From sunshiney, smog-filled streets to an avian-strewn state of ur-nature, Mike Donovan's seen his share of the world, making records and playing shows all over the past 20 years with Sic Alps, Ty Segall, The Peacers and most recently, himself.
In June of 2017, Mike led The Peacers sophomore effort, Introducing the Crimsmen, into the world. On 4/20 of '18, his own sophomore solo release How to Get Your Record Played In Shops hit. And now, a hot 23 months after the inauguration of the Crimsmendom, a third long-player in the time-frame arrives, as Mike D whisks us away to his remote Exurbian Quonset.
Exurbian Quonset is a pure solo record -Mike created everything in the place, from voices and guitars to keys and space. It is pure pop music, as it has been played in dark, wet corners (and on the safety of cold, dry turntables) for the past half-century: the abstract-, post-, deconstuct- and auto-destruct- part of this genre, which is a full-grown branch of the rock and roll family tree! Mike's ouvre is stand-up tin-pan pop singer performance, wedding bubblegum ditties of silvery falsetto to cavernous sirens of noise; glitter rock peered at through a hazy, defocused lens.
Exurbian Quonset sticks up like a fork in the road - it was drawn together as Mike prepared to be the last man from the old gang to leave SF, where he broke so many rules and new ground It's dedicated to the woman who married him and taught him both words in the title of the album - exurbian and quonset - and who he'll whisk away with to somewhere just like the title.
After a burst of Velvets clatter and noise, clamor, balladry and reverberant shimmying to open the record, the skies clear and birds appear, as if to signal a new season. Listen to the new single, "Digital Dan" and preorder your LP/CS today!