White Denim Frontman James Petralli Unleashes First Single as Bop English, "Dani's Blues" (It Was Beyond Our Control)

"Dani's Blues (It Was Beyond Our Control)" is a fun introduction, with the chiming piano riff recalling early 70's AM Pop - think Paul McCartney's initial solo releases, those early Elton John albums, or even ELO at their most creative," Clash Music poetically likened White Denim frontman James Petralli aka Bop English's recent premier single to its predecessors/possible influences. After four tedious years-worth of studio tinkery, Petralli's "solo" debut, Constant Bop, is finally ready for a world-wide release on Blood and Biscuits/Downtown Records this upcoming April 13-14th; "Constant Bop is a widely collaborative project that features production from Jim Vollentine, 5th Street Studio's Ryan Joseph and Nick Joswick, as well as Matt Oliver of Big Orange Studios and the band TV Torso... White Denim's drummer Josh Block, guitarist Austin Jenkins, and bass player Steve Terebecki, as well as former Shearwater bassist Kevin Schneider."


James Petralli slowly but surely managed to record Constant Bop in just about the same length of time it took White Denim to record and release two full-length albums, one would assume, "D" (2011) and critically-acclaimed Corsicana Lemonade (2013). I would almost consider Constant Bop a quasi-sequel to Petralli's 2012 self-released, Facebook-fielded untitled 6-track Tascam Portastudio-recorded covers collection, which included lo-fi renditions of everyone from Ween to Stevie Wonder. "There are layers upon layers to explore on Constant Bop, with a serious attention to detail being applied to every track. "There's this one technique that has been used by tons of producers, but it was my first time to see it applied to this extent with any level of success," [James Petralli] mentions, referring to the pitched up guitar effect that's found on [album track] "Sentimental Wilderness."' Dog Day Press additionally notes that on Constant Bop's final 10 tracks, Petralli musically references "everything from Bob Dylan and Jeff Lyne to LL Cool J and Santana." Constant Bop is currently available for pre-order on Blood and Biscuits in a psychedelically SICK (translation: must-have) limited-run blue & yellow splatter 12-inch.