Stoltz, Kelley

Stoltz, Kelley

La Fleur

Dandy Boy / Agitated

***"Between outside musical projects, pushing past 50 years old and becoming a father for the first time, San Francisco psych-pop legend Kelley Stoltz has spent the past two years steadily writing and recording his 18th album, La Fleur. La Fleur finds Stoltz once again playing nearly all of the instruments on the album- though a new friendship with pop guru Jason Falkner has led to Falkner appearing on two songs, 'Hide In A Song' and 'Make Believer' respectively. There’s the requisite 60’s meets 80’s pop rock confections that Stoltz favors with a new focus on out front vocals and perhaps a bit shinier production. Pandemic era blues, politics and fatherhood are lyrical touchstones throughout. The album’s first single 'Reni’s Car' is the jangle rock lead single based on an actual event of Kelley riding around Manchester in the Stone Roses drummer's car. The accompanying music video was shot (partially) on location. 'About Time' marries Twin Peaks synths to Fleetwood Mac and Avalon era Roxy Music in a cautionary tale to Stoltz's young daughter. 'Human Events' puts revolutionary prose to a Moody Blues strum that floats off into Ohsees territory …and do I hear a nod to Gershwin in there? During the 2010s Kelley played live as a sideman with Rodriguez and Echo & the Bunnymen, as the 2020s dawned he was invited to support Pavement on their big reunion tour. He’s also been heard playing drums live with Robyn Hitchcock as well as adding sitar to Hitchcock's last two albums....

Stoltz, Kelley

The Stylist

Agitated

The Stylist, Kelley Stoltz’s seventeenth album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 Antique Glow with a collection of ten new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since—luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might’ve appeared on the fringes of the late ’60s or mid-’80s. Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records Below The Branches, Double Exposure and Ah! (etc), Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, “I chose the title The Stylist because musically I guess that’s what I am... because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It’s all in the pop-rock vein, but there’s usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That’s always been the case with my albums.” Thankfully, after twenty-three years the beat goes on... and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, The Stylist is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalog of one of the great songwriters of the time.

Stoltz, Kelley

Antique Glow (20th Anniversary Expanded Remaster)

Third Man

***Third Man Records is proud to release the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz’s defining album “Antique Glow.” Originally self-released in miniscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, “Antique Glow” has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz’s twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes.  Original copies featured Stoltz’s clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, Third Man’s release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers.  The songs are by and large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering “Here Comes the Sun”-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener “Perpetual Night” through the fuzz-threaded leads of “Are You Electric?” Stoltz’s inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80’s British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy.  On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic “Old Pictures”) see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there’s an additional 8 songs from the “Antique Glow”-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released “Too Beck” (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought...

Stoltz, Kelley

Ah! (etc)

Agitated

“I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, ‘Ah! (etc)’ made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life—the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rosé it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something” And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz’s new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein: after twelve releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for “one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character.” A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only Hard Feelings offering in the summer, Ah! (etc) finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the ’60s and ’80s.  As with other releases, Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along: Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to “The Quiet Ones” a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds...

Stoltz, Kelley

Double Exposure

Third Man

***While many rocking bands in San Francisco and beyond claim to be 'garage' bands'—Kelley Stoltz has actually recorded his LP Double Exposure in the garage behind his house. And while the car oil stained floors are covered by oriental rugs and there are no snow shovels laying around—there is a collection of vintage synths, 17 guitars, tape echos, mellotrons, a '50s jukebox, a Teardrop Explodes poster, a tape machine used by The Residents, an amp used by Stooge James Williamson, and a myriad other noise making devices which rear their heads on this record.

Stoltz, Kelley

Que Aura

Castle Face

Extra fine songwriter and longtime bedroom-pop auteur Kelley Stoltz delivers on the promise so many of his records slyly hint at. Que Aura is the platonic ideal of a Kelley Stoltz record, which is a very exciting thing indeed. Stoltz embraces his best synth-pop tendencies, with this incredibly self-assured set of tender tunes, combining in his own hangdog fashion both a disco-lit abandon and the attendant post-party sighs of dread and remorse. Great songs come out of Stoltz at an alarming rate on any given day but this particular collection is some of his most effortlessly catchy stuff yet. Ennui under the disco lights suits him very well—there’s a hearty sip of Pulp-ian white Brit shimmy with a wink, a dash of Fleetwood Mac’s cynically professional late ’70s sheen, and even a spritz or two of Echo and The Bunnymen, which should surprise no one who’s noticed Stoltz has been playing guitar with McCulloch and Company for the past year or so. This record cements Stoltz’s place in the power-pop pantheon where he belongs, right between Dwight Twilley and Martin Newell. Let the Hall of Fame know!

Stoltz, Kelley

In Triangle Time

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Silver-tongued songsmith and true American treasure Kelley Stoltz presents a new collection of instant classics with just a hint more synthery than 2013’s Double Exposure. For those not yet in the fan club, Kelley’s like a Ray Davies / Brian Wilson / Tom Petty power pop Cerebus from another dimension where well placed tambourines, handclaps, and wry observations are a universal language. Criminally under-appreciated, Kelley’s face should be on Amoeba-bucks for his contributions to the pop canon—the black-lipstick-smeared stand-out and lead-off track “Cut Me Baby” could be his walk-on music for the acceptance speech. Each track here leaps off the table with Kelley’s carefully considered wit and expertly layered arrangements. His innate way around a sticky hook and no shortage of tasty studio flourishes will bring out the listener’s inner record nerd, guaranteed. It’s got a little glam in it and it’s out on Castle Face November 6th.

Stoltz, Kelley

Crockodials

Beautiful Happiness

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Gifted San Francisco pop songwriter KELLEY STOLTZ returns with a cover of the 1980 Crocodiles album by British favorites ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN. Leaving Echo’s flavorful pop behind in favor of a more garage rock approach, Stoltz brings a unique take on the album’s twelve classic songs.