Another setting, another set list, Admiral Radley was playing Tuesday night at Amoeba music another free show for the release of their self-titled album. On Wednesday morning, they also were on Jason Bentley’s morning becomes eclectic on KCRW in LA, and they will open for 5 dates of Band of Horses in September in different US locations. So that’s a lot of them recently.
‘So we made one band out of two, and we made a record’ said Aaron Espinoza visibly glad to be there. They started with ‘Ghosts of Syllables’ and then ‘I heart California’ but then played different songs than at the Hammer such as ‘GNDN’, an acronym for ‘It goes nowhere and it does nothing’ and a sentence repeated many times in the chorus, for a very Grandaddiesque ballad, about Star Trek?
‘I bet it sucks to see us drinking beers when you can’t’, Aaron threw to the crowd at one point, again happy to make a connection with the public. ‘Thanks for coming after work, but you people don’t work, or you’d not be here! ‘, that’s true, free shows at Amoeba start early, around 7 pm.
Aaron and Jason had adopted a joking tone, ‘I hope you’re in vacation, but real vacation, not David Lee Roth type of vacation’ added Jason.
The show was short but they managed to play the punk rockish ‘Ending of Me’, ‘The Thread’ a waltz which seems like something ancient and delicately sung by Ariana Murray on keyboard, the nostalgic ‘Lonesome Co.’ and ‘Red curbs’ a noisy and fast song sung with spacey lyrics, which is about youth and skateboard as Jason Lytle explained it.
On the radio show, they were still talking about their performance at the Hammer museum, the bigger show they probably have ever played as they said.
Their album was recorded in Aaron Espinoza’s studio in Eagle Rock called the Ship, as well as in Montana where Jason Lytle has a studio. As they all have known each other since 1998 (‘too long’ as Aaron said), this ‘was meant to happen’. They started recording a few songs together 6 years ago just for fun, when Grandaddy was still together, and the whole thing was an excuse to make music together.
And everybody at Amoeba was thinking it was a pretty good excuse.