Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey “Showboat Honey” 2019. Blue Splatter (“Loser Edition”) vinyl, Sub Pop Records. Alt-rock with a psychedelic, glitter indie edge. The tracks range from groovy psych rockers (feeling a bit Ty Seagal) to soaring jangly dream pop (so many bands these days fall into that category but what jumps to my mind is a band most won’t know of, Me Like Bees). Anyway, I’m partial to the psych-rockers; my top picks are the opener “Broken Mirror Pose” and the second track “O! Lucky Hand.” Midtempo ass-shakers with swagger. “Deathwish Blue” is John Lennonesque and anthemic and “Buzzkill Caterwaul” feels like Sgt. Pepper was hanging out with T. Rex (it’s great!). The dreamier songs, like “Blackhole-Joyride” and “Bed of Needles” would be perfect for an outdoor summer solstice show, with lawn chairs and fireflies. “Sunday Driver” mashes up both vibes. The disconnect between the styles on this record are explained on their Bandcamp page:

After years of touring, two LPs with Sub Pop Records, and solidifying the band, he’s since grown into a prodigious songwriter, to say the least. The band recorded Showboat Honey—co-produced by Craft, Clark, and Slater—at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. “We approached this record differently for sure,” Craft says. “I’d make a demo, and after putting the songs together, shoot it to the band for ideas.” Tracks such as “Broken Mirror Pose” ended up being highly collaborative, while others settled into Craft’s original vision. “Deathwish Blue,” for instance, was tracked in a similar fashion to his solo debut, Dolls of Highland, with Craft tracking every instrument by himself.

Kyle and the members of Showboat Honey worked at such a feverish wine-fueled pace that they actually ended up with two completely different albums. But at the end of the day, they decided to combine the two into what is now Showboat Honey, a moonstruck rock ’n’ roll record teeming with reckless abandon.