It’s the moment Jellyfish fans have been waiting for ever since the surprise announcement in March.
The debut EP, THREESOME VOL. 1, by THE LICKERISH QUARTET—ex-Jellyfish members Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Beck, Air, Cheap Trick, Imperial Drag), Tim Smith (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Finn Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Umajets) and Eric Dover (Imperial Drag, Slash’s Snakepit, Alice Cooper, Sextus)—is finally out today via The Lickerish Quartet/Label Logic, as distributed by Ingrooves.
To celebrate the highly anticipated release, the band partnered with TuneLings (with animation by Dan Soroka) for the lyric video for “Bluebird’s Blues,” which premiered exclusively on the website of American Songwriter magazine yesterday and can now be viewed now on the band’s official YouTube page.
TuneLings is a “crowd-sourcing” eCommerce platfform that pays musicians. The software application uses the TuneLing to create an animated, instructional display, synchronized to the music. It shows how the song is to be played – including chords, notes, scales, rhythm, lyrics, song structure, and more, arranged in any number of highly customizable “views,” which do not require any knowledge of reading music. Currently, the app supports all stringed instruments.
“Bluebird’s Blues” features Manning’s Mellotron and a 3D feel born from a musical bed he initially came up with back in 1988. “That one was very much a guitar song,” he explains, “and after showing my idea on piano to Tim and Eric, they were able to run with it immediately to give it that folkie guitar feel that it needed, and was calling out for. All of our contributions, including those of our drummer Jeremy Stacey, show the intricacies and clever ways of how we were able to move through that folk chord progression.” Interjects Dover, “It was an instantaneous thing we did, from Note 1. It set the mood, and it’s a beautiful moment. Being able to do that is one of the things we have going on together musically.” As Smith agrees, “I think ‘Bluebird’s Blues’ was one of the first ones where, when we started working on that instrumentation, at least for me, it gave me really excitable hope that everything was going to be just as rewarding.”
The first single from THREESOME VOL. 1, “Lighthouse Spaceship,” has had nearly 50,000 plays on Spotify since its release in March. Lyric videos for “Lighthouse Spaceship” as well as “Fadoodle” can be seen on the band’s official YouTube page.
Early rave reviews been emerging in the past weeks about THREESOME VOL. 1. Popmatters.com hailed, “Fans of both Jellyfish and Imperial Drag will rejoice at the Quartet’s sound. There are doses of XTC/Queen/ELO-style harmonic structures, flirtations with progressive and psychedelic rock, and tasteful but deeply impressive musicianship.” While the Minneapolis Star-Tribune declared, “If you love the harmonies of Queen, the songwriting of Brian Wilson and the lushness of Borns, (‘Lighthouse Spaceship’) is a must-add to your playlist.” And MusicPlayers.com concluded, ““…these tracks are dreamy good! The songs cover a variety of classic pop styles from a time when you didn’t have to clarify that pop was actually a form of rock music, with a heavy dose of ‘70s vibe and incredible vocal harmonies draped over jangly electric guitars, folky acoustics, vintage keyboards, and bass grooves that can only be called… exceptional.”
So what’s next for THE LICKERISH QUARTET now that their first EP is finally in the books? While they don’t anticipate playing any live dates together anytime soon, they can confirm there are two more four-song EPs waiting in the wings. Stay tuned for news which will be announced in the coming weeks.