#varnaline

[sinceileftyoublog]

Anders Parker Live Preview: 12/14, Undertow

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the past few decades, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anders Parker has transformed from making 4-track lo-fi fuzz rock (early Varnaline) to troubadour-land. It's the latter he's become known for, save for a short stint in the now defunct noise rockers Space Needle and a couple collaborations with Jay Farrar. Parker's latest album The Black Flight, released through his own label Recorded & Freed, is his most straightforward, yet personal album. Recorded as minimally as it was written, the acoustic guitar record is inspired by his great uncle Leslie, a fighter pilot in WWI who died during a dogfight. Its references to war, let alone "The Great War" specifically, are general, a humanistic emphasis on what drives us to do the things we do, how we remember, and how we're remembered.

Behind The Black Flight is a sentiment Parker shared about the album: "I hope that humanity someday finds a way to free itself from the seemingly endless impulse to kill each other." On opener "Don't Let Them Get You Down", he explores what compels people to join war: "I'm heading for the action / I'm looking for a fight / I need my satisfaction / Want to shoot out all their lights." The 10-plus-minute title track, built around intense strums and arpeggiated plucks, sports uneven structures and varying levels of repetition and intensity, as if to mirror the simultaneous predictability and unpredictability of violence. That is, though the individual battles may be different, it's a tale as old as time: Why we fight is often ambiguous, and, "the list of names is never done." Parker further pays tribute to those who survive and how they're shaped mentally for the rest of their lives on blues dirges "Killin' Man" and "A Way Back Home". Those who analyze war, he posits, still don't have the ability to capture the sheer absurdity of it all.

Thankfully, on a few tracks, Parker delves into what keeps us alive. Though fighting is nightmarish, he uses the positive connotations of dreams, too, the opportunity to fulfill our goals and desires existing beyond the scope of a surrealistic pillow. "I can't move the mountain looming, but I can climb a thousand miles," he sings beautifully on closer "A Permanent Wave", the lightness of his picking allowing echo and space to fill the void, the musical representation of tangible potential. And fluttery and sheepish but no less serious are "Northern Girl" and "One Last and Lonely Night", songs where love, or even just lust, are balms in a violent world. War or not, we're all gonna die, says Parker, so pick your side of the mountain and start climbing.

Parker is currently on an Undertow tour, playing at folks' houses throughout the country, including tonight in Chicago at 8:00 PM. The show is happening in the 60625 zip code (somewhere around Ravenswood, Lincoln Square, or Albany Park), and its location won't be revealed until you purchase tickets. At the time of publication, there are 25 tickets available.

[cover-art-for-99-cents]

Varnaline - A Shot And A Beer

1997 Zero Hour

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: Swearing at Motorists Number Seven Uptown

Drummer Don Thrasher (Guided by Voices) and singer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Doughman punch through 15 short songs about TV shows, talking on the phone, and unrequited love. Richly layered and overdubbed with dissonant harmonies, the songs are striking in the way that Doughman doubles his vocals, producing a lo-fi version of the kind of high harmony one might hear in Irish folk (or perhaps similar to how it might sound if Built to Spill covered an entire Varnaline album).

- Zac Johnson

[nasu-no-hana]

Farrer, Johnson, Parker, Yames / New Multitudes lyrics by Woody Guthrie (2012) Son VoltのJay Farrer、Centro-MaticのWill Johnson、Varnaline、Space NeedleのAnders Parker、My Morning JacketのYim Yamesの4人がWoody Guthrieの詩にそれぞれ曲をつけ歌い、演奏するという好企画アルバム。 #JayFarrar (#SonVolt) – lead guitar, vocals #WillJohnson (#CentroMatic) – drums, rhythm guitar, vocals #AndersParke (#Varnaline、#SpaceNeedle) – drums, rhythm guitar, vocals #YimYames (#MyMorningJacket)– bass guitar, vocals #cdcollection #vinyl #vinylcollection #coverart #lp #nowspinning #nowplaying #レコード #records #rock #alternativecountry #alternativerock #rootsrock #folkrock #RounderRecords #2012 #coffee #コーヒー #cat #猫 #xperia5 (宮古島) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGmcVdzJr4U/?igshid=xvubrlhyj4hi

[nicks-corner]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Man-of-Sin-by-Varnaline-CD-Rock-Popular-Alternative-Music/173429504781?epid=3201215&hash=item2861343b0d:g:uQgAAOSwSI5bWAsj

[verifiedaccount]

Varnaline // The Hammer Goes Down

Anders Parker’s vocals have an Elliott Smith breathiness here, but the musical backing is lo-fi grunge, the production flat, the instruments harshly blown out, all of it nevertheless melodic.

[cafepoptorgal]

Will Johnson  Fecha: Domingo 21 Octubre 2018 Hora de apertura de puertas: 20:00 Lugar: Café & Pop Torgal Precio:  10€ anticipada / 14€ taquilla

En solitario, el líder de los texanos Centro-matic y South San Gabriel ofrece folk-rock de fuerte carga sensitiva, que se agarra al esqueleto de las canciones de sus dos bandas y también al de sus propios discos. Este formato explota con mayor profundidad si cabe el poder catártico de su voz, esa espiritualidad de gospel blanco desvalido. Así conquistó a la crítica en su primer tour por España en 2005.

Además de músico, Will Johnson es pintor. Y pinta como hace música y viceversa. Sus canciones se asemejan a un lienzo cubierto de pinceladas de emociones y colores primarios, que luego el texano va salpicando, repasando con pluma, manchando con brochazos, encerrando en un círculo de puntos y acentos sonoros que ahora son más sutiles, luego audaces. Con un desfile de sílabas envueltas en sombras que dan forma a melodías fantasmales, como si fueran meditaciones provocadoras desde un mundo de gran complejidad moral. Algo perceptible en los seis discos que ha firmado a su nombre: "Murder Of Tails" (2002), ”Vultures Await” (2004), "Candidate Waltz" (2011), “Scorpion” (2012), "Swam City Vampires" (2015) y "Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm" (2017); un currículo personal al  que hay que sumar el que firmó en 2009 a medias con el malogrado Jason Molina, “Molina & Johnson”, y “New Multitudes”, homenaje a Woody Guthrie aparecido en 2012 y en el que comparte protagonismo con Jim James (My Morning Jacket) y Anders Parker (Varnaline).

[mistersenorlovedaddy]

jay farrar/varnaline “voodoo candle/song”

[stereoclamato]

“No Decision No Disciple” from Man of Sin, 1996

[musicfides]

Varnaline - Gary's Paranoia.

Man of Sin. 1996.

[whendidisaythat]

I was singing this in the kitchen this morning until my wife told me it was bad enough that the song was playing let alone having to hear me sing it. If I didn't know better I'd say she has poor music taste. Anyway you can enjoy it just nicely without my off-key, yet enthusiastic, rumblings.

[90stalgia]

Varnaline - The Hammer Goes Down

[whenigodeaf]

Anders Parker, "Feel the Same," from Tell It to the Dust

Everybody's got a way to justify or fly away

[cafepoptorgal]

Will Johnson en Ourense Fecha: Jueves 12 Octubre 2017 Hora de apertura de puertas: 20:00 Lugar: Café & Pop Torgal Precio:  anticipada 12€ | taquilla 16€

<entradas: aquí 

En solitario, el líder de los texanos Centro-matic y South San Gabriel ofrece folk-rock de fuerte carga sensitiva, que se agarra al esqueleto de las canciones de sus dos bandas y también al de sus propios discos. Este formato explota con mayor profundidad si cabe el poder catártico de su voz, esa espiritualidad de gospel blanco desvalido. Así conquistó a la crítica en su primer tour por España en 2005.

Además de músico, Will Johnson, el líder de Centro-matic y South San Gabriel, es pintor. Y pinta como hace música y viceversa. Sus canciones se asemejan a un lienzo cubierto de pinceladas de emociones y colores primarios, que luego el texano va salpicando, repasando con pluma, manchando con brochazos, encerrando en un círculo de puntos y acentos sonoros que ahora son más sutiles, luego audaces. Con un desfile de sílabas envueltas en sombras que dan forma a melodías fantasmales, como si fueran meditaciones provocadoras desde un mundo de gran complejidad moral. Algo perceptible en los seis discos que ha firmado a su nombre: "Murder Of Tails" (2002), ”Vultures Await” (2004), "Candidate Waltz" (2011), “Scorpion” (2012), "Swam City Vampires"(2015) y "Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm" (2017); un currículo personal al  que hay que sumar el que firmó en 2009 a medias con el malogrado Jason Molina, “Molina & Johnson”, y “New Multitudes”, homenaje a Woody Guthrie aparecido en 2012 y en el que comparte protagonismo con Jim James (My Morning Jacket) y Anders Parker (Varnaline).

[mistersenorlovedaddy]

varnaline “sweet life”