BROOKLYN | July 1, 2022: Brooklyn’s The Sparkles will release their first single “Gowanus”, a joyful pop punk summertime jam that doles out rich harmonies a la the Beach Boys with a hefty dollop of summer vibes all while making fun of Brooklyn’s most famous superfund sight, the notoriously polluted Gowanus Canal. Recalling bands like Blink 182, NoFX and Green Day, The Sparkles mix in keytar-driven 80’s synth pop (New Order and Human League) to create a unique sound and pithy track that will keep you smiling all summer long. To add to authenticity, the song was recorded, mixed and mastered at a Gowanus, Brooklyn neighborhood recording studio Behind The Curtains Media by producer Mike Abiuso. The band came up with the inspiration for this little surf punk ditty as they crossed the Gowanus Canal on the way to The Sparkles HQ in Brooklyn.
As the song’s co-writer Larry Mancini puts it, “The fumes from the Gowanus wafted into our brains causing a mild psychosis, and this is what came out.”
The single is being released along with an appropriately bonkers music video by California native animator and filmmaker, Glen Biltz who spent hundreds of hours manipulating Barbie Dolls and GI Joes to do his demented bidding and bring the “Gowanus” music video to life.
ABOUT: Made up of punk rock vets Matt Ernst (Bohemian Angels, WinWin, and The Cash Registers) on drums, Larry Mancini on guitar, and John Payne (Puppetbox), wielding a keytar like a boss, The Sparkles were born in 2020 from the ashes of The Tracys who marauded the NYC punk scene for nearly a decade. After losing front man Dave Klym to a move to the west coast, the boys decided to carry on and recorded the base tracks for the debut EP entitled The Sparkles, in early 2020 at The Compound in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Cue global pandemic).
After two years of lockdown, the boys are ready to take up where they left off with renewed energy, a defiant sense of humor, and innocent fun that is the perfect antidote to these fraught times.
