Sonny and the Sunsets - 2010-10-26 - Great American Music Hall SF

credit: Julie W.

Opening for the exploding Best Coast's first San Francisco headlining show (I had caught them earlier in the year opening for Vivian Girls...stay tuned for that show) was Sonny and the Sunsets, fronted by Sonny Smith, who has more melody and garage pop hits in his little finger than most cities have in their population.  This is the guy responsible for the '100 Records' project...create 100 imaginary artists, each with their own single and artwork.

Kelley Stoltz and the cat-kit

The drummer for the Sunsets is none other than Kelley Stoltz, who's no slouch as an recording artist himself...he's probably best known for covering Echo and the Bunnymen's Crocodiles album start-to-finish, helped out by the guitarist from Pavement in live settings.  There's definitely something going on here with bands that capture a California sunny-dark psych-surf garage-punk-pop sound...another group that will be extensively featured here in an upcoming post, Thee Oh Sees, is also a purveyor of this sound, as are some of the other groups that have graced these posts over the past month.

In any event, it was the second time that I had caught the Sunsets, and they didn't disappoint.  Two new songs (Reflections On Youth, I Wanna Do) are featured in this set, which was chock-full of unreleased gems like 'Teenage Thugs'...hie on over to the Daytrotter Sessions site to check out some of the tracks that haven't yet made it onto their new album Tommorrow Is Alright.   The tunes are sticking to my head like glue, helped out by having tomzero also capturing some of the magic inside the Great American.

Recording details after the jump...


Sonny and the Sunsets
2010-10-26
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco CA

This is a blend of tomzero's and 

Sonny Smith and his geetar

thehappyone's recordings.

setlist:

Love Among Social Animals / Don't Act Dumb / Too Young To Burn / Home In Exile / Heart Of Sadness / Teenage Thugs / Death Cream / Reflections On Youth / I Wanna Do It Again / Stranded / Time To Split  


Total 41:00

Photos taken during their set...

As a bonus, I'll also be sharing my recording from them opening for Kelley Stoltz / Thee Oh Sees / Eddy Current Suppression Ring from July 1st at The Eagle (RIP).

credit: ezilu

Sonny and the Sunsets
2010-07-01 Eagle Tavern
San Francisco CA

taper:  thehappyone
equip:  Sonic Studios DSM-6L's > Edirol R-09HR

setlist:

Stranded / I Wanna Do It Again / Love Among Social Animals / Home In Exile / Heart Of Sadness / Death Cream / Teenage Thugs / Too Young To Burn / Don't Act Dumb / Lovin' On An Older Gal / Time To Split

Between 'Death Cream' and 'Teenage Thugs' is an interstitial I've titled 'attendant no 3'.  Time To Split is split into two parts, with another track I've called 'Well, Mr. Eagle' which is Sonny thanking the Eagles staff...I didn't originally clue in that the continuation was the same song.