Vocalist ALLYSON SECONDS is a longtime fixture on the Sacramento, California music scene who is best known for her collaborations with fellow indie pop notable ANTON BARBEAU. Seconds (who is married to Kevin Seconds of the long-running punk band 7 Seconds) first started singing when she was a girl, discovering she enjoyed harmonizing with her siblings. Seconds studied sculpture at the University of California in Davis, and soon branched out into photography, capturing many of California's most noted musicians on film as both a hobby and a profession.
After settling in Sacramento, Seconds not only snapped photos of her favorite musicians, she began collaborating with them, singing backups with the likes of Jonah Matranga of Far, Kepi Ghoulie of the Groovie Ghoulies, and Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels. Seconds was good friends and an occasional collaborator with smart pop cult favorite Anton Barbeau for years before the two first teamed up to create Seconds' solo debut. It's through sometimes-Big Stir Records-artist Barbeau that the label came to be involved with a brand new reissue of that too-little-heard 2009 record, BAG OF KITTENS, on CD and download and embellished with four brand new bonus tracks from the collaborators. KITTENS features a clutch of irresistibly melodic tracks written for Allyson by Anton and includes guest appearances from Kimberley Rew of The Soft Boys, Gabe Nelson and Vince Di Fiore from Cake, and members of the U.K. pop group Stornoway.
Seconds teamed up with Barbeau again to record and release her second album, 2016's Little World, which featured contributions from Colin Moulding of XTC and, in one of his final recordings, Scott Miller, the late founder of Game Theory and The Loud Family. Little World garnered attention on the airwaves of NPR and beyond and remains Seconds' calling card on the global indie pop scene. But the re-release of Bag Of Kittens proves that the Seconds/Barbeau partnership was potent from the start and we're delighted to present it to a wider audience while this little world waits to hear what Allyson gets up to next.