Trevor Childs 'Terrified' album

The Bedroom Trio isn't a band, but a group of solo artists spearheading the "bedroom music" genre. It's the sound of home recording fanatics crafting songs that are more confessional, more genuine and more creatively adorned. Diamond Jim is the nom-de-tune of Bay Area producer/songwriter Jim Greer. Big Bad Beautiful Dreams is Diamond Jim's fourth album of touchstones ranging from Alex Chilton to Stereolab. Trevor Childs' Terrified album is equally the product of working without interlopers, where the Oakland, CA songwriter spits forth social commentary with the humor and vitriol of Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce set to the sounds of antique folk-pop like the Turtles and Bob Zimmerman. Herman Jolly is a Pacific Northwest native and major label renegade whose Bunker Life is a compact collection of skilled-yet-simple songcraft rife with emotion.

biography
"Them golden arches sure look beautiful from the side of the road when you're going like 1000 miles an hour you can feel the heat and the power of one American car on an American road put your foot on the gas and feel your heart explode like a burning building in a Baghdad square."

Anyone who is familiar with Oakland based wunderband The Lovemakers already knows a little bit about Trevor Childs. Before The Lovemakers, Scott Blonde had a band called Applesaucer, which was led by Blonde and co-songwriter Trevor Childs. Applesaucer was well known in the Bay Area for its huge live sound and ripping live shows, and before its untimely demise played regular gigs at Slim's, The Fillmore, and other respected Bay Area venues.

Ultimately calling it quits, both Blonde and Childs went on to make music on their own terms: Blonde formed The Lovemakers, signed with Interscope, and brought 80's pop music back with a hit record. Childs hunkered down in his studio to write songs and record on his own time. Both very talented, they affected each other - The Lovemakers definitely took a little bit of Trevor Childs with them, and Trevor definitely learned a thing or two from Scott Blondes' top notch hook making abilities.

Childs' record Terrified is socially relevant, definitely retro, definitely a pop record, and a highly entertaining listen. His love of The Zombies, The Beach Boys, Syd Barrett, and other late 60's pop-eroos shines through, but is also partnered with some good old fashioned Berkeley liberalism and an overall sense of a guy looking at society saying "What the fuck is going on here?".

The album starts with the title track “Terrified”, which points out that "Anybody who's got God on their side, makes me terrified" amidst a host of clever lyric twists about our fear-oriented society, and then leads into a Neil Young meets The Beach Boys track called “Don't Get Old,” both cute and melancholy at the same time.

The record follows with a hilarious song about a guy with a Death Wish, a totally nihilistic Johnny Cash sort of tune, and the record only gets better and better from there. The record seems to be wrttien from the point of view a redneck who moved to the coast and is utterly confused about what to think anymore. Someone who just wanted to lay back, drive a classic car, burn a lot of gas, drink beer, and be in love, but who realized the world is lot more complicated.

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Trevor Childs - Terrified