Olivia Jean
“Night Owl” LP
scum stats: I’m pretty sure we pressed 500 copies on the color variant, but after 600+ releases, my memory is really getting foggy
WOOOOOHOOOOO happy release day!
We’ve been working a while for this one and am super-stoked to drop this album on to the world.
If I can be a little bit of a self-promoter, I’m proud to say I play drums on the title track of this LP.
OJ had a session scheduled and her regular drummer was unavailable, so I dropped in at the last minute.
We spent most of the day on a complex, complicated song that had lots of starts and stops and different parts and just quite different from structures I am used to playing.
(that song did not make the album, whatever it was called)
Then just before calling it a day, Olivia said that she had a little germ of an idea and that she wanted to just get it down to tape.
When she played that tasty little lead riff my eyes LIT up. I KNOW how to play drums to that shit! In my brain, I just locked in to Dave Grohl circa ’93 style and it was damn fun to jam along.
I really, really had no part in deciding that it was the lead single…but I certainly didn’t disagree with it either.
But honestly, the entire album is chock full of bangers. Covers of the Flaming Groovies and the beautifully odd and catchy Bollywood classic “Jaan Pehechan Ho” are stellar, while the originals are brimming with energy and enthusiasm and twangy surf style.
And man…the colored vinyl on this sumbitch is one of the most exquisite pieces of vinyl that Third Man Pressing has ever made.
To help celebrate, I’m giving away a test pressing of the “Night Owl” LP here. In the comments here, share a story about staying up late. No sleep. So tired you’re hallucinating. It can be true, it can be made up, just make it good. Winner is chosen at my discretion. Go!
The Great Orange One with the biggest, best brain in all the world.
…don’t want to, no can’t miss a tweet from our Leader, The Chosen One…
…week, months, maybe a couple years…
You kidding me! I haven’t slept for days…
My wife and I were just recently married and big fans of the Black Belles. On Super Bowl Sunday, we eschewed a party to watch the pig skin classic (we had no dog in that fight) to see the Blacke Belles perform at a little venue in Muncie, Indiana, that barely qualified as a bar. The place was a across the street from a jail, the doorman didn’t even want to charge us a cover until I insisted, and the Black Belles tore the place apart to a crowd of about 20. Last year I took my brother-in-law to see Olivia at an amazing show in Covington, Kentucky, and I was able to talk with Ms. Jean about the Muncie show. “I’m amazed you even got your hearing back after that,” she quipped. Staying up late with OJ has never disappointed.
hurricane Dorian is coming to my area, I got lucky and ordered a copy of the splatter from novelties today. now I will be staying up until I get the album, even if this hurricane delays the delivery for a week. I won’t sleep till I listen to it, or until I put on my sleep vault lol
Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island — no sound, just picture — five-minute opening title sequence, asteroids, galaxies, and baby dinosaurs so cute you wish you could squeeze ‘em. All in timeless ’90s graphics. My sister and I watched the whole movie twice as it played in a hotel lobby after The Raconteurs second Oakland show because we were too cheap to pay for another night’s stay. Hallucinogens were not consumed, but Oakland, California, was suddenly transformed into the Great Valley that night.
literally worked on 23 hour day for a hip hop artist on a behind the scenes music video. I thought it was a big opportunity and I did it for free. only to find out that the artist he was touring with wouldn’t let them release the video I cut!
Congrats Mr. Blackwell! Yet another exciting project to ‘get your drum on’. The color scheme for Olivia is spot on, once again, and the title track rocks!
The story that quickly came to mind happened a few years back when I stayed up all night with my fiancé’s mother and little sister. The three of us played Mexican Train dominoes and Yahtzee! until 7am. Conversation was never dull and there was an zone we were in that carried us through the night. No one acknowledged the situation and until now I doubt anyone has spoke of it. Perhaps it was simply for the fun of it, but I like to think it was their way of saying ‘we like you, we trust you, and welcome to the family’.
My daughter turned 13 a couple of weeks ago. She wanted to have a beach party with fire pit and the works. It had to be a barbecue party (even though I tried explaining how tired I would be and pizza would be easier) so I was on the hook for that too. She wanted to provide transportation for 12 kids so I rented one of those 14 passenger Ford vans and asked them to take out the two back seats so I could haul all the supplies. We went to the beach a few weekends in advance of the party and asked the folks who had one of the five fire pits available on Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, CA (one of the most popular beaches in San Diego County) what time they had to get there to get one of the pits. We determined that if we got there at 4:30 am we should get a pit. My wife and I decided the only way we could make it work is if I drove the van to the beach at 4 am with my 17 year old daughter and her friend to help me hold the spot, unload our stuff, and start setting things up. I picked up the van the night before and had to load it up with two gazebos, two tables, barbecue supplies, beach chairs, and lots of other stuff. We got to the beach at 4:30 am and got the last fire pit! We decided it would be best if I came back for the food in the van later; my wife was going to drive her sister to hold the spot and I was going to drive back home so I could load the van with food and more supplies and eventually drive the kids to the party. The plan was she was going to get her sister there by 10 am so I could go back and sleep a few hours, get up, load the van, and take the kids at 12:30 pm. Of course the sister in-law didn’t get there until 11 am, and we live about 25 minutes from the beach, so I got less than 30 minutes to lay in bed and try and hit the reset button. The party was great. Everyone had a good time, the barbecue was good. I had to start breaking down the gazebos and stuff starting around 8 pm, or even earlier I think (at that point I was starting to lose track of things but realized if we were going to have all the kids back for pick up time at 9:30 pm I would have to start loading the van at the same time I was starting the fire in the pit, handing out graham crackers, Hershey bars and giant marshmallows. A couple of friends realized I was moving like the walking dead so eventually I got some help. Driving the kids home was interesting, got in the right lane and went below the speed limit for once in my life. Just kept thinking to myself “this is it, make it home alive and mission accomplished”. My daughter and her friends all had a great time; mission was accomplished!