Dean Clean – Queen City Sounds and Art

Samuel Locke Ward from Iowa and Mike Watt from Pedro (maybe you know him for his stints in Minutemen, The Stooges, fIREHOSE and other notable bands) delivered another fine collaborative record as SLC cc Watt in Purple Pie Plow out now via Kill Rock Stars on vinyl and digital. The lead single “Help Me” is like a psychedelic folk indiepop campfire glam rock song. It’s the kind of song with a rhythm and pace that would invite some group participating clapping along to the beat. It’s reminiscent of the kind of bands you’d see at DIY spaces around a decade and a half ago but with a sound more borne of recent years. Like an even more charmingly slackery The Flaming Lips. The song seems to be able taking action you think is going to improve your life but you get caught up in doing so with a bunch of people who turn out to be disreputable jerks and you realize maybe you have a bit of that in you but that in coming to the realization of your associations comes the awareness that you have much more to offer as a human than where you might be now and it’ll just take that extra step to get away to a better place. For the album Ward and Watt worked with drummer Dean Clean and tapped friends Joe Jack Talcum of Dead Milkmen fame and Bob Bucko Jr., an Iowa avant-garde music luminary who is a member of free jazz and electro duo Sex Funeral and noise rock jazz Krautrock combo New Standards Men. It’s a sprawling odyssey of poetry and storytelling set to earnest, jazz flavored psychedelic folk and delicately rendered pop rock. Listen to “Help Me” on YouTube and follow the links below to connect with the project, hear more tracks and to order the record.