KEITH JOHN ADAMS ‘Roughhousing’ LP

Description

Keith John Adams says the title of his new album, Roughhousing, is both a description of the recording and a mission statement. The tracks were bashed out at speed to maintain the fun and excitement of record- ing and to give them a chaotic edge. Adams played nearly all the instruments in a series of sessions around his home town, London. Like a character actor, he adopted different personas for the different instruments to give the recording more of a band sound – despite it being a multi-tracked single musician. Keeping the rough edges also helped it sound more like a rehearsal tape – as was the plan. The tracks Change, No Room & Music In My Feet have already been played on the BBC’s 6Music in the UK. Keith John Adams and the Wildlife will be plaing shows in Europe and the US in 2015.

Of the Music in My Feet/No Room double a-side:
“The contrast of sounds is brilliant… This single is great” SEESOUND
“Good wholesome fun from start to finish. This is honest, open and catchy music” WHISPERIN AND HOLLERIN’

Roughhousing is KJA’s 4th solo album after a slow 6 years, prompted chiefly by becoming a father of two. He’s been making music solo since the start of the century though, chiefly in the US where the Athens, Georgia based HHBTM label released two of his albums. That led to tours playing on bills with Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples in Stereo, Deerhoof and Mountain Goats. He’s also toured Japan with HHBTM label mates Elekibass.

“Great non-programatic pop” THE WIRE
“Addictively fun and off-beat” TREBLEZINE
“Joyously upbeat, reminiscent of Macca at his most catchy” RECORD COLLECTOR

The first three solo albums:
2002’s Sunshine Loft, a quirky folk-pop live recording made in a loft in east London with some longtime collaborators including Rhodri Marsden, currently playing keyboards for Scritti Politti, Matt Armstrong, currently playing bass on Bill Fay’s new records, and an occasional dripping cistern.
2005’s Pip, a fun pop freak-beat affair recorded in London by Ant Chapman of Collapsed Lung.
2008’s Unclever, a garage rock/pop album recorded in Athens GA with Casper and the Cookies (ex Of Montreal) as backing band. KJA wrote and recorded personal songs for the first 40 people to pre-order Unclever from the label, a gruelling assignment that was written about in the Guardian. It took six weeks of almost constant writing and recording.

The more youthful KJA was the singer and driving force behind the 1990s band, Zuno Men. The Melody Maker put them in their A to Z of Crusty, perhaps for want of any other bands beginning with Z. Their 1997 single, Stay in with Me, was Single of the Week on Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley’s BBC Radio 1 after- noon show. They were labelled art-skiffle by the NME, and the description still often holds true for KJA’s sometimes folky, sometimes garagey, odd-ball pop music.

Peculiar vinyl mastering: The digital version of the album is a recording of the vinyl album being played on a vintage hi-fi turntable, replete with suface noise and the odd pop. It’s available on CD and from the usual online stores from Functional Electric in the UK.

Vinyl co-release on 4 labels: Vacilando ‘68 in the UK, Red Wig in Germany, PIAPTK in Tucson, Arizona & Gray Sky from San Francisco.

Release-date: December 1st. Pre-ordering possible.

KJA on Bandcamp: http://keithjohnadams.bandcamp.com/