June 13, 2016

Sonny and the Sunsets’ Brilliant Misdirection

This winning set is essentially Sonny Smith and company making their typical mischief. And that’s a good thing.


Sonny and the Sunsets
Moods Baby Moods
Polyvinyl

Courtesy of Polyvinyl Records

Powered by jittery electric guitars, sloppy, semi-funky beats, and scruffy analog synths that could have been retrieved from the scrap heap, the endearing Moods Baby Moods teems with tantalizing ideas. Ever-crafty frontman Sonny Smith projects a lethargic stoner vibe that’s a textbook example of brilliant misdirection, warbling witty and unpredictable tunes ranging from anxiety-ridden surrealism worthy of a Philip K. Dick novel (“Death Cream part 2 ‘Watch Out for the Cream'”) to a profanely funny tall tale (“Well But Strangely Hung Man”) to scathing social commentary (“White Cops on Trial”), wherein he mumbles bitterly, “We have found him not guilty ’cause we are insane.” Merrill Garbus, of tUnE-yArDs renown, produces, lending the band a brighter than usual sound, but this winning set is essentially Smith and company making their typical mischief. And that’s a good thing.

 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate