# JOHNNY CASINO’S New Album ‘High Stone’ Out Now

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/johnny-casinos-new-album-high-stone-out-now/
- Published: 2024-05-03T13:29:49-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

### **JOHNNY CASINO’S NEW ALBUM _HIGH STONE _OUT TODAY VIA CHEERSQUAD RECORDS & TAPES**

#### **FORMERLY OF SYDNEY’S BELOVED ROCK’N’ROLLERS ASTEROID B-612, SPAIN-BASED JOHNNY CASINO IS NOW AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONALLY REVERED AND GLOBE-TROTTING GUITAR SLINGER (AND TATTOO ARTIST!) PAR EXCELLENCE!  **

Following the appearance of the new single and video “**The Ghost Train”** earlier
in the week, Australia’s #1 internationally revered globe-trotting guitar slinger(
and tattoo artist par excellence!), **Johnny Casino** has today released his new
album **_High Stone _**on Cheersquad Records & Tapes.

[⌊Johnny Casino⌉⌊Johnny Casino⌉[

The album is available digitally and on limited edition orange vinyl and black vinyl
from:
[https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/album/high-stone](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=8acb91c723&e=7f3088bce0)
[https://www.cheersquad.com.au/releases/johnny-casino-high-stone/](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=5862cb0c44&e=7f3088bce0)
[https://bfan.link/high-stone](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=8badfd8e24&e=7f3088bce0)

Formerly of Sydney’s beloved ’90s rock’n’rollers **Asteroid B-612**, Johnny Casino
now calls Spain home and regularly plays across Europe and in the US. Indeed, his
new album _High Stone_ was recorded on a recent US sojourn, in Philadelphia, with
members of the band **St James and The Apostles**. It was mixed in Spain by American**
Mike Mariconda**, who has worked with other Australian legends the Cosmic Psychos
and the Powder Monkeys as well as premiere punkers like the New Bomb Turks and Jack
Oblivion and garage goddess Holly Golightly. 

The new album, as usual, highlights Johnny’s huge guitar chops and fine singing &
songwriting. It features a stronger keyboard presence than is usual for Johnny –
a great ’60s organ sound – and on some songs an endearing and soulful ’60s garage-
pop feel not unlike Memphis greats the Reigning Sound. 

Johnny says of the new single “The Ghost Train”:
**_“I had the chords and changes
for The Ghost Train for a couple of years, and I had what could be called a ̈word
salad ̈ scribbled down on some paper, I even had a couple of melody lines written
on the guitar BUT nothing was coming together until, while visiting some good friends
in Virginia, I spent a week being woke up at around 4am in the morning and not knowing
why. _**

**_Once or twice, I woke with the dream of a train whistle on my mind, it wasn’t
until after about a week that I realized that it was an actual train whistle from
a local cargo train passing by each morning that was waking me up!! _**

**_One of those mornings I woke and looked at the word salad on that paper and the
lyrics just came together fast! I mean REALLY fast, it all just made sense, so I
sat there at 4 or 5 in the morning lightly strumming the guitar and mumbling the
lyrics in my head and knew I had a song… what I call a keeper!! _**

**_And the song kept falling into place while recording it with Thee Apostles, it
felt easy and inspired at the same time. Jamie did a great job on some noise effects(
made with real instruments) and the train whistle at the end really ties the room
together doesn’t it?”_**

JOHNNY CASINO - The Ghost Train

[⌊JOHNNY CASINO - The Ghost Train⌉⌊JOHNNY CASINO - The Ghost Train⌉
Watch this video
on YouTube

_JOHNNY CASINO – The Ghost Train (Official video)_

**Johnny Casino – Guitars / Jill Snarburg – Vocals / Jeff Castner – Drums
Mike Kiker–
Bass guitar and Hammond Organ

**Recorded at Greenrock Recorders Philadelphia by Jamie Mahon
Mixed and Mastered
by Mike MaricondaProduced by Jamie Mahon and Johnny Casino.

“Ghost Train” and previous single “Mr Fastgun” follows the release last month of
Johnny’s incredible, epic 9:54-minute version of **The Byrds**‘ trailblazing psychedelic
masterpiece** “Eight Miles High”**. Given its length. “Eight Miles High” is not 
on the vinyl edition of _High Stone_ but it is available digitally. 

**_And now, to tell you more about his new recordings, he-e-e-r-e’s Johnny!_**

_The city of Philadelphia has been good to your old pal Johnny Casino, in between
the years of 1997 and 2001 I spent the best part of 3 years living there or being
there for extended periods of time, and have returned many times since. I dig the
gritty fighting spirit that I believe lives and breathes in Philly and it´s passionate
people. The streets feel familiar to me and it feels like home, some of my favorite
people live or once lived in Philadelphia, I love the city warts and all._

[⌊Johnny Casino⌉⌊Johnny Casino⌉[

_High Stone was recorded in Philadelphia…….twice!_

_This album started its life in Olde Richmond, Philadelphia, in early March of 2020,
then……..well all kinds of ¨road blocks, detours, lost recordings, doubts and distances
¨ tried to derail it until we finally finished it in October of 2023 (I recorded
and released an album, a singles box set containing 5 singles and bonus tracks, 
and two other 45´s in between starting and finishing this album!?)_

_High Stone was recorded by my dear old friend Jamie Mahon (Three 4 Tens, Marah,
Mondo Topless, St James and The Apostles) in his studio Greenrock Recorders, with
his GREAT band The Apostles as my backing band and Jamie behind the controls. _

_This is not the place to bore you with the ¨how´s and why´s of the stops and starts
and lost tapes¨ but we manged to get the recording side of it finished in July 2023.
I then took the tracks back home to Spain to have them mixed and Mastered by Mike
Mariconda (Raunch Hands, Devil Dogs, 9 Pound Hammer, The New Bomb Turks, Holly Golightly,
Jack Oblivian, Barrence Whitfield)_

_Most of the ideas for these songs where conceived in my home in Spain BUT they 
most certainly became reborn walking thru my old haunts/streets in Philly, soaking
in it´s smell, the way it moves, looks and feels, remembering times from more 20
years of frequenting the ¨city of brotherly love¨ and letting those memories and
impulses that struck me shape and mold the songs and performances while recording._

_The formula for recording these songs was to keep the ideas fresh, I would spend
15 or 20 minutes with the drummer Jeff Castner showing him a loose song structure
and accent points, then we would start to roll the tape and make takes, if my memory
serves me well we had each song in 3 takes or less, go into the control room have
a listen together and decide on if we wanted to do another take, most of the time
we didn´t!! _

_Jamie would do his ¨mad scientist¨ thing offering up different ideas for sounds
and effects to flesh out the songs then Mike Kiker would come in later in the evening
and add Bass guitar and keyboard parts and then even later Jill Snarburg would add
her vocals and backing vocals to round it all out. The basic tracking took 3 to 
4 days which I believe kept the songs open and fresh with a direct feel and energy._

_My original idea was that Jamie Mahon would mix the album but he suggested the 
album would be served well by having a fresh set of ears hearing it and mixing from
a slightly different perspective. I was visiting some good friends in Virginia lying
in bed wondering who I might ask to mix the album when I got a call from my brother
Julian Marco, we got to talking and he suggested I talk to Mike Mariconda whom was
living in a small town near Valencia, which in turn is not that far away from where
I live in Denia._

_In the past I had worked only briefly with Mike many years ago when I was asked
to play some guitar for my brothers in Los Chicos on a record he was producing. 
I had listened to Mike´s music and producing from a far for many years so I knew
that what he might do could very easy be up my alley sonically speaking, I spoke
to Mike briefly when I got home from America, sent him a rough mix of a song to 
see if he might be interested, luckily for me (hopefully you too!) he was up for
it! _

_So Mike started doing his thing, the mixers flowed freely and we just went with
what we thought best served the song, never trying to over complicate the mix or
the song. Mike then mastered the recordings and now hopefully you are listening 
and feeling some of the things we did while making it._

_Wishing y´all well – Johnny Casino_

 **_Johnny Casino’s new album _High Stone_ is out now through Cheersquad Records&
Tapes. Available on limited edition orange vinyl and black vinyl, and digitally._**

[https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/album/high-stone](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=7a6d7ee08a&e=7f3088bce0)
[https://www.cheersquad.com.au/releases/johnny-casino-high-stone/](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=fa67dcd391&e=7f3088bce0)
[https://bfan.link/high-stone](https://facebook.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7468cc72c4dbd0d828cf87a0a&id=e75e48a0de&e=7f3088bce0)

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[⌊Cheersquad Records and Tapes⌉⌊Cheersquad Records and Tapes⌉[

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[⌊Dave Laing Publicity⌉⌊Dave Laing Publicity⌉[

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