Category: Dark Blue

Coming March 5 : John Sharkey III – ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’

Written and recorded amidst the devastating bushfires which ravaged his adopted hometown Canberra, just before the wave of pandemic broke, Shoot Out The Cameras reveals John Sharkey III to be a master craftsman; honing in on the existential dread of living in a burning world, and the imperative to find beauty in what remains.

Perhaps best known as the creative force behind confrontational noise-punk band Clockcleaner, which erupted from the fertile soil of Philly’s DIY scene in the 00s, Sharkey’s solid underground creds include hardcore/punk bands such as 9 Shocks Terror and more recently, literate rock explorations as Puerto Rico Flowers and Dark Blue.

It was love (of course) that brought Sharkey from Philly to Melbourne in 2008, where he worked behind the bar at beloved venue, The Tote. Sharkey and his partner Yasmin moved back to Philly for several years; then, amid the darkening landscape of US politics, the couple decided to settle in Canberra, Yasmin’s hometown. A lunatic sports fan, Sharkey adopted the Canberra Raiders with the same fervour as his beloved Philly Eagles, and has connected with hardcore Rugby League fans, making several guest appearances on the wildly popular NRL Boom Rookies podcast.

(PURCHASE  ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’)

At a physical but not psychological remove from the horrifying dysfunction of Trump’s America, Sharkey watched catastrophic bushfires encircle Canberra, raging through the hills of the Southern Tablelands, the city glowing orange, the suburbs suffocating in smoke. This is when the songs of Shoot Out The Cameras took form.

As if to echo the craters of “before” and “after” that apocalyptic events leave in our collective consciousness, the songs arranged themselves into a cinematic narrative arc, from the foreboding of disaster (Side A) through its aftermath (Side B). The background horrors of totalitarianism, paranoia and surveillance also stalk the album – the cameras of the title inspired by Canberra’s omnipresent CCTV and speed cameras – just to add to the unmistakable sense of impending doom.

(photo : Yasmin Hassan)

Such heavy subject matter brought into his music, for the first time, a treasure that Sharkey had carried within him since his teens; the mighty influence of one of Americana’s great auteurs, Iris Dement. Dement’s ability to cut to the bone, in her sweet and devastating songs, deeply informed Sharkey’s songwriting on ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’.

“My grandmother raised me on country music – Ray Price and Patsy Cline”, Sharkey recalls. “When I was 12, my mother would flog Iris Dement’s first two albums on drives to the beach. I was into Black Flag, but come 16 or 17, I was sneaking into the car to steal her tapes. Iris Dement crept into my psyche, and never left. She taught me not to hold back, when it comes to death or sorrow, doubling down on depressive lyrics.”

Fate intervened in the shaggy shape of Philly hero Kurt Vile, who invited Sharkey onstage when he toured Canberra last year. In the audience that night was Canberra native Nick Craft, who stood mouth agape as Sharkey sang pristine country harmonies with Vile on a cover of The Highwaymen’s “Silver Stallion”. Once Craft heard Sharkey’s demos, he urged him to make an album.

Holed up in a small studio on Queanbeyan’s industrial estate, Sharkey and Craft captured ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ in two marathon sessions. Beautifully recorded, the starkness of Sharkey’s lyrical imagery and pit-of-the-stomach emotions are honoured with nothing more than guitar and voice, and, on the album’s closer, the glisten of Philly homie Mary Lattimore’s harp.

The result is an album of searing emotional depth, which faces the onslaught of disaster unflinchingly, with the hope and determination that families and communities must muster to pull through the personal and collective nightmares we all face. Sharkey remains a staunch optimist, his love for his adopted Australia only strengthened by watching it burn.

“We will adapt, we will get through this together,” he vows. “The most important thing to have in your arsenal of emotions is empathy. Not many people have it; so you have to build your own resilience and strength to deal with that too. You have to be tougher than anything the world can throw at you.”

‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ is released March 5 via 12XU (North America) and Mistletone (AUS/NZ)

(AUS / NZ orders : mistletone.net/label/john-sharkey-iii/)

John Sharkey III – I Found Everyone This Way

John Sharkey III – “I Found Everyone This Way”
from the album ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ (March 5, 2021)

stream / download :
12XU – North America
Mistletone – Australia

“I Found Everyone This Way” is the arresting first glimpse of ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’, the debut solo album by John Sharkey III.

Written and recorded amidst the devastating bushfires which ravaged his adopted hometown Canberra, just before the wave of pandemic broke, ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ reveals Sharkey to be a master craftsman, honing in on the existential dread of living in a burning world, and the imperative to find beauty in what remains.

Perhaps best known as the creative force behind Clockcleaner, which erupted from the fertile soil of Philly’s DIY scene in the 00s, Sharkey’s solid underground credentials include his tenure in 9 Shocks Terror and more recently, literate rock explorations as Puerto Rico Flowers and Dark Blue.

It was love (of course) that brought Sharkey from Philly to Melbourne in 2008, where he worked behind the bar at beloved venue, The Tote. Sharkey and his partner Yasmin moved back to Philly for several years; then, amid the darkening landscape of US politics, the couple decided to settle in Canberra, Yasmin’s hometown. A lunatic sports fan, Sharkey adopted the Canberra Raiders with the same fervour as his beloved Philly Eagles, and has connected with hardcore Rugby League fans, making several guest appearances on the wildly popular NRL Boom Rookies podcast.

At a physical but not psychological remove from the horrifying dysfunction of Trump’s America, Sharkey watched catastrophic bushfires encircle Canberra, raging through the hills of the Southern Tablelands, the city glowing orange, the suburbs suffocating in smoke. This is when the songs of ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ took form. As if to echo the craters of “before” and “after” that apocalyptic events leave in our collective consciousness, the songs arranged themselves into a cinematic narrative arc, from the foreboding of disaster (Side A) through its aftermath (Side B). The background horrors of totalitarianism, paranoia and surveillance also stalk the album – the cameras of the title inspired by Canberra’s omnipresent CCTV and speed cameras – just to add to the unmistakable sense of impending doom.

Such heavy subject matter brought into his music, for the first time, a gift that Sharkey had carried within him since his teens; the mighty influence of one of Americana’s great auteurs, Iris Dement. Dement’s ability to cut to the bone, in her sweet and devastating songs, deeply informed Sharkey’s songwriting on ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’.

“My grandmother raised me on country music – Ray Price and Patsy Cline”, Sharkey recalls. “When I was 12, my mother would flog Iris Dement’s first two albums on drives to the beach. I was into Black Flag, but come 16 or 17, I was sneaking into the car to steal her tapes. Iris Dement crept into my psyche, and never left. She taught me not to hold back, when it comes to death or sorrow, doubling down on depressive lyrics.”

Fate intervened in the shaggy shape of Philly hero Kurt Vile, who invited Sharkey onstage when he toured Canberra last year. In the audience that night was Canberra native Nick Craft, who stood mouth agape as Sharkey sang pristine country harmonies with Vile on a cover of The Highwaymen’s “Silver Stallion”. Once Craft heard Sharkey’s demos, he urged him to make an album.

Holed up in a small studio on Queanbeyan’s industrial estate, Sharkey and Craft captured ‘Shoot Out The Cameras’ in two marathon sessions. Beautifully recorded, the starkness of Sharkey’s lyrical imagery and pit-of-the-stomach emotions are honoured with nothing more than guitar and voice, and, on the album’s closer, the glisten of Philly homie Mary Lattimore’s harp.

The result is an album of searing emotional depth, which faces the onslaught of disaster unflinchingly, with the hope and determination that families and communities must muster to pull through the personal and collective nightmares we all face. Sharkey remains a staunch optimist, his love for his adopted Australia only strengthened by watching it burn.

“We will adapt, we will get through this together,” he vows. “The most important thing to have in your arsenal of emotions is empathy. Not many people have it; so you have to build your own resilience and strength to deal with that too. You have to be tougher than anything the world can throw at you.”

Coming February 22 : Dark Blue – ‘Victory Is Rated’

‘Victory Is Rated’ is the 3rd studio album from Philadelphia’s Dark Blue, following 2014’s ‘Pure Reality’ and 2017’s widely acclaimed ‘Start Of The World’. Over the course of the last half decade, the ensemble —helmed by Clockcleaner / Puerto Rico Flowers founder John Sharkey III, have walked a thin line between defiance and fatalism, often trading in the anthemic with equal doses of the sardonic and the melancholy. That all of it is increasing informed & influenced by the real goddamned world probably helps.

 

(photo by Angela Betancourt)

There’s some cruel irony in Sharkey’s (second) self-imposed exile from the USA occurring right after completing the recording of ‘Victory Is Rated’ with conspirators Andy Nelson (Ceremony), Michael Sneeringer (Strands Of Oak, Rosali) and B. David Walsh given that this is by far, Dark Blue’s most fully realized statement — in some alternative universe where this band toured consistently, they’d be way too big for this label (frankly, they already are), but really, what has America done to actually deserve their brutal honesty?

Sharkey says the album’s main themes are class war and mortality. I’m not entirely sure there are other themes (not simply on ‘Victory Is Rated’, either) , but we’re very fortunate he’s so skilled at writing about those two. He also likens the record to “if Blitz went Brit pop” and while that ticks off a couple of crucial boxes for me, let’s get something rather thorny out of the way. However many allusions you’ve seen to some subculture you either dislike or can barely be bothered to skim the surface of on a Dark Blue flyer, this is not a high (?) concept series of mannerisms disguised as a gloriously powerful rock band. Dark Blue is a gloriously powerful rock band. For all time.

John Sharkey III – vocals, guitar
Andrew Mackie Nelson – bass & piano
Michael Sneeringer – drums
B. David Walsh – guitars

with additional support from
Kurt Vile – trumpet
Sara Schimeneck – keys

Recorded & Mixed by Jeff Ziegler
Produced by 2 Young Attorneys

preorder ‘Victory Is Rated’ from 12XU or Bandcamp
stream “Waterford Crystals” at Spotify, Apple Music or Bandcamp

Coming February 16 – Dark Blue – “Fight To Love”

It’s 2018 and it’s another shite year in America. But hey, the Philadelphia Eagles finally made it to the Super Bowl, so it’s only fitting there’s a new Dark Blue single recorded by none other than Jeff Ziegler. The band’s 2016 LP—’Start of The World’—was as much an ode to the powerless as it was an effort to lay bare uncomfortable realities: the working poor keep working only to get poorer, oh and ICYMI, there’s a violent occupation happening in Palestine. Dark Blue’s latest 7” for 12XU continues to sing to the unsung with two tracks that are unwilling to sugarcoat issues many seem to turn a blind eye to.

The A side, “Fight to Love”, is a brit-pop ballad that feels arena huge thanks to John Sharkey III’s distinct vocals, which are the strongest and most emotional they’ve ever been. Like all Dark Blue songs, bleak is always embedded in the pop. This track rails against gentrification, which according to Sharkey, doesn’t matter if it’s lead by “slime who dress their rescue dogs in Lycra,” or if it’s cloaked in Zionism.

The flip side to this is a reimagined version of Anti-Nowhere League’s 1983 classic, “For You.” Instead of the cut’s street punk grit, Dark Blue turns the track inside out to expose a song that goes right for the heart instead of the usual brick to the gut.

Dark Blue’s new 7” proves that they’re still here, trudging through the dreadful in 2018, and these songs will have you stomping right beside them.
– Sean Gray

order from 12XU, Bandcamp, stream via Spotify

Coming November 4 : Dark Blue’s ‘Start Of The World’

Dark Blue follow up their debut LP, ‘Pure Reality’ (Jade Tree), with ‘Start Of The World’ (12XU) – a soundtrack of a decaying United States. Each song drips with the realities of atrocities happening all around us ; John Sharkey III (Vocals, Guitar) pushes Dark Blue far beyond the post-punk meets oi sound they perfected on their earlier releases, and adds elements of brit-pop and shoegaze. Recorded by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, Nothing), ‘Start Of The World’ is a pop album that makes no apologies.

photo by Autumn Spadaro

Boot stomping opener “Union of Buffoons,” sets the political tone for this album with an anthem for workers’ rights. Sharkey’s biting lyrics: “You can’t fight this, you can’t win…screw you once, they’ll screw you twice,” is a reference to human expendability in the face of deregulation and the stagnancy of labor rights. “Never Wanted to Hurt You” is a pop song in the highest order with guts and an undeniable chorus that would make Noel Gallagher jealous even at his most jaded.

The 50’s doo-woop and surf rock sound of “Bombs on the Beach” initially feels like a left turn for the band, evoking a playful innocence against a sunny backdrop. But the lyrics prove this is truly a Dark Blue song, tearing through any cheerfulness as jarring and abrupt as words can be to describe the reality of dropping missiles on a beach of unsuspecting Palestinian children. Sharkey’s voice is heavy with the despair of survivor’s guilt: “Now I’m holding my baby’s hand, as he lies bleeding to death in the sand.” This is another pointed song full of sentiment as much as it is an impassioned call for accountability for the crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

While this album shows off new and varying degrees of Sharkey’s vocal intensity, Andrew Mackie Nelson (Bass, Ceremony) and Michael Sneeriger (Drums, Strand of Oaks) shine, guiding the songs in ways other releases haven’t shown before . Tracks such as “Be Gone Everyone” and “Western Front” underscore just how comfortable the band has gotten.

‘Start Of The World’ is the kind of record that Dark Blue has always promised: a collection of smart, fully realized songs that tell real stories. With the world falling apart around us, Dark Blue continues to give voice to neglected perspectives, many unnerving but all necessary to hear. We need a defiant record like this to remind us that just as there was start to all of this destruction, there can also be an end. – Sean Gray.

Preorder here.

Coming January 15 : DARK BLUE – “Vicious Romance” b/w “Delco Runts” 7″

(photo by Farrah Skeiky)

After three releases in 2014, Philadelphia’s Dark Blue return with two songs about blue collar depression in a changing Philadelphian landscape for their debut 7″ on 12XU. While the previous releases hinted at the pop tendencies of Dark Blue, this new single finally embraces them fully.

A-side “Vicious Romance” finds leader John Sharkey III coming to grips with letting go of an unsustainable dream. Whether that dream be romantic love , or the idea the “romantic” dream a certain country paints only to instead cause pain, grief, and bloodshed to Palestinians and Arab Jews. It’s a love song in the highest order and with all great love songs, it stays in your head and leaves you breathless.

Flip-side “Delco Runts” is a love (or hate) letter to Delaware County. As Sharkey explains, “It’s a place that toughens you fast. Far harder to succeed than Philadelphia proper. The peril is real but unassuming to the initiated. It’s crushed your chances of being a real person before you even know it.” If you ever wondered what it might be like if Oasis, Discharge, and John Cale got pissed and started a band together, “Delco Runts” is your answer.

Dark Blue is the sound of unrelenting confidence in a bleak world. We are lucky to have them to remind us that we can still make it through it all.