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Bananasugarfire

by Golden Apples

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    Does it even count if it is not printed on a super soft comfort colors shirt? Well.. we're making it count over here at GA HQ. Limited amount of these available but they seem to be very fine. The shirts are a mustard yellow that is very easy on the eyes.

    These are sort of pre-orders, I will start shipping them around 10/14 so they will get to you hopefully before release day (10/27/23).
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 60  6 remaining

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Sweater/Hoodie

    Screenprinted by us to the best of our abilities, on Comfort Colors "Pepper" 1566 80/20 crewneck sweatshirt. We only got a few (again) so if you want one.. you know..
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 22 

      $35 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Bananasugarfire pressed on black wax, featuring art by Golden Apples' Russell Edling.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bananasugarfire via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    7 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

1.
Anti-Ant Car 01:43
In the morning, there will still be fog and somebody’s gonna have to walk the dog but I don’t wanna get off the phone are the worms still floating in the swimming pool? is the rust still chewing up your grandfather’s tools? I don’t get off the phone the spotlight kid is me tonight
2.
Guard Stick 02:54
I wanna make you my brother I wanna make you my friend I wanna keep us in trouble I wanna stay til the end I know what makes this garden grow a bleeding emptiness returning to your mind a season’s swell still yearning to unwind it’s become natural to run from humankind and leave it all behind I know what makes this garden grow I feel it in my bones, a healing wind will blow
3.
sunshine, and I’ll go up ahead looks like the rain is coming sooner than they said watching the way you always smile how could anybody treat you like I did when all along, everyone just went along scattered on the bedroom floor like the silver shells you brought back from the shore all I ever want now is to be kind and rewind everything play my life out in reverse watching you come back to me crooked trees revert to seed doomed mechanics still yet to seize did you have to lie even when I asked you why? was it all inside, something t hat you’d always hide? did you even try, staring me right through the eyes?
4.
too much to see too much to hear just waiting for a cloud to pass you like you’re used to but it’s different now somehow and all the while you wonder, “can I be mindful?” with a mind already filled beyond the edge she’s my broken smile leading me away tonight I think we’ll be fine, coloring outside the lines sentries of your psyche were seduced and led away tomorrow’s urgencies are marking targets from today a growing chill inside you keeps you hopeless unknowing still, you’re racing for the edge she’s my broken smile, leading me away tonight I think we’ll be fine, coloring outside the lines waiting for a cloud it’s different now somehow
5.
Sugarfire 05:19
little piggies on the run all your nightmares come undone sugarfire through your window watch it burning in the sun did you feel a mile a minute? did you get a taste of blood? sugarfire through your window little piggies on the run i was only 9 years old when i felt it through my coat felt the poison in my future drop of poison in my soul sugarfire in the window sugarfire all again and again there are drops of poison dripping down drenching doilies dunking dungarees but you are a fighting fruit a picture that you took of a dog that hangs on the wall in the kitchen where you stand eating stale crackers there will be drops of poison rotting fruit in the bowl there will be dogs getting old there will be fresh fruit in the bowl and there will be waves of pain shining through your soul there will be the sun the sun is being fun for you the day has just begun for you sugarfire is the one for you it's not the one that want it's not the one that you are right now its not the one that you were just the one that you always have been sugarfire through your window watch it burning in the sun drop of poison in your future little piggies on the run
6.
Krill 01:34
she blows me away big bright sunny day clothing pulling away she blows me away wide open today white douchebag bay breathing too hard to say we drifted away under the water
7.
Materia 04:51
let my body to decay let me go my separate way only reaching for today close my eyes while I’m awake close my eyes and slip away but I’ll be dreaming of you let my body to decay let me go my separate way only reaching for today close my eyes and slip away now I’ll be dreaming of you close your eyes open wide watch your body vaporize rainbow light shadow light I don’t mind vaporize left outside dead inside I feel tired all my life vaporize watch your body vaporize
8.
Park (Rye) 03:38
in the corner of your vision there’s a daydream on a mission no one ever gets my goal in the corner of your vision there’s a shadow on a mission I don’t want to get you down I just wanted to show you around no one ever gets my goal until I’m way out in the deep end losing the sensation I feel it, I don’t know I’m way out in the deep end why do I want you? sequence connected to a melody this echo’s only a memory of a kite circle and I wanted it a blinding light, you stepped right in front of it but I’m still way out in the deep end losing the sensation I feel it, I don’t know I’m way out in the deep end
9.
Stuck 02:46
down on the side of the road there’s something there don’t you know? just give me what I need just give me everything I don’t mind the weight sometimes I don’t mind the wait sometimes oh but I wanted to hide stuck in the middle with you I know its true
10.
Green 05:59
dead in my arms dead in my arms scream in my head scream overhead colored green like colored green eyes red in my dreams dead in between colored green like colored green eyes

about

Golden Apples might currently be one of the best kept secrets in guitar music, but their new full-length, Bananasugarfire, is about to change that. The boldly titled album is an undeniable, kaleidoscopic blast of fuzzed out guitars, joyful songwriting, and vibrant production that’s as human as it is hooky. It’s exactly what a truly great indie rock album can be: fun yet fulfilling, inventive yet inviting, confident yet candid–music that lifts you up with melody, noise, and heart.

Arriving hot on the heels of 2021’s Shadowland and 2022’s Golden Apples, Bananasugarfire continues Golden Apples’ prolific streak. Whereas Shadowland was more of a solitary recording project of vocalist/guitarist Russell Edling, and the self-titled involved a more spontaneous revolving door of collaborators, something definite and resolute is happening on Bananasugarfire: the collective has become collected, the band has arrived. Golden Apples’ line-up solidified last year into the combination of Edling, drummer Melissa Brain (Marge, Goshupon, Amanda X, Cave People, Yankee Bluff), bassist Matthew Scheuermann (Lowercase Roses, Petal), and Mimi Gallagher (Eight, Nona, Year of Glad, Cave People), and Bananasugarfire is imbued with a tangible camaraderie that elevates the sum of its talented parts.

Recorded at Metal Shop with Zack Robbins, The Bunk with Matt Schimelfenig, and at the home Edling and Gallagher share, the colorful, open hearted, and widescreen yet intimate Bananasugarfire feels like the most fully realized version of Golden Apples to date. “This record really feels like the band,” Edling explains. “My favorite parts of the album are where I can hear someone else’s idea taking form, an idea I never would have arrived at. I wanted to get the best of both worlds: to properly record with the band in the studio and then spend a bunch of time also tinkering around on my own like I did with the first record, but this time Mimi was there in the basement tinkering with me.” Gallagher’s role is a key element to the magic of Bananasugarfire, providing dynamic guitarwork, sugary vocal interplay, and another keen ear to help hone the detailed recordings that make the album so rewarding on repeat listens.

Bananasugarfire also marks a shift in Edling’s lyrical approach. While previous releases found him swallowed up in existential doubt and bewilderment, there’s now an understanding that for all the intrinsic darkness of life, there is also a countering light–even if accessing it often takes hard earned perspective and persistence. “I just think in the past few years I’ve really come around to the idea that there’s real tangible power behind your emotions,” he explains. “If you go out in the world and put bad energy out there, I think it actually has an impact, and I think it works the opposite way, too. Being aware of your emotions and the way you carry yourself is sort of a responsibility.”

Like the previous two Golden Apples albums, Bananasugarfire opens with a sub-two minute, quasi-introductory song that sets the stage for the record to come. “Anti-Ant Car” starts fittingly with Edling in Martin Newell-mode, a solitary jangling man surrounded by tape hiss–but then the band joins in and the world turns 3D through a steadily cresting melody that arrives at pure musical elation. “Guardstick” picks up that momentum and runs with it, all towering wall of fuzzed out guitars and shimmering production that somehow layers more and more impossibly catchy melodies on top of one another. The band sound huge, and Edling sounds fearless as he sings about the need for kindness in an increasingly callous world. “We’re in a moment where ‘not being corny’ is such a big piece of social capital, and I think that makes it hard to put yourself out there in such an unabashedly optimistic way,” he says. “There’s a part of me that’s afraid to say things that are this sort of openly positive in a song because that’s just not the type of thing that people respond to anymore. I always thought it was the most daring thing to confess sadness and depression in a song, but now I see it’s much more intimidating to express joy.”

On tracks like “Waiting For A Cloud,” “Sugarfire,” and “Materia,” Golden Apples manage to utilize echoes of college rock greats like Yo La Tengo, Pixies, and Stereolab, but break free of mere homage by having personality to spare. The record feels like a musical patchwork, stitching together familiar influences in ways that result in something new. “Park (Rye)” highlights this with layered drum machines flourishes and interlocking guitar lines, sounding like some alternative universe where The Stone Roses wrote a song with Sparklehorse.

Bananasugarfire is one of the most jubilant sounding albums of the year, but it doesn’t simply dismiss the challenging parts of life. Growing older, the losses that come with the passing of time, and self-doubt are all there, but Golden Apples argue that if the good things are impermanent, then so too are the bad. “Sometimes it seems like people think it’s naive to be hopeful,” Edling says. “The disillusionment is ubiquitous in nearly every interaction we have, but there’s truth to it. Maybe this record is a coping mechanism, but I think you can be relatively nihilistic while also being kind and loving.” It’s this embrace of life’s messiness that makes Bananasugarfire feel so impactful: it’s not about blind positivity, it’s about a conscious effort to try even in the face of complexities that often seem overwhelming. True to its title, Bananasugarfire is unique, playful, memorable, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

credits

released October 27, 2023

Most of the bass and drums were recorded by Zack Robbins at the Metal Shop, Philadelphia
Mostly everything else was recorded by Golden Apples at home, also in Philadelphia

Mixed by Matt Schimelfenig at the Bunk in Henryville, PA
Mastered by Heather Jones at So Big Auditory

This record was made by Melissa Brain, Russell Edling, Mimi Gallagher, Matthew Scheuermann, Matt Schimelfenig, Kian Sorouri, and Zack Robbins

Art Direction from Eric Osman
Design by Russell Edling

Bananasugarfire is dedicated to Spenser Colmbs

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