mp3: Second Day Of The Year
website: http://www.goldenboyband.com

It feels strange to glance around the blog aggregators and see folks around the world posting Goldenboy songs. A positive thing surely, but for about five years, it’s kinda felt like only 100 people were fans of Goldenboy, and 90 of those lived in LA and were friends with them. And that’s despite the fact that frontman Shon Sullivan has also been in the now defunct Spain, toured in Elliott Smith’s band, toured with Neil Finn, and even been a part of Eels for a while, to name just a few career moves.

I quite possibly saw Shon perform in each of those three incarnations actually, but it wasn’t until the Neil Finn touring of 2001 that he really came onto my radar. A completely charming, amazingly friendly man (I also interviewed him on the Eels tour), Neil often let him take a solo song mid-set, as was standard on that tour (Lisa Germano also got a regular spotlight). But I was also lucky enough to catch a short solo set in Liverpool, at one of Finn’s ‘Band of Strangers’ shows - one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

So I’ve followed Shon and Goldenboy ever since. Their debut album Blue Swan Orchestra was adorable, but it always felt like no-one was getting to hear it. Now we reach 2006 and new disc Underneath the Radio is out in a couple of weeks, and it’s a pleasant surprise that some bloggers are paying attention. Maybe it’s better promotion by the new label (Eenie Meenie Records). Maybe it’s just that it’s out on file share networks and people will grab anything going. Either way, I hope they get a little recognition this time around cos they’re sweet guys making sweet guitar pop. They deserve an audience.