Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For over 20 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
Award-winning host at Dallas NPR-affiliate KXT
to celebrate 60th birthday with party
(including cake!) this
Sunday; Album out June 24 via State Fair. +++
Paul
Slavens as photographed
by James Bland +++
Dallas! Come out to celebrate the 60th
birthday of Paul Slavens! Cake will be served! “Fairly Intimate” presented by Friends
of Fair Park and State Fair Records.
Live performance, album preview, and 60th birthday celebration. 7PM | $20 | RSVP | Tickets +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Paul Slavens | “Queenie”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpNbwoRMoHI “‘Queenie’
is just a blast of jazz energy. I gave four University of North Texas jazz hot
shots my sheet music and told them to play as fast as they could.” – Paul
Slavens +++ Alphabet Girls, Vol. II by Paul
Slavens (June 24, State Fair Records) is the
crystallization and distillation of the Nebraska born, Denton, TX-based
artist’s long, varied, and accomplished career, complete with all of the
requisite breakthroughs and disappointments. On record, Slavens’s
endurance is a listener’s treat. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II plays like
the product of a “been everywhere, seen everything” guru-type somehow fitting
all of his experience and education onto five lines of musical staff like some
kind of trippy Tetris. Funny, but serious. Jazz, but pop. Quirky, but
grounded. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II (the title isn’t a red herring, the “girls”
of Vol.
I showed up twelve years ago) is all of these things and more. +++ Scroll Down To Read More About Paul
Slavens +++ Paul Slavens Alphabet
Girls, Vol. II (State Fair Records) June 24, 2022
Track Listing: 01. Naomi 02. Ophelia 03. Priscilla 04. Queenie (VIDEO) 05. Robin 06. Sadie 07. Trudy 08. Ursula 09. Vanessa 10. Wanda 11. X (On My Heart) 12. Yvonne 13. Zelda +++ Paul Slavens | About Alphabet Girls, Vol. II by Paul
Slavens (June 24, State Fair Records) is the
crystallization and distillation of the Nebraska born, Denton, TX-based
artist’s long, varied, and accomplished career, complete with all of the
requisite breakthroughs and disappointments. On record, Slavens’s
endurance is a listener’s treat. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II plays like
the product of a “been everywhere, seen everything” guru-type somehow fitting
all of his experience and education onto five lines of musical staff like some
kind of trippy Tetris. Funny, but serious. Jazz, but pop. Quirky, but
grounded. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II (the title isn’t a red herring, the
“girls” of Vol. I showed up twelve years ago) is all of these things and
more. But not. “My goal was to make beautiful sounds,” Slavens said. “I am not too impressed
with my singing or my playing. I am most interested in the compositions. That’s
number one. I do not feel like I am a ‘songwriter,’ but rather a composer who
sometimes works in song.” A songwriter, but not. Some other artists and their eras that Slavens names as touchstones include Burt Bacharach, early Kate Bush (“I always thought that she
approached her music as a composer”), and later Scott Walker (“I love his unconventional use of orchestra”),
adding, “I can’t downplay the influence that Chopin had on me.” Opening Alphabet Girls, Vol. II with a
reworking of the same piece that closed Vol. I, the instrumental overture “Naomi,” we are quickly whisked into a
cinematic universe, which, like its predecessor, is an alphabetically ordered
ode to women given their rightful place as rulers. Gentle orchestrations, deep
sinewy cellos, plucked harp, and accordion contribute to this “sad waltz,” as Slavens calls it. Some will use the
word “masterpiece” immediately, because how else to define work as detailed,
studied, and mature as this? But not. Not too mature. Because at 60-years-old, it’s clear that Slavens has accomplished so much
artistically and otherwise, that he just doesn’t give a fuck. As listeners,
that’s the entire game. We’re better for that. To wit, the record quickly moves
on from its delicate opening into “Ophelia,”
a sorta nutso number made even stranger by how it was influenced by Slavens’s stir-crazy lockdown labor. “I got into some kind of ‘state’ and completely reimagined
and mutilated the recording,” Slavens
remembers. “I was isolated, so I allowed myself to do some things I might not
have,” he said of a song in which Prince Hamlet asks that the doomed Danish
noblewoman “give a guy some slack” because, look, “I killed your Dad / I know,
that’s bad / But there’s no reason / Why it has to drive you mad.” If you’re not already completely on board with Slavens at two tracks into this
journey, you’ll be thumbing a ride home for days, because we’re already far
from civilization. Someone important in Slavens’s
life who stood tall enough to ride this ride, and even in passing still looms
large over the project, is Texas music icon, Trey Johnson, co-founder of Slavens’s
label State Fair Records, and the
man who was the main advocate behind bringing Alphabet Girls, Vol. II
to completion. “About three years ago, Trey started getting me gigs at (James Beard semifinalist and ‘Top
Chef’ contestant) John Tesar’s
steakhouse, playing standards,” Slavens
recalls. “He was so helpful and the gig was sweet. As I got to know Trey, he heard me playing ‘Alphabet Girl’ songs and started
encouraging me to finish the project. “It was also Trey
who suggested that I sing these songs myself,” Slavens continues. “Many of the vocals are first takes and the
first time I sang the words, which is in stark contrast to the meticulous
nature of the rest of the recording. It hit me really hard when Trey passed away. He was the one who
believed in this project and made it happen.” It is to Slavens’s
credit that he endeavored to trust more “help” from the music industry. His
highs and lows have been higher and lower than most of what passes as an
indie-rock daydream. The quick history that got Slavens to the good part sorta plays like this: Formed a local band his mid-20s that went on to sell
out the big rooms around town. Lost band members to more successful bands
looking to climb the ladder. Re-grouped and hit it harder with more sell-out
shows locally and record sales to match. Received promises and apologies from
major players. Slavens: “The first time a famous person made me believe they
were gonna make me famous.” Got desperate, signed a bad deal to make a
“shitty-sounding” record of his best material, which the label promptly held
hostage. Crowds dwindled. Lost more band members. Fired the manager. Changed
their sound. Formed a new band. Made a record he loved. Got signed again. Slavens: “That was the second time a famous person made me
believe I was gonna be famous.” That’s plenty to get the picture and likely more than Slavens wants to recall, so what about
that good part? Around this time, Slavens
had a side hustle working as a commercial and voice-over actor. He had also
started improvising in order to improve his auditions. Eventually signing with
an agent, Slavens started working a
lot while continuing to do improv with a group, and then began producing more
than a dozen productions of his own. Around this time, the Dallas public radio station KERA took an interest in Slavens, a relationship that has
continued to this day, first at KERA,
and then its music-based offshoot KXT,
which has itself grown into a recognized, respected, and influential National Public Radio affiliate. To date, “The
Paul Slavens Show” has received “Best
of Dallas” awards from the Dallas
Observer in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Slavens
also received the award for “Best DJ”
from Dallas Observer in 2008, 2011
and 2014. Even with his focus on his radio show, Slavens has continued music-making,
starting a weekly residency at Denton venue Dan’s Silverleaf that is still happening. It’s here where he
started getting into making up songs on the spot and where the genesis of what
would become the “Alphabet Girls”
project came to fruition, culminating with the release of Alphabet Girls, Vol. I in
2010. Slavens: “Thousands of made up songs and a lot of whiskey.” But not. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II by Paul
Slavens is scheduled for release on June
24 via State Fair Records
preceded by the singles “X (On My Heart)”
(May 20) and “Ophelia” (June 10). Paul Slavens is available
for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ Paul
Slavens | Links ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: STATE FAIR RECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
Cliff Hayes (Buellton), A. Walker Spring (Old Time Relijun) evoke 70s-era sensory experience ala Philip
Glass, “The Holy Mountain,” Tangerine Dream. +++
CLIFFWALKER (L-R): Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring.
Photo credit: Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring. +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE CLIFFWALKER | “Punching Clocks”
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/cliffwalker-punchingclocks “Delightfully teeters on the edge of chaos...” says music discovery blog Independent Clauses in its coverage of “Punching Clocks,” the debut single by
Portland-based duo CLIFFWALKER, out
today. “‘Punching Clocks’ is the sort of thing that the word
post-rock was made for. It’s rock put in the service of other moods. The
interplay of the leads produces the experience of a spy-movie chase scene.” Stream “Punching
Clocks” by CLIFFWALKER at the
link above or here. +++ CLIFFWALKER “Painted Gray Sky” EP (S/R) June 24, 2022
Track Listing: 01. Calm Sea 02. Painted Gray Sky 03. Reflected Sun (STREAM) 04. On Her Last Legs 05. Pulling Threads 06. Punching Clocks (STREAM) +++ CLIFFWALKER | About
CLIFFWALKER is not just a cool name for a band. The Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys,
Guitar) are just lucky to be named that way. To take the serendipity a step
(sorry, had to) further, the sound of the pair’s upcoming “Painted Gray Sky” EP (out June
24, 2022) is also edgy. We can dispense with the puns now, let’s talk about
the music: It’s like if a sexy Kraftwerk had joined in on the sessions with jazz legend Don Cherry and composer Ron Frangipane scoring Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain.” Or maybe they picked up John Carpenter on the way to Tangerine
Dream’s studio to make the music for Michael
Mann’s neo-noir heist action thriller “Thief.” The repeating riffs of minimalist composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry
Riley are also touchstones, and for those born more recently, Hayes and Spring suggest that the instrumentation on “Painted Gray Sky” is in the vein of Tortoise, but driven by bass lines a la Death From Above 1979. Either way, the 1970s are coming in hot, no matter
what! Skipping forward a half-century, CLIFFWALKER came to fruition under the gray skies of the Pacific
Northwest as Hayes was constructing
a “library of bass riffs” (“Cliff’s Riffs!”) “My toying with riffs started to morph into learning
cover songs and then trying to cover these songs entirely on bass,” Hayes explains. As it turns out, the “library of bass riffs” further
morphed into “Painted Gray Sky,” as
the melodic bass work of Hayes laid
the foundation for Spring’s hypnotic
vibraphone, guitar, and synth lines. As well as playing in Portland’s beloved indie rock
outfit Point Juncture, WA since
2004, Spring has co-hosted a weekly
songwriting podcast since 2020 called “Honest
Jams,” where she’s honed a diverse set of arranging skills, which are given
free rein on “Painted Gray Sky.” From Classical, through to Jazz and post-Rock,
instrumental music is not novel. It’s not Pop either, but here, CLIFFWALKER manages hooks without the
aid of vocals. This quality lets the natural rhythms of CLIFFWALKER’s songs shine without distraction. And all of these references to musical genres count as
influences in the CLIFFWALKER sound. While Hayes
was working to become a top-notch Jazz bassist in his early college years by
“practicing a lot of scales and arpeggios and reading a lot of charts,” he was
also immersed in all kinds of music as a record store employee, the guilty
party in so many musicians’ burgeoning career paths. “Nearly all my waking moments were spent playing,
listening, or learning about music,” he remembers. Hayes relocated to Portland in 2005 and some years later,
via fleeting meetings at the gigs of mutual friends, found himself in a
conversation about artificial intelligence (in 2014!) with a producer friend of
Spring’s. “I was discussing how AI could be created to produce
music by feeding it a library of riffs to train itself,” Hayes says. Soon after, Hayes
started recording his riffs at home with this idea in mind, and eventually
wondered if Spring might be
interested in playing drums with him on some material. “Before I left that first session, we had already
started recording the basic bass, drums and vibes that are on the final EP.” “Painted
Gray Sky” by CLIFFWALKER is scheduled for release on June 24, 2022 preceded by the singles “Punching Clocks” on May 13
and “Pulling Threads” on June 3. Members of CLIFFWALKER
are available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information. +++ CLIFFWALKER | Links ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
Powerful music video for “Disco
Ball” from young actor, pianist, songwriter’s stunning 26-minute debut album Endless Void, out now. +++
Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet as
photographed by Lindsey Ruth +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet | “Disco Ball”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibY8pgCFvkA [STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/CaitlinCobbVialet-DiscoBall +++ “A voice that’s as malleable and
conversational as it is riveting and unconventional... a surprisingly poised,
brutally honest debut.” Check
out more from MAGNET Magazine in
Hobart Rowland’s just-published interview with the 25-year-old Oakland-based actor,
pianist, and songwriter, Caitlin
Cobb-Vialethere.
Bay-area weekly East Bay Express
says that Cobb-Vialet is “investigating love and loss with a heart full
of song,” in the headline of its recent feature story. Read the full article here. In
its coverage of Cobb-Vialet’s signature
song “Disco Ball,” Glide Magazinesays,
“There is a Regina Spektor-type
intimacy and honesty that pours out of ‘Disco
Ball…’ that reveals a young artist able to remain composed while being
vulnerable.” +++ Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet Endless
Void (War Chant Records) Out Now Streaming Link: STREAM FULL LP
Track Listing: 01. Not Enough (STREAM) 02. Joan To Catherine (STREAM
| VIDEO) 03. Ask Me (STREAM | VIDEO) 04. The Reference 05. Collared Shirts 06. You Don’t Try 07. Useless 08. Disco Ball (STREAM | VIDEO) 09. What’s It With You? 10. Float +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet | “Ask Me”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9WUSpY83mI [STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/CaitlinCobbVialet-AskMe +++ “There is something disarmingly real and genuine with
her approach to the craft.” — SF Weekly “The song finds Caitlin at her beloved piano,
reminiscent of early Regina Spektor,
as she plucks out rich chords to accompany her soaring, heartfelt vocals,” says
music discovery site For The Rabbits
in its premiere
coverage of the music video of “Ask
Me,” the new single by Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet. “That feeling of closeness, described beautifully throughout
the track... is punctuated by the feeling that this love is ultimately
fleeting.” “‘Ask Me’
is a song I wrote inspired by the newfound feeling of safeness and
understanding that I felt in my first queer relationship,” Caitlin Cobb-Vialettells
Adobe & Teardrops. “At the end
of the song, I come to the realization that ‘even in love you’re still alone,’
alluding to the temporary nature of even powerful love.” Americana UKstates
that the song “feels immediately familiar. A gorgeously tuneful but
conversational style that feels like she is baring her soul to you.” +++ Caitlin Cobb-Vialet | About
When Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet sits down at her grand piano in San Francisco, it feels like
you are sitting on the bench right next to her. The young songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist creates immediate intimacy in the opening moments of her
upcoming debut album. The songs are often fleeting (album opener“Not Enough” clocking at a slim two
minutes, for example), but it doesn’t matter; Cobb-Vialet imparts so much feeling in such a small amount of time. Discovered by visionary bay area producer, Jim Greer (credits include Foster The People, Macy Gray, Angelo Moore
of Fishbone), Cobb-Vialet is, actually and truly, a discovery. It even feels like
the songs must have been hidden from the songwriter herself, only being
recognized and realized as they are being performed. Cobb-Vialet’s studies at the Playwrights
Horizons Theater School at New York
University’s Tisch School of the
Arts could have something to do with the dramatic effect of that. “The studio encouraged me to be a well-rounded artist
who could write, direct, design, as well as act,” Cobb-Vialet explains. Immersed in what she describes as the “busy-ness” of
college, performing and composing as part of several productions at once, Cobb-Vialet’s musical theater
background and love of the abstract art that she was exposed to in downtown NYC
provided the experiences that she had been readied for as a child brought up in
a progressive, blended home. “I was raised by four moms,” she explains. “I had two
moms, and then when I was in the fifth grade, they separated and partnered with
two moms of kids at my school. So I have two moms, two step-moms, my brother,
and six step-siblings who I’ve known since elementary school.” As the oldest child, Cobb-Vialet was bound to be looked to in the household as an
example (many of her siblings are also in the arts), but her insights hit home
outside of her literal home, too. Especially with Greer,
who is effusive about their work together. “At our first meeting, she played me a few songs, and
right away I heard shades of so many songwriters I’ve always been a fan of,” he
remembers. “Bits of Freddie Mercury,
Kate Bush, David Bowie, Regina Spektor
– the kind of artists that make their own universe and communicate wide swaths
of emotion and beauty.” Accessing for herself these timeless artist’s knack
for accessibility is part of the inherent potential Cobb-Vialet’s songs have to connect and convey a unique young life
that, even now, isn’t often represented. “Besides love and heartbreak, these songs also explore
queerness, consent, mental illness, friendship, and coming of age,” she says.
“As an artist I would say I am non-linear, emotional, brutally honest, and
relentless.” The fleeting intimacy that takes place at the bench of
Cobb-Vialet’s grand piano... It is
quite grand indeed. Endless Void, the debut album by Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet, is out now via War
Chant Records. Caitlin Cobb-Vialet
is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ Caitlin
Cobb-Vialet | Links ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : FACEBOOK : YOUTUBE
: BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
