The Peacock Flounders

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Posted on Fri, Jun 13, 2008
Quality efforts from locals and nationals alike
By Patrick Ferrucci, Register Entertainment Editor
The Peacock Flounders — “Hello Beautiful” (Thin Man Music): Riding a lead-guitar riff very similar to Social Distortion’s “I Was Wrong,” The Peacock Flounders’ “Apple Trees” is an urgent rock song, one that highlights the 10-tune effort that is “Hello Beautiful,” a stellar record from the New Haven quartet.

Featuring Kerry Miller, Ron Sutfin, Peter Krol and Sal Paradise, The Peacock Flounders brings a ton of experience to this record, years and years of working in such seminal local bands as Miracle Legion, Valley of Kings, The Swaggerts and more. The music is closer to Big Star than any of those other groups though, with Miller’s tunes providing a more melodic counterpoint to Sutfin’s amped-up, punk-inspired songs. The disc leads off with the title track, a dense, guitar-driven, rootsy song featuring Miller’s plaintive vocals.

Rarely do the guys move outside of its powerful two-guitar, bass and drums backbone, but “Lemon and a Lime” adds a little synth into the mix. And by keeping this simple, there are very few missteps on “Hello Beautiful.” The jangley, old R.E.M.-like “In the Inside” will have you singing along by its conclusion, while “Oh So Easy” sucks listeners in with an off-kilter lead guitar line and the oddly placed lap-steel. It’s a mess of tune, but it works beautifully, from the multiple guitar tracks to the out-of-nowhere harmony vocals.

If they added some bright keyboards, “Still be Mine” could be a Cars song. It’s got a catchy chorus and a totally killer lead-guitar part.
There’s nothing overly new and unique on “Hello Beautiful,” but it’s a blue-collar album featuring very good songwriting from scene veterans Miller and Sutfin. Paradise, now the frontman for Rope, doesn’t actually appear on the disc, but figures to be on hand for all future live shows. His presence should just add to what is already a persistent and quality live band. And the Flounders do a great job translating that live energy to record, never once sounding like a band that feels like tinkering with its sound. Simply put, “Hello Beautiful” is exactly what you’d expect from the quartet if you’ve ever seen them live, and that’s a big compliment.


- New Haven Register

The Peacock Flounders, Hello Beautiful (ronsutfin.com/peacockpage.html). Ten tracks of solid power pop that immediately bring Miracle Legion to mind. This makes sense since Peacock Flounders songwriters Ron Sutfin and Kerry Miller lived with Miracle Legion's Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal, and played drums and bass, respectively, on ML's early recordings. If you told me this album was recorded in 1987 (but with better drum sounds than those typical of the era), I wouldn't doubt it. There's plenty of substance and creativity. Big-room-sounding drums and crunchy guitars are consistent throughout, with reverbed vocals holding down good-feeling-yet-not-predictable melodies.

—Mike Sembos

The Peacock Flounders play a CD release show at Toad's Place on June 12 with 9 Minutes Even, The Constant and The Good Time Boys.
- New Haven Advocate

The Peacock Flounders, hailing from New Haven, CT, released their debut LP in 2008. With most of the LP split between writing of the two lead singers (Kerry and Ron), the 40 minute album flows cohesively through all 10 tracks.
"The most radio-friendly song “I Forget” was written and sung by [Ron]. Short and to the point. This would be the definitive song in defining The Peacock Flounders' sound. In the middle of the album, the band drops probably their richest song “Ride”, which literally takes you on a sonic ride ... The album carries along with the same pop single sense appeal before leaving with “Sonic Believer”. Despite its punk/rock appeal, it really shows the chops that these guys can crank out a banger with ease and sensibility without seeming trite."

"With bubblegum lyrics and upbeat guitar riffs, this album just begs to be listened to while driving in the middle of the summer, with the sun roof down. With a lot of the album being a respectful nod to a generation lost, it manages to keep things fresh enough to make it a worthy listen ..".."literally takes you on a sonic ride ... just begs to be listened to ... fresh ... a worthy listen." - Indie Music Digest

The Peacock Flounders
Hello Beautiful
(Thin Man)

A master of disguise, the peacock flounder clings to the sea floor, watching for prey. Likewise, New Haven's Peacock Flounders have disguised themselves as Crazy Horse, Neil Young's backup band. This is not a bad thing. The chunka-chunka-boom sonic attack allows anyone prey to old school rock 'n' roll to be pulled under their spell. The setup also allows the nuances of Kerry Miller's wounded voice and Ron Sutfin's co-songwriting (both formerly of the legendary Miracle Legion) to be front and center.—Alan Bisbort - The Hartford Advocate

“Hey Man, who says a leopard can’t change his spots / Appearances deceive / Change is internal baby / It’s what’s inside that counts.”

The Peacock Flounders are balls to the wall rock of the ’78-‘82-‘84 Punk/New Wave era. They are so in-your-face you can’t help but love their mature, polished treatment of the punk/new wave movement/genre, especially that of the New Haven, CT scene, which has seen a huge swell of its notable reunions – Seems as though 30 years later, the mid-late ‘naught decade is not only representing that cultural upheaval on the major circuits, but also on the indie/underground/local circuits as well: long is the list of scenes stretching across the country where that era’s pioneers are once again rising to lead another wave into the next decade.

The Peacock Flounders emerge as a new band in today’s landscape, made up of veterans from New Haven, CT’s legendary Ron’s Place circa ’78. With Kerry Miller & Ron Sutfin, formerly 2/3rds of Valley of Kings (and many, many, many various notable others), sharing vocals and trading instruments, we are treated to a large encompassing view of the way music was presented in the indie scene of the late 70’s. Attitude drips out of every song in ways in which Joy Division, The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Ramones, The Dead Boys, and countless others (Pick up The Trouser Press Guide To New Wave Records [pub.1983], and you could easily throw the whole book in this sentence of comparisons) drenched your senses.

In the late 70s these were the groundbreaking young upstart kids who loved music so much that 30 years later they are forming bands like The Peacock Flounders that rise up like a Punk/New Wave Phoenix and show that the love and compassion, for not only the music, but also for the culture of the generation, beckons and calls. This is a needed response to the reprocessed corporate money machine that has its crosshairs trained on the same demographic that broke the Beatles and more since the mid-60’s, only now with lesser quality than ever. Tweennyboppers are not new; they’ve just been dumbed down by a society which we have reluctantly become a part of. But back when, the tweenyboppers knew enough to understand that indie bands at the local level could, in music, define the passion of a generation even better than what the labels presented (See: Rhino’s collections like Nuggets & DIY as reference). Hello Beautiful is a testament to that and confirms IndepenDisc’s mission statement (which exonerates the opening disclaimer).


Ranging from Hit single material (I Forget, In The Inside, Oh So Easy [dig the guitar work that closes out this one] and Still Be Mine) blended (and I mean blended on Chop & Grind) with such balls to the wall classics as Rage, Ride, and Sonic Believer, The Peacock Flounders pay homage to the Dead Boys via every three cord fuzztone ever launched off the vinyl of the day, played only as seasoned veterans can play it. They have taken the entirety of the genre to the next logical advanced level. Welcome back music that was born sloppy but has now refined that sloppiness into pure genius – The Peacock Flounders may have just broke Punk, again, 30 years later. Music with attitude this ferocious is too good to turn away from, again.
- Independisc.com

The Peacock Flounders comes to the music industry with years of experience, wealth of knowledge, tons of talents, and more heart than one can shake a stick at especially when music fans are listening to the band's music. Recently, Ron Sutfin of The Peacock Flounders chatted with us online via email about the band's history, influences, and their experiences. We enjoyed what Ron had to say and think our online readers will too. Here is the whole online conversation for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Isaac: I just listened to several songs off your new EP/CD. What was the inspiration for making your new album?

The Peacock Flounders: The album was the culmination of the writing process of these songs. We formed the Peacock Flounders as an outlet for the writing that Ron Sutfin and Kerry Miller were doing at the time. They really are the demos from Ron's recording studio that the band recorded while putting together our original songs for our live set. A couple of the songs were old songs that Kerry and Ron did in their old bands that they wanted to record. Putting out the CD was just a natural progression. Local movers and shakers Rob DeRosa from the Connecticut based Thin Man Music record label and Gary Vollano from Connecticut based Independisc.com helped us do it.

Isaac: Who were your influences?

The Peacock Flounders: Ron and Kerry like a lot of the same music and bands. Having played together for a very long time we'd have to say that we've been very influenced by the bands we've played in ... Miracle Legion, Valley of Kings, Cameraface, The Swaggerts. That being said, our faves are : Killing Joke, Guided by Voices, Big Star, The Replacements, Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, Hoodoo Guroos, U2, Gin Blossoms, and of course... The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Dead Boys, The Buzzcocks, and The Clash.

Isaac: What do you consider to have been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?

The Peacock Flounders: I guess the highlight of this band was our show at the World Famous Bitter End in NYC. We had a busload of our fans come down to the city for the show on a Saturday night. We shot a great live video of the show and it's on our website http://www.ronsutfin.com.
- Junior's Cave Magazine