Hello hello, sticking my head in here a sec to talk about the new record CRUEL ENTERTAINMENT by the great Unwed Sailor.

UNWED SAILOR is a band led by Johnathon Ford. We’ve known JF for a long time now & heard him play mad bass in a bunch of situations. He rode around Austin in our car, he’s slept on our floor. He’s a terrific human & we’re so glad to know him.

I’m not exactly sure when Unwed Sailor first crossed the path of my ears, but their HEAVY AGE lp is the oldest one that rings a clear bell. That one came out in 2019—but they have records going back to the 90s I believe—& it’s the first one that made it to constant car rotation as Z & I motorvate around & about the rural PNW.

& HEAVY AGE is perfect music for that. It suits the muted landscape in certain—some would say most?—of our seasons. & it suits the eternal straight line of I-5. https://unwedsailor.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-age

There’s a fair few releases since then & I believe most of them have made it into our household as physical objects or hi-res digital downloads (maybe not the most important thing but Unwed releases are often available in hi-res digital, 24/96 or the like, which is the area in which well-produced digital sound does The Thing for me that tapes & records used to do but which CDs manifestly do not & mp3s are good for nuthin but scrapin the scuzz out of the bottom of the sink i digress i digress).

The next one that made it to regular rotation for us is called MUTE THE CHARM. iirc JF told us around that time that he had a new process in mind & we were very stoked to see how it might unfold. (I think that was also around the time my improv trio Beyond Captain Orca! played a show with Unwed at Belltown Yacht Club… They were *great*. Catch em if you can.)

A few albums later, along came UNDERWATER OVER THERE.
https://unwedsailor.bandcamp.com/album/underwater-over-there

Beyond just regular listening, UNDERWATER OVER THERE is a bona fide classic. I’ll be listening to it & telling my friends about it in twenty-five years.

And not only that—as if it weren’t enough—UNDERWATER was a ROCK record! Which I mean technically all of Unwed Sailor’s music is “rock”, what else would you call it. But UNDERWATER has SWAGGER. & attitude, & stride. (As an Unironic Rocker Girl it is my business to pay attention to these things.) It also, to my amazement, has hints of prog—those straight lines broke up into abruptly angled hairpin zigs & zags, the better to thwart the evil spirits that stalk us in our dark hours. I like to do qi gong to it… but that’s another story I suppose.

I was pretty stoked that Johnathon had pulled off such a gem. We all try & we all think we’ve done it but we don’t all always manage. I was happy for him, honored as always to know him, & to be on the planet at the right time to hear his new music as it gains embodiment.

& then dammit he emailed us with another one. Pre-release streams do you want to hear? Hells yeah we do, send it over!!!

The amazingness which then blessed our home & our ears as it pummeled its way through our speakers (same week as new Kinski, I do believe) is now available to you under the name of CRUEL ENTERTAINMENT.
https://unwedsailor.bandcamp.com/album/cruel-entertainment

Okay and if I thought UNDERWATER was a ROCK record, I really was not prepared for what came next. CRUEL ENTERTAINMENT will peel the old wallpaper, rip out your insulation—all with love & depth of heart—un-mow your lawn until wildflowers reach sky high, and restore your teeth to their pristine adolescent glory with the sheer force of time-demolishing witch-fire.

Not only that—it’s PINK!