Two voices “born to sing together” play Noise Pop on 2/21.
Hear “Mercury
Vapor” from new album, which showcases stripped down favorites from band’s
catalog.
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20 Minute
Loop (L-R): Kelly Atkins, Greg Giles. Photo credit: Teresa Miller.
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20 Minute Loop – In The Press
“Beautifully morose pop with catchy melodies and tight
harmonies.” — NPR / All Songs Considered
“Pop songsmiths of the highest caliber, adept at
crafting idea-packed tracks that are clever, catchy and wholly engaging.” — The Bay Bridged
“One of the more refreshing musical experiences I’ve
had in months and months.” — Pitchfork
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PLAY, POST
& SHARE
Hear “Mercury Vapor” by 20 Minute Loop
from Songs Praising The Mutant Race now via the links below!
Artwork by
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See 20 Minute Loop live at this year’s
Noise Pop 25 festival in San Francisco on 2/21 at the Swedish American Hall! More info here.
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Twenty years of 20
Minute Loop will be celebrated on February
24th, 2017 with the release of Songs Praising The Mutant Race,
the San Francisco-based band’s first album in over eight years, an achievement
marked not only by gray hair, ringing ears and creaky knees, but a shit-ton of
songs, stories and shows.
Formed by Greg
Giles (vocals, guitar) in 1997, and joined by Kelly Atkins (vocals, keyboards, flute) shortly thereafter, this
core duo follows-up the release of five albums, with their sixth, and arguably
most passionate, recording yet. The
seemingly permanent shelving of 20 Minute
Loop due to impossible scheduling, newborn children, and brain-rotting
graduate studies, has now given way to Songs Praising The Mutant Race,
which offers up stripped down and reinvented versions of ten favorites from the
20 Minute Loop catalog, one cover
song, and one never-before-released tune. The record proves that bands may die,
but songs don’t. The collection breathes with both the wisdom of age, and
renewal.
Inspired by the reactions of longtime fans at a series
of intimate house concerts that 20
Minute Loop performed upon initially reforming in 2014, Songs
Praising The Mutant Race finds the group recording as a trio in very
similar circumstances: live in the room at Ninth
Street Opus studios in Berkeley. It’s one of those longtime fans who has become
a co-conspirator. Avowed 20 Minute Loop
loyalist, Kevin Seal – “I like Radiohead more than 20 Minute Loop, and that’s basically
it,” he jokes – sat in on piano and vocals for the living room shows, and has
now joined in on the reinvention of these tunes in the studio.
“This is a band with a devoted following, and their
fans wouldn’t let them go away,” Seal
says. “‘Back by popular demand’ is usually nothing more than a threadbare
cliché, but this band’s return really feels like a persistent request from
their listeners. I’m still pinching myself that they invited me along.”
In re-imagining, re-arranging, ironing out, and
stitching this material back together, the band wanted the songs to shine
without being burdened by too much production. Here we have the songs and
singers laid bare, accompanied by overdubs from mostly acoustic instruments,
including viola, trumpet, flute, accordion, wineglass organ, and more. The result is a perfect depiction of the vibe
from one of the living room concerts that inspired the record, with the band’s
visceral lyrics and accompanying tempos taking on a woozy, syrupy overtone that
makes these songs feel fresh. Sonically, these new versions focus on the vocal
interplay between Giles and Atkins, who sound more like they were
born to sing together than ever before.
“Singing with Greg
has been the single most important musical relationship of my life,” Atkins explains. “It truly feels like
‘coming home’ for me. The nimble instinct that you have after singing with
someone for 20 years is a once-in-a-lifetime treasure.”
That special vocal combination is especially affecting
on the album’s opening number and first single “Mercury
Vapor,” about which Atkins
explains, “The re-do of this song includes Caitlin
Tabancay Austin adding a third harmony, which absolutely brings the song to
life. It’s frenetic, neurotic and makes me feel like I have a nervous tic every
time I sing it – but in a good way.”
The song’s dark lyrics written by Giles (“I don’t care if I die, if I wind up dead”) belie the
catchy, country hop of the tune.
“I don’t know why this song has a country hop to it,” Giles says, “but let’s just say 20 Minute Loop has always enjoyed
mixing jubilant music with lyrical fatalism. I guess we're syncopating tones,
sweet and sour, joy and loneliness, truck axles and eiderdown.”
As a band that came about and went away in the age of
the Compact Disc, 20 Minute Loop is
very excited for Songs Praising The Mutant Race to be its first album issued on
vinyl, and they are doing it with style. In addition to the usual formats, fans
can purchase a beautiful vinyl edition of the album with a jacket illustrated
by Sara Lautman, whose work has
previously appeared in The New Yorker,
The Believer, The Pitchfork Review, The
Awl, and other publications.
A hometown sneak peek of the record is also on tap, as
20 Minute Loop is scheduled to play
tunes from Songs Praising The Mutant Race as part of Noise Pop 25 at San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall on February
21st.
Songs Praising The Mutant Race by 20 Minute
Loop is scheduled for release on February
24th, 2017. The
album’s lead single “Mercury Vapor”
is streaming now. Members of 20
Minute Loop are available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information.
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20 Minute Loop
Songs
Praising The Mutant Race
(S/R)
Feb. 24th, 2017
Track Listing:
02. English As A Second Language
03. Empire
04. Giftgas
05. Elephant
06. Hell In A Handbasket
07. Parking Lot
08. Drowning
09. Aquarium
10. Carlos The Jackal
11. Windsor McKay
12. Never My Love
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20 Minute Loop Links
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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion
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