Revered Melbourne blues institution Checkerboard Lounge are preparing to release their first new music since their multi-award winning and blues-chart topping album Sun Sessions. Double A-sided new single “Uncivil Compliance”/”Rollercoaster” is the first product of sessions with equally revered entity Jeff Lang producing; sessions which will ultimately result in the release of a new Checkerboard Lounge album later in 2023. The group’s latest album, Sun Sessions, won three of six available awards at the Melbourne Blues Awards and Best Blues Album at the Music Victoria Awards in 2022. It was in Rhythms magazines Top 10 Albums of the Year, and it spent more than a year on the Australian Blues & Roots Airplay chart, including multiple months at #1.
The new single is the first record to feature the band’s current line-up, which features monster muso Zoë Frater on bass alongside group founder Carl Pannuzzo on vocals and drums, Shannon Bourne on guitars and Tim Neal on Hammond Organ.
While Carl Pannuzzo is revered as a vocalist (the late Broderick Smith once said Carl was the best soul singer in the country), the band wanted to highlight its instrumental prowess on the single with the catchy guitar-voiced groover “Uncivil Compliance”. This also harkens back to when instrumentals were as common on 45s as vocal numbers. Even the sung flip side “Rollercoaster”, a fun shuffle penned by Pannuzzo and Bourne, features a cool bass solo by new ace bassist Zoë Frater. The whole band is front and centre on the record, operating as it does, like one organism pumping its rootsy goodness for feet and hearts to thump by.
“Uncivil Compliance”/”Rollercoaster” will be released digitally and a strictly limited edition 7″ single via Cheersquad Records & Tapes on Thursday May 25, and the group will the single with a special matinee performance at the Brunswick Ballroom on Saturday May 27.
CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE (double-A side)
Uncivil Compliance (Bourne)
Rollercoaster (Pannuzzo/Bourne)
Songs arranged and produced by Checkerboard Lounge
Shannon Bourne – guitars
Zoë Frater – bass
Tim Neal – Hammond organ
Carl Pannuzzo – vocals/drums
Recorded & mixed by Jeff Lang at the Enclave, Melbourne
Analog Mastering by Joe Carra at Crystal Mastering
CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE BAND
7″ single launch ‘Double A-side’
Saturday 27th May
Brunswick Ballroom
Guest: George Carroll-Wilson (Pollyman)
1.30-4pm matinee
https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/checkerboard-lounge/151194
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