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Neon Blonde - Chandeliers in the Savannah


2005 has been a great year for relaxed side-projects, like Christopher Richards of the post-punk Q and Not U's ethereal aural dystopia in Ris Paul Ric's Purple Blaze, or Chad Crouch of the lounge-pop quartet Blanket Music's lappop self-reflection in Toothfairy's Formative.
Neon Blonde is the side-project of Blood Brothers' Johnny Whitney and Mark Gajadhar, and while it is noticably more "relaxed" than any of the Blood Brothers' material, its still QUITE frantic and wild, they've just replaced the screeching guitars with cooing synth keys, a well-intentioned drum machine and the occassional wailing horns.
In Johnny Whitney's typical fashion, the lyrics go above and beyond the call of duty for a pop-rock song, so much so that you're likely to miss alot of what he's talking about until you really sit down and read the words. Par example, in the uber-chic and tres catchy lead single "Headlines," Whitney sings about a suburban kid fantacizing about the victims of a serial killer. The first verse informs us, "Another girl has turned up dead, another teenage whore. You know the cops, they couldn’t give a shit, but the nightly news is all over it; 'She was just 16 never been out of Michigan.' They say he tied her to his bed and lit the trailer park on fire. 'They found her body charred and wrecked in the ashes,' says the on-the-ground reporter with Gucci sunglasses and his hair sprayed perfect, his microphone so serious."
My personal favorite on the album is the closing track "Wings Made Out of Noise," where the comparatively minimal and repetative drumbeat and keys set the stage to be filled by Johnny's epic vocals and freeform guitar shredding, all of which makes for a very open space like wafting through clouds, which couples well with the lyrics about three different deaths being met with anything but sadness.

Headlines MP3
Wings Made Out of Noise MP3

BONUS MUSIC VIDEO:
Headlines MOV