Forget work Wednesday night. No worries. It’ll still be there tomorrow, but the Ruby Suns released Sea Lion last month on Sub Pop records, and the band, along with fellow fuzz-pop players Throw Me the Statue, is coming to the Mink’s Back Room to celebrate.
The Ruby Suns will surely take you to lots of sandy, shiny, sunny places: a tropical island, for instance, equipped with coconut cocktails and colorful bendy straws, melodic worldly music and people singing and dancing along the beautiful blue crystal beach.
Ryan McPhun might just be a jewel thief. He grew up in Ventura, California, became a traveler and ended up making a home in Aukland, New Zealand. Loving the south island for its beaches and the north island for its forests, he often takes his Dictaphone out and steals samples from his natural environment to mix into his music, while sometimes creating others digitally to maintain the inspiration of a faraway, peaceful place.
McPhun formed his band in 2004 with some likeminded traveling friends, and together they released a self-titled debut album on New Zealand’s indie Lil’ Chief Records in 2005. In 2006, the album was released in Europe through Memphis Industries, and also in Australia through Popfrenzy.
Although not commercially sold as pop in New Zealand, the band has developed a devoted following there and across the globe, and all the while the Suns has always done its own recording and management.
Some may know McPhun’s singing and percussion skills from his experience playing in Aukland-based The Brunettes, who, in 2005, toured the United States with Rilo Kiley and the Shins. He is also present on Brunette’s recent release Structure and Cosmetics.
McPhun and fellow band mates Amee Robinson and Imogen Taylor have a knack for making music that just gives you the feeling that everything is all right. Two years ago, while on a U.S. tour after playing SXSW, they lost everything they had when their motor home caught fire. Yet, somehow, through friends and good fortune, they were able to finish the tour. Perhaps it is optimism gained from that experience and others that gives Sea Lion such a dreamy, positive vibe.
"Remember" has an anthemic feel to it, with layered vocals, trumpet, trombone and clarinet, along with vibraphone and double bass.
"Tane Mahuta," the album’s third track, is sung entirely in Maori, an official language of New Zealand. Maori itself means "normal or ordinary," and in world mythology "Tane Mahuta" represents the Polynesian god of the forests, birds and insects.
So, never mind that it’s a school night. Go have a listen at www.myspace.com/therubysuns, and go to The Mink for a much-needed vacation from the everyday grind. Doors open an 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $10.
