Seismic Wave Entertainment

Conan Neutron is a guy, Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends is a band. It is a band featuring Dale Crover of the mighty Melvins on drums, Tony Ash of Trophy Wives and Coliseum on bass and the production skills of the iconoclastic and enigmatic Toshi Kasai. The Secret Friends bring forth a wiry and adventurous rock ‘n roll that is equal parts Cheap Trick, fugazi, the Cars, Black Sabbath and DEVO with perhaps Mean Streets era Van Halen mixed in.
Neutron, a rock ‘n roll lifer has spent the last 15 years making records and touring in such bands as Replicator, Victory and Associates and Mount Vicious, making uncompromising, sometimes challenging and daring rock music to anybody that is interested. This is the first record that he wrote and arranged himself.

The Enemy of Everyone was fully fleshed out at the secret Melvins HQ – Sound of Sirens September 11th-15th, 2014 during a brutal heatwave, Vocals for Fight Math were done at Antisleep audio, Oakland, CA by Mr. Eugene Robinson on October 8th, 2014. Those were tracked by Mr. Scott Evans. Mixing was done at Sound of Sirens between October 10th-15th. 2014 by Toshi Kasai.

For those familiar with the ouvre it has the Replicator muscle, the Mount Vicious weirdness and the V and A pop sensibility. For those that don’t, this is a record made by some smartass with sideburns that features one of the greatest living drummers. No big deal.
The Enemy of Everyone is a nine song jaunt with songs that range in theme, but largely have to do with being annoyed at things. There’s also a song about accidentally selling your soul while on a drinking bender, and whatever it is that Eugene Robinson is singing about.
Oh right… the inimitable and formidable Eugene Robinson of Oxbow lends a hand with the vocals to FIGHT MATH.
There will be some shows, and with any luck much, much more to come.

You can pre-order the record direct from Seismic Wave at bandcamp, and it will be available through PRF distro and other outlets soon enough.

…

Check out the brand new album: Better Luck Next Life by Victory and Associates. Produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Tool, Tweak Bird, Hurry Up Shotgun) these are 10 songs to entertain and delight as the medicore miseries of the world threaten to overwhelm. Pre-orders for 180 Gram double Gatefold vinyl and CDs available now!
Digital download sales available immediately.

Victory and Associates is a rock band from Oakland, CA. Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Conan Neutron, bassist/vocalist Evan Gritzon, lead guitarist Shane Otis, and drummer Jacob “Mouse” Menough. This is their second full length record, following up 2011’s “These Things Are Facts” and last years “Plausibly Wild/Wildly Plausible” double A side single. Victory and Associates formed in early 2010, starting a mission to create true and honest rock and roll trying their best to prove that punk rock is a mindset as much as a strict genre classification, and that big rock does not have to be dumb to be good.

Victory and Associates simultaneously embrace the glorious and the foolish in rock and roll. Where rock ‘n’ roll not only includes the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but DEVO, the Melvins and the Buzzcocks. There is much more to be said in the idiom of rock ‘n’ roll and Victory and Associates will darn well say it.

There are no four letter words in any Victory and Associates songs, but there is diversity. The booming “We’ll Have to Be Our Own Heroes”, blasts out of the gate with a desperate energy and a message of self empowerment. Sorry, the people that were going to save the day decided they had better things to do. The lush Everything’s Amazing (Nobody’s Happy) is the peppiest song about first world entitlement/taking the marvels of our modern world for granted that you will hear all week. It’s also the only song we can think of that’s directly inspired by a Louis C.K. comedy bit. The spacey and inexorable groove of For Serious is quite literally a song in defense of sincerity itself, a concept that’s been hijacked by utter idiots, fools, wastoids and shameless marketeers.

Better Luck Next Life is a rock record containing ten songs of disillusionment, disappointment, frustration at diminished expectations and hope. Always hope. Even as it seems like hope itself is disappearing on the horizon. Party, right? look – this is not strict cookie cutter genre music and every song doesn’t sound exactly the same, but this IS for real… this is FOR SERIOUS. These are songs directly inspired by the singularity of disappointment, closing one’s self off to new experiences, the TV show “Party Down” and the harsh realization that at some point you need to pass the torch to others to carry on. High-minded concepts married to huge riffs, hooks and an undeniable sense of fun. It is dark, battered, exhausted but never defeated

Produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Federation X, Liars, Tool), these ten songs are aimed right at your solar plexus. In the age of hologramatic performers, nostalgia without end, pious indifference and a gruel-like malaise of passively consonant and safe background music. Better Luck Next Life can be hard to pin down, but is ultimately rewarding for those that come along for the ride.

Victory and Associates have shared the stage with the likes of the Thermals, Mike Watt, Helms Alee, the Blind Shake and more. This is their second full-length record and sixth release since starting in early 2010. They intend to make many, many more and continue to bring an immediate, intense and enjoyable live show to the US and beyond.

RIYL: Rocket From the Crypt, Cheap Trick, Mudhoney, the Thermals, Future of the Left, Buzzcocks, Torche, Archers of Loaf.

Nov 21st, Portland, OR – The Know w/Beach Party, The Cut 45
Nov 22nd, Seattle, WA – Chop Suey w/Helms Alee, Qui, TACOS!
Nov 23rd, Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown w/SEMINARS, Rookery
Nov 24th, Eugene, OR (tent) – W/ Fight Stories…