Best Bets - On An Unhistoric Night

€10.00 - €17.00

Best Bets - On An Unhistoric Night

€10.00 - €17.00

Limited edition Transparent Orange and Black Vinyl LP with insert.

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*European and rest of the world orders ship from Spain.

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“On an unhistoric night at the historic hall,
Hearing sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.”

A salute to amateur songwriters making music for the sake of dedication to the craft, the opening line of centerpiece The Minor Leagues is perhaps an apt introduction to the band Best Bets and a glimpse into what makes them good. Yes, this is a band with day jobs. They’ve not yet had a hit. The album was made on a shoestring budget in a lock-up in Ōtautahi Christchurch. They care about writing great songs, doing it themselves, and defining their own style whether or not it’s the sound of the week, or the year, or the decade.

The duo of Harding/Crawford Ellis is one of those timeless songwriting partnerships penning a number of classics and future classics on both this album and as previous output from Best Bets and punk band Transistors. While both songwriters have distinct styles (Crawford Ellis loves a good story; Harding is more often wearing his heart on his sleeve), the shared history between the pair gives a chemistry and cohesion of songwriting that can only come from doing it for a very long time. The lineup of Best Bets on this record has been rounded out with Joe Sampson (Salad Boys) on bass, and Matt Phimmavanh, making Best Bets one of Christchurch's most essential live acts.

Perhaps this album could be described as a series of homages; a bunch of ballads, some tearjerkers, with a few earworms thrown in. ‘On An Unhistoric Night’ talks about New Jack Swing artists who were formerly Olympic athletes; 11th century monarchs; Italian sports cars (and car salesmen); Open Polytechnic ads of the late 90s; Whose Line is it Anyway?; Subbuteo champions and Elvis impersonators. It explores hubris, hopelessness and purpose in life, pop culture detritus and everyday ennui underpinned by humour, guitar heroics and catchy bloody hooks.

The album is a hi-fi effort by producer Brian Feary, who notably has worked with a number of excellent Christchurch bands - Wurld Series, Salad Boys and The Dance Asthmatics to name a few. You might like this album if you appreciate bands like The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, Buzzcocks, Big Star and The Go-Betweens.
credits
releases April 29, 2022

Olly Crawford Ellis - Drums, Vocals
James Harding - Guitar, Vocals
Joe Sampson - Bass
Matthew Phimmavanh - Guitar, Keys

Produced by Brian Feary and Best Bets.
Engineered and mastered by Brian Feary.
Recorded at DSF, Woolston.
Al songs by Crawford Ellis, Harding, Phimmavanh and Sampson.
6, 8, 9 and 12 co-written by Luke Harding.
Artwork by Fresh OJ.
Photographs by Nick Robinson.
Some vocals and percussion done by everyone including Brian.

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