The Big Stir Singles Series returns to Arizona for another single from CAROL PACEY & THE HONEY SHAKERS. The delightfully- and relatably-titled “If Romance Is Dead Than I Wanna Be Dead Too” is the raucous A-side, the second single to be drawn from 2019's acclaimed BLISS album, and it's joined here by a brand-new and stripped down exclusive B-side, “Love Does”, recorded especially for this release by Pacey and Honey Shakers guitarist ANDY BORUNDA. Both sides are out Friday, May 29, and available for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now.

“Romance” is the opening track to Bliss, the Honey Shakers' third album on which they refined and perfected what Phoenix-area music journalist Mitchell Hillman has dubbed their very own genre: “Americana Thrash Pop”. Hillman goes on to say of the tune: “It verges on a Rockabilly punk freak out that will almost certainly have cross genre appeal to the Gothabilly crowd. It's an unusual start to an album called Bliss, but damn does it get the blood pumping, feet stomping and hips shaking. It's a stunning, explosive beginning and really serves to set this album apart from its predecessors. Hot damn.”

The A-side energy of the full Honey Shakers live band – Pacey, Borunda, Dante Fiorenza on bass, and Ben DeLuca on drums – gives way to something different and emblematic of the current state of the world on the B-side. Hillman again explains: “Live from quarantine, the core duo of Carol Pacey & the Honey Shakers have recorded a swooning new song full of hope, full of heart, and full of romance. It's one of the easiest-going, soul-pleasing tunes they've ever put down. It's a front porch, sunset, and whiskey kind of love song, that makes your heart soar with both the music and the lyrics. By the end of it you feel like you may be the one so deeply in love. It's got an organic warmth to it and it is indeed what 'Love Does' in musical form. You can hear the magic these two continue to make musically, even when the world is in such a strange state. It's perfect music for where we are right now, love doesn't make things complicated, it makes things quite simple really--elegantly and beautifully simple.”

We at Big Stir Records are delighted to present this pairing, a reminder of what we're missing at the sweaty club gigs and a distillation of what's still possible right now, as the flip sides to each other that they should be.

Expected release: May 29, 2020

Surprise Saturday Single time at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles again! Here at Big Stir Records, we're thrilled to have just slyly announced the big news that NICK FRATER has joined our roster with a big big record scheduled for this Autumn. In the meantime, Nick is up to much smaller things, albeit a lot of them – just shy of 60, in fact! – in the form of 59 VIGNETTES, a daily Instagram series of just that many one-minute-or-under fully produced song sketches. If you haven't noticed, BSR is favoring the craziest of musical responses to the craziness of the pandemic crisis, so Nick's bonkers undertaking is right up our alley and we could not resist sharing the first two installments, “Intro” c/w “Say What You Like”, in our own ongoing Singles Series.

Each Vignette is a miniature world of its own. Our A and B sides are perhaps most reminiscent of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. But the series is like Forest Gump's box of chocolates and eminently worth a daily listen, and look, as each track is delivered in the form of a short (and square!) film at the project's dedicated Instagram page www.instagram.com/59vignettes/ and cross-posted on Nick's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NickFraterMusic/ as well. It happily reminds us a bit of the halcyon days of They Might Be Giants and their Dial-A-Song project, re-imagined for the modern digital age and brightening each day of of lockdown for the musically adventurous, but it's also got Nick's personal stamp of hooks, inventiveness, and sheer energy all over it. Essential listening for the times we believe. Catch up now and stand by daily for more... as of now there are fifty more vignettes to enjoy before the project is wrapped up.

Frater himself should need no introduction: his 2019 album FULL FATHROM FREIGHT TRAIN rolled over much of the years compilation to place on and indeed top many a Year's Best Albums list, frequently rubbing shoulders with BSR's own releases. That alone makes Nick a natural addition to our roster. His full-length followup FAST & LOOSE is already in the can and ready to be unleashed into whatever world awaits us this Autumn. We've heard it, and can say that you're going to need the intervening months to prepare... it's that good!

Big Stir Records is thrilled to present a the first single from the forthcoming solo album Better Days from LA guitar-pop legend RICK HROMADKA, and its unexpected arrival brings everything you might hope for while benefiting a worthy cause. The brand new “Searchlight” is out Friday, May 22, and up for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now. It's paired with B-side "Dreams Of A Hippy Summer" from Rick’s 2014 solo album Trippin’ Dinosaurs, and as with many of BSR's recent releases, all sales will go directly to Sweet Relief's vital Musician Assistance Fund.

Produced by Hromadka, the new track features BSR's own Michael Simmons (sparkle*jets UK, Popdudes) on bass, Joel Valder (Marazane) on drums, and Scott Robbins (owner of G-Brat Guitars) on guitars. It's the public's first taste of the songs on Better Days, due on the SodaStar Music label later this year, and it's got all the hallmarks of classic Hromadka: huge hooks and harmonies, guitars that crunch and soar, and a sparkling psychedelic bridge. The sunniness comes with underpinnings of desperation that fit the times perfectly, leaving us eager to hear the full album on the other side of the lockdown era. And it's perfectly complemented by the delightfully trippy “Hippy Summer”, an idyll that takes us well outside of current concerns on a breeze of pitch-perfect sunshine pop.

Known for fronting the brash power pop outfit DOUBLE NAUGHT SPIES and the heavy-but-sweetly- psychedelic powerhouse MAPLE MARS, Rick has also ventured into mellower melodic waters with RUBY FREE and his solo work. “Searchlight” synthesizes all of that into one invigorating package. With the new solo record on the horizon and a new Maple Mars lineup still going strong and working on new material, all that's left to cement this renaissance for Hromadka is a return to the live stage – having been honored to host Rick's bands at a number of our Big Stir Live events, we can attest to the fact that he's a consummate frontman with unequaled energy. Here's to better day, and Better Days, when Rick can bring the tunes directly to the audience that needs them.

Big Stir Records welcomes you to say hello and goodbye all at once to THE BROKEN ARROWS on today's surprise single release “The Worst of the Rest” b/w “When I Was A Boy”, out at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles now! It's a double-sided Byrdsian broadside of political protest, with the A-side all a-jangle and the twangy B-side echoing the later country rock sounds. Both are fitting swan songs for the Kansas City Band, fondly remembered for “Behind The Eight Ball”, their early entry into the Big Stir Digital Singles Series.

THE BROKEN ARROWS' founder BARRY LEE continues with other musical endeavors, including the rootsy rock of THE MYSTIC JUBILEES and his longstanding stewardship of his excellent KKFI radio program Signal To Noise. The Arrows themselves – Lee, John Chevalier, Dave Storms, Bill Ryan, and Mike Penner – folded shortly after waxing these sides. They're a hell of a parting shot, with “Worst” updating the Seeger/Dylan-via-McGuinn & Company protest template with eerie electric precision. The Byrds debt is reinforced on the B-side, with a Sweetheart Of The Rodeo-era country vibe and even a lyrical nod to latter-day hit by the band.

But these are unquestionably songs for the modern world, forlornly posing the question “How did our country change enough to get this low?” Both tunes were written and tracked before the pandemic crisis, but both dig at the crisis of leadership and culture that define it. It's a perfect enough modern repurposing of the Sixties' musical social commentary approach that it's hard to imagine why there aren't more artists doing it. THE BROKEN ARROWS own it here, and it's a reminder of what music can and should do during troubled times. The band may be gone, but the songs, now out for the first time, still speak volumes.