B. Hamilton and the inspired mayhem of "Hey Sunshine" (The “Everyone’s a Peasant When it’s 3am and You’re Buying a Phone Charger and a Funnel from the 7-11 Off of Harrison” Shuffle)

 

[The doctors lined the doorway / And whispered gossip low / As a shout came from the room “Our boy is back”]

The very funky, savage guitar playing, acerbic, maybe acidic nature of "Hey Sunshine" (The “Everyone’s a Peasant When it’s 3am and You’re Buying a Phone Charger and a Funnel from the 7-11 Off of Harrison” Shuffle) by the amazingly curious and talented Oakland based B.Hamilton, the creation of one Ryan Christopher Parks and is (for the most part) Ryan (playing stuff) and Raj (playing drums), is from the pair's latest EP entitled "The Freest Speech Ever Attempted Without Disintegrating" (2024). As the artist tells it, the EP creation was prompted / inspired by Elon Musk (kind of). 

[My buddy sent me a message at 9:15am on November 26th, 2023. He told me to “write the great Musk album of our time.” Ok.]

But more on that later.

"Hey Sunshine" as a pure listen before even knowing it's relationship, inspiration etc is a sizzling piece of work. From the kind of Thin Lizzy-esque lead guitar work and incredibly radical slap happy drumming, that might just feel more swing / jazz than rock in a super great way like a collision of Buddy Rich and Keith Moon, there is a kind of surreal blend happening here. A collision of art rock and kind of musical dance hall bebop thing going on as if the aforementioned Thin Lizzy hooked up with Harry Nilsson and Warren Zevon. It is a sound that is unabashedly freewheeling. A style that maybe seemed to happen only in the late 70's when defined genres were, well, not so defined at all. "Hey Sunshine" is, from an arrangement / hybrid standpoint, crazily out there and B. Hamilton seems to do whatever they please without any pretense. It's good to follow your own passions without giving a fuck what people ultimately think. Maybe this applies to Musk too whether you like him or not. 

From coast to coast
And sea to shining sea
There’s a brand new golden age on the horizon
Just don’t blame the jukebox
If you don’t like the song
Hey sunshine

What’s wrong again this time?

NOW onto those all important LINER NOTES about how a project about Musk came to be. The explanation from Ryan Christopher Park (bracketed):

[I read that weird Walter Issacson book about him and listened to all the interviews for a week or two. The points of him that people have strong opinions about were almost immediately boring. Underneath was how hard it is for him to relate to and communicate with other people. You can have all the money in the world, but you can’t buy that, and it might be more unattainable with the more wealth and notoriety you obtain. That’s probably more human and universal than trying to go to Mars.

His presence has always felt super visceral to the Bay Area. Even if he’s on the other side of the world warning the IMF about artificial intelligence and dog currency, the Tesla plant off the 880 in Fremont is a purposely monolithic reminder of his grand intentions. Its always been funny to me that the same governing body (Alameda County) that gives me reminders about parking tickets I didn’t pay, and taxes cans of Mountain Dew at the liquor store 100 feet from me, was preventing him from building a rocket to go to Mars during the pandemic.

So whatever. I tried to write a bunch of stuff about him, but ended up writing about the same loneliness and lack of connection that everyone has experienced at some point in their lives. It’s the same loneliness that humanity might be leaning into as we go toward whatever the future is. I will release the songs that didn’t get used for this record on some Bandcamp Friday. They are mostly rewrites of “Little Deuce Coup” but with lyrics about electric cars and Eugenics.

The cover art was drawn by Michael Rudolph. It’s a still from a video I saw of a lady hitting 10-G’s in an airplane. The topic of “freedom of speech” kept coming up in everything I read and listened to. The idea itself is intangible, but people talk about it like it has a clear structure and regulations. Like a mathematical theorem. Or a public pool.

It reminded me of someone experiencing the punishing levels of gravity in a centrifuge. I kept thinking of some guy thumbing away on a cell phone behind protective glass, as a bookish engineer screams “Sir! He’s about to call The Pope a b*tch on Twitter!” Cut to some high ranking military official that looks like Sterling Hayden in “Dr. Strangelove” losing grip of the cigar in his mouth and muttering “oh my god…”

That is the first time I’ve seen all of that written out, and I regret everything. I regret this entire record.

Thanks for listening.

Raj played drums.
Ryan played stuff.
Joel Robinow played piano on the second song.
Patrick Brown mastered it.
Michael Rudolph drew the cover art.]

I have not heard the entire collection of songs here but I bet they're a doozy. 

-Robb Donker Curtius 

B. Hamilton · Hey Sunshine (The “Everyone’s a Peasant When it’s 3am and You're Buying a Phone Charger...” Shuffle)

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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://www.facebook.com/bhamiltonwastaken

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3woJ14T9D8p8gwQhpcq38F

https://bhamilton.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bhamiltonwastaken

https://www.tiktok.com/@bhamiltonwastaken


Ryan Christopher Parks began B. Hamilton in Oakland, California a while ago.

"Everything I Own is Broken" is an album that was recorded behind an anarchist book warehouse and released in 2011.

"Fight Everything" is an album that was recorded behind an Ace Hardware and released in 2015.

Raj Ojha (Once and Future Band, Howlin' Rain) started playing drums and recording everything in 2016.

"Nothing and Nowhere" was recorded a block away from a "Bed Bath and Beyond" and released in 2019.

Cue the thing.

"Good Foot" is a single that was recorded by a PG&E substation and released in 2022.

"I would give songs numbers instead of names if I could. I can? Ok. Here I go, but not really." was also recorded there and released in March of 2023.

"Other Lives of Magic and Wonder and Whatever" was also recorded there and released in July of 2023.


Where's the lie. Thanks.

B. Hamilton, folk, indie rock, folk / jazz / rock fusion, new EP "The Freest Speech Ever Attempted Without Disintegrating", "Hey Sunshine", alt rock jazz musical dancehall hybrid,