Gnomonsong

O'Neil, Tara Jane

S/t

Gnomonsong

Tara Jane O'Neil describes her latest album "Self Titled" as a "singer songwriter"  endeavor.At the invitation and by the design of Mark Greenberg (The Coctails), half of this record was recorded mostly live at Wilco’s Loft Studio in Chicago with a band that included James Elkington, Gerald Dowd, Nick Macri, and Greenberg himself. Another half was made in TJO’s home studio in California with Devin Hoff, Wilder Zoby, Walt McClements and string supervisor Jim James. This album also features the voices of Chris Cohen, Carolyn Pennypacker-Riggs and Joan Shelley. Tara Jane ONeil plays guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion.As a solo artist she has released eight full-length albums internationally.  O’Neil was a founding member of Rodan, the Sonora Pine , amongst other ensembles. She has collaborated on recordings and stages with Papa M,  Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Marisa Anderson, Catherine Irwin, Mirah, Mount Eerie,  and many many others. She has  also performed at clubs, galleries, and DIY spaces around the world and venues such as the Centre de Pompdou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and All Tomorrow’s Parties.  She starred in the cult classic film Half-Cocked.  Her visual art work has been shown in cities including London, Tokyo and Portland and has been published in three monographs.

Barker, Kevin

You And Me

Gnomonsong

You & Me is Kevin Barker's debut album, released by Gnomonsong. Though it's his first solo release under his own name, Barker's no newcomer to the scene--he's spent the last few years recording, touring, and collaborating with Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver, Antony and the Johnsons, and Espers, to name just a few. Essentially acting as everyone's favorite sideman, Barker has influenced and helped create a sound with which this generation is happily familiar. During his college days, Barker became interested in the finger-style guitar playing of John Fahey and Bert Jansch and began to record under the name Currituck County. This solo project (sometime a duo with Vetiver / Espers drummer Otto Hauser) recorded albums for Teenbeat Records, Troubleman Unlimited, and the UK's Track and Field Organisation. Now Barker has assembled an unbelievable group of musicians for You & Me. Produced by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Lilys, Gary Louris, Devendra Banhart), the album features Pat Sansone (Wilco), Joanna Newsom, Jonathan Wilson (Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis), Eric Johnson (Shins, Fruit Bats), and Otto Hauser (Vetiver, Espers). Full of sunny, rural country rock, You & Me recalls the rustic grooves of The Band and The Grateful Dead, the heady melancholy of Roy Harper, and the golden harmonies of CSNY.

Papercuts

White Are The Waves

Gnomonsong

The Papercuts return with a new single featuring a brand new song, "White Are the Waves," backed with a Neighbors (Vetiver / Gnomodomo Andy Cabic and producer Thom Monahan) remix of "A Dictator's Lament," a track from last spring's You Can Have What You Want album. Recorded on the heels of extensive touring (most recently the UK, France, and the US West Coast) in support the highly regarded You Can Have What You Want, "White Are the Waves" shows the band in tip-top form. Papercuts leader and songwriter Jason Quever doesn't depart from the retro future cosmic fragile pop fever-dream of his latest album, laying the melody out on the most soulful wash of Casio strings, over a simple, drop-dead perfect beat. Quever is as judicious with the guitar as ever, though it still rears its fuzzy head on the bridges and choruses of a song that could have been an AM-radio staple in the mid-'70s. The flipside remix will surprise a few, as Neighbors offer a quite different take on the original version, roughing the song up with an insistent beat and a perfect "Could it be '80s?" vibe that has manifested in the duo's studio work over the last few years.

Hurley, Michael

Ida Con Snock

Gnomonsong

Michael Hurley is one of the last remaining ramblin' American folk troubadours. Hobo-ing around the country, making music since the days Bob Dylan first set foot in New York City's Gaslight club, Hurley recorded his first album for Moses Ash's legendary Folkways label in 1964 and continued to release albums for both Warner Brothers and Rounder. His mid-'70s Have Moicy album was among the top ten for the decade selected by Rolling Stone magazine. While many of his contemporaries are long past their prime (or deceased), Hurley's muse is still intact. Hurley's songwriting talent hasn't gone unnoticed by a new generation of musicians. In recent years, he was invited to tour with alt-country heroes Son Volt and Lucinda Williams. He's also shared bills with Smog and Palace Brothers, played with the Giant Sand rhythm section, and has of course appeared with (and been covered by) Vetiver and appeared on their records. His songs have also been covered by indie stars Cat Power and Yo La Tengo, among others. So, the matter at hand, a new album of recordings sung and played by Hurley, backed by Ida, appropriately titled Ida Con Snock: Snock himself marvels at this 21st studio album, recorded at Levon Helms' studio in Woodstock, NY. Ida's less-is-more finesse shines on these rich recordings, melding perfectly with Hurley's playing and singing. Many of these songs are already well familiar to Hurley's devotees. There are seven originals and five loving covers of '50s rock 'n' roll, C&W, and vintage folk, each tune...

Papercuts

You Can Have What You Want

Gnomonsong

Papercuts' You Can Have What You Want is the newest phase in Jason Quever's ongoing pop investigations. The relatively earthbound happy/sad pop of Mockingbird and Can't Go Back has been launched into the vault of the skies. Here, Quever delves further into epic dream-pop using mostly vintage organs, pulsing bass, and Kraut-via-Ringo-inspired drum rhythms. Intact from those earlier efforts is Quever's sense of arrangement and drama, as well as his soaring vocals, draped in reverb gauze. The words reveal a fascination with mortality and things cosmic, while sonically the voice acts as another instrument. This obsessively all-analog effort (no computer processing here whatsoever!) cuts across several eras of dreamy sound: '80s/'90s Creation and 4AD Records, The Zombies, '60s French pop, even Can's Future Days--and then there's the inevitable connection to former tourmates Beach House and Grizzly Bear. Indeed, Beach House's Alex Scally helped with some of the arrangements, though You Can Have What You Want is its own strain of addictive pop. For many, it will be the blissful/melancholy jam of the spring and summer.  Quever was raised on a commune in Humboldt County, orphaned, and moved up and down the West Coast before calling San Francisco home and starting Papercuts, initially as a four-track recording project. When not performing with his own band, he can often be found recording others in his studio and filling in when needed as a multi-instrumentalist in friends' groups.  "It takes a few seconds of Papercuts' second album, Can't Go Back, to think that maybe you've...

Vetiver

Hey Doll Baby

Gnomonsong

Originally intended as a precursor to their acclaimed recent album, Thing of the Past, Vetiver's companion EP is finally released by Gnomonsong as the five-song More of the Past CD as well as a limited-edition 7-inch single, "Hey Doll Baby" b/w "Miles Apart."  Presented here are six more songs that inspired Andy Cabic and friends, and once again, most listeners will be challenged to have ever heard the originals. These versions all possess the rich Vetiver treatment that makes the special songs the band's own.  "See You Tonight" opens the EP with a flourish, presenting Vetiver in a new shade of the past as they tackle yet another impossibly obscure treasure of a tune, this time by the enigmatically named ensemble, The Wizards. "Hey Doll Baby" follows and is already an established concert favorite, beloved by Vetiver's burgeoning fan base as well as being the A-side of the 7-inch single. "Before the Sun Goes Down" is Vetiver going country rock with an old traditional classic. The EP closes with Vetiver's skillful redux of one of Grin's (Nils Lofgren's early '70s band) finest moments, "Just to Have You," and Gordon Bok's lovely "Hills of Isle Au Haut," originally covered by former Jerry Garcia cohort and folk music mainstay Jody Stecher.  The B-side of the 7-inch, "Miles Apart," by AR Kane (the same duo who wrote "Pump Up the Volume"), provides a strong taste of Cabic's love of '80s UK alternative pop.

Vetiver

More Of The Past

Gnomonsong

Originally intended as a precursor to their acclaimed recent album, Thing of the Past, Vetiver's companion EP is finally released by Gnomonsong as the five-song More of the Past CD as well as a limited-edition 7-inch single, "Hey Doll Baby" b/w "Miles Apart."  Presented here are six more songs that inspired Andy Cabic and friends, and once again, most listeners will be challenged to have ever heard the originals. These versions all possess the rich Vetiver treatment that makes the special songs the band's own.  "See You Tonight" opens the EP with a flourish, presenting Vetiver in a new shade of the past as they tackle yet another impossibly obscure treasure of a tune, this time by the enigmatically named ensemble, The Wizards. "Hey Doll Baby" follows and is already an established concert favorite, beloved by Vetiver's burgeoning fan base as well as being the A-side of the 7-inch single. "Before the Sun Goes Down" is Vetiver going country rock with an old traditional classic. The EP closes with Vetiver's skillful redux of one of Grin's (Nils Lofgren's early '70s band) finest moments, "Just to Have You," and Gordon Bok's lovely "Hills of Isle Au Haut," originally covered by former Jerry Garcia cohort and folk music mainstay Jody Stecher.  The B-side of the 7-inch, "Miles Apart," by AR Kane (the same duo who wrote "Pump Up the Volume"), provides a strong taste of Cabic's love of '80s UK alternative pop.

Vetiver

Thing Of The Past

Gnomonsong

***BACK IN PRINT!!! Note new price. Two years after the highly acclaimed To Find Me Gone, Andy Cabic and Vetiver return with a new album of old songs, all hidden treasures, entitled Thing of the Past. Think of it as Cabic's fully realized mix tape to the world--a collection of some of his favorite songs from some of his favorite records--but presented, sequenced, and in this case performed by Cabic himself, with a little help from his friends far and wide.   Produced by Thom Monahan and Cabic, Thing Of The Past was recorded in 2007 in Sacramento and Los Angeles. The basic tracks were done live in the studio, with the resultant record clearly showcasing a tight-knit band of hugely talented musicians. As witnesses to their live shows over the past year will attest, this is a group in full mastery of their craft--fluid yet fully aligned, intuitively opening out or reigning in their power as the mood dictates. Featuring core Vetiver members Cabic (vocals/guitar/banjo), Brent Dunn (bass), Sanders Trippe (guitar/vocals), Otto Hauser (drums/keyboards) and Kevin Barker (guitar/banjo/vocals), the album includes contributions from two of Cabic's heroes, Vashti Bunyan (who duets on "Sleep A Million Years") and Michael Hurley (who does likewise on his own "Blue Driver"). Other players include "Farmer" Dave Scher (keyboard/pedal steel/melodica), Jason Quever (piano/keyboard), Ben Kunin (sarod), Jonathan Wilson (acoustic guitar), Emma Smith (violin), and vocalists Meara O'Reilly and Abigail and Lily Chapin.  From good-time rocking on Hawkwind's "Hurry On Sundown" and Loudon Wainwright...

Vetiver

You May Be Blue

Gnomonsong

Nearly two years on from the release of Vetiver's highly acclaimed second album, To Find Me Gone, this surprising 12-inch--which features remixes of two of that album's tracks--breaks the silence and announces a new year and exciting new period of activity for the band.  During the recording and mixing of To Find Me Gone, producer Thom Monahan and Vetiver mainman Andy Cabic talked about attempting something more "deconstructive and electronic" than what the two had previously done. For this, they selected the album's initial two songs, "You May Be Blue" and "Been So Long."  "The beginning of 'You May Be Blue,' the delayed Wurlitzer organ figure," says Cabic, "on its own suggests what might follow could be quite different from the song that does.... [It also] promises some kind of electronic shuffle, and the remix is an opportunity to follow through. My favorite parts of 'Been So Long' are the harmonies of Nathan, Rachel and myself, and I wanted to create an instrumental drone dub version of that song which focuses on the backing harmonies."  Long-time studio partners, Cabic and Monahan--a.k.a. Neighbors--built these remixes in spurts between their busy schedules. After a lot of layering and ProTooling, practically nothing of the original "You May Be Blue" remains; the bulk of the dark and danceable instrumentation consists of keyboards played by Cabic and Otto Hauser, and electronic drums played live by the both. Cabic and Monahan also reordered the basic tracks of "Been So Long" and added powerful...

Hunter, Jana

Carrion Ep

Gnomonsong

Half of the six songs on Jana Hunter’s Carrion are unreleased hangers-on from the writing sessions that produced her most recent full-length, There’s No Home, while the other half are alternate renditions of works that appeared on that release. But this is no mere grab bag of remnants; it’s a real tight product, all around.  “Paint A Babe” is a throw-back to Hunter’s earlier material, written and recorded simultaneously on a borrowed four-track recorder. A real sad, longing song. “A Goblin, A Goblin” took a little more time to create: this strong, sturdy number, replete with violins and creepy harmony, tells the tale of an indignant outcast. “You Will Take It and Like It,” turns one central, pretty and proud guitar part over and over and over, with others mirroring it, leeching from it, grabbing on like little parasitic danglers. The original version of “There’s No Home” is here, the track that spawned an entire record title, followed by “Sleep” (titled, as it was originally, “Ooh Uuh”), from the recording that ended up on a lullaby compilation. Concluding Carrion is an acoustic re-presentation of the country-minded “Oracle,” stripped down to one guitar, one melody, and one harmony, as it was originally conceived in its creation as homage.  “[O]ne of the best and most underrated luminaries on the neo-folk scene, Hunter … toured the east coast … [in the] summer [of 2006] by sailboat. Her meditative, playful, sparse, acoustic-driven songs are refreshing, somber, and sometimes eerie.… [T]he most excellent...

Hurley, Michael

Ancestral Swamp

Gnomonsong

***Ancestral Swamp is the 20th full-length album by legendary rambler, cartoonist, “outsider” folk singer, and guitarist Michael Hurley. It arrives just in the nick of time for the rabid Snockophile. A batch of new vittles and encores of some of his classic tunes, Ancestral Swamp bubbles with laid-back ease and tremolodic goodness.  Most songs have the simplest of arrangements: Hurley singing solo, accompanied by his guitar, Wurlizter organ, or fiddle. Tara Jane O’Neil helps lend a nice touch to “El Dorado,” and Snock calls upon frequent past accomplices Dave Reisch and Louie Longmeyer for their graceful touch on sleepy winners like “New River Blues” and “Gamblin’ Charlie.” As with all Hurley’s albums, once one sets the needle down, one is put in a certain peace and place. His voice and songs are unique, shuffling with characters and visions clear and wild. With Ancestral Swamp, it seems Snock has left his front door open a bit wider than usual. If you lean in close, you can inhale a little of the vapor rising off the water, and enjoy a tale or two.  Snock has personally test marketed The Ancestral Swamp” and the results are in: “The Ancestral Swamp is actually a good party record, even though fraught with dirges of dying and death.”

Hunter, Jana

There’s No Home

Gnomonsong

There's No Home is the second full-length formal release from Jana Hunter. Recorded over two consecutive weeks in Fall 2006 at a friend's home in Houston, TX (known locally as "Feagan House"), the album features Hunter writing, playing and producing throughout. As extroverted as Hunter's previous release Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom was introverted, There's No Home focuses on community involvement. While Hunter plays most of the instruments herself, she's aided and abetted here by her brother John (Inoculist, Dethro Skull), John Adams (Fatal Flying Guilloteens) and Matt Brownlie (Bring Back the Guns), among others.  In 2004, Hunter made a big splash among fans of distinctive music with "Farm, CA," a track featured on the Devendra Banhart-curated Golden Apples of the Sun collection released by Arthur Magazine's Bastet label, followed by a vinyl-only split with Banhart on Troubleman.  Late the following year, Hunter's full-length debut was the inaugural release on Gnomonsong, a label founded by Banhart and Vetiver's Andy Cabic in conjunction with Revolver USA. A thirteen-song "best of," compiled in part from various CDR releases, this collection garnered impressive critical acclaim.  Hunter spent the bulk of 2006 touring Europe and the US (including one string of East Coast dates traveled by sailboat). She hits the road again April, 2007 

Papercuts

Can’t Go Back

Gnomonsong

Papercuts is Jason Quever's cathedral of sound, stemming from a desperate analog worship and respect for musicianship of the old world. His new album for Gnomonsong, Can't Go Back, is a marriage of timeless songs, richly textured studio sounds, classic rock/pop hookery, and focused narratives -- all delivered with Quever's warm voice and wonderfully layered melodies.  The first formal Papercuts release, Mockingbird (2004), received a warm critical reception, earning four stars in Great Britain's Uncut. The song "Pan American Blues" was a top-five download of the week on insound.com and the album rode the CMJ Top 200 for months.   Before this, life was different. Raised in a commune in Humbolt County, Quever drifted up and down the West coast, eventually making a home for himself in San Francisco.   The seeds of Papercuts were sown in 2002 when he broke into a vacationing friend's apartment, eight-track in tow, to record piano tracks for Cass Mccombs' Not The Way. Ever since, Quever has kept busy, playing with and recording other friends' bands. He's collaborated with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, The Skygreen Leopards, as well as Vetiver, and considers working intimately with such contemporary songwriters to be a significant influence. 

Rio En Medio

Bride Of Dynamite

Gnomonsong

Rio En Medio's debut album, The Bride of Dynamite is an intricate collage of layered vocals, delicately plucked ukulele, ghostly samples and gritty, deconstructed electronics. It features texts lifted from sources as disparate as William Blake, Paul Eluard, John Ashbery and a 1920s Baghdad travelogue. The songwriting is rarely autobiographical, yet it maintains a very personal tone.  In the words of Danielle Stech Homsy (the artist behind Rio En Medio), it is "music that wants to listen as much as be heard." Special touches were contributed to some tunes by Andy Cabic (Vetiver), Sierra Casady (Coco Rosie), Tim Fite and David Coulter, among others.  Over the past year, Homsy has performed and recorded with a variety of prominent artists, among whom are Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart, Tarantula A.D., Larry Yes and The Art of Flying, Fite, CocoRosie, and Vetiver. She performs regularly in New York, where she lives, and recently appeared at England's All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Now, armed with her baritone uke and a faithful team of instrumentalists, she is preparing to storm the globe. 

Feathers

S/t

Gnomonsong

Feathers are an eight-piece collective musical ensemble, currently based between Northampton, Massachusetts and Brattleboro, Vermont. Formed in 2003 by Kyle and Kurt (first names only, please) at a Northampton record store, they were quickly joined by Shayna, Meara, Asa, Ruth, Greg and Jordan (more or less in that order). There are five primary songwriters, each with a unique style, and four singers. All eight musicians switch around on numerous instruments, loosely playing what can be described as psychedelic folk. Their debut album, now issued on CD for the first time via Gnomonsong, features simple strummed guitars, delightfully sweet harmonies, lysergic electric guitar, and tribal drumming, with a swirly folk vibe throughout. The group seems to draw inspiration from the same magical, natural forest elements that motivated Incredible String Band and Comus to release their own classic music in decades past. Yes, songs about forest creatures and loving the moon are contained herein. Interviewed by Dusted, keyboardist and guitarist Jordan explains, “I think that all of us in Feathers regard music as some sort of spiritual endeavor, and I imagine that would come across in the songs.” Guitarist, vocalist and bassist Asa concurs: “I live on a cold mountaintop and heat my house with a wood stove. This lifestyle must influence my music, but I have no deliberate mystical intentions. I’m just being poetically sincere.” Feathers already issued two CDRs and the vinyl version of this album on their own Feathers Family label, attracting gobs of attention from fellow musicians and discerning music fans...

Hunter, Jana

Blank Unstaring Heirs Of Doom

Gnomonsong

Jana Hunter is from Texas, the fifth of nine children. She played classical music throughout her youth, but that doesn’t really explain why she writes such haunting songs. Hunter is one of those rare artists whose craft does its work on listeners before they even notice. Deceptively simple, clear and concise, these songs surround and envelop, seeping into the skin until they are a part of you. Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom is a collection of songs written over the period of a decade. The album is a thirteen-song “best of,” recorded on four-tracks, two-tracks and computers, mostly in Texas and mostly alone.  Featured on the Devendra Banhart-curated, Arthur produced CD Golden Apples of the Sun and sharing a recent split vinyl-only release on Troubleman with him, Jana Hunter’s album is the initial release on the Gnomonsong imprint, a spectacular new label begun by Revolver USA, Devendra Banhart and Vetiver’s Andy Cabic.  “Jana’s frail, reedy voice and delicate finger picking make her sound like a young man lost in a peat bog and plucking toads from toadstools to see whether they’ll spill their secrets.” - Boston Phoenix  “Hunter’s songs are so honest, yearning and intimate, you’d be forgiven in thinking that you’re eavesdropping on someone’s private thoughts.” - Eric Boucher, Artvoice