Premiere: David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels, ‘Paint the Town’

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As guitarist and songwriter for the U.K. quartet the Mighty Lemon Drops (1985-92), David Newton fashioned buoyant melodies out of spry chord progressions and jangling riffs for a band largely remembered for being part of the C86 movement. He married an American girl and settled in southern California in 1995, setting aside songwriting and performing (save some sideman gigs) in favor of producing – out of Newton’s garage studio in Burbank came music from the likes of the Little Ones, the Soft Pack, the Henry Clay People, Eddie Argos’ project Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now, the Happy Hollows and the Blood Arm, among many others. But now after almost two decades Newton has scratched his songwriting itch. His first EP as David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels, a one-man venture (except for guest vocals by the Happy Hollows’ Sarah Negahdari on “Bittersweet”), will come out in November. Fans who still matriculate to the stalwarts on the Brit Box (or swoon over today’s indie-pop sensations) will find a lot to like here: hooks, sanguine melodies and even a brief attack of nostalgia (“My First Band”). Proof that there’s not only gas left in Newton’s tank, but the engine’s still purring.

||| Download: “Paint the Town”