PEAR by Danny James

Emerging from an electric womb fully formed, Danny James Etc. Pear phases into Neo-America & begins to gather elemental players who aren’t even sure what’s going on yet, but nevertheless are driven to be with this child of the rubble, this boomerang kid, Danny James. In 200X, with producer/brother Mike "Tiger" Louis, Danny James set about making sense of the collage of memories & emotions they aren’t sure are even their own. Empty beers, cigarette butts, pieces of foil, baggies & friends pile up. It is a story about growing up in a gang, about a country that has fallen apart, about having to fight out of the ruins & grab the spotlight.
This record releases a sonic energy so profound it’s unclear what will survive the explosion, but as the vapor clears, we see that nothing has been destroyed, but everything has been rearranged into patterns that suddenly make sense. Glam Rock & P-Funk meet in the fields outside of town & are taken by the Mothership to emerge in Oakland, year 200X with a record that is designed to create thousands of hit records after it. The currency has changed, reality has been permanently altered & yet the world seems the same. Pear has made the connections for us, so that the future we want emerges out of the fabric of reality.

"Pear is both good fun and an ambitious bit of indie record-making, a glorious mélange of smart pop, muscular rock & roll, and '70s-style R&B, fortified with an understated wit and a production sense that's polished without robbing this music of its sweat and soul. But while James is clearly in love with cool sounds of another decade, Pear doesn't sound like the work of someone trying to resurrect the sounds of the past, but rather the sound of an artist who's found a style that works for him and is having a blast finding ways to bend it to his musical world view [with] his eclectic sensibility, sure hand with a melody, and ability to sound snarky and sincere at the same time. Is this pop with muscles, or hard rock with polish and panache? Pear manages to deliver plenty of both, and Danny James clearly has some more interesting tricks up his sleeve." - All Music

"Going on a cruise ship, getting silly on Mai Tais, falling asleep under a palm frond ... The collected dreams of ELO, Steely Dan, and Yes would sound just like Danny James, who has a voice like a caramel s'more: warm, familiar, but in a wonderful surprise, a little salty. They’ve got everything you’d wanna like about Prog, but you can also dance to it. I cannot stress enough how fantastic their stage presence is."
- NOISEY

"Each player is technically deft and, more pertinently, keen to the value of selective restraint, deferring to the will and structure of the song. Pear mostly draws from the 1970s, when virtuosity had commercial cachet, so long as melodies and hooks matched the chops. That's where James comes in. His lilting delivery makes for honeyed listening. On "Boomerang Kids," the ballad sequenced in Pear's core, James' labyrinthine arrangement mirrors his narrative storytelling. The bridge at the center of the tale, all whirring keyboard and copious effects, is thrilling.
Etc. and James share members with the like-minded Once & Future Band, together constituting an anomalous but welcome contingent in the East Bay. The groups are decidedly out-of-step with current tastes, but that's only more reason to savor Pear." - East Bay Express

"Perhaps unexpected from a contemporary underground rock act come tones and grooves that could just as easily fit in with '70s funk and soul. Singer/bassist Danny James has an ethereal voice that rises above the mellow cotton candy clouds of sound and continues on into space. Add to that harmonies and guitar work with an affinity for glam rock, and you have something that redefines the concept of retro. "
- San Francisco Chronicle

"Danny James & PEAR reinvent the 70's pop song format by combining it with the best elements of funk and electro. "
- SF Weekly

"PEAR is the quantum entangling of atomized mental ephemera,
Dancing about an ecosystem of plastic plantations....
Danny James' music occupies city hall, loitering in teapot shanties with time released viagra femme boost steroids like a Mr. Tea drag queen. "
- Ariel Pink

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