Brother O’Brother “Stay Golden (Demo)” and “Ooh My Love (Acoustic)” 2020. Romanus Records, Lathe Love series #1: very limited edition (25 copies), crazy side-by-side clear vinyl. “Stay Golden” is a demo from Brother O’Brother’s Neon Native (2017 – I think I have at least 3 or 4 variants of this album) recording session: it’s hard-rocking with a touch of 70′s glam. “Ooh My Love” is a really lovely and dark acoustic that is both totally BoB and yet completely different from their signature sound; it was originally slated to be on the Monster Truck EP but didn’t fit the overall sound of the release (per Chris Banta, and I concur with that assessment). Neither song is available anywhere in the world except for on this lathe cut so I cannot link the tracks for you – sorry!

We caught Brother O’Brother live last night…from our kitchen while eating dinner and washing dishes. They live-streamed their set via Black Circle Brewing in Indianapolis, hosted by Loud Mouth Stream as a fundraiser for the ACLU. The audio and visual quality was top-notch and despite not being there with them physically, Chris Banta (guitar, vocals) and Warner Swopes (drums) put on a high-energy, face-melting set with some of my favorites: songs like “16 Flowers,” “Monster Truck,” “The Itch,” “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” and “Means to be a Woman.” I head-banged, shimmied and “too-sweet’d” along to the show while getting some chores done. It’s a weird weird world. Here’s some screen shots I took from Facebook Live: (can you guess the answer to the trivia question in the first shot? There were a bunch of them leading up to the live performance, just like they do at the movie theater.) (Also Warner is not really green in real life haha!)