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.
Title of EP — also available
on all streamers — reflects permanent transition to new name Fake Estates going
forward; Hear sound collage “Toshiba Maxwell” now. +++
GANGI (L-R): Mahadev, Eric Chramosta. Photo
credit: Jeanette Getrost. +++ GANGI | In The Press “Dark and rich.” — Los Angeles Times “Aural collage that seems aimed at warping any
expectations.” — LA Weekly “A soundtrack to cognitive dissonance.” — Under the Radar “GANGI’s
electro-psych evolution has been years in the making.” — SPIN +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE GANGI | “Toshiba Maxwell”
[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_XWCqTURE [SOUNDCLOUD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/gangi-toshiba-maxwell +++ Stream the sound collage “Toshiba
Maxwell” by GANGI at the links above. “Animals” and “Subject
Positions” are mangled re-recordings of songs from the debut GANGI album A, released in 2007. “Toshiba Maxwell” is different. Mahadev
(f/k/a Matt Gangi) of GANGI explains, "Many years ago, I
was 18-years-old and hanging out with (bandmate) Eric (Chramosta) who had a laptop and a broken violin. We somehow
started recording using some free software, with me playing the broken violin
and saying ‘Na na na na na’ over it. When Eric
and I re-connected to start making music again as GANGI, we started there. We made some other noise music, too, but
we remembered this one. “We vowed to start a noise project called Toshiba Maxwell, a riff on the audio
tape company Maxell. Eric was going
to be Toshiba and I was going to Maxwell. “As it turns out, instead of a band name, it
became a song, landing on the ‘As Fake
Estates’ EP right in-between the two mangled re-recordings of the A
songs ‘Animals’ and ‘Subject Positions.’” +++ GANGI “As Fake Estates” EP (Office of Analogue and Digital) Aug. 5, 2022
“Two men’s trash can be the same men’s treasure.” Previously praised as “dark and rich” (Los Angeles Times) for its “aural
collage that seems aimed at warping any expectations” (LA Weekly) or more esoterically, “a soundtrack to cognitive
dissonance” (Under the Radar), GANGI’s “electro-psych evolution has
been years in the making” according to SPIN,
writing in the summer of 2012 about the Los Angeles-based duo’s second album. Now, “making” is made as GANGI (Matt Gangi and Eric Chramosta) lands in the future
with a three-song suite of sonic disturbance from the past. “As Fake Estates” arrives Aug 5 on the artist’s Office of Analogue and Digital label. The material on “As
Fake Estates” was recorded around the same time as the 2012 GANGI album gesture is, and is
mostly comprised of what Matt Gangi describes
as “mangled” versions of songs that date back to the debut GANGI album A, released in 2007. “We sampled and
re-constructed our own re-recordings to make most of it,” he explains. Chramosta terms the new release “a multiple-decade long lineage
of assembly, disassembly and reassembly” or the re-examination of “that which
had been left to collect digital dust. Two men’s trash can be the same men’s
treasure.” The elements that call back GANGI’s psych-pop past are heavily spliced and fed through myriad
electronic components, channeling the anarchy of The Pop Group and melting warble of DJ Screw. Other influences include Black Dice and Salem. A collaborative brotherhood that began when Gangi and Chramosta were only 12-years-old, “As Fake Estates” represents the first official release in this
decade for GANGI, a project that
will go forward with the name Fake
Estates from this point on. Just as this long-overdue release is transitional, Matt Gangi himself is traveling a new
path with a new name.“I found Sanatana
Dharma and the traditional yoga since I last released music,” he explains. “My
main Guru gave me the name Mahadev.” “After GANGI
as Fake Estates, GANGI will BE Fake Estates,” Mahadev says. Just as Gangi
the man is now Mahadev, the band’s moniker
represents a permanent change for the pair after recording and touring
throughout the world for years as GANGI.
The decidedly more experimental sounds of “As
Fake Estates” are heavily colored by hand-built circuits and the noise of
revived reel-to-reel tape machines. “I was building circuits when we were recording this
material and we passed sounds through all kinds of things,” Mahadev explains. “Eric grew up around Otari reel-to-reel tape decks. In middle
school, he recorded a mangled symphony to his dad’s Otari deck.” “We were inspired by all the glitch music that was
happening in LA at the time that we recorded this material,” Mahadev continues. “GANGI performed at (weekly experimental
hip hop and electronic music club) Low
End Theory during those days. The experimental electronics that were
happening there influenced these sounds.” “As Fake
Estates” by GANGI arrives on Aug. 5,
streaming on all digital services, and as a vinyl release with etched B-side.
These very limited vinyl copies are artifacts, having been pressed and stored
at the time that the original recordings were made a decade ago, only to be
released now. Their trash, our treasure. “As Fake
Estates” by GANGI arrives Aug. 5, 2022 via the band’s Office of Analogue and Digital label. Members of GANGI are
available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information. +++ GANGI | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : BANDCAMP +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
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. +++
Jared
Putnam of The March Divide as photographed by
Short Eared Dog Photography. +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE The March Divide | ”King
of The Lost Cause”
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheMarchDivide-KingOfTheLostCause +++ “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.” +++ 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 +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE 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.” +++ 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) +++ 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. +++ The March Divide | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: SLOW START RECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
“A gloriously mesmerizing track,” says
Treble. “Not quite jazz, not quite rock... not prog but some kind of dirty lounge
groove space in between.” RIYL: Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Tortoise
+++
CLIFFWALKER (L-R): Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring.
Photo credit: Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring. +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE CLIFFWALKER | “Pulling Threads”
Stream “Pulling
Threads” by CLIFFWALKER at the
links above or here.
CLIFFWALKER, the Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys,
Guitar), released its debut EP “Painted
Gray Sky” on June 24.
In its premiere
coverage of the “Pulling Threads”
single, music discovery site Treblesays,
“The duo find an unexpected harmony between ethereal, hypnotic vibes and a
distorted, robotic bass groove. It’s a gloriously mesmerizing track that makes
natural counterparts out of (seemingly) unnaturally paired elements—not quite
jazz, not quite rock, definitely not prog but some kind of dirty lounge groove
space in between. And it’s a lot of fun to listen to and get lost in.”
“When it came to making this
video, I thought that Walker’s vibraphone gave the song a bit of a ‘Dance
of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ feel,” says Hayes. “Combined with my microsynth-fueled
bass line, the song approaches something like an electronica ballet.”
In its premiere
coverage of the “Pulling Threads” video, Glide Magazinesays,
“ The blacklit video brings together florescent colors with a space-funk groove
that showcases this unique pairing of vibes, bass and synth. The instrumental
track feels like it could be the score of an 80s sci-fi thriller, or maybe just
the soundtrack to your next dance party.”
Hayes further comments on the concept saying, “I was at
lunch with some co-workers one afternoon when one of them brought up ‘gloving’
from the rave scene. Inspired by gloving, I realized I could buy neon strings,
put them on the bass, wear white gloves and perform under UV light to get a somewhat
similar effect. We focused on our hands (or mallets) to get interesting shapes
and perspectives of our performances.
“It just worked out that our
instruments filled up the frame while cutting off our heads and that was
perfect because I wanted the focus to be on our hands not our faces. The
homemade ‘I'm hiding from the cops’ shirt is what Walker chose to wear
when I came over to film her.”
+++
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 (STREAM | VIDEO) 06. Punching Clocks (STREAM
| VIDEO) +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE CLIFFWALKER | “Punching Clocks”
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQGuuBO9hpE [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. “‘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.” The Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys,
Guitar) took inspiration from DEVO’s
“Beautiful World” for its “Punching Clocks” video. “‘Punching Clocks’ draws inspiration
from the daily dread of going to a job you dislike and the conditioning of
human existence to the dictates of time,” says Hayes of the song. “Depicting these themes in the video, we see
birth, followed by the ticking of the clock as the child is expected to jump
through the hoops of schooling.” He continues, “Then adolescence hits, followed by a
quick progression to adulthood where the reality of the working world hits
hard. As the pace of the clip picks up, there are huge crowds of workers,
industrial workplaces and assembly lines. Scenes of arguments, fighting,
drinking, and laughter are all precursors to the conflicts that emerge between
nations. Only humans can wreak havoc on the world in such a unique way.” While the song and its video address dark themes, Hayes points out, “I'm not always doom
and gloom. Honestly, I do have a decent sense of humor!” Stream “Punching
Clocks” by CLIFFWALKER at the
links above or here. +++ 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 out now. 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
