Goldenboy

Goldenboy on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/goldenboy/id411626191 Since the release of Goldenboy’s 2002 debut album “Blue Swan Orchestra” (featuring guest vocals by Elliott Smith and considered a favorite by the Los Angeles alternative radio station KCRW) Goldenboy has trekked near forever on the road supporting the likes of Bright Eyes, Grandaddy, Neil Finn, Eels, The Rentals, and Stephen Malkmus. The majority of these early shows found Goldenboy's lead Shon Sullivan playing a double-duty on stage - performing multiple instruments on various tours across America, Europe, and all points in between. Straight out of suburban Diamond Bar, California (a few miles southeast of Los Angeles) former music student Sullivan was recognized early on as a valuable player while acting as a member of the band Spain. When Elliott Smith got wind of Sullivan’s prowess on guitar, piano, and cello, Sullivan was quickly drafted into the Elliott Smith band. While performing with Smith, Sullivan began developing his own material and thus the Goldenboy concept was born. “Goldenboy started out as a solo side project,” says Sullivan. “I began writing the first Goldenboy album while playing for Elliott - we toured for four years together. Everyone had nicknames on the tour and Elliott gave me mine ‘Goldenboy' ... and it stuck.” A hauntingly lyrical batch of indie-pop brilliance, Goldenboy's first release “Blue Swan Orchestra” was recorded with drummer Bryan Bos and bears distant traces of Smith’s influence as Smith sang backing vocals on the track “Summertime”. Goldenboy's second release “Underneath the Radio” (2006) found Sullivan and Bos in a gloriously unclichéd outpouring of tunes which are drenched in nostalgic melancholia and blissful melodic invention. Joined by a cast of heavies including Neil Finn, Lisa Germano, Scott McPherson, Matt Sharp & Phil Jordan, they couldn’t have asked for better company. When Sullivan recruited fellow multi-instrumentalist Nicole Verhamme aboard the Goldenboy project in the spring of 2010 as a rhythm & co-lead guitar player, the concept quickly evolved into the band that it has since become. Verhamme began lending her efforts not just toward guitar but to dreamy vocal harmonies, keyboards, and bass guitar, filling in the spaces which would aptly recreate the sounds of former records and would give way to what the sound would inevitably evolve into. The two share the front of stage in performance with a strong musical chemistry that is unmistakably evident to audience members. Sullivan and Verhamme worked closely together on Goldenboy's third and fourth releases, "Sleepwalker" (2010) and "The New Familiar" (2012), which dovetail the first two releases nicely with understated charm, and as well, on their forthcoming fifth release which fuses classic Goldenboy pop-sensibility with heavier, driving guitars and a subtle psychedelic ambiance. This time around, Goldenboy strives to define a new genre – not only in titling their previous album but by actually classifying their music as The New Familiar ... a type of sound in which the melodies, rhythms, and arrangements are reminiscent of past pop/rock albums but blend & pair with a brand new sound & attitude. Sullivan, Verhamme, and Bos have toured the US and Europe extensively together as Goldenboy, and most recently, were proclaimed by press as one of "the eleven must-see sets" at Denver's 2014 Underground Music Showcase festival, Colorado's answer to SxSW. Hear the single from their forthcoming fifth release here: https://soundcloud.com/bryan-bos/the-one Goldenboy iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/goldenboy/id411626191