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| PHIL SHOENFELT & SOUTHERN CROSS PARANOIA.COM |
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| Musicians |
| Phil Shoenfelt | vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, loops, feedback and slide guitar | |||
| Pavel Cingl | violin, electric guitar and slide mandolin | |||
| Pavel Krtouš | bass guitar |
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| Jarda Kvasnička | drums, percussion |
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| Special Guest: |
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| Chris Hughes | metallic percussion on tracks 2 and 8 |
| Availabilty |
| EASY ACTION |
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| Credits |
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All songs written by Phil
Shoenfelt except for track 6 (James Osterberg/James Williamson) Arranged by Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross Recorded, mixed and mastered at Stereo Mysterio, Prague Produced by Phil Shoenfelt, Engineered by Dan Satra Mixed by Dan Satra and Phil Shoenfelt, Mastering by Dan Satra Front cover painting by Claus Castenskiold Band portrait photo by Zuzana Oplatkova Graphics and layout by Les Clark, Manufacturing by Steve Pittis |
| Press Release |
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Ex Khmer Rouge Guitarist and 'Junkie Love' author Phil Shoenfelt
produces his Fourth album which includes the single "Open up and Bleed",
a cover of the Stooges, never released, live favourite. Album cover art is a painting by artist Claus Castenskiold, who
painted the classic Fall album cover 'The wonderful frightening world of
the fall'. Phil is touring Europe most of the summer and autumn in support of the album. (Easy Action Recordings)
"Paranoia.com" is much more in a hard rock direction than anything we've done
previously. I'd say that bands like The Stooges, Joy Division and Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club were an influence, as well as my old NYC band Khmer Rouge. But I also
think that the manic anger and paranoic energy I felt while undergoing
the Interferon treatment for Hepatitis C last year had a big effect too.
Especially on tracks like "Stupid Rock Star" (obviously about Bono and Geldof
etc), and "Tired Of Loving You". "Forgiven" is about Bruno Adams, and
"Shrine" is for us all. "Paranoia.com" (the song) is written through
the eyes of a Timothy McVeigh type of character, a potential terrorist or serial
killer living on the fringes of society. Someone who feels compelled "to do
something about the situation", to take on the corruption and lies he hears in
the media and from politicians' mouths. The album starts off fiery and angry and ends on a
more melancholic note with "Shrine", which is a kind of epitaph for this slow
apocalypse the world now seems to be going through. In some ways I've taken up the
lyrical themes I explored with Khmer Rouge back in the 80s, themes I'd describe as
"psycho-political". I'm really happy with the overall sound of the CD, it's very
layered and textured, with multiple guitar tracks and half submerged melodies. I think
it's a very spacey sound, kind of trippy at the same time as it's grungy and metallic.
(2010, Phil Shoenfelt)
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| Single Release |
| In 2010 Easy
Action Recordings released the Download-Single "Open Up &
Bleed", including the album version as well as an acoustic version: |
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| Reviews |
| The Prague Post 15.12.2010 |
Phil Shoenfelt's four
decades of work with Manchester, New York City, London, Berlin and Melbourne artists fits
the personnel of his Prague-based band Southern Cross like a glove. Bassists Pavel Krtous,
drummer Jarda Kvasnička and Pavel Cingl's violin and mandolin make up Shöenfelt's
heavyweight rhythm section. Add to this a knack for storytelling that has made Shoenfelt
an award-winning novelist, and magic is afoot. Paranoia.com opens with tracks of fervent,
lyrical rock 'n' roll full of WikiLeaks media-age protest. This is followed by an
evocation of Prague alleyways on Shoenfelt's wintry cobblestone reflection "Footsteps
of a Dream." But the heart of Paranoia.com is condensed in the final two tracks of
the album, which include the streetwise requiem "Forgiven," dedicated to the
late Bruno Adams, the Australian-born longtime Berlin expat guitarist/songwriter. Closing
with the gothic hope of "Shrine," Paranoia.com places Shoenfelt on the same path
as the artists with whom he has shared the bill over the years, including Nick Cave, Lydia
Lunch, Rowland S. Howard and Nikki Sudden. As one enthusiastic concertgoer at Southern
Cross' album launch said, "This is rock and roll."
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| BLURT 17.05.2011 |
Phil Shoenfelt's history stretches
back to the early ‘80s and the postpunk act Khmer Rouge. But the
British-born/Prague-based singer/songwriter/guitarist has a steady flow of releases with
both Southern Cross and the band Fatal Shore that only the geekiest of rock cognoscenti
seem to know about. A shame, that, if Paranoia.com is any indication.
Much like his late friend Nikki Sudden (with whom he recorded the excellent Golden Vanity in 1998), Shoenfelt works in a straightforward, guitar-based rock ‘n' roll vein, crooning his poetic lyrics over basic riffs and unfussy rhythms. Boasting both a creamy baritone and a sense of melancholy that's almost gothic, Shoenfelt is less exuberant than his old compadre, given more to brooding folk rock like "Forgiven" or weary confessions like "Tired of Loving You." But he's no defeatist, injecting a strain of sardonic humor into the bitchy "Stupid Rock Star" and the obsessive title track. Like Sudden, Shoenfelt is something of an iconoclast, with no obvious place in the current modern rock landscape. But that makes an album like Paranoia.com all the more interesting and worth hearing. |
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| Bucketfull of Brains #78/79 Winter 2011, by Simon Wright |
The
title track is a fierce Stones groove that lends Shoenfelt's carefully
sung lyrics power and authority. Lines like "Now I'm standing at the
edge of the future where the present and past collide" inevitably
remind of "Well I live here in Kill City where the debris meet the
sea". Sure enough track six is a well-constructed version of Iggy's
'Open Up And Bleed' which compares favourably to the version currently
being toured by the reformed Stooges.
Throughout this concise release (ten tracks, no more) Southern Cross provide backing of such empathy that Phil always sounds like a band member rather than a songwriter backed by session guys. The closing track "Shrine" is calmer and more stately, the near-biblical repetition of "And all of this will surely come to pass" sounding like Island-era John Cale (albeit less Welsh). A diverse and satisfying set that should make these guys better known. |
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| ViveLeRock 2011 review by Hugh Gaulland |
Darksider blues rock from Shoenfelt and friends. Former Khmer Rouge man and Nikki Sudden collaborator, Prague-based Phil Shoenfelt has staked out his territory in the badlands of brooding blues-tinged rock, and this new offering - conceived and recorded in the wake of the ravages of Interferon treatment - is an appropriately dark-hearted affair. As the title would suggest, Shoenfelt's current material seethes with paranoiac malaise, alleviated by the melancholic atmosperics at work on cuts such as 'Forgiven', Shoenfelt's references are worn on his sleeve her - 'Bitterman' or the stunning 'Bloodshot Eyes' recall the troubled misanthropy of Nick Cave, while 'Undertow' taps into Joy Division's icy magnificence. There's a tip of the hat to Iggy And The Stooges whose classic 'Open Up And Bleed' is given a masterful working over here. A heartsick concentration of rocking-blues vitriol and regret. (7/10) |
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