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

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)

Creamery Mixtape 2.0 artwork

BROOKLYN STUDIO THE CREAMERY OFFERS MIXTAPE 2.0 INCLUDING NEW RECORDINGS FROM ANTIBALAS, INNOV GNAWA, M.A.K.U. SOUNDSYSTEM, AND MORE BANDS TO WATCH FOR 2019 ON JAN 19 RELEASE

Fuck you, playlists of sound-alike bands.  Live from the world’s tastiest melting pot, The Creamery Mixtape 2.O delivers a fresh installment to their second annual mixtape series on January 19, 2018. This 12- song compilation was crafted during a 4-day sprint at the Creamery Studio in Brooklyn and, like a subway car at rush hour, it crams together an eclectic group of New Yorkers into harmony. The groups all share one thing in common: the ability to create great music in front of a tape machine--and fast. Producers Quinn McCarthy and Jeff Fettig run the studio year-round but set time aside for the mixtape as a celebration of the city’s varied music scene and as homage to the live analogue recording art form.

“My personal library of music comes from all different genres and from all over the world. One of my favorite ways to listen to music these days is on shuffle,” says McCarthy.  “I enjoy living in the most mixed up place on earth and the mixtape is our way of capturing that variety with a common lens, since it’s all been recorded in our space and mixed with our ears and our vibe.”  This year’s acts include: Antibalas, the Daptone Records Afrobeat band that has cultivated New York’s Afropop scene for over a decade; Innov Gnawa, a collective that performed Coachella this year, singing a traditional form of Jewish spiritual music that originates from Morocco and Breastfist, a flamboyant funk supergroup composed of some of the Rockwood Music Hall’s greatest backing players.

While taste-makers keep trying to PUSH bands like brands, the Creamery Mixtape broadens the scope of what’s possible to fit under one umbrella.  Available exclusively on digital release through SoundCloud and Spotify. Private link: Password

BANDS ON THE MIXTAPE:

Antibalas – Daptone Records band and kings of Afrobeat in NYC.

M.A.K.U Soundsystem embodies an active quest for identity through sound and bodies in motion, and puts on a party for everyday people. It has played Lincoln Center, Music Hall of Williamsburg, GlobalFest, and more. Although not inherently discernible there are hints of Colombian Folklore, Psychedelic-rock and Caribbean grooves.

Innov Gnawa has played Red Rocks Amphitheatre as well as NYC’s Lincoln Center and Coachella. They play North African music known as Gnaoua and are based in NYC.

OxenFree have earned praise from KCRW, The Wild Honey Pie, and Consequence of Sound, which praised its “poppy melodies and precise, hefty guitar work.”

Lauren Balthrop – Alabama-born, New York-dwelling “absolutely lovely” (Stereogum) songwriter who has also sung with Bob Weird, Kevin Morby, Bejamin Booker, and Lucius.

Nikhil P. Yerawadekar & Low Mentality - The group merges elements of Afrobeat, reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, Afrobeat, and rock music to create deeply funky compositions that balance a compelling new style of songwriting with propulsive, danceable grooves. They have earned over 700,000 Spotify plays as well as praise from Relix, WFMU, KEXP, WNYC, Paste Magazine, NPR, and the NY Times.

The Boobies – It’s garage pop with teeth. Picture the color periwinkle blue, spray-painted by a Ramone, add blistering vocals with traces of southern soul, and a David Byrne sense of showmanship and you get The Boobies.

Queens songwriter Matt Sucich has appeared at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Electric Lady's Heartbreaker Banquet on Willie Nelson's Luck, TX ranch, Firefly Music Festival Newport Folk in Newport, RI, and has supported Levon Helm, Counting Crows, Lucius, Rachael Yamagata, and The Lone Bellow.

Breastfist is Michael League of Snarky Puppy’s favorite live band. It’s a bass-and-drum groove-based duo made up on Alan Hampton (bass) and Bill Campbell (drums).

Magana is haunted alternative-pop influenced by Sharon Van Etten and St. Vincent and based in Brooklyn.

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 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.”

LuxDeluxe - Midnight Snack (Full EP)

Leland Sundries "Studebaker" music video

Winterpills "Celia Johnson" video

Fellow Creatures "Wouldn't You Like To Know" music video

EARLY UK PRAISE BUOYS LELAND SUNDRIES’ DEBUT ALBUM ‘MUSIC FOR OUTCASTS’ (JUNE 3 / L’ECHIQUIER/WEINER RECORDS)

BROOKLYN BAND ADDED TO GREEN RIVER FESTIVAL JULY 10

Leland Sundries’ debut full-length album ‘music for outcasts,’ out June 3 on L’Echiquier Records/Weiner Records, has earned raves in the UK, where it is already out. The Brooklyn band has also been added to the Green River Festival playing July 10, the same day as Tedeschi Trucks Band, North Mississippi All Stars, and Margo Price. Here’s what the UK press has said:

“Heaps of wit and melody… Beautiful rambling storytelling that flirts with pop and sounds a little like Silver Jews.”
- Peter Watts, UNCUT, April, 2016

“Scrappy yet ingenuous rock poetry.”
- MOJO, March, 2016

“Life affirming… Leland Sundries’ debut album and first European release shows a ton of promise and is a very enjoyable listen.  It will certainly appeal to fans of bands like Velvet Underground and Jonathan Richman as well as fans of bands like Whiskeytown and Starsailor.”
- Alan Ewart, Louder Than War, February 16, 2016

“All eleven tracks show glimpses of a future master musical storyteller just starting out. It’ll be exciting to see where Loss-Eaton – and Leland Sundries – go next.”
- Paul Heatley, Rock N Reel, April, 2016

“Leland Sundries match crackling garage rock with a near bubblegum love of melody. The band's sound sits somewhere between Pavement and The Archies, with a dose of Jonathan Richman's off kilter wit thrown in for good measure.”
- Robin Murray, Clash Music, January 19, 2016

“Cool… Notes of Lou Reed and the Modern Lovers.”
- Metro London, December 12, 2015

“Oddball storytelling.”
- The Beat Juice, November, 23, 2015

“Excellent.”
- Mad Mackeral, November 25, 2015

LELAND SUNDRIES TOUR DATES

Wed, May 18 - Brooklyn, NY - Gateway
Fri, June 17 - Norfolk, VA - 80/20 Burger Bar
Sat, June 18 - Charlottesville, VA - Ante Room
Wed, June 29 - Nashville, TN - The Family Wash
Thu, July 7 - Providence, RI - Dusk
Sun, July 10 - Greenfield, MA - Green River Fest

HOTLINE "Don't Look Away" video

Hotline - Don't Look Away from Matthew Walker on Vimeo.

Leland Sundries clips

Paste Magazine session (March 2, 2018)

Magnet profile, issue 133



American Songwriter feature (May 6, 2016)


Louder Than War video premiere (May 2, 2016)

CMJ track premiere (April 18, 2016)

Impose Mag track premiere (March 11, 2016)

Paste Magazine track premiere (December 28, 2015)

Clash Music video premiere (January 19, 2016)

Mix Magazine feature (February 12, 2016)

UNCUT review (March, 2016 issue):

The Beat Juice track premiere (UK) (November 23, 2015)

MOJO album review (March, 2016 issue):

Metro (London) December 12, 2015 track review:

Blurt single review (December 16, 2015)

Flavorpill live pick (October 5, 2015)

Baeble track premiere (March 5, 2012)

Daytrotter session (October 24, 2012)

NY Times live pick (November 4, 2010)

LELAND SUNDRIES DEBUT ALBUM TO BE RELEASED ON CASSETTE VIA BURGER RECORDS SUBSIDIARY WEINER

Out now in the UK and seeing June 3 release in the US, Leland Sundries’ indie-garage debut album ‘music for outcasts’ will see a worldwide cassette release on Weiner Records, a subsidiary of Burger Records. ‘music for outcasts’ has already earned praise from Louder Than War, UNCUT, MOJO, and airplay from BBC 6 in the UK and Paste and Mix Mag thus far in the US.

Profiled in the NY Times, California-based psych/garage rock label Burger Records’ cassette releases include Jenny Lewis, Shannon and the Clams, Habibi, Kim Fowley, King Tuff, Sarah Bethe Nelson, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Hunx and His Punx, The Orwells, White Fang, Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, and La Luz.

CO-PRODUCER JUSTIN PIZZOFERRATO (SPEEDY ORTIZ, PARQUET COURTS, J. MASCIS) EXPANDS PALETTE OF NEW WINTERPILLS ALBUM ‘LOVE SONGS’ (MARCH 18 / SIGNATURE SOUNDS)

Long known among chamber pop and indie folk fanatics, Winterpills expanded their sonic palette for new album ‘Love Songs’ (March 18 / Signature Sounds) with co-producer Justin Pizzoferrato. Brooklyn Vegan has called Pizzoferrato the “go-to Western Mass guy” and The Boston Phoenix has praised him as a “lover of sound.” The result is a grander scale that draws on ‘90s indie rock. A veteran of sessions with The Pixies, Parquet Courts, J. Mascis, and Speedy Ortiz, Pizzoferrato says, "I'm grateful to have worked on ‘Love Songs’; it's not the kind of record you're called to work on very often. I think it's beautiful, front to back, left to right."

Winterpills songwriter Philip Price says, “Justin is that rare engineering bird who can work as fast as our brains could musically think. It felt like we were really living inside the songs instead of stepping outside them all the time.”

One example is the song “Chapel.” Price recalls, “Justin encouraged us to leave in a lot of the experimental noise and layers that left to my own devices, I would have likely weeded out. He could hear that for that one song, the forest WAS the trees. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album.” “Chapel” kicks off with a droning acoustic sound and Winterpills’ signature harmonies before quickly picking up into an electric indie rock refrain, a pattern that’s repeated; these careful dynamics draw in listeners to the song’s waxing and waning melody and into the beautiful chaos of the end section, making it feel alive and present.

WINTERPILLS STRETCH THE CANVAS IN MOST EXPANSIVE SOUNDING ALBUM TO DATE ‘LOVE SONGS’ (MARCH 18 / SIGNATURE SOUNDS), CO-PRODUCED WITH JUSTIN PIZZOFERRATO (DINOSAUR JR, THE PIXIES, SPEEDY ORTIZ)

“I don’t know why Winterpills aren’t one of the most cherished pop bands in the world.”
- Jonathan Lethem, Rolling Stone

“****… The songs are mists and pastels, dense with instruments and Philip Price and Flora Reed's harmonies, yet at the same time serene… as evocative as dreams.   -MOJO

From slurry, fuzzy guitar to strings, Winterpills signature melodies see their most expansive sounds to date on ‘Love Songs,’ out March 18 on Signature Sounds. Reminiscent of the best of the Elephant 6’s works, ‘Love Songs came together in collaboration with co-producer Justin Pizzoferrato, who has manned the dials for Dinosaur Jr., The Pixies, Lou Barlow, Speedy Ortiz, Parquet Courts, Lou Barlow, and And the Kids. From strings to trumpets; large-scale harmonies to harmonica, Winterpills has never sounded this big before, masterfully building from a whisper to a torrent.

Winterpills explores love of the idea of love, love of unrealized love, love of the dead, love of family secrets, love of the concept of eternal return, love of ideas, and love of celebrity. "At first the thought of calling it Love Songs was intended as a whimsical nod to the other million albums of the same title," principle songwriter Philip Price says, "but then casting that light on the existing songs made them jump into stark relief: they were all love songs after all, though arriving at that place through strange portals and unused back roads." “A New England Deluge” builds to a feverish pitch before abruptly stopping. “Wanderer White” kicks off as a low-fi dirge before moving into ‘90s indie rock territory. “Celia Johnson” is inspired by David Lean’s “Brief Encounter,” positing a middle class British housewife’s story of stepping out of her comfort zone. “He Grew a Wall” identifies with a local musician following his suicide, using a modded Casiotone as an orchestra.

Recorded during the band’s 10th anniversary, ‘Love Songs’ is also an appropriate title for a band led by musical soulmates and husband/wife Philip Price and Flora Reed. Based in and inspired by western Massachusetts’ fertile scene, Reed and Price’s voices are always the core of Winterpills’ music and provide incredible chemistry and lift in tandem. Over the past decade and half-dozen stellar albums, Winterpills has established a reputation for smart indie pop, prompting comparisons to Elliott Smith, Low, and Big Star.

In addition, Winterpills’ self-titled debut will be reissued this spring on vinyl for the first time. Tour dates will also be announced shortly.

Winterpills artwork

Credit: Joanna Chattman, click for high res

L-R: Dennis Crommett, Dave Hower, Flora Reed, Philip Price, Max Germer

  Credit: Joanna Chattman, click for high res

  Credit: Joanna Chattman, click for high res

Album cover: Love Songs (Signature Sounds)

Winterpills - 'Love Songs'

Over a decade ago, singer-songwriter Philip Price scrawled the name “Winterpills” on the wall of The Bay State Hotel, a now-dead but fabled Northampton, Massachusetts watering hole and music venue. Initially, it was going to be the name for a dreamt-of electronica project, but, somewhere along the line, it blossomed into a critically acclaimed indie band with a deep catalog of elegant, dark chamber pop.

Now, the quintet gives us its seventh album, a provocative entry in its catalog, Love Songs (Signature Sounds), out March 18th. Recorded and co-produced with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., The Pixies, Lou Barlow, Speedy Ortiz), the album showcases an invigorated and raw Winterpills. This new release marks ten years as a band. To commemorate this career milestone, Winterpills will also reissue its self-titled debut on vinyl. Together, these releases bookend a freewheeling psych-folk-rock continuum.

“Without even trying, over time the canvas has just gotten bigger,” says Winterpills’ principle songwriter Philip Price. "Time stretched us.”

The Northampton, Massachusetts quintet are consummate masters of the slow burn; they’ve nurtured a singular aesthetic with lush and sometimes gritty instrumentation, emotive and literate lyrics, sublime vocal harmonies, and cinematically structured songs that stealthily pull you in and then destroy you. Winterpills has prompted favorable comparisons to Elliott Smith, Low, The Go-Betweens, Fairport Convention, Pernice Brothers and Big Star, among others. The five-piece group is singer/songwriter/guitarist Philip Price, singer/keyboardist Flora Reed, guitarist Dennis Crommett, bassist Max Germer, and drummer Dave Hower.

Winterpills formed as friends, musically comforting each other during one particularly miserable winter after a year of breakups and deaths. Price began performing as a solo artist in the vein of Elliott Smith and Leonard Cohen after his power pop band, The Maggies, disbanded after nine years. Initially, Winterpills was an outlet to combine his quieter, heartfelt songwriting with a richer array of synthetic textures. Winterpills took something of a left turn by becoming a full band that conjured the vigor and sophistication of power-pop and folk-rock with subtle electronica flourishes. As time has worn on, Winterpills has peeled away that ambience in favor of a powerful and graceful live band aesthetic.

There’s a circularity to the group’s newly reissued self-titled debut album from 2005, and its latest, Love Songs. Both albums have the feeling of euphoric artistic self-discovery. “We hadn’t recorded together in awhile, and we felt refreshed when we went in the studio this time.” Philip admits. Whereas 2005’s Winterpills is a raw rock album with delicate moments, 2016’s Love Songs is a much bigger sounding rock record played with swaggering musicality.

Love Songs is tightly thematic. "At first the thought of calling it Love Songs was intended as a whimsical nod to the other million albums of the same title," Price says, "but then casting that light on the existing songs made them jump into stark relief: they were all love songs after all, though arriving at that place through strange portals and unused back roads." The tracks are definitely not your standard missives of affection: within the 11-song album, Winterpills explores love of the idea of love, love of unrealized love, love of the dead, love of family secrets, love of the concept of eternal return, love of ideas, and love of celebrity.

Standouts in this prismatic survey include the single “Celia Johnson,” “Freeze Your Light,” and “He Grew A Wall.” The track “Celia Johnson” bursts forth with a scruffy Jeff Magnum-like elegance conjured from the contrast of skyward Byrds-like harmonies laid over propulsive drums and garage rock guitars. The track was inspired by Philip's fascination with the late English actress, Celia Johnson, (best known for the 1945 British romantic drama Brief Encounter). 

Lone celestial harmony vocals open “Freeze Your Light,” reminding longtime fans of the power of Philip’s vocal interplay with co-writer, keyboardist, harmony soulmate, and wife, Flora Reed. The song majestically unfolds from a fragile intimacy as it gathers burly power with lumbering drums and dirty guitars. The chorus has a gospel purposefulness that feels cathartic and spiritual; the embedded and quixotic desire to freeze all our loves in photographs, pixels and 'cardboard boxes with broken handles' saturates the song.

“He Grew A Wall” is about a suicide that shook the local music scene. “I watched that loss confound us all,” Philip reveals of the song’s subject, “I woke up one day with most of the words in my head laid out for me.” The track features some of Philip’s most poetically poignant lyrics against a mournful descending guitar line: “So the wind told a lie/You were deceived by the sky/The sun refused your call/The moon denied it all/You grew a wall”.

The album’s emotional resonance and fresh energy comes from the environment it was created in. Philip produced and engineered three albums in a row for Winterpills in their home project studio; but Love Songs was recorded in a professional studio buzzing with music gear curiosities, setting the stage for intrepid sonic exploration, including a slightly out-of-tune vintage Vose & Sons upright piano used liberally on many of the albums tracks: Love Songs bids farewell with the early Elton John-esque “It Will All Come Back To You.” The song’s arrangement is richly emotive—it sweeps upward from plaintive piano and voice to vigorous full-band accompaniment with stacked vocal harmonies, noise guitar, and trumpet. Co-producer Justin Pizzoferrato forged a telepathic connection with the group where he could intuit their aspirations, while providing fresh perspectives from the many different genres he’s worked in.

It’s been an unexpected journey for Philip, chasing the ghost within that moniker he scribbled on a bar wall twelve years ago. But what stands out to him as the most meaningful part of the journey is the deep ties within the band. “We feel lucky we’re still good friends after all this time. And I’m in awe of what everyone in the band brings to this weird table we built,” he says. His most profound connection, though, is with Flora Reed, his wife, and creative ally. “We totally have all our eggs in one basket, and it’s been great. I highly recommend it.” he pauses, laughs, and concludes saying: “We do save a little money on hotel rooms.”

TAJ MAHAL’S BUSTED OLD GUITAR FINDS ITS WAY TO BROOKLYN INDIE/AMERICANA/GARAGE BAND LELAND SUNDRIES’ DEBUT ALBUM ‘MUSIC FOR OUTCASTS’

PASTE PREMIERES “STUDEBAKER” SINGLE

Of the guitars used on Brooklyn band Leland Sundries’ new album ‘Music For Outcasts' (May, 2016 / L'Echiquier Records) one stands out: an inexpensive 1990s Sebring hollowbody guitar made in Korea. What’s special about it? Its former owner: Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner Taj Mahal. Bandleader Nick Loss-Eaton recalls, “We were on tour in North Carolina and I was hanging out with my friends at the Music Maker Relief Foundation headquarters outside of Durham. Tim Duffy – the head of the organization – was selling some gear. I asked if he had any hollowbodies and he pulled out this one and handed it to me on the spot, saying that Taj had given it to him and that he’d give it to me. I did a double take and said, ‘Taj Taj?!’ Strumming it, the electric guitar had a warm, natural tone, even unplugged.”

Paste Magazine premiered the band’s indie rock single “Studebaker,” which has drawn comparisons to The War on Drugs.

Loss-Eaton had been involved with the Music Maker Relief Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to recording and helping elderly, traditional, southern musicians – for many years: putting on two benefit concerts for the organization in New York, helping with publicity, donating money, and getting to know some of the elderly artists personally such as Boo Hanks, Whistlin’ Britches, and Ironing Board Sam.

Nick continues, “The guitar was pretty busted when Tim gave it to me, with broken electronics and some rust. I had it fixed up with a pair of GFS P90 pickups, some new hardware, and new amp-style knobs for volume and tone.” It has since been used in concert at shows opening for Todd Snider and Spirit Family Reunion. “We only used it on a couple of songs on the new album but it just shined,” the bandleader recalls.

Largely a rock and roll album, ‘Music For Outcasts’ also boasts wonderful songwriting and Americana music; it has been compared to ‘Mermaid Avenue.’ “Keys in the Boot” is a country waltz inspired by a phrase overheard while on tour in west Texas; “Freckle Blues” is a noir/blues written in NYC during Hurricane Irene; “Maps of the West” captures the optimism of a new relationship atop a driving train beat; and “The Tide (Love Letter In Scrimshaw)” tells the story of the end of that coupling as the tale of one left behind as the other takes an overseas voyage.

Taj had bought a pair of these because he loved the tone and the vibe, despite being inexpensive, Korean-made guitars; reportedly, he still has the other one.