Joey Sweeney

Joey Sweeney is a Philadelphia-based songwriter who has been writing songs and prose since in the 1980s. Over the years, he has fronted the influential Philly bands The Trouble With Sweeney and The Barnabys, as well as recording and performing as a solo artist. His new project, Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease, will be releasing their debut album Catholic School on September 7th, which is a joint release between Burnt Toast Vinyl (Sufjan Stevens, Pedro The Lion) and The Giving Groove. They’ll be donating half of ALL profits to Rock To The Future, a 501(c)3 organization that provides music education for Philadelphia’s underserved youth, at no cost to them or their families. Rock to the Future aims to empower individuals and strengthen communities through programs that ignite passion and creativity, support academic achievement, and improve self-esteem.

Catholic School is an album so steeped in dad-rock influences that it’s wearing a Members Only jacket and trying to get a job working for the city (there also may or may not be a saxophone solo on every single song on the album). The Neon Grease’s sound is rooted in a nighttime city vibe of rain-slicked streets with neon signs’ glow reflecting off them. It’s an album very much about the cities, and the way Sweeney’s city or your city is changing. You could say the city is the central character, but there’s also much about falling in and out of love, being with your friends and not being with your friends… all against the backdrop of looking for some kind of grace, while down the street, they’re tearing the old church down.

Sweeney’s songs and records have received widespread critical acclaim over the years; of his last record with The Trouble With Sweeney, Fishtown Briefcase (Spotify), Pitchfork said “[Sweeney] mixes autobiography and fiction against the group’s 70s-inflected indie pop, resourceful— and unabashed— enough to digress into an E Street interlude or an AM-rock guitar coda.” Sweeney’s songwriting draws inspiration from sources as disparate as 1970s Philly nightlife folklore and Denis Johnson’s The Incognito Lounge. In their new songs, chiming guitars, classic rock sax solos and rainy bedroom Velvet Underground listening sessions all blend together. In these songs are little stories of triumph over dirty circumstance and grace under pressure, with the friendship of an urban family “street band” woven throughout.

“…rests somewhere between the raspy hope of Springsteen and dire heartbreak of Ryan Adams with unexpected flashes of Robert Pollard’s melodic and harmonic sensibilities finding their way in through the cracks.” – PopMatters

“His seasoned storytelling comes through vividly in his latest offering: His colorful lyrics grow with the song, winding us through a field of troubles, anxieties and nerves until we come out the other side, unscathed but wary.” – Atwood Magazine

“The smooth alt-rock track “Digital Light” is a nod to the smartphone-filled age we’re living in, exploring the effect — both aesthetic and psychological — our technology has on us.” – WXPN