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Joe Kennedy
Van Cortlandt park
Tracklisting:
Sadness
Fishing
Each and every day
April
Melissa age 4
A long way to go
Child-like
So long suzie
Hourglass
Remember me
11.11
Melissa by moonlight
Little silver car
"we are talking mini pop miracles here".
"an incredibly accomplished debut"
"the perfect summer soundtrack has arrived"
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Joe Kennedy - Van Cortlandt Park
TETRA 002
Listen to, download or buy Van Cortlandt Park here
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Melissa age 4
Fishing
11.11
Sadness
Each and every day
Joe Kennedy is a great songwriter!
Van Cortlandt Parks’ melodic charm owes an obvious debt to the genius of songwriters like Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson and Paul Williams, but any of these great songwriters would tear up the IOU’s for a credit on songs as good as Melissa Age 4, Each and every day or Fishing. This is a fresh new album from great new songwriting talent.
Joe Kennedy spent the last few years playing guitar and piano on a World Tour with old college buddy Pete Yorn in support of Pete’s Columbia Records album: Musicforthemorningafter, during this time he also played keyboards for the vocal pop sensation Macy Gray.
In between the touring commitments Joe formed his own band: Happily Ever After with bassist Terry Borden, drummer Brian Sussman and guitarist Paul Gagliardi. (Gagliardi was replaced with Zak Schaffer in 2002), and started to record a clutch of self-penned songs that would eventually become Van Cortlandt Park. Some mixing wizardry by pal Jeff Garber (formerly of indie darlings National Skyline) finally whipped the album into shape. The debut album isn't written with any thematic continuity in mind, but all of the songs in one way or another are about an unattainable, elusive love.
Joe was born into a musical family in Yonkers, New York in 1972. Piano lessons at 6, guitar lessons at 10, Joe spent his youth overdosing on his Parents record collection of Byrds, Beatles, Beach Boys and Velvet Underground. At 18 years old, Joe enrolled at Syracuse University where he majored in Film and Television Production, but his heart was always in songwriting and music. After Graduating Joe took off on a trip around his home country. In 1998 he moved to Los Angeles where he became a fixture around the Silver Lake underground music community
Visit Joe's Myspace site here
PRESS REVIEWS FOR VAN CORTLANDT PARK
Joe Kennedy - Van Cortlandt Park - Neon Tetra Records
You need a little Brill building class with added sun kissed harmonies to usher in the summer. Sure, it’s here. How about some Beach Boys bounce and candy floss hooks? That’s not a problem. I know, a song about a young child that doesn’t stick in the throat or drown in sickly sentimentality. Not an issue, we are talking mini pop miracles here.
Van Cortlandt Park lies deep in the heart of the Bronx. It must be the lush green vistas that prevent the current art funk sound of NYC bleeding into these power pop gems. You can picture a young Brian Wilson playing Frisbee with Eric Matthews. There’s Matthew Sweet strumming his guitar while the telegraph wires hum and swirl like analogue synths. There’s Teenage Fanclub queuing for ice creams with Liam Hayes of Plush.
This is sun-dappled, refreshingly, frisky. The songs speak of longing, loneliness, teenage crushes and unrequited love. Pianos tinkle, guitars jangle, strings sparkle, keyboards flicker and fizz, music box melodies dance like dust in sunlight. This is an incredibly accomplished debut, a testament to Kennedy’s songwriting skills. It seems more remarkable when you consider that his day job is playing keyboards for Macy Gray. Put on your shades, break out the cider, the perfect summer soundtrack has arrived.
Tony Heywood - Comes with a smile Music Magazine
Joe Kennedy - Van Cortlandt Park - Neon Tetra Records
It is always refreshing to hear proper albums by proper songwriters; in an age of music riddled with super-producers and hit writing teams, to hear the thirteen songs sung simply with little bombast on Van Cortlandt Park is like driving at night, with nothing distracting from the main task at hand. Allowed to breathe as such, Joe Kennedy has assembled an amazingly assured debut, owing as much to contemporaries such as Brendon Benson and Jon Brion as it does to greats such as Brian Wilson and Paul Williams.
With a voice much like Benson, but with more whimsical subject matter, the former Macy Gray keyboard player hits the ground running with Sadness, a song a lot more uplifting than the title would suggest. Fishing follows superbly setting the tone for the rest of the album, with softly sung tales of yearning, discovery and general wonderment, all delivered in with Kennedy’s sweet sincerity.
Occasionally, the lack of modern-world benchmarks such as disdain or anger blights proceedings, but this is a very minor criticism compared to the quality of the song writing and the easiness of the production. Maybe some will begrudge the lack of an attitude, but many more will seek solace in Van Cortlandt Park, as it is an understated reminder of the power of simplicity.
By Ross Breadmore - subba-cultcha
JOE KENNEDY - Van Cortlandt Park (Neon Tetra, 2005)
Among the all-Scottish line up of the first bunch of releases on the brand new Neon Tetra label, managed by the ex-Cosmic Rough Rider, Daniel Wylie, there’s one tiny little exception, brought in by an American, called Joe Kennedy, mostly (un)known for being a keyboard player for Macy Gray and Pete Yorn. Joe’s contribution to the Neon Tetra roster is nothing that you haven’t already heard from whichever of the usual Glasgowian artists, it’s just that he delivers it with an additional Americanism. Right from the very album opening with “Sadness”, that is in fact sure to make you happy, any of the references that you might hear, is actually audiable in almost every other song, be it the jazzy sophistication sometimes reminiscent of the way it was done by Stereolab, or the more vintage legacy of the so called “inteligent” popsters such as The Zombies, Burt Bacharach, post-Nazz Todd Rundgrenn ... or the laid back sounding summery lush vibes, initiated by the likes of Roger Nicholls, Curt Boettcher or Brian Wilson, and inherited by The Pearlfishers for instance, all interspersed with different kinds of Moogy soundeffects. It’s kinda hard to point out the favourites, since they seem to be changing from one listening to another, but at the moment, besides the mentioned opener, it must be the following (Pearl)”Fishing”, as well as the happy-go-lucky “So long Susie” or the slightlydelic sounding “Remember me”.
According to the albums released so far, Neon Tetra might as well be considered a label that could become something like a perfect companion to Rev-Ola, from the standpoint of contemporary artists.
Goran Obradovic / POPISM radio show; Serbia & Montenegro
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JOE KENNEDY - Van Cortlandt Park (Neon Tetra, 2005)
Thirteen tracks of generic but gorgeous Beach Boys/Byrdsy Cali-pop from Silverlake multi-instrumentalist and Pete Yorn band member that manages to out-sundrench the entire Marina Records roster. Stephen Trousse, UNCUT magazine ***
If you have an enquiry regarding Joe Kennedy then please email us at: info@neontetrarecords.co.uk |
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Site © NeonTetra Records Ltd 2005
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