“...an indie-pop masterwork...” – SPIN“...echoes in your head as well as out of your speakers.” – Giant Robot
“...Hernandez’s best album.” – All Music Guide
“...a pop masterpiece...” – Reel Around The Fountain
From Bubblegum To Sky is Mario Hernandez, and he’s back with his third album, A Soft Kill, out now on Eenie Meenie Records. As expected, the album is becoming one of the best reviewed records of 2008 on the back of its rifftastic, crunchy pop sounds and unforgettable hooks and melodies. Stream the album in its entirety HERE. It’s the rare record that gets more satisfying upon each listen. And what’s more, you can wear it, too!
Eenie Meenie and Hernandez are long time fans and friends of the Brown Sound Clothing Company, a fashion label which aspires to design clothing that “suits the days of war, nights of love lifestyle.” Brown Sound is a collaboration with musicians, situationists, artists and moped gangs working to make the label a force in culture. Artists that have proudly worn the Brown Sound brand include Beck, My Morning Jacket, Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie, She & Him, Matt & Kim, Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Tokyo Police Club, Conor Oberst, Peter Bjorn & John and many more.
Eenie Meenie opted for a more creative option in the release strategy for From Bubblegum To Sky’s A Soft Kill and in collaboration with Brown Sound has marketed the album as a limited edition box set containing a high-quality vinyl LP of A Soft Kill, a drop card by which to download the record, a From Bubblegum To Sky badge and a limited edition silky-soft From Bubblegum To Sky t-shirt with images derived from the Brown Sound-designed album art. The boxes are true collector’s pieces -- hand numbered and only available at select lifestyle stores throughout the nation. Taking the limited nature of the project a step further, early orders also received a blank CD-R adorned with a one-of-a-kind hand drawn design on each by Hernandez. The album is also available as a digital download-only from the usual online retailers.
See below for more info about From Bubblegum To Sky and if you’d like to keep up with Mario Hernandez on a daily basis, visit his blog HERE where, among other things, you’ll find out that his favorite song is “Public Image” by Public Image Limited (VIEW). Stay tuned for more praise for A Soft Kill, the “Even The Sunbeams” video and by popular demand: west coast tour dates! For those of you who can’t wait, check out From Bubblegum To Sky performing “The Flash” live during the NYC Popfest HERE. Interestingly, Hernandez performed the next night’s show on the drums (‘cause he’s a genius.)
A Soft Kill Tracklisting:
Stream The Album HERE
Release Date: 06.03.08
01. The King Of Failed
02. The Flash
03. I Always Fall Apart (MP3)
04. Guest Relations (MP3)
05. Say Goodbye
06. My Je M’apelle
07. A Soft Kill
08. Even The Sunbeams (MP3)
09. Flies On A Jet Plane
10. Captain Tennille
11. Downtown Or Up?
In The Press:
“From Bubblegum To Sky sound as if they’ve enlisted My Bloody Valentine, the London Philharmonic, The Beach Boys, and Ride to help make massively brilliant jangly noisy pop.” – First Coast News
“…what pop sounds like in my little fantasy world.” – There Stands The Glass
“…short, charming, 60’s–licked, “Beatles–esque” seducer, wispy and jangling.” – A Limerick Ox
“...A Soft Kill is chock full of the ABC’s of ice cream indie...” – Advance Copy
More about From Bubblegum To Sky:
PiL, meds, disco, half Mexican, half Japanese, The SOS Band, monster guitar riffs, drinking, more drinking, The dB’s, divorce, death, arrests, cannibalism, no compromises, The Bee Gees, shimmering melodies and stalking. From Bubblegum To Sky ain’t no sunny pop affair – it just sounds like it.
By winter, A Soft Kill, the third full-length album by From Bubblegum To Sky is certain to be considered one of the greatest one-man albums of the year. Only the maturity that comes with brushing against and immersing oneself in the influences mentioned above could bring out an album that is at once ultimately catchy, realistically morose, and expertly played. In a word: fucking relatable.
The one man is Mario Hernandez and he’s been wrestling with a few demons. Hernandez’s previous records Me and Amy and the Two French Boys (Eenie Meenie, 2000) and Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen (Eenie Meenie, 2004) certainly hinted at genius – what with the confessional lyrics sung in a helium tinged voice that lights the drapes on fire meeting the hook laden crunch fest that cools ‘em down. With A Soft Kill, Hernandez has crafted a masterpiece. He demurs, stating, “This record is much more inspired – less obvious indie pop, more organic and drunk. It’s an outlet and easily my favorite record.” Ours, too.
A Soft Kill brings to mind the concept of the vices people use to kill themselves slowly. Not a murder, but a soft kill. Feelings we’ve all felt are wrapped in pristine pop melodies, sandpaper-y guitars and a vocal style dictated by the radio programs of second generation pop songs and high voiced singers that Hernandez listened to before departing Japan for America at the age of 12.
As a self-contained pop machine (occasionally joined by bassist Frank Jordan and keyboardist Bill Evans) Hernandez does the control freak edict of Billy Corgan and Dave Grohl proud on A Soft Kill. No one should be playing drums on a From Bubblegum To Sky record but Hernandez -- this kind of urgency demands the percussive touch of the author, after all! And is he ever keeping time – 11 songs, 30 minutes. It doesn’t get any better.
“I feel like it’s a band, even though it’s just me,” he says. “The things that people are doing to me, or I’m doing to them, or whatever experiences I’m having -- that’s the band. I couldn’t write without those experiences and in a way that’s what a band member does.”
These are the words of the ONE man becoming THE man. When Mario Hernandez is letting it all hang out, you wanna hang out, too. A Soft Kill was recorded at CBS Studios in Oakland, CA on a Tascam one-inch reel-to-reel.
Tools & Hi–Res Photos:
www.fanaticpromotion.com/rosterdetails.php?indexkey=1341
On The Web:
www.youtube.com/user/fbtshellohi
www.myspace.com/frombubblegumtosky
http://www.eeniemeenie.com/
www.myspace.com/eeniemeenierecords
http://www.brownsoundclothing.com/
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