Marie/Lepanto "Inverness" music video

NY TIMES PREVIEWS MARIE/LEPANTO'S 'TENKILLER,' OUT TODAY ON BIG LEGAL MESS

WILL JOHNSON/JUSTIN PETER KINKEL-SCHUSTER PROJECT HITS ROAD SUPPORTING PEDRO THE LION IN FEB AS NYC SHOW, LIVING ROOM TOUR ANNOUNCED FOR APRIL

AMERICAN SONGWRITER, BITTER SOUTHERNER RAVE

Marie/Lepanto - the collaboration between Centro-Matic's Will Johnson and Water Liars' Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster - has a new indie/folk Big Legal Mess album 'Tenkiller' out today, which the New York Times previewed: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/arts/music/playlist-cardi-b-migos-charli-xcx-sugarland.html

The two explore literate southern themes and spare, desolate sounds that lead to cinematic grandeur in their incredible music. Here's the track "High Desert" (OK to share): https://soundcloud.com/big-legal-mess/marielepanto-high-desert

American Songwriter gave the set 4 stars, calling it "moving... mesmerizing... unique and enticing."

The Bitter Southerner said, "A pairing made in Southern indie rock heaven… 'Tenkiller' finds their two voices shadowing one another, with Johnson's battered vocals and Kinkel-Schuster's wavering tenor complementing one another… the perfect record for a long-drive on a two-lane."

The duo will tour supporting Pedro the Lion in February and have newly announced a NYC show as well as a living room tour in April.

MARIE/LEPANTO TOUR DATES:

February 8 - St Louis, MO - Old Rock House*
February 9 - Kansas City, MO - Record Bar*
February 10 - Tulsa, OK - The Vanguard*
February 11 - Fayetteville, AR - living room show
February 12 - Dallas, TX - Trees*
February 13 - Austin, TX - Mohawk*
February 14 - Houston, TX - Rockefeller's*
February 15 - Baton Rouge, LA - living room show
February 16 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jack's*
February 17 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn*
February 18 - Gainesville, FL - High Dive*
February 19 - Orlando, FL - The Social*
February 21 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle*
February 22 - Atlanta, GA - Terminal West*
February 23 - Nashville, TN - Exit/In*
April 5 - Springfield MO - living room show
April 6 - Omaha NE - living room show
April 7 - Sioux Falls - living room show
April 8 - Minneapolis - Turf Club
April 9 - Madison - living room show
April 10 - Milwaukee - living room show
April 12 -  Chicago - Schuba's
April 13 - Detroit - living room show
April 14 - Toronto - living room show
April 16 - Boston - living room show
April 17 - NYC - Mercury Lounge
April 18 - Philadelphia PA - Johnny Brenda's
April 20 - Baltimore - living room show
April 22 - Asheville NC - living room show
April 23 - Athens GA - living room show
April 24 - Waverly AL - Standard Deluxe
April 25 - Mobile AL - Satori Coffee House
April 26 - Oxford, MS - living room show
April 27 - Little Rock AR - living room show

Nick Loss-Eaton Media January Spotify Playlist

Marie/Lepanto clips

NY Times playlist item (Dec 22, 2017)

No Depression premiere (Dec 6, 2017)

HearYa review (January 29, 2018)

Bitter Southerner album stream (January 25, 2018)

No Depression album review (January 25, 2018)

Paste Magazine session (April 17, 2018)

Marie/Lepanto postable track

WILL JOHNSON (OF CENTRO-MATIC, ETC.) AND JUSTIN PETER KINKEL-SCHUSTER (OF WATER LIARS) FORM NEW BAND MARIE/LEPANTO, TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM ‘TENKILLER’ ON BIG LEGAL MESS (FAT POSSUM) ON JANUARY 26

FIRST TRACK PREMIERED VIA NO DEPRESSION: http://nodepression.com/article/will-johnson-and-justin-peter-kinkel-shuster-premiere-new-track-inverness

NATIONAL TOUR DATES SUPPORTING PEDRO THE LION ON SALE TOMORROW

Will Johnson (of Centro-Matic, New Multitudes, South San Gabriel) and Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster (of Water Liars) have collaborated to form “super duo” (No Depression) Marie/Lepanto and will release their debut album ‘Tenkiller’ on January 26 on Big Legal Mess (Fat Possum imprint). No Depression has premiered crunchy first single “Inverness,” praising the band’s “rich vocal harmonies… and careful attention to melody”: http://nodepression.com/article/will-johnson-and-justin-peter-kinkel-shuster-premiere-new-track-inverness

Tickets for a 2018 tour supporting Pedro the Lion go on sale tomorrow.

In the sunken lands of Arkansas along I-55, there’s a road sign that directs you to a pair of tiny, hardscrabble towns in the Delta. It reads: Marie/Lepanto and resides roughly between where each artist grew up: Justin in Arkansas and Will in Missouri. Alternating between lofi folk and distorted indie rock, ‘Tenkiller’ finds their two voices shadowing one another, with Johnson’s battered vocals and Kinkel-Schuster’s wavering tenor complementing one another. Many of the songs then funnel into expansive instrumental breaks. “Inverness” segues into the fingerpicking, creaky “Rest Be Mine.” The widescreen waltz “High Desert” coexists with the ghostly title track, named for a lake in Oklahoma and inspired by Justin’s reading the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Long mutual admirers, Johnson and Kinkel-Schuster co-headlined a living room tour, only sparking the idea of working directly together when they toured Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis with producer Jeff Powell (Big Star, The Afghan Whigs). Memphis was then earest big city for both artists growing up.

Johnson has released some seventeen albums in his two-decade indie rock career, including as frontman of Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, member of New Multitudes (with Jay Farrar and Jim James), as Molina and Johnson (with Jason Molina), as official member of Monsters of Folk (with James, Conor Oberst and M. Ward), with Overseas (with David Bazan), and with the Undertow Orchestra (with Bazan, Mark Eitzel, and Vic Chestnutt). NPR has praised Centro-Matic's "superb rock records" and Johnson's own "great images" and "superb songwriting."

Julien Baker listed Kinkel-Schuster’s 2016 solo album among her top ten albums of the year. The NY Times said that Kinkel-Schuster’s prior band Water Liars’ "dark, lonely roots-minded indie rock is affecting, all the more for its sparseness." NPR called the band "a low-key triumph... prone to fits of stark gorgeousness" and Consequence of Sound said, "Kinkel-Shuster's painted howl will stop you in your tracks."

Marie/Lepanto Tour Dates With Pedro The Lion

February 8 - St Louis, MO – Old Rock House
February 9 - Kansas City, MO – Record Bar
February 10 - Tulsa, OK – The Vanguard
February 12 - Dallas, TX – Trees
February 13 - Austin, TX – Mohawk
February 14 - Houston, TX – Rockefeller’s
February 16 - New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jack’s
February 17 - Birmingham, AL – Saturn
February 18 - Gainesville, FL – High Dive
February 19 - Orlando, FL – The Social
February 21 - Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
February 22 - Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
February 23 - Nashville, TN – Exit/In

Marie/Lepanto artwork

Credit: Adam Putman

Marie/Lepanto Tenkiller (Big Legal Mess, January 26, 2018)

In the sunken lands of Arkansas along I-55, there’s a road sign that directs you to a pair of tiny, hardscrabble towns in the Delta. It reads: Marie/Lepanto.

Situated roughly between Southeast Missouri and Western Arkansas -- the two points where singer-songwriters Will Johnson and Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster grew up -- that dual appellation seemed a perfect handle for their new collaboration. It’s especially fitting as their debut, Tenkiller, is an album permeated by a sense of place.   

“I’ve seen that sign forever, and always had those words, Marie/Lepanto, in the back of my mind,” says Kinkel-Schuster. “With it having the spatial/physical/psychological proximity to both of us, we figured there wouldn’t be a better time to bring it into play.”

For Johnson, the veteran singer-songwriter and longtime leader of Centro-matic, his union with Kinkel-Schuster, of Water Liars and Theodore, fits a pattern. In his work with South San Gabriel, Monsters of Folk, and Overseas, collaboration has long been the cornerstone of his creativity. Like his other endeavors, Marie/Lepanto was born out of a musical kinship and personal respect.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Will’s writing and singing playing, admired him from a far for a number of years,” says Kinkel-Schuster. That admiration grew closer and became mutual after Water Liars toured with Centro-matic during the band’s farewell run in 2014. “Water Liars kinda became a soundtrack for me during that time,” says Johnson.  

A couple years later Johnson and Kinkel-Schuster decided to do a joint living room tour of the U.S. They were on the road a week together sharing stories and swapping favorite records. Musically, the duo’s Venn diagram of influences included lost albums like Jim Sullivan’s 1969 curio U.F.O. to the revered catalog of Minneapolis alt-rock scrappers The Replacements.

It wasn’t long before the notion of a more serious collaboration was in the air. “I’d already secretly hatched this plan for us to make a record together,” admits Kinkel-Schuster with a laugh. “The trust and respect between us had reached a level where it was kind of a no-brainer,” notes Johnson.  

The flashpoint came when the pair stopped in Memphis to see producer Jeff Powell (Big Star, The Afghan Whigs) and tour the famed Sam Phillips Recording studio. Powell had previously worked with Centro-matic and mixed Kinkel-Schuster’s solo debut. After Powell casually suggested they all cut something at Phillips, “it became very obvious that this should be it,” says Johnson, “that we should meet in Memphis and make a record together.”

The Austin-based Johnson and the Arkansas-based Kinkel-Schuster did just that in the fall of 2016, traveling to the Bluff City to record with Powell, resulting in the 10-track Tenkiller. The intimate sessions found Johnson and Kinkel-Schuster sharing writing, playing and vocal duties, yielding an album that falls in the great tradition of indie rock team ups – from Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth to Vic Chesnutt and Lambchop, Peter Buck and Kevn Kinney to Kim Gordon and Lydia Lunch.     

Nearly every aspect of Tenkiller seemed to be affected by that notion of place, starting with the studio itself. Opened in September 1960, Sam Phillips Recording is like some strange, magnificent dream: a mélange of jet-age technology, pyramid facades and pastel-colored walls, all sprung from its creator’s fevered imagination.

“We were fascinated with the building, and when we walked into that room, it felt like we were projected back in 1960s,” says Kinkel-Schuster. “Not much has changed in there since then, and that was very appealing to us. Not to mention the idea of working with Powell again.”

The sessions began unencumbered by the weight expectation or agendas, but with a surfeit of material. “Usually, I’d try avoid coming into a situation like that armed with too much,” says Johnson, “but with the two of us, the songs we were bringing in, it felt like they fit in a good way. The puzzle made sense.”

Tenkiller evinces both the individual identity of its authors, as well as the alchemy of their union. The haunting harmonies of opener “Patient Man” ushers in an album of beautiful laments and finely-etched narratives. Offering a darker more austere vision of Americana, the record moves between the widescreen majesty of the waltzing “High Desert,” the discordant guitar crunch of “Inverness” and the meditative melancholy of “Rest Be Mine” with a seamless grace.

A kind of emotional geography figures heavily in the record for Johnson, who visited Memphis regularly as a child growing up in nearby Kennett, Missouri. “Memphis was the closest city of any importance,” he says. “Knowing I was coming back there, my old hometown started to creep into my psyche.” The album’s centerpiece, “Famished Raven,” is a semi-autobiographical tale about the scales falling from Johnson’s young eyes: “And as the night, it starts to chase you, always in silent ways you flee/Far from the cries all who need you, and who you need.”

“My mother and I were on our own for a long time, then she remarried and I had two new, older step brothers and it changed my life,” says Johnson. “Through them I learned about drugs and the challenges of adolescence, and even young adulthood. Some of the innocence of the time started to fade, and I tried to capture that with that song."  

For Kinkel-Schuster the album’s title track and closing number are also rooted in the real. “It comes from name of a lake in Oklahoma, not that far from where I grew up,” he says. Its lyrics were spurred by his reading of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown’s devastating account of the effects of westward advancement on native peoples: “Tenkiller, tenkiller…what else could they take?”

 “It’s about the way Native American culture was basically destroyed and appropriated by history and white people from the word go,” he says. “I was trying to imagine what it’s like to live with that as a reality.”

Marie/Lepanto will be out in support of Tenkiller, beginning in early 2018, with Johnson and Kinkel-Schuster touring in a two-man configuration. “We’ll start with just us and see who we pick up along the way,” jokes Johnson.

“The truth,” says Kinkel-Schuster, “is the sound we make is something unique, something that happens just between the two of us. That’s what feels special about it and these songs.”