Track: "A Shallow Madness" - Lilac Shadows

The title track released from the upcoming Shallow Madness EP casts Lilac Shadows into a universe where the spectrum is 8 bit synth, color vibrates the airwaves, and thoughts are communicated through texture. Bridging the languages of here and there, prettiness becomes a medium with whom "A Shallow Madness" emotes clearly. What may be translated however, is an overshot into the sparkle of unrecognizable gems, the wonder of incalculable movement, and the gleam of lucidity lit just beyond a haze of obscurity. But just before starry eyes fall to trance, there is a guitar. Chiming a universal language and giving reason to the unknown, it repeats it's message with bell like clarity until smiles are found sharing their interpretations with head nods.

Lilac Shadows is Sam Logan, Derek Torres, and Karen Blanco all of T0W3RS, and Zack Oden from Annuals. With their textures well formed and their sense of place purposefully ambiguous, the experimental has long since been beyond the test phase for this cast and "A Shallow Madness" seems a comfortable suspension in animation for them. The Shallow Madness EP will transcend the ether and enter the physical realm on cassette March 31st, with a release party hosted by DiggUp Tapes later that night at Kings on Martin St in Raleigh, NC. --Carrboro Ninja

listen what i'm talkin bout: A Shallow Madness

jphono1 - Living is Easy

John Harrison's arts is always a mind expanding challenge to convention and these forty pages of art and nine tracks of atmospheric acoustic pop found bound by a single release titled Living is Easy...is the sort of collapsed dichotomy between art and life that John's audience is conditioned to expect from his studio. Known for twisting the heaviest and darkest sounds from a synthesizer in his mainstay electronic rock group North Elementary, John takes a lighter more experimental approach to the same machine on this solo effort jphono1. Throughout the album, there is an acoustic guitar, John's whimsically philosophical voice, and a synth zipping, zapping, and echoing in playfully thoughtful arrangements. The occasional looped atmospheric sound of birds chirping or stars shooting promotes a bridge between the two mediums of Living is Easy, which are sound and print. Graphic artist Regina McCoy chose from a pallet of art works, images captured during times of the album's creation, and lyrics scribbled on scratch paper to frame up Living is Easy the book, and each page within it offers a rich and delectable dive into the colorful life of the artist.

The commission can be per-ordered right now for $12 book and $5 CD (which is mind numbingly cheap for an effort of this quality) and shipping will begin on or around Feb 7. The entire album is available for streaming and/or download at the artist's website jphono1 as of right now also. To kick things off, a massive album/art release party is on the books for February 16th at The Cave in Chapel Hill. The party will begin at 7 PM and will feature 30 minute sets by nine performers beginning with Mark Edwards and ending with Chapel Hill folk rock darlings Magnolia Collective. Sara Bell of Regina Hexaphone, Neven Carswell of Wembley, and Inspector 22 are among the performers billed. Join the facebook event.

--Carrboro Ninja

images from "Living is Easy" the book

Some Army Debut 7"

The debut Some Army 7" is a gentle lover with a forgiving embrace. Arrangements are subtle, choruses and harmonies distant, and drums beat so as not to disturb. Its opener "Servant Tires" lulls to sleep with four minutes worth of bedroom eyes and its closer "Fallen On Your Sword" beckons them back awake with just as much sensitivity. A forty second long instrumental dream scape of lush synth keys and ethereal harmonies makes up the middle. All three tracks are reasons to fall in love. On this debut, lead singer Russell Baggett holds candied melodies in his hands and gently blows them to the wind...picked up and carried away by evanescent guitar rubbed with just enough grit to dial Some Army into the Indy rock genre, yet softened enough to keep them pop. --Carrboro Ninja

Servant Tires

post script

Some Army will perform songs from their debut 7" Friday 1/13 at Local 506 with Fan Modine; a pop inspired rock outfit with a taste for bouncy rhythms and vintage esthetics...and Prypyat which is a time capsule to sixties French pop brought to us via deft classical guitar plucking by Duncan Webster (Hammer No More The Fingers) and the deep stretchy cello of Leah Gibson (Lost in the Trees). Doors 9pm, $8.


screen print by Steve Oliva / Kitchen Island Show Prints