THE BLACK WATCH ~ THE INNERCITY GARDEN EP

Fronted by USC creative writing professor John Andrew Fredrick, THE BLACK WATCH is the best band you've never heard of to put out eight LPs over the last 17 years. A Blonde On Blonde parody ('Dylan, Dylan, Dylan') and a pleasant Chad and Jeremy folk/rocker ('Moonlight Thru Ivy') don't really go anywhere, but things start humming with 'The Teacup Song Take Two', which has an urgent, stop/start vibe not heard since the heyday of AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB. It's 'Innercity Garden', however, that burns the house to the ground with its grinding, fire-alarm guitar riff.

Reviewed in Magnet by Jud Cost, USA

Seventeen years later, THE BLACK WATCH still labor under the somewhat dubious distinction of being perhaps the best band that people have never heard. It's a shame that with more than ten releases that brim with immediate and infectious appeal, they've yet to find the larger audience they so clearly deserve. This EP is more of a teaser for the forthcoming long player The Hypnotizing Sea than a new statement of purpose. It previews two new selections: the robust, instantly engaging title track, and the oh-so earnest 'Dylan Dylan Dylan'. The latter is an effusive ode to everything Bob, set to a jaunty melody that is strikingly and appropriately similar to his classic 'I Want You'. The four song set is rounded out by a pair of above-par B Sides: the BYRDS-like 'Moonlight Thru Ivy' and the riveting rock of 'The Teacup Song Take Two'. Aside from the brevity of the collection, The Innercity Garden finds THE BLACK WATCH ticking off yet another impressive triumph.

Reviewed in Amplifier by Lee Zimmerman, USA

THE BLACK WATCH is one of those bands that's never gained the cult audience it's always deserved, despite a consistently strong career of literate guitar pop stretching back to the 80s. The Innercity Garden EP is merely a taster for the band's forthcoming album The Hypnotizing Sea, but what a tantalizer it is. 'Innercity Garden' rocks harder than anything the band has done in the past, while still retaining a graceful sense of melody and lyrical poetry. It's the hit single the Watch has always had in it. The wry 'Dylan, Dylan, Dylan' and the lovely 'Moonlight Thru Ivy' emphasize the folkier aspects of the band's personality to excellent effect, while 'The Teacup Song Take Two' jangles nicely in the style of mid-80s indie pop. Boasting some of the veteran band's best material ever, this EP bodes extremely well for the next full-length.

Reviewed at High Bias by Michael Toland, USA

Four new songs from the L.A. band fronted by John Andrew Fredrick, he of the literate pop songs with a slightly British ‘80s-indie feel. The first two numbers preview the band's incipient The Hypnotizing Sea album. 'The Innercity Garden' is strumming peppy electric folk rock number. The song is pure momentum with a melody on top. This is kind of a more rocking take on the ‘80s indie inspired forays of the recent PERNICE BROTHERS. The highlight of this disc (and likely the LP to come), is 'Dylan, Dylan, Dylan'. It is wholly appropriate that one of the most literate songwriters of the past decade or so comes up with a fantastic tribute to Mr. Zimmerman.

Fredrick manages to be reverent and a tad irreverent at the same time. The song bounces around with (of course) harmonica accompaniment. Frederick focuses on how Dylan impacts on his life: "‘fore I got so darn heartbroken/every single word he'd spoken/reached down to my soul..." The other two songs are also fine. 'Moonlight Thru Ivy' is a sweet acoustic number with a gloss of a Latin feel – not quite 'Spanish Harlem', but lovely just the same. The EP closes out with 'The Teacup Song Take Two' a ringing song that brings back memories of early JAMES, and college radio faves like POP ART and THE CONNELLS. A very nice teaser.

Reviewed in Fufkin by Mike Bennett, USA

2005 release, 4 song EP from a long time fave band here, THE BLACK WATCH. They have a truly unique blending of moody, melody drenched hooks colored divinely with violin and cello stringed strummings that breathtakingly beautiful and leaving fingerprints of music's ability to capture feelings of the soul. Pastoral, moving. Each song here creates a different mood. The sound here, as always, utilizes windswept, atmospheric indie pop combined with chiming, chilly guitars and the use of occasional touches of strings to add depth and mystery to these proceedings. Influences are always more subtle than overt, but include GO-BETWEENS, THE CURE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, YO LA TENGO and THE JAZZ BUTCHER.

Reviewed for Not Lame Recordings by Bruce Brodeen, USA

THE BLACK WATCH play The Echo for free tonight (Monday, July 18). Why is this excellent LA band so loved in the UK? 'Innercity Garden', the title track from their new EP, has my vote for best song of the summer - like a giant swing that lands you on your own secret party in a cloud. Like Andy Prieboy, they survived notoriously lame-o Dr Dream Records and the grunge era, a breakup and even the departure of signature violinist J'Anna Jacoby. Lead singer-guitarist John Andrew Fredrick has a Ph.D. in English and has written novels to boot. An LA treasure? You bet.

Reviewed in the LA Weekly by Libby Molyneaux, USA

We last came across this lot via their superb Very Mary Beth full-length way back in 2003, an album that swooned and buckled beneath the weight of gems it held dear within its grooves. Since then it seems John Andrew Frederick (guitars, vocals and mainstay founder since the ensembles inception in 1987) has, as all men of a certain age do, sought the refuge and comfort of his shed. Yet unlike other men of a certain age Frederick doesn’t spend his time creating contraptions that’ll never see the light of day or else spend years recreating a scaled down model of the St Paul’s Cathedral out of silver bottle tops - no Frederick is there, amid the tranquillity and refuge from the outside world that his confined playroom has to offer, creating gold standard pop nuggets for a willing audience to dance, swoon,embrace and perhaps fall in to. With a new album in the can (The Hypnotizing Sea) and awaiting release, Innercity Garden is a timely taster of what’s to come and features four such perfectly crafted and well rounded gems and perhaps for new comers, is the perfect starting point to your BLACK WATCH experience, given that it showcases their multi faceted talents. Sandwiched between the opening and closing fixes of jaunty candy pop lie a delightful twin set of ambling crystalline folk - ‘Dylan, Dylan, Dylan’ and ‘Moonlight Thru Ivy’.

The former a crisply breezy harmonica soaked homage to the Zimmerman dude and poet of our times, his BOB-ness DYLAN all metered out with a fetching happy go lucky sing-a-long personality that you can’t help but smile about, while the latter is a gorgeously cast laid bare numbing acoustic longingly threaded together with a genteel pastoral melody and a bracing stop you dead in your tracks introspective edge. ‘My Tea Cup Song Take Two’ is aglorious aural action painting of buzzing C-86 vibes, jangling guitars and radio friendly throbbing antics that dips, darts and fizzes as though someone somewhere had pollinated the best of both the Loft and Another Sunny Day and created something that could not only crack you over the head with a drop dead tune but lay your heart to siege at the same time. For me though personally best of the set is the title cut ‘Inner City Garden’. Built upon a lulling sheen of feedback that recalls THE PIXIES 'Motorway To Roswell' this muscular babe is a sugarg lazed kaleidoscopic indie sucker punch washed by subtle 60’s accents and the kind of classicism that’s taken for granted with each passing TEENAGE FANCLUB release and with that an absolute gem.

Reviewed in Losing Today by Mark, UK

A Californian with a love of classic British pop, John Andrew Fredrick writes witty, literate, unpretentious songs in the vein of ROBYN HITCHCOCK or his good friend THE JAZZ BUTCHER - but with a particularly American expansiveness. 'Innercity Garden' could be this summer's anthem.

Reviewed in Oxford Nightshift, UK

This is a hard one to describe. The self titled opener is easily the best track of the four. It sounds a bit "indie", with obscure lyrics that I can't work out. The second track, 'Dylan, Dylan, Dylan', which I gather is a tribute, is a good indication of how the rest of it sounds at times. I wouldn't rate this is a fantastic EP, but there are some moments of greatness. It is easily something worth coming back to someday.

Reviewed in Positive Creed, UK