6 // Back To The Womb

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE OUTFIELD AND OUTER SPACE, THE SAGA CONTINUES...

When we last heard from the Good Timers on their debut LP Fantasy Machine, the band was “running wild and living free”, blissfully high-fiving their way through a galaxy of dive bars, 4AM taquitos and Independence Day reruns. Any seeds of doubt in the cracks of their Coors-Light-basted sidewalks were buried under a chorus of arm-in-arm friends making their purpose abundantly clear: tonight we party, and tonight will last forever.  

On their sophomore full-length, Between The Outfield And Outer Space (BTOAOS), the band confronts the dawn of a morning they pretended would never come, examining their own foray into fantasy within a world that seems hell-bent on clinging to its own. 

Heavy? Yes. Bleak? Maybe. A downer? Hardly. While the band breaks into uncharted territory thematically — taking a harder look at long-championed BBGT tropes such as nostalgia, excess and willful ignorance — the music explodes with more urgency than ever. BTOAOS’ title track wastes little time broadcasting the album’s space-sized ambition, riding shimmering guitars into the outer reaches of the cosmos before “We Are The Champions (Of The Basement)” lands squarely back on Earth, playing like the rec-room soundtrack to a Bruce Springsteen show after-party. Over the next 30+ minutes, BTOATS seamlessly pays homage to the full spectrum of BBGT’s influences, from 1970s AOR and Rivers Cuomo fan-boy shredding to early-aughts high-school essentials like "Bleed American" and "Tell All Your Friends." The result is a complete, compelling and fully individual work that satisfies the lofty standards set forth by none other than Patrick Stickles: “It should always be the dearest hope of the Artist that the Art they create could have been created by no one else.” 

BTOAOS marks the second full-length from Bud Bronson & The Good Timers, the latest effort in a five-year run that also includes three EPs, one 7”, eight coast-to-coast tours and live performances alongside fellow six-string luminaries Diarrhea Planet, Parquet Courts, Rozwell Kid, A Giant Dog, JEFF The Brotherhood, Twin Peaks and more. 

Is the future bright for Bud Bronson & The Good Timers? On BTOAOS’ final track, “The Good Guys Fight On,” the band is hopeful but unsure: “I don’t know if they’re still making them, but I wanna watch the movie where the good guys win in the end.” The outcome may be uncertain, but this much is clear: between the outfield and outer space, anything is possible.