classic Michael Yonkers LP – Goodby Sunball



Secret Seven Records is proud to release the first ever reissue of the lost psych-folk LP ‘Goodby Sunball’ by cult favorite, Michael Yonkers. Privately released in 1974, ‘Goodby Sunball’ was recorded at Yonkers’ home studio a few years after ‘Microminiature Love’ and just before ‘Lovely Gold’. Remastered from the original LP by Ben Tuttle. Limited to 500 copies.

This record is amazing. Full of simple beauty and quiet heartbreak. So good in fact, that Grace Sings Sludge (Grace Cooper of The Sandwitches) felt compelled to record a cover of the album track “Oh Can You Tell Me” (listen to the Yonkers original HERE).

Oh can you tell me, as performed by Grace Sings Sludge

“The music for ‘Goodby Sunball’ was written during the recovery period following serious spine surgery. The surgery had not gone well, i was laid up for months, and had to learn to walk again. So, the music was written using an acoustic guitar, while laying in bed. When i was able to be up and around more, i started recording the songs…a little at a time.It took about 7 months. i recorded the tracks in the little studio i had in my place. It was all recorded on two-channel, tube type machines (back and forth between machines). The vocals were done in the bathroom, to give an expanded sound.”
– Michael Yonkers

Side One: Goodby Sunball / Tell Me Of Love / The Day Of Jubilee / Angel Of The Snow / The Swamp Of Love / Anne Is My Lassie / Another Day / Morning Of Love / Someone Like You

Side Two: Early Wakin’ Morning / Strange And Lonely Land / Oh Can You Tell Me / Time Honored Love / Goodby Sunball

It will be available in stores on July 7th, but you can pick it up early from Secret Seven or the Endless Nest Store. All orders will ship shortly before the release date.