coley and pete live in chicago and play in a band called welcome to ashley. they grew up in jackson mi and were once in a band called the bennies. the bennies drank too much. justin, scott, and kim live in east nashville and play in a band called pale blue dot. justin and scott are brothers. kim and scott are married. justin also has a band called justin & the cosmics. kim and scott have a band called smoking flowers. coley wrote candy apple & the buddies’ songs on a mandolin. coley, ...
coley and pete live in chicago and play in a band called welcome to ashley. they grew up in jackson mi and were once in a band called the bennies. the bennies drank too much. justin, scott, and kim live in east nashville and play in a band called pale blue dot. justin and scott are brothers. kim and scott are married. justin also has a band called justin & the cosmics. kim and scott have a band called smoking flowers. coley wrote candy apple & the buddies’ songs on a mandolin. coley, pete, justin, scott, and kim drank forever and recorded the songs in scott and kim’s living room. it took two days to record "Country Record." coley sang the songs and played some tambourine and a pan. pete played bass guitar, some electric guitar, and a 12 string acoustic. justin played electric guitar and sang. he also played drums without sticks. scott played electric guitar and acoustic guitar. he played bass guitar on one song. he also sang a little and played a pot. kim played drums. she played tambourine. and she sang too. another friend of ours, peter, played fiddle on an irish song. scott says you can feel the music better if you lose your vision. justin and coley are still working on parts.
Nashville Scene, March 2008**** CANDY APPLE & THE BUDDIES The press kit sez early Replacements, but the sound of this tag-team garage-folk aggregate—the union of Kim, Scott and Justin Collins from Pale Blue Dot with Coley Kennedy and Pete Javier from Chicago’s Welcome to Ashley—is a sponge capable of absorbing and wringing out anything from Pulp’s rave-up “Like a Friend” (reconfigured as “Wreck My Motorcycle”) to Eddie Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” (“Rock ’n’ Roll Paddy”) into their reverb-soaked stompers. Recorded in the Collins’ East Nashville living room, their new CD country record. kicks up a gladdening racket—boozy, shambling, sweetly grungy hoist-alongs that should ideally be accompanied by a new round at every chorus. - Jim Ridley
Illinois Entertainer, March 2008**** With a lineup plucked from Chicago’s Welcome To Ashley and Nashville’s Pale Blue Dot, Candy Apple & The Buddies merge a Midwestern working-class appeal with Southern-streaked instrumentation on Country Record. The garage-derived folk rockers conjure the dusty grooves of Cracker on “Wreck My Motorcycle” and the insurgent underbelly of Whiskeytown during “I Can’t Stand To See Your Face,” both of which would fit perfectly within the Bloodshot Records family, or at the very least, on WXRT
WhatzUp Magazine, February 2008**** Let’s get a couple of things cleared up before going any further with this review. This is a really good disc, in a rootsy, garage-y vein that recalls a host of both classic and dusty modern bands without sounding distractingly derivative. But prior to listening you must do the following: 1) disregard the band’s name, Candy Apple & the Buddies. That’s a godawful name. Really. 2) Do not allow the artwork, ”a crudely drawn stick figure sporting high-heeled boots, brandishing a sword in one hand and liquor in the other” to color your judgment about the quality of the recording, which is fine. Oh, and the album’s called Country Record, but it’s not really country at all, unless you count the kinda sorta roots-rock vibe that settles in at some points. All set? Let’s have a look at some tunes ... The album (which I’m told is a side project of sorts) kicks off with ’I Can’t Stand to See Your Face’, which is full of Stones-y "Some Girls" swagger and incredibly present, raw electric guitars. The energy these guys put forth on this tune is palpable, and it continues throughout Country Record. ’Wreck My Motorcycle’ pulses along with a combination of early-era Wanderer-style desperation and the kind of tunesmithery some modern authentic garage-rockers could only wish for. The dreamy, acoustic-tinged ’I Love a Girl’ recalls some of The Replacements’ most delicate moments, topped with Dylan-esque vocals. Then the hearty strains of Rock n’ Roll Paddy (a Shane MacGowan cover) stumbles right through the door, full of thunderous, anthem-worthy vocals and booming drums. The shuffle and shamble of ’Happiness Is’ goes by before you know it, and the whole thing wraps up with a sing-along rendition of the Pogues’ ’I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Everyday. Equal parts garage and glam, Country Record revels in its own rough-and-ready construction. The record was tracked in a living room over a weekend last November. It sounds all the better for this approach; frankly, there’s no better way the Buddies could have possibly approached the kind of songs they put on this disc, in my opinion. Country Record is by turns old-school, aggressive, warm, inviting and intimate. It’s the kind of rock n’ roll too few folks make anymore. - D.M. Jones ______________________________________________________________________________
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