Michael Cerveris: Dog Eared (Vinyl LP)
CD Baby
Regular price
$29.99
Sale
Usually ships in 3-6 business days
REVIEWS ...this is the very model of the modern Breakup Record...with it's emphasis on acoustic guitars, uncertain melodies and hushed, tremulous singing, Dog Eared most recalls the work of the late Elliott Smith (TIME OUT NY ) Dog Eared spins like the disjointed bipolar days just after a messy breakup-I'm up, I'm down, I'm drunk, I'm free-without sounding mawkish. Call it sloppy art for sloppy hearts. (MAGNET) Cerveris takes simple songs and transforms them into mini-operas with thick arrangements, inventive counterpoint and sharp vocal harmonies... turns pathos into pop redemption. (AMPLIFIER) a stately duel between saturated sound and barely-there vulnerability (SPLENDID) Some thoughts on cerveris and dog eared...from some of his stellar cast of not-quite-thousands: Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney, co-writer/vocals on 'SPCA): 'One of Michael's strengths as a musician and songwriter is his versatility ... And with Janet and Ken playing on [the album], it felt like a little supergroup.' Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, various tracks) - 'Subtlety in textures and writing, a world-class cast and crew ... everything was exciting!' Laura Cantrell (vocals on 'Two Seconds') -- '[Michael is] a fabulous singer and it was a real revelation to hear his music -- I'm just terribly flattered to be asked to come in and sing with him.' Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub, guitar/vocals on 'Crosshill') -- 'There's this classic thing of actors wanting to be musicians -- but Michael can really do both, which is difficult ... and unusual.' Adam Lasus (co-producer) - 'He has a great sense of not overdoing things or trying to make it sound like things you've heard before. There's not one moment of this album that has that clichéd bullshit...the very subtle songs begin to creep into your mind with all these little hooks, drum parts and vocal melodies' Michael Cerveris -- '[dog eared] was my way of making one big alternative reality. I have such a literal or emotional connection with all these people and it seemed as if they all belonged in the same room together ... and that room became this record. Nothing is quite as compelling on record as the restless fluctuations of the fractured heart--something singer/songwriter Michael Cerveris proves brilliantly on his ferocious and fragile solo debut album dog eared. From the roiling anthem of SPCA (Cerveris' cheeky, power-pop collaboration co-written and sung with Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker) to the melancholy, but muscular musings of Can't Feel My Soul, dog eared is Cerveris' lush declaration of liberation not only from lousy love affairs, but from his complex, parallel life as a critically acclaimed, Tony-nominated actor -- an extraordinary, but convoluted path for a rock musician. Cerveris -- former frontman of British band Retriever (Hinterlands) and guitarist/vocalist on Bob Mould's 1998 US/UK Dog and Pony Show tour -- originated the title role in the Broadway hit Tommy and in the late 90s, he starred in the smash cult hit Hedwig and the Angry Inch on London's West End, off-Broadway in New York and in Los Angeles and has recently been starring with Ricky Martin and Elena Roger in EVITA once again on Broadway while continuing his roles as The Observer on FRINGE and a recurring role as music manager Marvin Frey on HBO's Treme. Cerveris and his co-producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah,Madder Rose, Clem Snide, Helium) chose to make dog eared a unique family effort. They reached out to Cerveris' extended, diverse network of musician compadres and friends -- Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss, Ken Stringfellow (Posies, R.E.M.), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Laura Cantrell, Norman Blake (Teenage Fan Club), Jeremy Chatzky (They Might Be Giants), Kevin March (Guided by Voices, Dambuilders), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Space Needle), Lara Gray (Luna, Ben Lee), Joe McGinty (Psychedelic Furs), strings arranger David Arnold (Bjork) and Alex Lutes (Nightnurse, Retriever) for recording sessions that took place sporadically over the course of six months in locales ranging from Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront to Portland, Oregon to Glasgow, Scotland. The album was mixed by Nick Brine (Oasis, Stone Roses) and Adam Lasus at the famed Rockfield Studios in Wales The reason I chose not to continue [with Retriever] on this record was partly logistical -- the band was in London, explains Cerveris, who lives in Manhattan. But I also felt that there was a musician, a person and a life I needed to shed. During a rough time in my life I learned to reach out to people in a way I'd never done before, he continues. And reaching out to my friends, these musicians, for this album was very much in the same spirit. He laughs. God, it was like rock group therapy! To simply call dog eared a breakup album would undercut the universal poetry and power of Cerveris' eight original tracks and two carefully chosen covers. From the playful, but incendiary hooks of Dog Eared to the driving drums and lyrical snap of SPCA, the grinding guitars of Another Time and the hushed, hypnotic beauty of Snowbound, Cerveris and his rag-tag supergroup have found a gorgeous balance between sorrow and luminous self-discovery, dark mood swings and gentle fury. I didn't start writing these songs with the intention of writing a breakup album, says Cerveris who wrote the voluptuous, distorted ballad Golden just a few whiskey-soaked days after a three-year relationship foundered. I just started writing because there were these thoughts I really needed to rid myself of -- it was the emotional equivalent of the medieval practice of boring into people's skulls to let demons out when they had migraines. But I think of this album less as a document of a breakup and more as a recovery record. Self-resurrection following heartbreak is traced on dog eared from the ground zero of ghostly tracks like Golden which, cleverly and perversely, ends the album -- a raw memory of a lost love bound by electronically-altered, whispered vocals, twangy, raucous guitars, and Ken Stringfellow's sinuous organ work. It was a really intense slow jam, says Stringfellow who worked with Cerveris and Lasus in both Portland and Brooklyn. Michael knew I could go rogue [on the track] and he let me have free rein. You have to find little places to breathe in a way, where the notes can stop. It was exactly like a meditation ... which is a good thing to experience. Cerveris has a decade-long friendship with Stringfellow but was still surprised when the ever-busy musician asked to be involved with virtually every track. He's one of those guys who plays so many instruments so well, says Cerveris, who was appearing in Tommy when he first met the R.E.M. sideman, former Posies member and solo artist. [Ken] has this technical ability to respond immediately to what he hears and a lot of his work on this album was just done in one to four takes. In addition to his original songs, Cerveris includes two intriguing covers on dog eared: Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard's Drinker's Peace and Volebeats singer Robert McCreedy's tune Two Seconds. The latter was covered by grassroots country singer Laura Cantrell on her own debut album Not The Trembling Kind and when it came time to record the track himself, Cerveris asked Cantrell if she'd jump aboard the project. I thought it was really interesting what Michael did with it, says Cantrell, who traveled to Lasus' Fireproof Studios in Red Hook to sing harmonies on a bitter cold day in early February. Michael brought [Two Seconds] to even a moodier, quieter place than I had thought to do which was cool. It communicates a very basic longing and the way Michael has done the song, it does have a sort of late night, introspective vibe ... or like [the way you feel] on a cold day when you just want to curl up and put a blanket over your head. Several compositions on dog eared evolved from sudden epiphanies. While hanging out at Crosshill, Disconnect, Spca, Dog Eared, Two Seconds, Can't Feel My Soul, Drinker's Peace, Snowbound, Another Time, Golden, Eleven, Monkey Tennis, Two Seconds (Acoustic Mono Mix), Disconnect (Acoustic Mono Mix)
REVIEWS ...this is the very model of the modern Breakup Record...with it's emphasis on acoustic guitars, uncertain melodies and hushed, tremulous singing, Dog Eared most recalls the work of the late Elliott Smith (TIME OUT NY ) Dog Eared spins like the disjointed bipolar days just after a messy breakup-I'm up, I'm down, I'm drunk, I'm free-without sounding mawkish. Call it sloppy art for sloppy hearts. (MAGNET) Cerveris takes simple songs and transforms them into mini-operas with thick arrangements, inventive counterpoint and sharp vocal harmonies... turns pathos into pop redemption. (AMPLIFIER) a stately duel between saturated sound and barely-there vulnerability (SPLENDID) Some thoughts on cerveris and dog eared...from some of his stellar cast of not-quite-thousands: Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney, co-writer/vocals on 'SPCA): 'One of Michael's strengths as a musician and songwriter is his versatility ... And with Janet and Ken playing on [the album], it felt like a little supergroup.' Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, various tracks) - 'Subtlety in textures and writing, a world-class cast and crew ... everything was exciting!' Laura Cantrell (vocals on 'Two Seconds') -- '[Michael is] a fabulous singer and it was a real revelation to hear his music -- I'm just terribly flattered to be asked to come in and sing with him.' Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub, guitar/vocals on 'Crosshill') -- 'There's this classic thing of actors wanting to be musicians -- but Michael can really do both, which is difficult ... and unusual.' Adam Lasus (co-producer) - 'He has a great sense of not overdoing things or trying to make it sound like things you've heard before. There's not one moment of this album that has that clichéd bullshit...the very subtle songs begin to creep into your mind with all these little hooks, drum parts and vocal melodies' Michael Cerveris -- '[dog eared] was my way of making one big alternative reality. I have such a literal or emotional connection with all these people and it seemed as if they all belonged in the same room together ... and that room became this record. Nothing is quite as compelling on record as the restless fluctuations of the fractured heart--something singer/songwriter Michael Cerveris proves brilliantly on his ferocious and fragile solo debut album dog eared. From the roiling anthem of SPCA (Cerveris' cheeky, power-pop collaboration co-written and sung with Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker) to the melancholy, but muscular musings of Can't Feel My Soul, dog eared is Cerveris' lush declaration of liberation not only from lousy love affairs, but from his complex, parallel life as a critically acclaimed, Tony-nominated actor -- an extraordinary, but convoluted path for a rock musician. Cerveris -- former frontman of British band Retriever (Hinterlands) and guitarist/vocalist on Bob Mould's 1998 US/UK Dog and Pony Show tour -- originated the title role in the Broadway hit Tommy and in the late 90s, he starred in the smash cult hit Hedwig and the Angry Inch on London's West End, off-Broadway in New York and in Los Angeles and has recently been starring with Ricky Martin and Elena Roger in EVITA once again on Broadway while continuing his roles as The Observer on FRINGE and a recurring role as music manager Marvin Frey on HBO's Treme. Cerveris and his co-producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah,Madder Rose, Clem Snide, Helium) chose to make dog eared a unique family effort. They reached out to Cerveris' extended, diverse network of musician compadres and friends -- Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss, Ken Stringfellow (Posies, R.E.M.), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Laura Cantrell, Norman Blake (Teenage Fan Club), Jeremy Chatzky (They Might Be Giants), Kevin March (Guided by Voices, Dambuilders), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Space Needle), Lara Gray (Luna, Ben Lee), Joe McGinty (Psychedelic Furs), strings arranger David Arnold (Bjork) and Alex Lutes (Nightnurse, Retriever) for recording sessions that took place sporadically over the course of six months in locales ranging from Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront to Portland, Oregon to Glasgow, Scotland. The album was mixed by Nick Brine (Oasis, Stone Roses) and Adam Lasus at the famed Rockfield Studios in Wales The reason I chose not to continue [with Retriever] on this record was partly logistical -- the band was in London, explains Cerveris, who lives in Manhattan. But I also felt that there was a musician, a person and a life I needed to shed. During a rough time in my life I learned to reach out to people in a way I'd never done before, he continues. And reaching out to my friends, these musicians, for this album was very much in the same spirit. He laughs. God, it was like rock group therapy! To simply call dog eared a breakup album would undercut the universal poetry and power of Cerveris' eight original tracks and two carefully chosen covers. From the playful, but incendiary hooks of Dog Eared to the driving drums and lyrical snap of SPCA, the grinding guitars of Another Time and the hushed, hypnotic beauty of Snowbound, Cerveris and his rag-tag supergroup have found a gorgeous balance between sorrow and luminous self-discovery, dark mood swings and gentle fury. I didn't start writing these songs with the intention of writing a breakup album, says Cerveris who wrote the voluptuous, distorted ballad Golden just a few whiskey-soaked days after a three-year relationship foundered. I just started writing because there were these thoughts I really needed to rid myself of -- it was the emotional equivalent of the medieval practice of boring into people's skulls to let demons out when they had migraines. But I think of this album less as a document of a breakup and more as a recovery record. Self-resurrection following heartbreak is traced on dog eared from the ground zero of ghostly tracks like Golden which, cleverly and perversely, ends the album -- a raw memory of a lost love bound by electronically-altered, whispered vocals, twangy, raucous guitars, and Ken Stringfellow's sinuous organ work. It was a really intense slow jam, says Stringfellow who worked with Cerveris and Lasus in both Portland and Brooklyn. Michael knew I could go rogue [on the track] and he let me have free rein. You have to find little places to breathe in a way, where the notes can stop. It was exactly like a meditation ... which is a good thing to experience. Cerveris has a decade-long friendship with Stringfellow but was still surprised when the ever-busy musician asked to be involved with virtually every track. He's one of those guys who plays so many instruments so well, says Cerveris, who was appearing in Tommy when he first met the R.E.M. sideman, former Posies member and solo artist. [Ken] has this technical ability to respond immediately to what he hears and a lot of his work on this album was just done in one to four takes. In addition to his original songs, Cerveris includes two intriguing covers on dog eared: Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard's Drinker's Peace and Volebeats singer Robert McCreedy's tune Two Seconds. The latter was covered by grassroots country singer Laura Cantrell on her own debut album Not The Trembling Kind and when it came time to record the track himself, Cerveris asked Cantrell if she'd jump aboard the project. I thought it was really interesting what Michael did with it, says Cantrell, who traveled to Lasus' Fireproof Studios in Red Hook to sing harmonies on a bitter cold day in early February. Michael brought [Two Seconds] to even a moodier, quieter place than I had thought to do which was cool. It communicates a very basic longing and the way Michael has done the song, it does have a sort of late night, introspective vibe ... or like [the way you feel] on a cold day when you just want to curl up and put a blanket over your head. Several compositions on dog eared evolved from sudden epiphanies. While hanging out at Crosshill, Disconnect, Spca, Dog Eared, Two Seconds, Can't Feel My Soul, Drinker's Peace, Snowbound, Another Time, Golden, Eleven, Monkey Tennis, Two Seconds (Acoustic Mono Mix), Disconnect (Acoustic Mono Mix)