New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Eleven Seven Music) After much anticipation, Los Angeles electro-rock outfit SHINY TOY GUNS have released their new album III yesterday, Monday, October 22 (Five Seven Music). It features the first new material by the original line-up in five years.
Production on III, courtesy of Mirror Machines (the band's Chad Petree and Jeremy Dawson), is lush and dramatic, ranging from driving tracks like the first single due January 2013 "Somewhere To Hide," "Waiting Alone" and "Speaking Japanese" into a sonic pendulum swing to the genre bending current release "Fading Listening." The band teamed up with legendary mixer Tony Maserati (Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys) to finalize and sharpen the new 2012 sound of the band. Unlike any other group out there today, SHINY TOY GUNS music is driving rock and electro spearheaded by a male and female vocal courtesy of Chad Petree and Carah Faye.
Today (October 23), VEVO premiered the video for "Fading Listening" starring Tiny Toy Guns, a play on the band recording the song as kids. Carah Faye is played by Ally Petree, eight year old daughter of Chad Petree. Chad Petree is played by Jesse McClintock, son of GUNS longtime indie music publisher Steve McClintock. Drummer Mikey Martin is played by Maximus Morse, son of Toby Morse, singer of punk/hardcore band H20. Jeremy Dawson on keyboards is played by Noah Castro, the six year old son of friends of Mikey Martin. The two girls engineering at the mixing desk are Isabella Petree (age 6) and Stevie Jane Petree (age 5), daughters of Steven Petree ex-member of SHINY TOY GUNS and brother of Chad Petree. The studio owner in played by Tony Maserati.
In conjunction with the album's release, the band-Carah Faye (vocals), Chad Petree (vocals/guitar), Jeremy Dawson (keyboards/bass) and Mikey Martin (drums)-launch a nine-date headlining tour in San Francisco tonight. They will pass through a variety of markets including Los Angeles, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago consecutively. At each show, the band will perform a variety of material from the new album as well as SHINY TOY GUNS classics and favorites.
Meanwhile, SHINY TOY GUNS-who is currently featured in the Virgin America "Experience" campaign-can be seen on the airlines major billboards across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Dallas. The campaign highlights Virgin America 'Originals,' frequent flyers known for shaking up the status quo in their own fields - including SHINY TOY GUNS as well as indie film director Kevin Smith, Pandora founder Tim Westergren, Animal and Son of a Gun chef Vinny Dotolo, Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork and independent artist/Facebook Creative Strategist Ji Lee just to name a few - inviting them to curate aspects of the airline's already unique in-cabin experience including playlists, film picks and new menu items offered via the touch-screen Red™ in-flight entertainment platform. The Virgin America "Originals" include more than a few notable iconoclasts in the worlds of tech, design, food and entertainment many of whom also happen to be Elevate frequent flyers. Check out more at: https://experiencevirginamerica.com
Media reaction to SHINY TOY GUNS III:
"The band's taut synth-pop and bombastic melodies are a welcome return..." - Korina Lopez, USA Today, (9/20/12)
"Carah Faye Charnow rejoining Shiny Toy Guns was the best thing to happen to the Los Angeles band. III features the type of effortless electro-pop which made the act's 2006 debut, We Are Pilots, so irresistible. (Perhaps not so coincidentally, that was the last album on which Charnow appeared.) Gigantic, melancholy choruses lift up standouts 'Carrie' and 'The Sun'; the danceable 'Somewhere To Hide' is full of chic new-wave signifiers; and 'Speaking Japanese' is a hybrid of No Doubt's brash synth-punk and Sleigh Bells' cheerleader brattiness...the oceanic, pulsating love song 'If I Lost You' and 'Fading Listening'-which resembles a synth-pop cover of a Fleetwood Mac tune-are sublime." - Annie Zaleski, Alternative Press (October)
"The quartet reunites for a joyful journey through electro-pop-rock, which sees vocalist Faye giving it her all and STG as a whole upping the musical stakes." - Angus Thomas Paterson, ELEKTRO (Fall 2012)
"Shiny Toy Guns has been out of the limelight for awhile, but is finally making a long awaited resurgence...III is an emphatic return to the vibrant synthpop of the band's 2006 debut, 'We are Pilots.' Opening rave-up 'Somewhere to Hide,' one of the best cuts the band has ever recorded, is sure to get concert audiences on their feet. The menacing 'Speaking Japanese,' with its sly beats and Charnow's Peaches-like delivery, is the closest sonic cousin here to their hit single, 'Le Disko.' III is more sonically advanced than previous records, with widescreen keyboard textures that really pull at the heartstrings...the band's finest album to date." - Jeff Sistrunk, Outburn, Issue 66
"...the Los Angeles-based quartet is back in action with the super-dreamy 'Fading Listening,' from their upcoming album III. It has some groovy arpeggio-and-padded lines that call to mind Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams.' I'm also a huge fan of boy-girl harmony, which this track has in spades." - Mickey Woods, Glamour.com on "Fading Listening" (8/17/12)
"...Shiny Toy Guns is back with its third release, appropriately titled III. It marks not only singer Carah Faye Charnow's return to the band whose founders were born in Shawnee, but also a return to the New Wave synth-pop sound that made them famous. The opening trio of 'Somewhere to Hide,' 'Waiting Alone' and 'Carrie' are just as synthsational as the band has ever been. 'Carrie' is especially strong, evoking that '80s-pop feel most tastefully, making for the strongest track since 2006's 'You Are the One.' 'Fading Listening' recalls - oddly enough - the chillwave mall pop Toro Y Moi and Washed Out currently are putting their own spins on, and it's followed by a signature STG anthem, 'The Sun,' that's solid enough." - Joshua Boydston, The Gazette (Oklahoma), (10/18/12)
"Way back in 2006, I stumbled across the debut album by Shiny Toy Guns and fell in love. What was this bewitching blend of lectronic, rock, and Pure Moods-appropriate elegance? How could one band veer from a sassy banger like 'Le Disko' to an epic, emotional anthem like 'Don't Cry Out?' How did they do it?...I just heard 'Waiting Alone,' the new single from Shiny Toy Guns' new album III, and I am ready to rekindle the flame. And hey, look! Charnow's back as the lead singer! And the compelling mixture of somber emotion and catchy dance beats is still in place!" - Mark Blankenship, NewNowNext (7/25/12)
"Sure, there are some standout rock tracks like the crunchy and sassy 'Speaking Japanese' and the propulsive 'The Sun.' But for the most part, the band explores its ethereal side with amazing results. 'Carrie' and 'Fading Listening' are excellently crafted new-wave tracks. 'Wait For Me' and 'If I Lost You' are both hauntingly romantic epics. 'Take Me Back To Where I Was' is an uncharacteristically stripped down piano balled devoid of electronic wizardry...Shiny Toys Guns is still able to turn out some brilliant songs." - Larry Nichols, Philadelphia Gay News, (9/7/12)
"It erased all previous notions of what the band was about. The song is automatic and I've gotten a very strong response from our listeners when I play it." - Jason Bentley, Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW on "Fading Listening"
Catch SHINY TOY GUNS on tour:
DATE - CITY - VENUE
Mon 10/22, San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
Tue 10/23, Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
Fri 10/26, Toronto, ON - Hoxton
Sat 10/27, Philadelphia - Northstar
Sun 10/28, Boston - Brighton Music Hall
Mon 10/29, Washington, D.C. - Rock N' Roll Hotel
Tue 10/30, New York, NY - Santos Party House
Wed 10/31, Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls Theater
Thu 11/1, Chicago, IL - Subterranean
Find Shiny Toy Guns' III now on iTunes at: https://bit.ly/IIISTGoniTunes
Get to know SHINY TOY GUNS - PandoraLegends & Icons: www.pandora.com/legendsandicons
Fully Loaded. Six Bullets of SHINY TOY GUNS
https://tinyurl.com/bql6s4l
