David Newton
Former Mighty Lemon Drops guitarist David Newton’s project David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels has been absent from the record racks for the better part of the last decade, but the group returns in a big way today with the premiere here at Slicing Up Eyeballs of a new single featuring Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos that celebrates “The Songs That Changed Our Lives.”
The Newton-penned single, to be released digitally Friday, finds Argos reeling off a list of songs — from Bob & Marcia’s “Young Gifted & Black” to The Mekons’ “Where Were You” and Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner” — while Newton chimes in with an instantly memorable chorus.
You can hear the full song via its Dylanesque music video posted below.
Of “The Songs That Changed Our Lives,” Newton says:
“It is basically a fun list of some of the songs that had a big impact on young me. I didn’t put too much thought into it really, it’s not a definitive list and there are so many missed out, I just picked the ones that rhymed ha ha. When Eddie said that he’d love to do the vocal on it I asked him if he wanted to omit or add anything, and he said no, they are ones that he would pick. I think maybe that’s one of the reasons why we hit it off when we first met, over a dozen years ago now. We would stay up late laughing and listening to records at my pad in Joshua Tree, and this led to me making an album and touring Europe with him as part of Everybody Was In The French Resistance..Now! in 2010.”
Newton, who also played in The Blue Aeroplanes in the early ’90s, plans to release a full-length Thee Mighty Angels album called A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment on Aug. 14, combining the band’s Paint the Town EP from 2011 with five new songs.
Check out the new single and the album’s tracklist:
David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels, A Gateway to a Lifetime of Disappointment
1. “In Love and War”
2. “The Kids Are Not Alright”
3. “The Songs That Changed Our Lives”
4. “Avoid It”
5. “My First Band”
6. “Paint The Town”
7. “Connect With You”
8. “Bittersweet”
9. “This Time”
10. “Everything Is Just So”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- The Mighty Lemon Drops unearth lost footage of 1988 show at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro
- The Mighty Lemon Drops debut unreleased ‘My Biggest Thrill’ demo off ‘Uptight’ comp
- The Mighty Lemon Drops’ early recordings collected on new ‘Uptight’ compilation
- Free MP3: David Newton (Mighty Lemon Drops) & Thee Mighty Angels, ‘In Love and War’