Friday, July 8, 2022

“King of The Lost Cause” is “an expression of the anxiety that comes with writing songs for a living,” says Jared Putnam of his meta single; See new video now.

 Inspired by 90s pop perfection of “Hey Jealousy,” The March Divide’s Lost Causes continues to build songwriter’s loyal following; More tour dates announced.
 
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Jared Putnam of The March Divide as photographed by Short Eared Dog Photography.
 
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The March Divide | ”King of The Lost Cause”
 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZJ3A078Tw
 
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheMarchDivide-KingOfTheLostCause
 
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“All I really had of this song was a bad phone memo of the idea,” says Jared Putnam of The March Divide about “King of The Lost Cause,” but I knew that I didn’t want to leave this song off the album, and as it turns out, the song is an obvious expression of the anxiety that comes with writing songs for a living.”
 
About the video for the song, director Hector Gallardo comments, “The video might be a bit on the nose with this guy going about his life imagining it’s something completely different from his actual reality. He’s a character trying to present a well-put together image when he might actually be just wandering through life.”
 
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The March Divide | Live
 
07/08/2022: Boerne, TX @ Gather Boerne
07/09/2022: Cibolo, TX @ 1908 House of Wine & Ale
07/16/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
07/21/2022: Wichita Falls @ The High Dive
07/22/2022: Tyler, TX @ ETX Brewing
08/20/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
08/23/2022: Red River, NM @ Noisy Water Winery
08/24/2022: Albuquerque, NM @ Noisy Water Winery
08/25/2022: Santa Fe, NM @ The Cowgirl BBQ
08/26/2022: Ruidoso, NM @ The Cellar Uncorked
08/27/2022: Alamogordo, NM @ 575 Brewing
08/28/2022: Cloudcroft, NM @ Cloudcroft Brewing
08/31/2022: Clovis, NM @ Bandolero Brewing
09/01/2022: Albuquerque, NM @ Rio Bravo Brewing
09/02/2022: Alto, NM @ Enchanted Vine
09/03/2022: Ruidoso, NM @ Lost Hiker Brewing
09/04/2022: Las Cruces, NM @ T or T Brewing
09/29/2022: Wichita Falls, TX @ The High Dive
09/30/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralo’s
10/01/2022: Houston, TX @ Bohemeo’s (w/Brightwire)
10/02/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralos
10/06/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Fralos
10/07/2022: Corpus Christi, TX @ Art Walk
10/08/2022: Cibolo, TX @ 1908 House of Wine & Ale
10/10/2022: San Antonio, TX @ Sternewirth Sessions (Emma Hotel)
10/14/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
10/22/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
11/11/2022: Tyler, TX @ ETX Brewing
11/18/2022: San Antonio, TX @ The Point Park
11/19/2022: Cibolo, TX @ 1908 House of Wine & Ale
11/12/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
11/25/2022: Plano, TX @ Terra Mediterranean
 
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The March Divide | Tension In The Air”
 

 

Putnam’s urgent melodies, wrapped in just-slick-enough production, draw you in and keep you there. “‘Tension In The Air’ is one of The March Divide’s best examples of this trick to date.” – The Big Takeover
 
About the music video for the song, recently premiered by Dallas NPR-affiliate KXT, Putnam says, “The song is about needing a break from the mundane. We all have our own thing,  and life can become mundane for a lot of reasons. So, we made a video about what that break might look like if you’re a puppet with no morals or self-control!”
 
Hector Gallardo of Subharmonic City Productions, the director of the clip, and de facto puppeteer explains, “This puppet is inspired by the movie ‘Labrynth,’ and was made by a group of very talented artists here in El Paso, Texas.”
 
Gallardo continues, “Growing up with ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Fraggle Rock,’ I always loved what they did with these puppets, but until I did this myself, I always took for granted what goes into making those shows. Some of these shots are honestly torturous. You have to really contort your body to not end up in the shot!”
 
“In the scene with the band, everyone at the bar was super happy to meet and party with the puppet. They kept asking what his name was and I realized we never gave him one. That night, he was forever known as Maurice.”
 
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The March Divide
Lost Causes
(Slow Start Records)
Out Now
 
Streaming Link:
STREAM FULL LP
 

Track Listing:
 
01. I Wanna Hate You (STREAM)
02. Tension in the Air (STREAM | VIDEO)
03. I’m Not Perfect (STREAM | VIDEO)
04. Dover Cir (VIDEO)
05. Corduroy
06. Giving Up
07. Virginia (STREAM)
08. Mont Del Dr (VIDEO)
09. King of The Lost Cause (STREAM | VIDEO)
10. This World is Gonna End (LYRIC VIDEO)
 
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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, is out now via Slow Start Records. Jared Putnam of The March Divide is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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The March Divide | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE : SLOW START RECORDS
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

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