‘Night Cruising’ by Pine Barons | New Fishmans Cover Album, ‘I Love Fish’
Exclusive video premiere of ‘Night Cruising’ by Philadelphia art-rockers Pine Barons, taken from their upcoming Fishmans cover album, ‘I Love Fish’, out July 8th, 2022 via Grind Select.
Lead vocalist Keith Abrams says, ‘Night Cruising’ was one of the first songs that came together for this record early on in the process, and was one of the easier songs to translate into English. It was a popular song for Fishmans when it first came out, and I wanted to stay true to its dreaminess and to have it build upon itself and crescendo into a blissful end”.
“For this video, we tried to embody the brightness and liveliness that was our discovery of Fishmans. Looking back on their music has truly helped us look forward. It sparked a flame and revitalized a forgotten feeling we’ve all had in ourselves – a yearning curiosity and genuine awe. It rekindled our love and appreciation for music, creatively and objectively,” says Alex Beebe, keyboardist and director of the music video.
As fans of Fishmans, Pine Barons took great care to replicate and honor the intricate details that went into the original record, in addition to adding their own meticulous spin. For example, on legendary 30 minute romp ‘Long Season’, the band ran through a field of snow geese with 3 different samplers for a transition. The band paints a picture of recording that track, describing: “we built custom wind chimes out of glockenspiel tone bars, bells, forks and knives which were all hanging from the rim of a bike tire which hung from the ceiling. Two mics coming out the ears of a mannequin head which was placed beneath the spinning wind chimes were used to record it for a binaural effect”.
Born among the pitch pines of southern New Jersey, Pine Barons is a project that came to fruition as friends gathered around campfires in the nature-rich environments of their hometowns. The band’s beginnings can be traced back to the members getting to know their instruments in their parents’ basements as well as outdoors, adventuring around, exploring an eclectic and intimate palette of punk, jazz and experimental rock.
The band’s debut LP, ‘The Acchin Book’ (released in 2017), possessed a unique quality from the auxiliary instruments and recording techniques used; feathered paper dragged across paintings, field recordings in the woods at night, accordion, string arrangements and bowed guitars all contributing to the various moods and textures of the record.
Pine Barons’ follow up effort, 2020’s ‘Mirage on the Meadow’, released during the throes of the pandemic, was a more insular effort, as all songs were written, produced and engineered by frontman & multi-instrumentalist, Keith Abrams, who explored themes of human connection while acknowledging impermanence and death’s inevitability. Sonically, ‘Mirage on the Meadow’ is a psychedelic amalgamation of graveyard shifting indie rock – full of the dread we all experience while retaining a cautious optimism that propels its rich, colorful sound towards a brighter future.
During the mixing process, Abrams stumbled upon the music of cult favorite Japanese band, Fishmans (active throughout the late 80’s and 90’s) and fell in love with their peerless mix of dream pop, psychedelic rock, trip-hop and dub/reggae. Unable to speak the Japanese language himself, Abrams set out to discover what the lyrics actually meant, and with the help of a Japanese-speaking friend, came up with lyrical English interpretations of the late Shinji Sato’s words. After Sato’s copyright successor passed along his blessing to move forward, ‘I Love Fish’ was officially born.
‘I Love Fish’ is a tribute album in the truest sense. Also produced and engineered in house, Pine Barons brings its own flavor to the arrangements and compositions that comprise nine Fishmans songs, including ambitious fan favorite, the 30-minute plus ‘Long Season’, a song that has never been attempted as a cover before. Abrams recalls hearing Sato’s voice for the first time, noticing that “without even knowing what the lyrics were, I felt such a strong connection to the voice that sang them. It confirms to me the genuine beauty of that voice and how universal music truly is”.
Headline photo: Alex Beebe
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