Big Stir Records is proud to announce the return of one of our Founding Five Artists: Fresno, California's BLAKE JONES & THE TRIKE SHOP, with the brand new single “Record Cover Girl”. An early teaser for the band's first new album in six years (due this Summer), it's out May 17 on all digital platforms and up for pre-order and pre-save now.
Big Stir Records is proud to announce the return of one of our Founding Five Artists: Fresno, California's BLAKE JONES & THE TRIKE SHOP, with the brand new single “Record Cover Girl”. An early teaser for the band's first new album in six years (due this Summer), it's out May 17 on all digital platforms and up for pre-order and pre-save now.
For more than three decades, BLAKE JONES & THE TRIKE SHOP have been recognized in California and beyond – particularly in the UK, where they frequently tour – as a unique, vital force on the guitar pop landscape. Purveying a sound that's equally tuneful and quirky, The Trike Shop, anchored by vocalist-guitarist-songwriter-thereminist Jones, style themselves as “art-infected pop,” a description borne out by comparisons like “The Turtles meet Frank Zappa” or “Dylan by way of The Minutemen” (with XTC and They Might Be Giants often in the mix as well). Fueled by a mutual love of the pop and experimental sides of the '60s musical revolution and a lyrical sensibility that tackles the “big questions” while celebrating the joys of belonging to an artistic community, Jones and his crew were an instant fixture on the roster of the like-minded Big Stir Records at its inception. The band's acclaimed 2018 album MAKE was the fledgling imprint's first-ever vinyl release, and a template for the kind of melodically accessible, deeply thoughtful and creatively challenging fare that BSR has gone on to champion.
And now they're back, in a new iteration of the ever-changing lineup built from the shockingly deep wealth of inventive Central Valley musicians who call Blake a friend. “Record Cover Girl” is the opening track and the first single, and it's an utterly charming example of what to expect. Across the new record, Jones applies his talent for sharp hooks and lyrical wit to a set of short, bracing pop excursions with a palpable sense of time and place – frequently the aisles of a used record store, or Fresno itself. On “Record Cover Girl”, it's both: a record store in Fresno. Breezing in on Beach Boys harmonies with Blake's melody and vocal delivery alike echoing the golden-era Kinks, the song is capped by a delightful coda where cascading piano runs trade off with soaring vocal lines for “ultimate success”, as the lyrics have it.
The song is a cautionary tale of longing with an unlikely setting. “It started with an album jacket pinned up in our friend Bob’s record store,” explains Jones, referring to Fresno's venerable Tower District Records. “Also integral to the story was the almost-haiku on the sticky note above their toilet.” That inspiration speaks to the uncanny ability of BLAKE JONES & THE TRIKE SHOP to create profoundly engaging art out of just about anything. The song's easygoing lilt is just one side of the band, with other album tracks tackling the befuddling state of 21st Century culture and politics, and still others steeped in the nostalgia of a genuine romantic recalling better times. Always, it's delivered with heart, humor, and that rarest and most essential commodity: hope born of the belief that music matters. On the single and the forthcoming album, BLAKE JONES & THE TRIKE SHOP bring that hope home as only they can. It all starts here, with so much more to come... stay tuned to your Whispermaphone for all the latest.
Expected release: May 17, 2024