“‘Queenie’ is just a blast of jazz energy. I gave four University of North Texas jazz hot shots my sheets and told them to play as fast as they could.”

 Public radio host Paul Slavens is also a brilliant composer. His intellectually mad Alphabet Girls, Vol. II (from “Naomi” to “Zelda”), out June 24.

 
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Paul Slavens as photographed by James Bland
 
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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.”
 
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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.
 
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Scroll Down To Read More About Paul Slavens
 
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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
 
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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.
 
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Paul Slavens | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE : STATE FAIR RECORDS
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Caitlin Cobb-Vialet is “investigating love and loss with a heart full of song” on upcoming “Endless Void” debut album, out May 6.

“Intimacy and honesty... pours out of ‘Disco Ball…’ that reveals a young artist able to remain composed while being vulnerable.”
 
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Caitlin Cobb-Vialet as photographed by Dawn Lu
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
Caitlin Cobb-Vialet | “Disco Ball”
 

 

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/CaitlinCobbVialet-DiscoBall 

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Caitlin Cobb-Vialet is “investigating love and loss with a heart full of song,” says the weekly East Bay Express in the headline of its feature story on the Oakland-based artist. Read the full story here.
 
In its coverage of Cobb-Vialet’s latest single – which can be considered her signature song – “Disco Ball,” Glide Magazine says, “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. The song would stand up on its own with just voice and piano, but tastefully placed synths weave in and out, giving the song just enough added texture and ambiance while still maintaining a stripped-down, organic aesthetic.”
 
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Caitlin Cobb-Vialet
Endless Void
(War Chant Records)
May 6^th, 2022
  

 
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)
09. What’s It With You?
10. Float
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
Caitlin Cobb-Vialet | “Ask Me”
 

 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9WUSpY83mI
 
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/CaitlinCobbVialet-AskMe
 
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“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-Vialet tells 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 UK states that the song “feels immediately familiar. A gorgeously tuneful but conversational style that feels like she is baring her soul to you.”
 
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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, arrives via War Chant Records on May 6^th, 2022 preceded by the singles “Ask Me” (Feb. 4^th), “Joan To Catherine” (March 4^th), and “Disco Ball” (April 15^th).
 
Caitlin Cobb-Vialet is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Caitlin Cobb-Vialet | Links
 
ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : FACEBOOK : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

MOTORCADE “not trying to do anything other than play the music we all listened to in our formative years.” RIYL: Cure, Echo, Siouxsie.

Band of all-stars (credits w/ St. Vincent, The War on Drugs, Daniel Johnston) makes four-year wait worth it on “See You In The Nothing.”
 
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MOTORCADE (L-R): Jeff Ryan, James Henderson, Andrew Huffstetler, John Dufilho. Photo credit: Jerome Brock.
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
MOTORCADE | “Slip”

 

[STREAM]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKw6nnpsHg
 
“Few Dallas bands can claim a pedigree as strong as MOTORCADE’s, so it’s not a surprise they just released one of the best North Texas songs of the year,” proclaims Eric Grubbs of Central Track, the influential Dallas-based music discovery website. “Recalling the layered bliss of Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain (and especially its opening ‘Silver’ cut), ‘Slip’ is three minutes of dense joy.”
 
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MOTORCADE | Live
 
04/23/2022: Dallas, TX @ Good Records (In-Store)
 
05/07/2022: Grand Prairie, TX @ FireHouse Gastro Park (6:15 PM)
 
07/16/2022: Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
 
09/08/2022: Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater (supporting The Ocean Blue) (Tickets)
 
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MOTORCADE | In The Press
 

Members of MOTORCADE recently chatted with Dallas NPR-affiliate KXT about the band’s new album See You In The Nothing. KXT’s Preston Jones writes, “The sense that Motorcade knows precisely what it wants to achieve, and knows precisely how to achieve it is evident throughout the 11 tracks on Nothing, spilling from the ominous beauty of the opening track ‘Shift’ through to break-out single ‘Slip,’ which aches with reverence for vintage 1980s New Wave and Gothic-tinged pop.”
 
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MOTORCADE
See You In The Nothing
(Idol Records)
Out Now
 
Streaming Link:
STREAM FULL LP
  

Track Listing:
 
01. Shift
02. Standard Passage (STREAM)
03. Derelict Flag
04. Retreat
05. Crusades
06. Slip (STREAM)
07. Strange Notions
08. Static
09. Silent Voices
10. Oblivion (STREAM)
11. Barricades
 
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MOTORCADE | About
 

 
In the four years since the glorious darkness of MOTORCADE first hit the scene, life got a little bit darker, but somehow, more glorious.
 
Maybe the Dallas-based band’s name represents one of its town’s terrible moments? It’s not meant to be morbid, but reminds of mortality.
 
Working within that context, the four veteran musicians of MOTORCADE manage to document beauty and vitality with their upcoming second album.
 
This music feels immortal!
 
Listen for some of the band’s heroes – think late ‘80s / early ‘90s button-the-top-button bands such as The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, and The Jesus and Mary Chain – peeking through on the 11 original tunes comprising See You In The Nothing (April 15, Idol Records.)
 
And don’t forget The Smiths: Drummer Mike Joyce has already spun MOTORCADE on his UK-based radio show.
 
Heroes peeking through, or as influential Chicago-based scribe, Greg Kot put it when naming MOTORCADE’s debut as one of his best albums of 2018, “The Dallas band has a profound affinity for the new wave and post punk of the ‘80s, not as nostalgia but as a timeless vehicle for self-expression.”
 
Similarly, the band became a hit with the Dallas NPR-affiliate KXT that year. The influence was also felt by Minneapolis Public Radio station 89.3 The Current, which named MOTORCADE’s “Walk With Me” one of its “Top 100 Tracks of 2018.”
 
This kind of expert appropriation of sound is the work of some of the busiest musicians on the Dallas scene.
 
Over the years, band members John Dufilho (Bass, Voice), James Henderson (Guitar, Keyboards, Voice), Andrew Huffstetler (Voice), and Jeff Ryan (Drums), have recorded and toured with St. Vincent, The Apples in Stereo, The War on Drugs, the late, great Daniel Johnston, and many more.
 
Forgive the four years between records, but it took the world closing and the resultant long and late nights in a locked down city in order for See You In The Nothing to even exist.
 
The finished product is so worth it.
 
Here in 2022, with accolades for its debut feeding the new material, we have the current MOTORCADE single “Slip,” which is perfection.
 
“Recalling the layered bliss of Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain (and especially its opening “Silver” cut), ‘Slip’ is three minutes of dense joy,” says Central Track, the go-to local music discovery website for Dallas. “It’s one of the finest singles released by a North Texas-based act this year.”
 
Darker, but somehow, more glorious.
 
See You In The Nothing, the second album by Dallas-based foursome MOTORCADE, is out now via Idol Records. Members of MOTORCADE are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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MOTORCADE | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : SPOTIFY : APPLE : IDOL RECORDS
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

For anyone drowning their sorrows after a break-up, The March Divide feels you in new “I’m Not Perfect” video; “Lost Causes” album arrives June 10.

“An open nod to the 1990s rock that was on the radio a lot after Kurt Cobain died, but it doesn’t sound like a retread. It sounds inspired.” – Central Track
 
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Jared Putnam of The March Divide as photographed by Short Eared Dog Photography.
 
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The March Divide | In The Press
 

“Impressively hooky.” — American Songwriter
 
“Relentlessly catchy.” — Under The Radar
 
“Bittersweet beauty.” — Impose
 
“Putnam’s vocals pop.” — PopMatters
 
“Hits the mark again and again.” — The Big Takeover
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
The March Divide | “I’m Not Perfect”
 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ougIiJ1TFmA
 
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/TheMarchDivide-ImNotPerfect
 
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“When it came to making the video for ‘I'm Not Perfect,’ I’ve always enjoyed working with Hector Gallardo of Subharmonic City Productions,” says Jared Putnam of The March Divide about the video for the first single from his upcoming sixth album, Lost Causes (June 10, Slow Start Records). “If a song brings out a tough memory or emotion that you're just not ready to deal with, Hector can put visuals to it that will make you look and keep you from turning away.”
 
See the “I'm Not Perfect” video via Ghettoblaster Magazine here.
 
Texas-based music discovery website Central Track says of the song, “Fort Worth-based Jared Putnam has a soft spot for ‘90s pop rock. ‘I’m Not Perfect’ might be an open nod to the 1990s rock that was on the radio a lot after Kurt Cobain died, but it doesn’t sound like a retread. Compare it with songs from August and Everything After (Counting Crows) or New Miserable Experience (Gin Blossoms) and it sounds inspired, but not taking direct lifts from those records.”
 
Putnam elaborates, saying, “I’m Not Perfect” came out completely different than I had initially imagined. Writing sad songs about loneliness comes very naturally to me and this song was an idea that would check that box. When my producer, Mike Major listened to my rough demo, he heard it as a full-on rock song. It wasn’t until I heard the bass and drums that I realized I wasn’t seeing the forest for the trees. Something that was so obvious to everyone, but had been hiding behind in the blind spot of my comfort zone.”
 
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The March Divide
Lost Causes
(Slow Start Records)
June 10^th, 2022
  

Track Listing:
 
01. I Wanna Hate You
02. Tension in the Air (STREAM)
03. I’m Not Perfect (STREAM | VIDEO)
04. Dover Cir
05. Corduroy
06. Giving Up
07. Virginia (STREAM)
08. Mont Del Dr
09. King of the Lost Cause
10. This World is Gonna End
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
The March Divide | “Tension In The Air”
 

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheMarchDivide-TensionInTheAir
 
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“Going into making the album, ‘Tension In The Air’ was the most put together song I had,” says Jared Putnam, the man behind The March Divide, about the second single from his upcoming sixth album Lost Causes (June 10, Slow Start Records). “I had a vision for ‘Tension In The Air,’” he continues. “I wrote this song right around the time that I finally started playing shows again, and for the first time in a long time, I had a pretty optimistic view of where things were going.”
 
Putnam has built a loyal following for his candid lyrical style, which can vary from tongue-in-cheek sarcasm to almost too self-effacing. Either way, it’s this quality that is clearly one of his greatest strengths, building him a tidy fan base that has kept (and now returned) Putnam to where he loves to be: the road.
 
“Putnam’s urgent melodies, wrapped in just-slick-enough production, draw you in and keep you there,” says The Big Takeover in its premiere coverage of the song. “‘Tension In The Air’ is one of The March Divide’s best examples of this trick to date.”
 
“I’ve always been fascinated with dissecting what makes a song great,” Putnam says. “I’m trying to find the catalyst for the chemical reaction that emotionally connects us to where a handful of tunes are run into the ground for 30 years.”
 
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The March Divide | Live
 
04/23/2022: Coleman, TX @ Coleman Film Festival
04/27/2022: Clovis, NM @ Bandolero Brewery
04/28/2022: Albuquerque, NM @ Canteen Brewhouse
04/29/2022: Madrid, NM @ Mineshaft Tavern
04/30/2022: Prescott, AZ @ The Raven Cafe
05/01/2022: Salt Lake City, UT @ The Beehive
05/03/2022: Carson City, NV @ Shoe Tree Brewing
05/04/2022: Sparks, NV @ Elbow Room (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/05/2022: Mindon, NV @ Shoe Tree Brewing
05/06/2022: Ashland, OR @ Art Walk (w/ Blunderbusst) (Early Show)
05/06/2022: Ashland, OR @ Oberon’s (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/07/2022: Seattle, WA @ Lucky Liquor (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/08/2022: Salem, OR @ Infinity Room (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/10/2022: Portland, OR @ No Fun Bar (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/11/2022: Medford, OR @ Johnny B’s (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/12/2022: Sacramento, CA @ The Library of Musiclandria (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/13/2022: Bakersfield, CA @ Great Change Brewing (w/ Blunderbusst)
05/14/2022: Landers, CA @ Giant Rock (w/ Blunderbusst, Ryan Traster)
05/15/2022: Vista, CA @ Aztec Brewery
05/17/2022: Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
05/18/2022: Bisbee, AZ @ The Hitching Post Saloon
05/20/2022: Bisbee, AZ @ Bisbee Grand Hotel
05/21/2022: Alamogordo, NM @ 575 Brewing Company
05/22/2022: Silver City, NM @ Little Toad Creek
06/02/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralo’s
06/03/2022: Cibolo, TX @ 1908 House of Wine & Ale
06/04/2022: Boerne, TX @ Gather Boerne
06/05/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralo’s
06/06/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Sternewirth Sessions
06/09/2022: Wichita Falls @ The High Dive
06/11/2022: San Antonio, TX @ The Point Park
06/17/2022: Fort Stockton, TX @ Zero Stone Park
06/18/2022: Wichita Falls, TX @ O’Briens
06/23/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralo’s
06/24/2022: Fort Stockton, TX @ The Old ‘76
06/25/2022: Clovis, NM @ Red Door Brewing
07/07/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralo’s
07/09/2022: Cibolo, TX @ 1908 House of Wine & Ale
07/21/2022: Wichita Falls @ The High Dive
07/22/2022: Tyler, TX @ ETX Brewing
08/05/2022: Corpus Christi, TX @ Art Walk
08/28/2022: Cloudcroft, NM @ Cloudcroft Brewing
 
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The March Divide | About
 

I wanna hate you. I’m not perfect. Giving up. King of the lost cause. This world is gonna end.
 
Jared Putnam is a funny guy. No, really, he is. Don’t let the negative words above, which comprise five of the ten song titles on Lost Causes (oops, he did it again!), Putnam’s sixth album as The March Divide, fool you.
 
Being able to laugh at yourself is one of the tenants of comedy and Putnam’s greatest strength has always been to take his everyman, self-effacing character and wrap it in urgent melodies backed by just-slick-enough production to draw you in and keep you there.
 
It’s why over the years music critics have called his songs “impressively hooky” (American Songwriter) with “classic pop hooks” (The Big Takeover) where his “pop sensibility comes entirely to the forefront” (Under The Radar).
 
As a next-door neighbor who you would actually like to know, Putnam doesn’t try to overstay his welcome, either. Even though he is a prolific songwriter, after the release of his appropriately titled fifth album cinc in April of 2021, he figured he was tapped out of ideas for a while.
 
Instead, he started making the best distillation of his talents to date. As Putnam tells it, inspiration returned as he was just out doing Dad stuff.
 
“I was driving my kid to school and Gin Blossoms came on the radio. I’m a forever fan of Gin Blossoms, but this was ‘Hey Jealousy,’ which commercial radio has been running into the ground for 30 years.
 
“But in that moment, it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard! The hooks, the subject matter, and all the rest were as they’d always been, but I was struck by how it was put together. In that moment, that’s what made the song great.”
 
Putnam has spent years deconstructing pop songs in an attempt to discover the formula. This “Hey Jealousy” epiphany may have been destined, because the blueprint of the connection Putnam realized while just doing Daddy duty allowed him to build Lost Causes.
 
“I’ve always been fascinated with dissecting what makes a song great and trying to find the catalyst for the chemical reaction that emotionally connects us to where a handful of tunes are run into the ground for 30 years,” he says of the rarefied air that a timeless hit song occupies.
 
Joining Putnam under The March Divide banner for Lost Causes are friends Ernie Garcia (long-time player with El Vez and Javier Escovedo) on bass and Jason West on drums.
 
“Our mutual love of Cheap Trick has always made Jason the perfect drummer for my songs,” Putnam says. Lost Causes was mixed and mastered by Mike Major (At The Drive-In, Coheed and Cambria.)
 
“Mike also produced a lot of great bands around the southwest,” Putnam explains. “It wasn’t lost on me that Gin Blossoms are from Tempe and have a very staple southwestern sound. Mike knew what I was going for.”
 
Lyrically, the songs on Lost Causes pick up where the last single from Putnam’s previous album left off. At the time, he had started to write in a more stream of consciousness style, even making a promise to himself not to change his words.
 
“It’s pretty satisfying to just say what you want to say, without worrying about how cool it sounds,” he said at the time.
 
This is why Putnam’s humor shines brighter than ever on Lost Causes.
 
I wanna hate you. I’m not perfect. Giving up. King of the lost cause. This world is gonna end.
 
We have all felt these things, but putting them in song, or voicing them at all could seem whiney or at least cynical and pessimistic.
 
Not so, with Putnam, who has become a master of this somewhat sarcastic craft. Instead, these songs are relatable confessions in a candy coating.
 
“Writing sad songs about utter loneliness comes very naturally to me,” he says. “These kinds of songs are very therapeutic for me to write.”
 
These sad songs are the ones that most connect with Putnam’s growing audience, especially those overseas that have propelled tunes such as his 2019 release “Secrets,” to just-shy of a million Spotify spins.
 
“I’m Not Perfect,” the first single from Lost Causes, started out as one of these “downer” tunes, but in sharing his early demo with his collaborators, Putnam was pushed to make it more, while keeping what makes it The March Divide. The tune opens Lost Causes and is a total success.
 
“Even though writing these types of songs is therapeutic for me, it’s also a rut,” Putnam says. “Emotionally, I got so much more out of working on ‘I’m Not Perfect’ by working with others. I’m hopeful that the fans who crave these songs from me will too. Maybe we can all get out of our sad bastard rut together.”
 
He’s a funny guy.
 
Lost Causes, the sixth album by The March Divide, arrives on June 10^th via Slow Start Records preceded by the singles “I’m Not Perfect” (March 18^th), “Tension In The Air” (April 8^th), “I Wanna Hate You” (April 29^th), and “King of The Lost Cause” (May 20^th.)
 
Jared Putnam of The March Divide is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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