Anthony Mudrick - Ten Dollar Recording Co.

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Anthony Mudrick
"Summer Lovin" Single
July 4, 2014
Download: i-Tunes or Amazon

Following on the heels of 2013’s "Sunshine Radiation", "Silvertron" is Anthony Mudrick’s second single for Portland’s Ten Dollar Recording Company, a little slice of Cascadian sunshine peeking its way through the long, grey raincloud that’s currently in the process of slacking off as we head full-on into Spring 2014. A little ditty of a ditty, "Silvertron" jingles, jangles, and ambles its way down the back-alleys of Mudrick’s hometown, lauding the forested hills, open fields, and postcard-worthy lanes of Silverton, Oregon in an ode to home base that might well make the city council proud. Taking a cue from "Sunshine Radiation", this one toes the line both musically and stylistically, coming off with both tranquil humor and organic bent.

Fairly straightforward compositionally, "Silvertron" is a standard folk tune set to strummed acoustic guitar, hazily setting the musical course under Mudrick’s vocal lines. Though the song itself is deceptively simple, adding layers and texture is what this type of stuff is all about, and "Silvertron" really comes alive once the whole team is afloat; by track’s end the melody line and Mudrick’s listlessly tongue-in-cheek lyricisms will no doubt be thumbtacked to your earholes. As the track cartwheels through lines about GPS satellite technology, biker gang leaders of some repute, TNT, and just walking around, the song’s musical mainline strolls through groves of cotton candy floss and freaky-folky head cobwebs, sort of like a Sunday afternoon drive all hepped up on black coffee and industrial-grade edibles. Christmas lights in July and beach towels in January; "Silvertron" is deliberately a bit kooky but in that good way, and it’s hummable enough to warrant some repeat listens.

As with "Sunshine Radiation", Mudrick is again digging deep into the day-trip remnants of those omnipresent countercultural tracers, the crevices where the high tide of the 1960’s left its mark, following Hunter Thompson’s typewritten spiel cranked out between ether black-outs in the 70’s. With "Silvertron", Mudrick leisurely conjures the lava lamp undulations and eerie psych-folk sounds of 1960’s London or San Fran, trotting out the ghost of Syd Barrett for yet another dance in the pale moonlight. To be real, "Silvertron" plays heavy on the early psych-folk spectrum, bringing along for mixed company elements of the Paisley Underground 80’s, trash-pop 90’s, and freak folk 00’s, but arriving at what is (now) a timeless, immediately recognizable idiom. With its three chord jangle, ephemeral lyrics, and general sky-gazing hue, "Silvertron" may be transitory but the path is kept well-trod.

One wonders if with all this single action of late, if Mudrick may have a full-length in the wings; only time will tell. Ears will be peeled to TDRCO in the meantime, so get in on that action and take a listen while you’re putting your Spring gardens in, kids. (Reed Burnam)

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Slightly bombastic, crammed with grounded yet ethereal vibratos, and most of all not taking itself too damn heavy, Anthony Mudrick’s first solo single "Sunshine Radiation" (out now on Portland’s Ten Dollar Recording Company) will get your fingers tapping while simultaneously glazing your eyes over. And given the band of merry pranksters and fleet of magic buses they’re riding deep in over at TDRCO, Mudrick is amongst kindred company. Cryogenically steeped in a classic West Coast flower child shindig that’s just on the verge of clawing the clothes off and bugging out to the woods all aboriginal and whatnot, "Sunshine Radiation" also sports an enmeshed Ray-Ban cool streak peppered all over a 90’s junkyard-pop aesthetic, with the results coming in predictably sun-flecked. This one is all picnics and party favors, with the tongue in cheek delivery laid easy over a fuzz-jangle melody line growing more infectious as the track progresses. And steady as she goes, the line of sight, over-arching ease in the lyrical department invites the listener to get horizontal, rendering this radiation largely poppy – no lead jacket necessary.

Despite cleaving by and large to the same riff/melody line for the whole of the track’s five minutes of runtime, "Sunshine Radiation" manages to not beg for change at any point; rather this trip is on repeat, so to speak. With its echoed calls of 'We’re digging on the sun; We’re tripping out on the sky', Mudrick’s inaugural solo effort is solidly ratcheted to a technicolor sky. And right on ideological point with the rest of the Ten Dollar Recording Co. roster, where the end results are always anything but conventional. As with so much of the label’s back catalog, this one’s got the same things going for it: forward focused backward glances shot through with a willfully independent, sing along day-glo goodness, hummable melodies, and lyrics that are simultaneously contoured and throw-away. Mudrick’s storytelling here is similarly down to earth, and the results add up by track’s end to a kind of prismatic sing along, all heads bobbing to the call and response 'sunshine radiation, sunshine radiation…'.

Furthering the TDRCO bloodlines, Mudrick’s brother-in-arms (and, well, brother) is none other than Thomas Mudrick, one of TDRCO’s not-so-secret musical weapon/wunderkinds, with whom Anthony played in Salem fuzz rock outfit The Blacklights, alongside Oscar Ordiano and third brother Bryan Mudrick. For "Sunshine Radiation", label founders Ryan Michael Block and Mariya May lent their multi-armed musical talents, and the results are expectedly out of this world. Be on the lookout for an Anthony Mudrick full length, but for now keep digging on the sun and tripping out on the sky, kids. (Reed Burnam)