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Photo Courtesy of Erich Zander

Sundrunk Angels

Release Date: July 19, 2011

This summer Old Californio return with the release of their third studio album Sundrunk Angels. The album will be released on July 19 through the band’s own grassroots Californio Records label and available for sale through Burnside Distribution, iTunes and the band’s website.

“Sundrunk Angels boasts some of the most rollicking, dynamic rock and roll since the '70s heyday of the Faces and some of the sweetest, liveliest down-home sounds since the Byrds transitioned from psychedelic to countrypolitan” (Michael Snyder, SiriusXM).

Led by singer/ guitarist /songwriter Rich Dembowski, Sundrunk Angels fuses Old Californio’s own native blend of rock, country-folk, and proto-psychedelic leanings into its own eclectic musical spark. It is the first album to capture the band’s current live line-up since the addition of lead guitarist Woody Aplanalp (of Lili Hadyn, Nels Cline, Banyan) in 2009. Fulfilling the band’s core are stalwart founding members Justin Smith on drums/ vocals, Jason Chesney on bass/ vocals and keyboardist Levi Nuñez. All tracks were recorded live as a five piece at Kevin Jarvis’ home studio and mix and mastered by Grammy award winning engineer Alfonso Rodenas (Mark Olson, Los Tigres Del Norte).

Old Californio are at their core old friends who have been playing music together in one form or another since well before the band’s actual formation in 2006. This extended history lends a musical cohesiveness, allowing the ten songs on Sundrunk Angels to expand and contract organically. From the communal rustic/cosmic feel of “Better Yet”, the daring and unpredictable “Allon Camerado”, to the oddly archaic “Jewels and the Dross” and the stark and ethereal title track “Sundrunk Angels”. This is experimental ear candy. Songwriter Rich Dembowski’s lyric’s emotional directness suspends in time, loyal to an era of solitude, dangerous travel, risk, and gangrene. The guitar interplay between Dembowski and Aplanalp channel American Beauty acousticism, Moby Grape rawness, and even moments of Loose Fur punk rock avant-garde. While the rumbling, heavy planetary rhythm section of bassist Chesney and drummer Smith - along with Nuñez’s roiling B3 - underscore three and four part vocal harmonies that harkens back to Pasadena’s distant musical forefathers the Association

Old Californio are:

Rich Dembowski - Vocals & Guitar

Justin Smith - Drums & Vocals

Jason Chesney - Bass & Vocals

Woody Aplanalp - Guitar & Vocals

Levi Nunez - Wurlitzer & Organ