Jessica Shalvoy on December 24th, 2015

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Sonny Smith, of Sonny & The Sunsets, has either crossed over the line from San Francisco hippie to just plain crazy, or he’s a genius. Take your pick. Smith has announced a new LP called “Sees All Knows All,” out Jan. 15, on Empty Cellar Records. What first started as a live theater piece is now an hour-long album that contains absolutely zero singing. “Sees All Knows All” is a monologue set to music, described by Smith in its trailer as a story about “a bohemian quarter-life crisis (in six parts) told by a man who never had anything to gamble with, but his life.” So, basically, it’s a book on tape with some indie, even jazzy at times, music backing it up. Excerpts from Sonny’s story have been published in San Francisco’s The Believer magazine after a five-night stand at The Lost Church in the city.

The LP is narrated by Smith and features a slew of local Bay Area musicians,  including Kelley Stoltz, Shayde Sartin, Rusty Miller, James Finch, Germán Carracosca, Jordi Llobet and Smith himself. Shannon Shaw of Shannon & the Clams even lent a hand by contributing to the album artwork. The first clip to be released is Chapter 5, “Ayahuaska,” which is a trip-inducing drink that is said to lead to spiritual awakenings … but it mostly just causes the expulsion of an obscene amount of vomit – great for those trying to get a head-start on that classic weight loss New Year’s resolution. The eight-minute track seems like it belongs in a 1960s coffeehouse with a white dude in a beret and purple turtleneck spewing out the tall tale into a smoky room filled to the brim with hipster prototypes. Surely, there would be finger-snapping too.

||| Stream: “Alahuaska”