Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For nearly 30 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
“Maurice” stars in “Tension In The Air,” taken from
upcoming Lost Causes album, out June
10. See
obnoxious puppet behavior now
via Dallas NPR-affiliate KXT.
+++
Jared
Putnam of The March Divide as photographed by
Short Eared Dog Photography.
“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
+++
“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.”
In the music video for the song, recently
premiered online by Dallas NPR-affiliate
KXT, Putnam says, “The song is about
needing a break from the mundane routine of life. We all have our own thing
going, so that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Life can become mundane for a lot of reasons: work, social scene, bills,
quarantine, stress, etc.
“So, we made a video about what that break might
look like, if you’re a puppet with no morals or self-control! Aside from just
being a fun way to do it, we felt like using a puppet, especially this puppet,
would help people relate in an alter ego/devil on your shoulder kind of way.”
Hector Gallardo of Subharmonic
City Productions, the director of the clip, and de facto puppeteer
explains, “This puppet is one of three, inspired by the movie ‘Labrynth,’ made by a group of four
very talented artists here in El Paso, Texas.
“I’ve known them for quite a few years and one day
I went over asking to commission them to make me a puppet. They said they had
moved on from doing that sort of work, but they contacted me a few weeks later
to say they were making room in their studio and said that I could come by and
grab these. Of course, I immediately jumped at the opportunity!
“Growing up with shows like ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Fraggle Rock,’ I always loved what
they did with these puppets. Until I did this myself, I always took for granted
what might go into making those types of shows. Some of these shots are
honestly torturous. You have to really contort your body to not end up in the
shot!
“I got to play around with some
hilarious green screen shots – setting up the green screen in the front yard
and operating the puppet definitely got me some interesting looks and laughs.
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.”
+++
The March
Divide | Live
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
05/19/2022: Tucson, AZ @ The Downtown Clifton
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
“Lost Causes carries an intentional tribute to 90s indie-ROCK (capitalization intentional!) and for me, ‘I Wanna Hate You’ is the perfect song to kick it off,” says Jared Putnam of The March Divide about the opening cut of his sixth album (out June 10 via Slow Start Records.) Listen to the song at the link above or via New Noise Magazinehere.
“I just didn’t hold back on that theme at all with this one. I wanted everything I miss from the songs I grew up with; driving verses, big power-pop choruses, and yeah, even rippin’ guitar solos. While it’s a breakup song, the opening line, ‘I’m awake, for the first time in a long time’ was meant to plant the seed of the throwback to come.”
“I’m awake, for the first time in a long time/ I’m afraid, to find out what all I’ve missed,” Putnam sings on the tune, a solid example of the kinds of songs that have helped him build a loyal following for his candid lyrical style, which can vary from tongue-in-cheek sarcasm to almost too self-effacing.
“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
“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 Magazinehere.
Texas-based music discovery website Central Tracksays
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.”
+++
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 10th via Slow Start Records preceded by the
singles “I’m Not Perfect” (March 18th), “Tension In The Air” (April 8th), “I Wanna Hate You” (April 29th), and “King of The Lost Cause” (May 20th.)
Jared Putnam of The March
Divide is available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information.
Split-screen press photo of band leader Matthew
Schwartz, even song titles themselves illustrate “how it started / how it’s
going” story. +++
Pacifico’s
Matthew Schwartz as photographed in 2005 (L) and 2022 (R) by Daniel
Stabler. +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE
Pacifico | “Suddenly / Back At The Start”
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/Pacifico-Suddenly-BackAtTheStart Like all of the songs on Pacifico’s upcoming “‘05/‘22” EP, the “Suddenly / Back At The Start” single was started in 2005 and
finished in 2022. 17 years is a (very, very) long time
for five songs, but Pacifico’s Matthew Schwartz has been busy with
other Pacifico projects during that
time. Turns out that the makings of the band’s debut album went missing on a
hard drive all those years ago (no cloud storage!) and weren’t found until
recently. It’s a good thing that, despite the
release of three full-length Pacifico
albums, eight EPs, and more, that Schwartz
decided to continue to work on this material. The songs on the “‘05/‘22” EP were made with many of Schwartz’s heroes, including Jason Martin of Starflyer 59, Ronnie Martin
of Joy Electric, Peter Randall (bassist with The Kooks and Adele), and others. “Suddenly / Back At The Start” (the song title configuration, like the title of
the EP itself, being another “how it started vs. how it’s going” reference) is
a high intensity tune with a catchy chorus about “a relationship at the end,
all due to my mistakes,” according to Schwartz.
It’s an insight he may not have been able to make if he had released this song
17 years ago. Hear it at the links above or over
at New Noise Magazine and then scroll
down for the rest of the story! +++ Pacifico
“‘05/‘22” EP (Pacifirecords) June 3rd, 2022
Track Listing: 01. The Time Has Come My Lover / Alone (STREAM) 02. Suddenly / Back At The Start (STREAM) 03. The Red Eye / We Won’t Go Back Here 04. Needing And Waiting / Carnival 05. Move On / V2 +++ Pacifico | About
17 years is a long time to make an EP. Pacifico’s upcoming “‘05/’22”
EP – the title being a literal nod to the how it started / how it’s going
nature of the record –arrives June 3,
2022 on the Atlanta-based artist’s own Pacifirecords. What was the artist-in-charge, Matthew Schwartz doing during the 17 years since beginning this Pacifico release in 2005 and completing
it in 2022? He was doing Pacifico. Huh? Indeed, this is the story of a lost hard drive.
Musicians don’t do back-ups, after all. Teamed with Jeremiah
Edmond, Schwartz’s musical
cohort in 2005 just prior to Edmond
joining Manchester Orchestra, the
recordings that have now been realized as the “‘05/’22” EP were initially intended to become the debut Pacifico album. Schwartz was undeterred when the project was derailed. Quite
the opposite, he went on to release three full-length Pacifico albums and eight EPs, along with a handful of standalone
singles and compilation appearances. These high intensity, high production value recordings
were made with many of Schwartz’s
heroes, including Jason Martin of Starflyer 59, Ronnie Martin of Joy
Electric, Peter Randall (bassist
with The Kooks and Adele), and many more. Compelling
artwork during this time was beautifully rendered by Adult Swim’s Trey Wadsworth. Inspired by rock influences as beloved, popular, and
revered as Foo Fighters, Radiohead, and Weezer to songwriting powerhouses such as Jeff Buckley, Jeremy Enigk,
and Elliott Smith, it’s not
surprising that Pacifico songs found
their way into films, television, and video games. Unlike the “‘05/’22”
EP, these recordings were backed up! But it’s okay, because in 2020, while everyone was
working on sourdough starter during lockdown, Schwartz’s collaborator from the beginning of this story, Jeremiah Edmond, found that missing
hard drive. Unintentionally, the “‘05/’22” EP embodies the same conceit as the Richard Linklater film “Boyhood,”
in which the director got together with his actors every few years to shoot
more footage, resulting in a final film where we see the actual and realistic
aging and maturing of the characters within the story. Similarly, once Schwartz
was reunited with his technology, he wasted no time bringing in his current
band members, C Jason Mask (Guitar,
Vocals) and Wes Clifton (Bass,
Vocals) to pick up right where the previous recordings left off. The result is
a unique document where youthful exuberance and experienced professionalism
meet. The songs are melodic, addictive toe-tappers that say things that only
adults can say. As a visual representation that perfectly suits the
story, the two images comprising the photo collage of Schwartz that accompanies the release were both shot by
photographer Daniel Stabler, one in
2005 and the other in 2022. Even the song titles support the theme, each being
named for the placeholder title it was given in 2005 and the final title given
in 2022. “Suddenly /
Back At The Start” is the first
single taken from the “‘05/’22” EP,
in which Schwartz sings, “All these
nothings they meant more than me than a million somethings ever could be.” “The song was lost for many years and only found
towards the beginning of the pandemic,” Schwartz
reminds us, true to form. Fortunately, what was apparently nothing for the last
17 years is very much something now. “‘05/’22” is the upcoming EP by Pacifico (out June 3 via
Pacifirecords), to be preceded by
the singles “Suddenly / Back At The
Start” (April 15) and “Red Eye / We
Won’t Go Back Here” (May 6). Pacifico
is currently recoding its next full-length album, scheduled for a late 2022
release. Matthew
Schwartz of Pacifico is available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information. +++ Pacifico | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: PACIFIRECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
Instrumental bass & vibes duo of Cliff
Hayes (Buellton, Carcrashlander), A. Walker Spring (Old Time Relijun) earns fitting description as “crime jazz.” +++
CLIFFWALKER (L-R): Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring.
Photo credit: Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring. +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE CLIFFWALKER | “Reflected Sun”
Track Listing: 01. Calm Sea 02. Painted Gray Sky 03. Reflected Sun (YOUTUBE | SOUNDCLOUD) 04. On Her Last Legs 05. Pulling Threads 06. Punching Clocks +++ 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 : BANDCAMP +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
