The Self Portrait Gospel

The Self Portrait Gospel presents: “When I Didn’t Have A Home” - An Amps For Christ Podcast Season 1 Ep. 01 (Season Premier) :: "The End Is The Beginning and The Beginning Is The End" Hailing from Claremont, California, a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, Henry Barnes (Ranger Barnes, Enid Snarb) first began connecting with the meditative melodies of music through his incredibly talented parents. With a mother who played guitar and a father who was a member of the local collective The Real Jazz Band, Barnes’ exciting environment eventually led him down the endless path of folklore, melodic mythology, and traditional tunes. Having participated in several groups in grade school and high school, the young industrious musician began to hone his craft during the cultural crossover from rock and roll to punk in the late 1970s, and decided to combine the two in one liberating location, and hasn’t looked back since. In this first episode of “When I Didn’t Have A Home,” An Amps For Christ Podcast, Barnes takes us all the way back to the biblical beginning when he was born in La Verne before relocating to Mexico with his family and siblings, for a few years before returning to California, where he would eventually begin to connect with the spiritual sounds, and tonal textures that would later go on to define the visceral vibrations, and environmentally epic messages of LA-based “power violence” trailblazers Man Is The Bastard, and later Amps For Christ. Join us as we unpack the unique universe of all things AFC on this season’s first episode, "The End Is The Beginning and The Beginning Is The End", where we initiate the first peel of the Glass Onion before discovering what lurks within in its cosmic center. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

A Decade Of Chris Cohen's As If Apart 2016 seems a lot longer than a decade ago, and I’m sure Cohen would agree that this particular time frame doesn’t add up with everything that has happened since, to say the least. But what an atmospheric artifact to celebrate in all its harmonious glory, and tangible tones as we peel back the lyrical layers, and tender tones of one of Cohen’s critical classics. While focusing on chord changes, the revolution of riffs, and the mathematics of melodies, the album took Cohen into tonal territories that only he knew the flight patterns to. “As If Part” takes translucent turns through the void in search of that legendary light at the end of the tunnel, only to discover it was never a tunnel in the first place, but a vibrant vacuum, whose walls and cosmic crevices bend with each turn as listeners grow closer to their dystopian destination. The album turned a decade old this month, and with a special deluxe release featuring demos and live tracks, longtime fans can expect a textured trip into the melodic mind and lyrical landscape of one of the greats of our time. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

The 2nd annual "Community Sings Bob Dylan" is set for Monday, June 1st at the @cpac_tn . Thanks to @andrewwilliamsmith and co. for bringing me back on board to help bring this to the people. Most of you are probably aware by now, but Tennessee has been set back several decades, so let's gather and bring some of that familiar revolution Bob was pushing not so long ago to our state. While this event is free to the public, we are accepting donations to help feed some folks in the community who need our help. If you're interested in attending this event and are out of state/town, drop a line, and let's make it happen.

The Alex Izenberg Interview Over the last decade, LA-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex Izenberg has been carefully constructing a vividly vintage body of work since the release of his 2016 solo debut “Harlequin”. Having been influenced by the likes of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and the Beatles, Izenberg’s sound seeks a spiritual serenity that captures the critical culture of romanticism, while balancing the poetic past with the fever of the future. With titles like “Disraeli Woman”, “Caravan Château”, “I'm Not Here”, and 2024’s full band debut “Alex Izenberg & The Exiles”, the musician returns to the soft surface with a brand new single, “Old Gold”, while new material for his next album lies dormant beneath the cosmic crust. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

Season 9 Ep. 05 - John McCauley (Deer Tick) Longtime Providence-based rockers Deer Tick have been releasing aggressively atmospheric, sonically seductive music for over two decades now. Since forming in the winter of ‘04 as a duo dynamic for McCauley’s melodies, the group has spiritually secured a poetic place in the creative cosmos, alongside their peers and critical contemporaries. We had the chance to sit down with McCauley to talk about the band’s brand new album, “Coin-O-Matic”, which is set for release on ATO Records in early June, and the thriving traditions, historical harmonies, and memories of the mafia that once thrived in New England at that time. With everything that’s going on in this country, the madness and the cruelty, Deer Tick have risen from the artistic ashes since the release of their 2023 album “Emotional Contracts” to serve the people a delightful dose of splendid songwriting and self-produced purity, but above all, superb storytelling. Air :: 05/15

The Lau Ro Interview São Paulo-born, Brighton-based artist, multi-instrumentalist, and producerLau Ro first came onto the scene as a solo artist with their 2024 debut “Cabana”, and has since made a name for themselves in the weird and wild world of spiritual sound, tonal texture, and critical creativity. Following up with their highly anticipated sophomore release, “Lau”, the songwriter eagerly and without hesitation explores the dark density and oftentimes painful process of producing those poetic particles that make for a singular, brilliant body of work. “My entire world had been deconstructed and reinvented multiple times, often with tragic elements and many limitations outside of my control”, says Ro about his journey as an individual during these rather dark times we face, and while there seem to be more reasons to give up or give in, hope and optimism go a long way these days. Ro wrote and recorded an album this year; let this be a tonal testament that we all have a purpose and a pursuit worth embracing and achieving in this life. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

Happy Jawbone Family Band :: The Silk Pistol Happy Jawbone Family Band is radically reminiscent of those sonic salad days, and a great place to start in their dynamic discography is 2012’s “The Silk Pistol”. Throughout the entirety of the album, you can hear the soft sirens of an ice cream truck go by in the vacuum of space, while the reverberation of thrift store instruments dances in and out of creative consciousness across the album’s eleven tracks.  A mind-altering spell book that unfolds into the universe’s most brilliant, yet violently vegetated environment, where the melodies of a madman reside deep in the greenery of the natural world, the band connects with their creative core like never before, while simultaneously unleashing songs like a soothing solvent sprayed across the economy in an even coating. Featuring a wide range of rudimentary ramblings and psychedelic poems like “There's Too Much Blood In The Attic Today”, “Deep Dreamer”, “Little Miss Sayonara”, and the album’s epic opener “The Wrong Wings”, the album truly defines not only a specific era, but also a romantic gesture of the times that we should definitely work on getting back to. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

West Side After Hours :: Presented by The Self Portrait Gospel ▪️A Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary w/ Tennessee Dead ▪️Friday, May 22nd - West Side Grocery - Cookeville, TN With the recent passing of the great Robert Hall Weir, known around the world and nearby galaxies as Bob Weir, a founding member and guitarist of the mighty Grateful Dead, things haven’t been the same, to say the least. As the band celebrates its 60th anniversary since forming back in 1965, we wanted to celebrate its incredibly harmonious history by inviting you to join us for a full evening of Dead music from Nashville supergroup Tennessee Dead at West Side Grocery on Friday, May 22nd! Enjoy a psychedelic evening of music, food/drink, and community connection with some of the greatest tunes to have ever been conceived by man! ▪️Music at 6 pm ▪️FREE SHOW / ALL AGES ▪️Food by Leaky Faucet ▪️DESTIHL x Deadhead (Tourbus) Beer Special

Gun Outfit :: Process and Reality Since forming in Olympia, Washington, two decades ago, LA-based revolutionary rockers and supergroup gangsters Gun Outfit have become a spiritual staple among their prolific peers and creative contemporaries. Carefully combining the electrifying elements of pristine psychedelia with the ever-expanding tones of otherworldly whispers, the band has become a cult favorite in the hazardous hills and vibrant valleys of Los Angeles and beyond. With the release of their debut on the Carrboro, North Carolina-based label Paradise of Bachelors, “Dream All Over”, which also marks the epic entry of captain of the cosmos, Henry Barnes, the genius behind all things Amps For Christ, and the serene sounds of 2017’s “Out Of Range”, the band returns to the atmospheric airwaves after a well deserved break from the polarizing production culture of America with their long-awaited double LP “Process and Reality”. The album was captured and self-recorded by the band over the course of a month on a radical ranch in Pine Flat in the Sierra Nevada foothills of eastern Fresno County back in 2020, if you recall those tumultuous times, simultaneously, while over 4 million acres, more than four percent of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, burned over the course of a year. Featuring nineteen tracks, Gun Outfit and its members, Dylan Sharp, Carrie Keith, Henry Barnes, Daniel Swire, and Kayla Cohen, who joined the group just before the album’s conception, are joined by an all-star cast of players, such as the great Chris Cohen, Warren Lee, Danny Sasaki, and several others to help bring the metaphysical messages to the surface for all to hear, and feel its radiating rapture on the senses. Set for release May 8th on the London-based label, and live music promotion company Upset! The Rhythm, the band embraces perhaps their greatest effort yet, but who's to say when an oscillating organism such as Gun Outfit comes to town? They keep getting better, and better over the years, like a weird whiskey. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

The Barry Louis Polisar Interview  Born in Brooklyn, New York, Barry Louis Polisar is an author, singer-songwriter, poet, and storyteller for children and young adults whose music has been featured in dozens of commercials and the 2007 indie masterpiece Juno. Since his 1975 debut, “I Eat Kids”, Polisar has gone on to release several other works that have solidified him in the creative concrete of his cultural contemporaries and poetic peers like Shel Silverstein and Ella Jenkins, to name a few. Polisar continues to shine a lovable light with his soft sounds and wondrous words during these dark times in our world, something we need now more than ever. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.

Lau Ro :: Lau Following up on their 2024 debut “Cabana”, the São Paulo-born, Brighton-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and engineer Lau Ro returns to the sonic surface with perhaps their most highly anticipated body of work yet, “Lau”. Simply self-titled as a melodic measurement to carefully conceal, and poetically preserve the eager essence of coming into one’s self through tonal trial and effortless experimentation, Ro carefully conjures a unique universe where Brazilian traditions meet the outstanding obligations of an artist dedicated to their craft. “Lau” splits open like a gestural geode waiting to be found, but absolutely content in its dormancy until then. Like all great things in life, you sometimes have to wait on the soft shores where patience perches like a biblical bird, before placing as much as a tender toe into its whispery waters. While immersing themselves in the feverish fundamentals of Bossa Nova, Tropicalia, and Música Popular Brasileira, the young artist breathes new life into the romantic realms of the cinematic content that make up their brand-new album on the New York-based label Mexican Summer, which is set for release in late June. Now reading at The Self Portrait Gospel.