(From left) Dan Barnocky, Mike Moran, Mara Smith, Billy Bacci and Mark Moran of Paint On It
MC5, The Stooges’ original lineup, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Nirvana and Big Star each released just three albums.
This form of rock ’n’ roll legendarium, as singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Bacci puts it, also applies to his Richmond group Paint On It. After debuting with a self-titled album in 2020 and releasing “Tales From Another Star” in 2024, the group dropped its third album, “Sunshine Trash,” on Sept. 12 and now plans to call it quits.
Bacci isn’t comparing Paint On It to those other artists, just applying the principle, he says. “I like the idea of being like, ‘That was the project: three albums that we’re really proud of, and let’s call it a wrap.’ We’re all really open to doing it again. Like, if Guided by Voices comes to town and they want us to open up The Broadberry, of course we’ll do it. But, for the foreseeable future, we’re not going to do local shows.”
For the new record, Bacci triples up on guitar, playing acoustic, electric and 12-string models. Matt Moran lays down guitar and harmony vocals, while his brother Mark plays bass. Mara Smith is on keyboards, harmony vocals and percussion, and Drew Barnocky mans the drums. The band recorded the album, and Bacci mixed it. “Jody Boyd mastered it at Red Amp [audio recording studio], where I work,” Bacci adds. “That was cool, because he has tons of experience mixing. … He was really helpful.”
Like Paint On It’s first two albums, “Sunshine Trash” shares a title with its lead track. Describing the meaning of the song, Bacci says with a laugh, “Just looking at a pile of trash in the sun, like on the street corner, just being like, ‘Awesome.’ That song is an homage to my terrifying Fan duplex basement. It’s also about sunburns, being ‘burned’ and a bad grrrl who secretly has a heart of gold.”
Other tracks on the album include “Action Movies Are Boring,” which references Bacci’s work as a production assistant on the set of the Daniel Radcliffe film “Imperium” (filmed in Central Virginia in 2015), and “West Coast Jon,” a sequel to a previous Paint On It song, “Jon and Heather.”
Bacci works with numerous artists beyond Paint On It, including locals Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants and solo artists Caroline Vain and Christina Louise, and he has played stages ranging from Brown’s Island to FloydFest. “It’s just really amazing to play with different people, play in different bands and see different leadership styles,” Bacci says. “I love the interconnectedness, but I’m also trying to pare down, because sometimes I feel a tinge of guilt when I can’t give somebody’s project the full attention it deserves.
“I also love starting other things,” he continues. “I just started this punk-sounding project that’s real noisy. … I just love making music, and Richmond is a good town for it. There are a lot of really cool people with great ideas to collaborate with.”
The band in the recording studio
After moving to Richmond from Northern Virginia in 2013, Bacci focused on solo projects for a few years. “I started playing with the Wimps first, because I had a friend who knew them and they needed a new keys player,” he says. “Then I played bass in Blush Face. Then I would just hop on random projects, and I’ve been doing my solo thing for years, so by the time I got to Paint On It, I had done all this different stuff.”
Paint On It began in 2019 as a project between Bacci and Barnocky, who both played in Blush Face. They met Mark Moran at a Christmas party and quickly added Matt and Smith. Formed with the intention of making a vinyl record, the band recorded their self-titled album the same year.
Then the pandemic threw a wrench into their release show. “The first couple of live shows we did, … I was feeling really strong about the people’s reactions to the material,” he says. “It was great, but then we couldn’t really play live anymore. That first album, despite COVID, did pretty well.”
In an unusual turnabout, Paint On It became the name for both the band and its debut album after the eponymous song was recorded. Bacci says the song was just a fragment that the group hadn’t planned to record, but he was struck with inspiration while driving to the studio. “We finished it in, like, two seconds. It wasn’t even close to done, but on the way there, it just kind of miraculously came together,” he says.
“[The song’s] always felt like the spirit of that band,” Bacci adds. “When we’re recording together, the goal is always to just make each other laugh. We really try to push 20% past comfort sometimes. If the harmony or tone of the instrument seems silly or ridiculous, like, keep it. I don’t want the band to be afraid of hitting wrong notes or trying ideas that are stupid — like, just paint on it. Just try it. It’s very much in the spirit of, ‘Don’t be afraid to experiment and get a laugh.’”
That first album was recorded in a couple of days, Bacci says, and “Sunshine Trash” came together almost as quickly. “We would just gather on a Saturday or Sunday, and I would be like, ‘Here’s these three songs,’” he explains. “We would sit in a circle and pass the ideas around. … We would just keep on hammering away at it for a couple of hours, hit record and then move on.
“On a lot of records I’ve made with bands, you can kind of overcook it in rehearsing; by the time you get to the studio, you might be a bit exhausted and fatigued with the material. This record was the other way around. It was like, ‘We’re just getting excited about this idea now — let’s record it while it’s new, fresh and we’re all excited about it.’”
“Sunshine Trash” is on streaming services and available on CD and cassette from Bandcamp.
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