Friday, September 14, 2018

Latest album (16th!) by the black watch sounds like “if Syd Barrett joined New Order.” "Witches!" to be followed-up by just-completed (17th!) “Magic Johnson”.

See Los Angeles-based songwriter John Andrew Fredrick get unceremoniously pushed into a pool by a child in music video for album’s “When We First Met”.

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John Andrew Fredrick of the black watch as photographed by Steve Keros.

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the black watch – In The Press

“Should’ve become a household name a long time ago.” — USA Today

“One of music’s most perfect and unheralded rock outfits.” — MAGNET

“Salutes the great DIY pop canon and trophy hallways of heroes.” — Impose

“Brimming with trademark wit and wisdom.” — PopMatters

The Creation band Alan McGee never signed. — Stereo Embers

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See John Andrew Fredrick pushed into a pool in the black watch music video “When We First Met” at Imperfect Fifth or via the link below!


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Following up two releases in 2018, the April EP “The Paper Boats” and this past summer’s triumphant new album Witches! – which John Andrew Fredrick has variously described as “a dance record without drums” like “Syd Barrett fronting New Order,” the black watch front man has now announced the completion of Magic Johnson, the 17th the black watch album, expected to be released in early 2019. The title is indeed, a tribute to Fredrick’s favorite basketball player.

“Quite a bit of Magic Johnson was written in London,” Fredrick explains, “and per usual for me it’s a reaction against the previous record in some way. Witches! is very sparse and atmospheric and dreamy in a much more quiet and haunting way, like middle-period Pink Floyd, I think. Thus, Magic Johnson is a reaction against Witches! – a return to drums and the full band and yet very raw, with not so many layers of guitars but making each overdub really count. I always try to re-write ‘The White Album’ and of course I fail every time. But Magic Johnson has some of our most beautiful and most dissonant songs yet, so we shall see.”

With yet another album already in the can, Fredrick is now returning to the promotion of Witches! and “The Paper Boats” with the release of a fun, lo-fi music video for the Witches! track “When We First Met,” in addition to a short tour planned for the fall of 2018 (full dates to be announced.)

About the music video, and the “assault by child” that Fredrick bravely suffered in its creation, he says, “I was on a beach camping holiday with my English friends, a band called Damn Vandals, and Nev, their front man, lent me his adorable son, Stan. We guerilla’d our way into a Motel 6 and shot this video with me Charlie Chaplin-ing. You should have seen Stan’s eyes when Nev told him he was to push me into the pool! Someone paying him in ice cream to nudge a fully-dressed grown-up into the deep end?! Ace! I don’t love making videos by any stretch, but Stan’s overall glee and infectious laugh made it quite fun.”

Sixteen albums in, Fredrick is candid about his career, saying, “I reckon at this stage you could call me an artist who has been driven a bit mad by incessant creation. I know I cannot stop making things. Witches! is the work of a wee bit mad person. A functioning one -- an over-functioning one! Aren’t we all?”

“The Paper Boats” EP and Witches!, the latest releases by the black watch are out now. John Andrew Fredrick is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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“First one to 16 full-length albums wins? Somebody give John Andrew Fredrick and the black watch a prize.”  – Buzzbands.la

Visit Buzzbands.la or click here to listen to “Georgette, Georgette” from Witches!, the 16th (!) album by the black watch.

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the black watch
Witches!
(Atom Records)
Out Now
  

Track Listing:

01. Dances For Sad Footsteps Slow
02. When We First Met (VIDEO)
03. The Beginning of The End
04. Legerdemain (STREAM | MP3)
05. Graymalkin Comes
06. Georgette, Georgette (STREAM | MP3)
07. From Hampstead Heath
08. The Weird Sisters
09. Ode To Spring
10. 1966 Or So

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the black watch
“The Paper Boats EP
(The Eskimo Record Label)
Out Now


Track Listing:

01. The Paper Boats
02. Oh You Little Witch! (STREAM | MP3)
03. Jingle-Jangle Loop De Loop
04. Your So Dark Sleep/Goodbye (VIDEO)

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the black watch – Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


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