Thanks to KALX’s “The Next Big Thing” for supporting the album on 3/5/2012!
“Get It” Liner Notes
The seeds of “Get It” were first planted when Kevin Pugh befriended Happy Music store owner Chong. Out of Chong’s strip mall music store, they would host hours of jam sessions that attracted some of the most talented Los Angeles musicians. It was during these jam sessions that Kevin developed as a singer, songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist. He is a confident, selfless musician who could lead and accompany with equal intensity. The Happy Music sessions eventually gave way to a period of frenetic gigging around the Los Angeles music scene, where he performed in various band formats at yacht clubs, summer festivals and talent farms along the Sunset Strip. These journeyman years have finally culminated to this highly anticipated debut album.
Kevin Pugh comes from the salt of the earth. He came of age in the Bay Area during the hangover years of post 60s enlightenment, when counterculture idealism decomposed into disco debauchery. As a result of this environment, Kevin learned early on the ability to listen and absorb all styles and influences. He is as much influenced by The Beatles and Neil Young as he is by Weird Al Yankovic and Ziggy Stardust. With songs like Breaking Waves, he can take familiar themes of love, life and mystery and use surrealism to make them fresh and original. When asked what he would take with him on a deserted island, his answer is always an archipelago.
Joining him on this album is the talented singer, actress and soul mate Rachael Pugh. As a combo, they fall in the tradition of couple musicians like Johnny & June Cash and Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin. Like Jane and June before her, Rachael softens the stone and widens the range with her sensuality. Only a singer of her caliber can turn songs like Ocean of Love into buoyant, rolling ballads. Even as a backup singer, she complements neatly to Kevin’s matter-of-fact voicing.
I hope you enjoy this album as much as I do. It’s been a long time coming but the experience fully blossomed into the right collection of 10 songs, each song like an anxious petal of a popcorn flower. Get It!
Ashley Van Nuys
Paris, France
February 2012
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
My new sounds: Sneak listens from the forthcoming album “Get It”
