Grails "Anches En Maat"
The Garment District "Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World"
On their second full-length LP, The Garment District delivers a Kunstkabinett of sound reminiscent of the Manhattan neighborhood (and others around the globe, both existing and shuttered) with which they share a name. Just as one might wander through a Garment District shop entranced by a staggering display of fabric from seemingly every era and locale, surrounded by rows of buttons, threads and trimmings, listeners will be equally entranced by the hypnotic array of textured sounds on Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World.
The album was recorded in a friend’s home studio nestled in the labyrinthian hills of Western Pennsylvania during the time warp surrounding the pandemic. For composer and arranger Jennifer Baron (who plays numerous instruments on the album), settling in at David Klug’s studio atop Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington allowed her to stretch and challenge herself, creating expansive arrangements. In another lifetime, just miles away within nearby hills and hamlets, Jennifer’s great-grandfather arrived from Zagreb, forming a family band, a tamburitza orchestra featuring her grandfather, great-aunt and great-uncles, who performed in Monongahela Valley steel towns. Jennifer’s work with her first cousin Lucy Blehar, who supplies lead vocals, continues this family music-making heritage.
Along with guitar, bass and drums, listeners will encounter a full suite of strings, horns, a variety of percussion, and finely woven keyboards and vocals. Some parts were improvised on-site, while others evolved at home, highlighting Jennifer’s collection of analog keyboards before being translated into final recordings. Having the opportunity to experiment with equipment borrowed from friends, like a rare 1970s Roland Paraphonic 505 and a 1960s UMI Buzz Tone Volume Expander, shaped the exploratory process of crafting dimensional melodies and instrumentation. The result is a gilded tapestry of pop music history that is both panoramic and idiosyncratic.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. "Radio Daze & Glamping"
Roger Joseph Manning Jr burst onto the music world’s radar as cofounder of Jellyfish in 1990. After two critically acclaimed and now revered releases, the band parted ways, and Roger began a career that saw him in bands including Imperial Drag, The Moog Cookbook, and TV Eyes, as well as contributing to albums from Beck, Morrissey, Lana Del Rey, Blink 182, Johnny Cash, Adele, and more!
He also continued to record as a solo artist, releasing the EP Glamping independently in 2020. That was soon reissued with three live bonus tracks, but neither received a wide release. That brings us to 2023, and Roger is ready to unveil 4 new songs—two co-written with Glamping’s Chris Price (Emitt Rhodes).
Radio Daze & Glamping contains Roger’s four new studio tracks, plus the four from Glamping on LP. The CD and Digital add the three live bonus tracks from Glamping’s limited edition expanded edition, but three new live tracks and two instrumentals.
Radio Daze & Glamping revitalizes the musical landscape of Roger Joseph Manning Jr., making his music available worldwide, on multiple formats, and essential.
Abby Johnson "Abby Johnson"
With fresh energy and bright intuition, Abby Johnson’s confident self-titled debut (due in late 2021) offers timeless folk songwriting teeming with a classic Nashville golden-era sheen. Johnson draws upon genre-spanning influences and wrangles them effortlessly into her own expression: “I want my songs to sound familiar, but tell you something new,” she says. The duality of Laurel Canyon nostalgia and indie rock blend effortlessly in her songs, polished further by the airtight backing band of fellow Nashvillians, Ornament (and produced by the band’s drummer, Ryan Donoho).
Raised in North Carolina on the earnest mythos of Taylor Swift, she describes her first songs as “diary entries — playing guitar alone in my bedroom until I was twenty three.” Moving to Nashville for college introduced her to an immersive musical community, where she steeped in the influence of folk-and-country stalwarts like Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt in equal proportion to more contemporary indie songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers.