al Riggs on JPW 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

"Very few music journalists are good musicians themselves, and vice versa. Because I'm cooler than you i had the chance to hear this album nearly a year ago and it finally arrived in wax form on my doorstep today. Jason P. Woodbury (JPW) is a lovely person and this album rules." ~ al Riggs

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

Pictured: al Riggs

OUT NOW: "Palisade Peaches" by Kim Ware and the Good Graces

The second single from the forthcoming album Ready [co-released with PotLuck] by Kim Ware and the Good Graces, titled "Palisade Peaches" is out today on all digital platforms!  For fans of Kathleen Edwards, Joni Mitchell, and Gillian Welch. 🍑

Moyamoya "spring guide to fashion" - Live from The Barn, Jacksonville FL; circa 2015

CLICK HERE to order Moyamoya's sophomore album Hawn -- originally released on December 24, 2018 as a Digital LP only; now available on vinyl record for the very first time! 

For fans of Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, This Will Destroy You, and Tortoise

 

Audio Explorations 'ActionReaction'

[Repost from Aural Innovations; by Scott Heller; July 2002, Issue #20]

This is a Florida duo who recorded this excellent CD in Boston in 2001. They create melodic, dreamy, sometimes upbeat rock songs. The lyrics focus on the dark side of human nature and painful relationships. The opening number, "Nine Down One To Go", describes a painful relationship in a special way and is a fast paced song with a dreamy flow to it. The next track, "Go Away", starts off as a bass heavy driven rock song but slowly builds. I really like the way the buzzing synths are used to enhance the sound. These guys have been compared to Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star and Swell, but I don't know these bands, so I can't tell you more. If you like this type of stuff, I think you will dig this CD. Excellent material, well played, executed and varied. A very cool documentary about the recording of the CD as well as some live footage appears at the end of the CD.

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Fort Lowell Records is very proud to share with you that for the 20th Anniversary, we will be releasing Audio Explorations' ActionReaction on vinyl record for the very first time! 

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

The Must-Hear Songs by Phoenix Musicians of August 2022

[Repost from Phoenix New Times; by Chris Coplan, August 29, 2022]

JPW, "Always Happening"

We recently told you all about JPW, the sleek desert rock (sorry not sorry) project from local writer/music guru Jason P. Woodbury. But we're not the only ones excited about JPW's upcoming album, Something Happening / Always Happening. Writer Kevin Murphy went as far as kickstarting his So Much Silence blog after eight years to debut another track. Whereas "Halfway to Eloy" felt a bit more breezy, Woodbury said "Always Happening" is a "10-minute psych epic about eternalism blessed by Lenny Kaye." Enjoy.

JPW Song Premiere "Always Happening"

[Repost from So Much Silence; Kevin Murphy, August 25, 2022]

“Kevin, crazy idea.”

I wasn’t expecting that text from Jason Woodbury, let alone opening up this site to write something here for the first time in (gulp, checks notes) EIGHT years.

It’s not surprising Jason reached out, asking if I wanted to check under the hood and rev this thing up to premiere a song off his upcoming album “Something Happening/Always Happening” (due out Sept. 9 on Fort Lowell Records). He’s already had wonderful — and well-deserved — praise for the project heaped his way in Pop Matters, MTV News and in this great Phoenix New Times feature. Not sure if you read the part about me not updating this site in eight (8) years, but there’s not a lot of visibility I could offer here. The music blog hype machine dried up long ago.

And yet, that was sort of the point for Jason. It’s just the kind of selfless and kindhearted people he and his wife, Becky, are. This was less about promotion and more about connection, a “fun way to honor SMS and the ‘blog era,'” as Jason put it.

Jason was a regular contributor here back in the heyday, and it was pretty obvious then (as it is now) his taste and talent are unimpeachable. No surprise he’s been such a longtime stalwart — writer of words, host of podcasts — over at the legendary Aquarium Drunkard, among many of the hats he’s worn.

It was, perhaps, kismet that Jason reached out this week. I recently began a massive undertaking of re-ripping my CD collection (I’ve made it all the way through “E”!), which sent me on a nostalgic trip — about music and this site, which I’ve often thought of reviving, a topic I’ve subjected Jason to countless times. And he’s always offered a positive word of encouragement.

He’s been such a champion over the years for so many others, it’s nice to be able to return the favor, however small. In the same way Jason has worked tirelessly to cultivate our scene, he’s similarly developed such a unique vibe on this solo debut, a meditative montage of low-key psych — sounds lovingly warped and reformed in the way only someone who has spent a lifetime in the desert can synthesize.

The premiere here, “Always Happening,” is the album closer, a 10-minute trip built on a short loop from Link Cromwell’s “Crazy Like a Fox.”

“For much of my debut record, I kept the songs really short, as I was very uninterested in overstaying my welcome,” Jason said. “But ‘Always Happening’ is a song where Michael Krassner rightly suggested we let it drift outward. He added these celestial electric guitar leads and synths and recruited Laraine Kaizer-Viazovtsev to play violin. I get lost in it each time I listen to it, still. 

“I emailed Lenny Kaye to ask for his blessing. I didn’t hear back for a while, and I let a lot of self-doubt eat at me regarding the situation. Then I got over myself and thought of all the unread emails in my inbox. I sent a follow-up note and Lenny responded back almost right away with a really kind missive. “It is amazing the lifeline of ‘Crazy Like A Fox’…and I’m surely happy to hear it utilized in such a consciousness expanding manner…Sounds like my kind of trance and dance.” Blessed by Lenny. You can hardly even believe it.” 

“Something Happening/Always Happening” is out on Sept. 9. Pre-order the album here.

Thanks to Jason for the music and the opportunity … perhaps there won’t be eight years between posts again.

Mark your calendars, Wilmington NC!

Saturday, September 24th... Waterline Brewery will be hosting the annual Wilmington Record Show from 11:00am-5:00pm!  Fort Lowell Records, along with other Wilmington-based record labels — Eccentric Pop Records and Ruined Records — we be the featured record labels selling our respective catalogs, while friends Black Wax Records, Gravity Records, The Fuzzy Needle, Record Krate, Record Bar, School Kids Records, and others will be slinging new and used vinyl from their stores. Don't miss it!

Kim Ware and the Good Graces rank #1 with NACC!

For the week of August 23, 2022, Fort Lowell Records' own Kim Ware and the Good Graces ranked #1 with the North American College and Community (NACC) Radio Chart for Folk music with Ware's new full length album, Ready, due out September 16th!

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

Record Release Concert Announcement

Desario will perform live in concert on Friday, September 30th at The Starlet Room in Sacramento, California, along with Ghostplay and Fawns of Love, to celebrate the release of their fourth studio album Signal and Noise.  Tickets at $12.00 in advance, and $15.00 the day of show.  Doors open at 7:00pm, and the show begins at 8:00pm.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS NOW

OUT NOW: JPW "Always Happening" [Digital Single]

JPW is the moniker for Jason P. Woodbury, host of Aquarium Drunkard's weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard with dublab.  Today, JPW's third single -- "Always Happening" -- from the debut album -- Something Happening / Always Happening -- is out as a digital single on all platforms.  For fans of Nels Cline, Brian Eno, Lambchop, Hayden Pedigo, and Pure X.

"A meditative montage of low-key psych." ~ So Much Silence

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD NOW!

As JPW, Jason P. Woodbury Transcends Into the Desert Rock Ether

[Repost Phoenix New Times; by Chris Coplan, August 22, 2022]

When you talk of ecosystems, there's this idea of "lynchpin" species. Those animals that are vital to sustaining a specific system; the capelin, for instance, serves this role for regions like the North Atlantic.

Without attempting to embarrass or hyperbolize, Jason P. Woodbury is our own capelin.

Since the mid-2000s, he's done it all: musician (including KITIMOTO); record store employee (Zia); writer and editor (Phoenix New Times); and host (Wastoids and Aquarium Drunkard). He's helped foster our robust local scene for years by applying his immense passion and deep curiosity. It's a story worth exploring as Woodbury commences a new journey: a solo career as JPW.

Woodbury's early love of music started, as it should, with Dave Matthews Band — until he quickly became enamored with punk. It’s a true snapshot of his lifelong, multifaceted obsession.

"Music was a thing I felt deeply connected to that was beyond a hobby or an interest," he said recently at the Linger Longer Lounge. "It was pretty quick that I recognized that I'd become obsessed with the idea of it."

At that time, Woodbury would make some lifelong connections, including Zane Gillum, who plays on JPW's debut album, Something Happening / Always Happening. But it wasn't long before Woodbury found his other great love: writing about music.

"I think that my relationship with [music] was less focused on me playing it all the time," he said. "Although that was a big part of it. I also wanted to tell my friends what records they should be listening to."

And, while he kept playing music for himself alongside pals like Gillum, Woodbury eventually gave up any "aspirations" for life as a writer and editor.

Then, of course, the world went and changed.

Woodbury said that as COVID-19 reared its head, he picked up his guitar more regularly. That led him to record an album with the aforementioned KITIMOTO, June's truly excellent Vintage Smell. It was that solidarity that largely sparked the JPW project.

"I think it was the process of being in a band with friends and getting to add touches to songs and not have to be the sole songwriter," he said. "It engaged a part of the creative side of my brain that I missed and that I hadn't engaged so much."

But it was different still. A decade-ish away, and his efforts to work through big ideas and emotions, pushed Woodbury into a new place musically.

"So what happened — maybe it's getting older or maybe it's devoting myself more or less to a kind of spiritual practice — but all of a sudden, when I started working on this record, I had a couple songs tumble out that were very, very spontaneous," he said. "They felt like they came from someplace that wasn't my head."

He's referring to cuts like "Cruel in Time" and "Wealth of the Canyon," which exemplify the album's overt sense of ease and a commitment to emotionality over technical prowess.

"They happened in a matter of just a couple of days," Woodbury added. "They just came out and were recorded in ways I'd never recorded. I was utilizing loops and drum samples. I listened back to them, and I heard in them a quality that I'd just never been able to hear from my own music."

To some extent, this wellspring of creation was a chance for Woodbury to counter what he'd taught himself as a professional writer/editor.

"When I'm doing something more journalistically, you have to have a quality filter on," he said. "You're mediating and filtering everything you're thinking through these differing sorts of criteria. What had always locked me up in the past in all the bands I was in, where I was the main creative force, I struggled with turning off the quality filter in the early stages."

But the music helped him see things clearly, and he found ways to counter and create more freely.

He added, "And then the other thing, of course, is anytime you're a critic who puts music out, it's impossible not to ask yourself, 'Are these good?' Or, 'Are people going to look at this?' I found myself surprised and shocked for the first time in my life to say that I wouldn't care because I like them."

Woodbury's "transformation" also came as he's accepted himself as a proper utility player. He referenced the Brian Eno book A Year with Swollen Appendices, in which the legend talked about how "less technically adept" players are often his favorite (like the bassist from James, per Eno’s example).

"And I identified with that," Woodbury said. "Sometimes what they're doing might be the simplest thing that's happening, but it adds an ineffable quality to the recording. I realized some time while we were making the KITIMOTO record, the simplest ideas I had were often the most potent ideas."

The JPW record expands on those ideas: Keeping it simple doesn’t mean keeping it boring.

"There's a lot of repetition on the record," Woodbury said. "Because I want to establish a groove. … Let that exist for two, three minutes, and then get out. Look, if you're only going to make this one record, make sure it's the 'you' record as much as possible, which even extends to the project name. I can't come up with another dumb band name; I'm just going to call it JPW."

Aside from Eno, Woodbury leaned into another hero, Neil Young, who he said talks about the idea that "the closer you are to the raw idea, the more likely you've got something that's interesting or pure." That helped in making certain decisions, even as collaborators Zach Toporek and Michael Krassner had insights.

"[Toporek] was like, 'I want to fix this.' And I'm like, 'Nah, man, we got it.' And he says, 'I don't think we did,'" Woodbury said. "I have to violently wrestle it away from him and take it over to my lair and turn it into what it becomes. It's a real question I have with myself. Are you being impatient? Or are you on to something? There's something that caught initially; those are the things that I feel most attracted to."

It also helped that this somewhat transcendent approach fed into Woodbury's lifelong aspiration: being more like a personal hero, comics writer/mystic Alan Moore.

"I want to be a mystic," he said. "I don't know if I am. That's the idea, and that's what strikes me as the most romantic and most interesting idea, the version of me that I find most attractive. I think I just find myself more and more drawn to the idea that without awe and wonder and mystery, life is a suspect proposition."

Just don't expect him to worship serpent gods. If anything, embracing mysticism is to further the true magic of communing via one's art.

"I'm interested in the kind of cultural storytelling that we engage in," he said. "There's a symbiotic relationship to it, and so I've become more interested in these ideas of what narratives take root through art, and how those things break into the real world in their own weird ways. This thing [an album track] started rattling around in my head and now it's out of my head and it exists in a form that [everyone] can listen to."

Part of that mysticism "shtick" is also for Woodbury to further codify and celebrate his beloved home in the Southwest. He readily recalls growing up in Coolidge, channeling some other bigwigs.

"The Southwest and Arizona is a deeply weird place. I think we've produced deeply strange musicians, from Sun City Girls to the Meat Puppets," he said. "Lee Hazlewood, Duane Eddy, and Waylon Jennings all worked at a [Coolidge] radio station, KCKY-AM. I didn't actually hear that growing up, they were long gone by the time I came of age, but at some point, I found myself very interested in and connected to the idea that there's a musical history that is uniquely Arizona. I wanted to listen to that station in my mind, hearing those voices on the air, and tap into the spirit I imagined up."

So does that make Something Happening / Always Happening a desert album?

"I didn't try to do a desert record," he said. "[This is] the place where I have a root in the ground. It's a place that I understand on some level, and the parts of it that I don't remain intriguing to me. I didn’t want [Arizona] to be a punchline on The Daily Show or The Simpsons; just make a record about your weird experience in this place. So it’s about Arizona, but it's about my imagined Arizona."

He added, "A friend asked if I was OK with this being called desert rock. I have to be honest: I'm really OK with people calling it anything they want as long as somebody's listening."

To an extent, the album wasn't even the end goal. Woodbury said he "didn't keep notes or write down the chords," and mentioned playing live as an afterthought. Instead, the record was representative of something he did for himself as a person.

"A big part of this record coming to existence was me allowing myself the freedom to create a thing," he said. "And allowing whatever else happens now to also happen and not worry about it and not stress and curate the experience."

Just don't expect him to worship serpent gods. If anything, embracing mysticism is to further the true magic of communing via one's art.

"I'm interested in the kind of cultural storytelling that we engage in," he said. "There's a symbiotic relationship to it, and so I've become more interested in these ideas of what narratives take root through art, and how those things break into the real world in their own weird ways. This thing [an album track] started rattling around in my head and now it's out of my head and it exists in a form that [everyone] can listen to."

Part of that mysticism "shtick" is also for Woodbury to further codify and celebrate his beloved home in the Southwest. He readily recalls growing up in Coolidge, channeling some other bigwigs.

"The Southwest and Arizona is a deeply weird place. I think we've produced deeply strange musicians, from Sun City Girls to the Meat Puppets," he said. "Lee Hazlewood, Duane Eddy, and Waylon Jennings all worked at a [Coolidge] radio station, KCKY-AM. I didn't actually hear that growing up, they were long gone by the time I came of age, but at some point, I found myself very interested in and connected to the idea that there's a musical history that is uniquely Arizona. I wanted to listen to that station in my mind, hearing those voices on the air, and tap into the spirit I imagined up."

So does that make Something Happening / Always Happening a desert album?

"I didn't try to do a desert record," he said. "[This is] the place where I have a root in the ground. It's a place that I understand on some level, and the parts of it that I don't remain intriguing to me. I didn’t want [Arizona] to be a punchline on The Daily Show or The Simpsons; just make a record about your weird experience in this place. So it’s about Arizona, but it's about my imagined Arizona."

He added, "A friend asked if I was OK with this being called desert rock. I have to be honest: I'm really OK with people calling it anything they want as long as somebody's listening."

To an extent, the album wasn't even the end goal. Woodbury said he "didn't keep notes or write down the chords," and mentioned playing live as an afterthought. Instead, the record was representative of something he did for himself as a person.

"A big part of this record coming to existence was me allowing myself the freedom to create a thing," he said. "And allowing whatever else happens now to also happen and not worry about it and not stress and curate the experience."

That doesn't mean, though, Woodbury hasn't performed, with recent shows being shared sets with Toporek's band, Dadweed. But even those gigs are a chance to further explore his muse.

"It's a nice way to open the songs up because I have no real desire for the songs to always be presented exactly the same for each show," Woodbury said. "Or, that the record version is the version. A good song can withstand almost anything you put it through."

Aside from more dates, Woodbury and Toporek are nearly done with JPW's second album, which could arrive sometime in early 2023. (Expect a single possibly soon, Woodbury teased.) He said it's a much different record, with influences of "1970s folk records and ‘90s trip-hop stuff."

So, does that mean that Woodbury the Writer is hanging it up indefinitely for Woodbury the Rocker?

"Writing is too important to me to leave entirely," Woodbury said. "And I've had moments of realization and epiphany and transcendence through that means as well. Both are acts of empathy in which you're able to create a space for yourself and others to feel a thing or explore a thing or unpack a thing with you. I want to do more of both."

Something Happening / Always Happening will be released September 9 via Fort Lowell Records. The record release show is set for Saturday, September 10, at The Dirty Drummer, 2303 North 44th Street; tickets are free and doors open at 8 p.m.

2002 SXSW Picks & Sleepers

[Repost from The Austin Chronicle; by Kate Messer, March 8, 2002]

Audio Explorations | North Floridian duo James Tritten and Steven Haley's new sophomore CD, ActionReaction, out on North Carolina's Eskimo Kiss, is chimey and chirpy, in that hard-driving early Cure way. One minute they're drubbingly langorous, like a mean, lazy beating, the next, very American and Analog, if you know what we mean.

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Fort Lowell Records is very proud to share with you that for the 20th Anniversary, we will be releasing Audio Explorations' ActionReaction on vinyl record for the very first time! 

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

Lauds in concert w/ The Veldt at Monstercade Bar, Winston-Salem NC; Fri, Sept 23rd

The Modern Folk on JPW 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

"Jason Woodbury (JPW) is best known as a music journalist - but like Peter Laughner, his deep engagement w/ music as a writer has led to some equally deep output as a musician - his debut LP is perfect, eccentric desert pop, ranging from minimal grooves to lush psych-tinged jams." ~ The Modern Folk

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER JPW VINY NOW

Pictured: J Moss of The Modern Folk

Moyamoya "sorry I called you he-man" live at Grantski Records, Augusta GA; Sept 14, 2016

CLICK HERE to pre-order Moyamoya's sophomore album Hawn -- originally released on December 24, 2018 as a Digital LP only; now available on vinyl record for the very first time! 

"A harsh excursion replete with vintage beeps and purrs." ~ Here Comes the Flood; December 8, 2018

 

PS: Happy Birthday, Richard Dudley of Moyamoya!

Live Concert Pictures of Color Temperature at Bourgie Nights; August 19, 2022

JPW Album Release Party

The official album release party for JPW Something Happening / Always Happening will be held on Saturday, September 10th at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix, Arizona with Caleb Dailey, Pale Morning, and DJ Set by Johnny D.

Audio Explorations 'ActionReaction'

[Repost by PopMatters; June 3, 2002]

There comes a times in most people’s lives when they just don’t feel right with the world. Undoubtedly, the adolescent teenage years spark off a lot of emotion and confusion in the minds of young men and women everywhere. Often, these sometimes dark and desperate funks are dealt with the old fashioned way: through a favorite album. Music, no matter what kind, is a pure form of artistic expression that can sympathize like nothing else. When no one else seems to understand the troubles of the world, there’s often a song or an entire CD that can connect with a listener like nothing else.

Oft times, this is the ripe age of musical discovery where bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, and the Cure reign supreme. All of these are bands that have grappled with the subjects of despair, death, and the woes that seem to sometimes come on a regular basis to a teenager’s life. After a fashion, some of these bands can become almost silly to the same person who once lived by their music and lyrics. But it would be hard to estimate just how many copies of Led Zeppelin IV, Dark Side of the Moon, the Doors’ debut album, and Disintegration provided a sympathetic soundtrack for many an addled adolescent mind. And by today’s standards, you might as well toss in a Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead album in there as well.

However, there’s a newer band out there that has seemingly created the most visceral, haunting, and explicitly realistic album out there whose subject matter may just as well have been taken straight from the psyches of any group of 14-18 year olds out there. And that is not to say that all teenagers are troubled. But Audio Explorations’ ActionReaction is undoubtedly a grand masterpiece of raw emotion, intense melody, and a very eerie sense of release. An extremely honest piece of work, this album will leave you in awe.

If you’re thinking that it must be some kind of growled, over the top bombastic shout fest, then you might be very surprised that the band’s music is almost delicate at times, though with no lack of spring-coiled tension knotting every guitar phrase and note. At times, it sounds like the Cure’s Seventeen Seconds, Robert Smith and Co.’s finest foray into the darkness before they made an all too long career out of it. But unlike Smith, band members James Tritten and Steven Haley have sculpted a sublimely unnerving set of songs that doesn’t go off wandering into surreal landscapes.

The opening track, “Nine Down One To Go”, has an incredibly clear sound; the band often favors using the low notes on a standard six-string electric guitar rather than a bass. This adds to the heady mix, as Tritten’s guitar is allowed more space to roam throughout the songs and double (or triple, even) its duties as rhythm, lead, and bass instrument. Haley’s drumming is always tight — straightforward and right on time — with not too much flash. Just enough of a fill here and there, and it’s perfect. But it’s the lyrics that tell the real tale: “I am the maker of your pain / I’m the hater of your ways / I’m the thinktank to kill you / I am inside your brain”. The most unnerving thing about this is Tritten’s calm delivery throughout. Not even Thom Yorke could play it this maddeningly low key and be so convincing.

On “Go Away”, Tritten sings “No it won’t go away / Not until I cut my hand / Now I can’t feel my hand / And the pain won’t go away / I don’t know if I’ll see the day / That the pain will go away”. Simple and jarring. Infinitely understandable in both language and emotion. “Symphonic Dreams” twists the language around a bit, offering up such thought-provoking lines like “I’ll open up my mouth / To hear you sing / One of my many dreams / To hear you sing”.

Listen to any song here, and it’s a gut punch revelation. “I have spent too much of my existence / Just trying to find me / And where to go / Where to go from here / And who do you know / For real” is a slice of the eye opening sympathies found inside “The Real World”. And on “Contemplate Your State”, Tritten lets loose and bares his soul completely: “I hate the fucks that are slow / ‘Cause they will never know / What the fuck I know / And who am I / You wonder who I am / I wonder who am I”. This continued look into the psyche — be it Tritten’s, or perhaps the listener’s — and coming up with only more questions is hard to describe. It’s uniquely enjoyable, but you’re not sure why. Perhaps it’s because we’ve all felt this way before.

The music twists and turns, with guitars being pressed through various filters and buzzing off somewhere else only to come back and pull it all back together. Like a tight drum, the tunes never stutter. And for some reason, it still sounds warm and humane, not at all mechanical like one might think. On the final two tracks, “Sometimes True” and “Separation”, Haley takes the lead vocals, pushing the tension even further as his voice is punched through a vocoder or some sort of processor on the former.

Also included on this album is a great six-minute video to play in your CD-ROM that features the band working on and discussing the album. In perhaps an ironic twist, James Tritten states that they just do the music “for fun”, and then he smiles. Indeed, the duo looks like they have a great time, be it working in the studio or playing live with various projections displayed upon them. So for all the lyrical drama on the album, it’s still comforting to know that Tritten and Haley are just two average joes having fun making slightly disturbing pieces of art. ActionReaction is probably going to be one of the best albums of 2002 for its vision and to-the-point attitude. “Fun” or not, this is a tremendous recording that everyone should experience.

LISTEN: Kim Ware and the Good Graces Rock With A “capital R”

[Repost from Rock & Roll Globe; by Ron Hart, August 3, 2022]

New album, Ready, comes out September 16th

Since coming together over 15 years ago, Kim Ware and her band, the Good Graces, have been an active entity touring the country and playing countless festivals alongside a long list of renowned artists including Indigo Girls, Sierra Ferrell, Granville Automatic and The Old Ceremony. 

Their sound has been compared to artists like Neko Case, Drive-By Truckers, Phoebe Bridgers and The Weepies among others. But upon listening to the forthcoming Good Graces album, entitled Ready, it’s clear how Ware and her mates are coming into their own distinctive sound themselves, finding them stepping out of the country/folk trappings and towards a more electric feel reminiscent of celebrated 90s acts like Belly and Juliana Hatfield. 

The album, which is due out on September 16 and produced by former Superchunk multi-instrumentalist Jerry Kee, is filled with songs written both before the COVID-19 outbreak, like the breakup rocker “U2 (Means to an End),” the shimmering “Overflowing,” and a tribute to her late father called “So Many Questions.” Others were written in the throes of the pandemic and subsequent civil unrest that transpired under the Trump Administration, like the self-evident, “Stopped Making Plans” and “Odds and Evens,” written in response to the events of January 6th. 

Then there are songs that are more universal and unbound by time or events like the confessional rocker “capital R,” which Rock & Roll Globe is proud to premiere today on the site.

“This was one of the first songs we finished for the album,” Ware explains. “Instantly it seemed to have a more driving, rocking feel than most of my songs, and we really leaned into that for the production. I was sort of going for a 90s / early 2000s indie-alternative vibe. I came up playing drums in bands in the 90s, so that era — stuff like Liz Phair, The Breeders, and Throwing Muses — will always be a big influence on me, though it isn’t always evident in my writing. I would say this sort of set the tone for the rest of the album, pushing us more in a direction of an indie/alternative production quality (and less country-folk like I expected). It’s one of my favorites to play live, mainly due to the energy, and often some friends will join in with backing vocals and hand claps.”

Lyrically, Ware tells Rock & Roll Globe how “capital R” inspired her to dig deeper into her ability to resolve conflict, something so many of us who’ve lost family and friends to our country’s stark political divide could relate.

“I’ve written a few ‘therapy songs’ over the past couple of years, and I think ‘capital R’ was the first, or at least the first that was an intentional attempt to get some resolution with a situation I was having problems with,” she reveals. “It came out of an assignment from my therapist. I was having a difficult time dealing with what I’ll just refer to as ‘unwanted’ feelings about a couple of my interpersonal relationships; basically, there was a common theme I found in how I was responding to conflict, and I wasn’t very proud of it. My therapist urged me to journal about what the feelings do FOR me. 

“My initial response was that it doesn’t do anything for me; it’s something I’d like to change. But I sat with it a bit and wrote about it. It was really helpful in that it gave me a different perspective and just a better understanding of the conflicts, at least in terms of my responses to them and how they got so problematic in the first place. The whole process was super therapeutic and opened my eyes to a new way of writing.”

Listen to “Capital R” below and pre-order Ready here.

James Sardone of 'This Water is Life, Vol. I'

[L-R] Ian Millard of Dogwood Lane Studio, James Sardone himself, and Lincoln Morris