MAGIC TRICK – ‘OTHER MAN’S BLUES’ OUT 8/26!

Empty Cellar Records is proud to release the newest album by Magic Trick, Other Man’s Blues. This offering from the band finds songwriter, Tim Cohen at a crossroads. It was written and recorded during a year that split his time between two lives, in two worlds. The newer of these worlds was on a horse ranch in the northern Arizona desert where he and his partner spent their first year with their newborn daughter. The other was the music world. The latter took place on the road, on tour with Magic Trick or with the Fresh & Onlys. And in the case of Other Man’s Blues, it took place for one week at Phil Manley’s Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco.

Tim arrived at the studio with a color-coded composition book of songs he’d been writing while bouncing to and fro. This book would have to suffice in lieu of rehearsal time with the 13 other musicians who appear on the tracks. About half of the tracks feature James Kim on drums, the other half James Barone (Beach House). Alicia Van Heuvel (Aislers Set) and Paul Garcia split time on bass. Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band / Danny James) contributes on keys. Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang / The Muggers / The Double) provides a couple stunning guitar solos. There are omnipresent vocal harmonies from Alicia, Noelle Cahill and Anna Hillburg, the latter of whom also plays some trumpet. San Francisco standbys Dylan Edrich, Tom Heyman, and Marc Capelle all contribute. It was a loose, largely improvised affair.

The album’s roster is less the product of grand ambition, and more the result of an open-door policy at the studio. These sessions also served as an opportunity for Tim to hang out with friends while in town. He’d see who was around, they’d swing by. Allegedly tequila was centrally involved. A “hit the joint and come up with a bit” approach. “Here’s a chord chart. Go.” And guest appearances are more than just a little icing on top here. It’s the principle that warranted giving this project a band name five years ago: when Tim’s non-onlys oeuvre stopped being credited to Tim Cohen and instead was attributed to Magic Trick. Especially in the case of Other Man’s Blues, the players on the album define what shapes these songs take.

And it’s a wide variety of shapes you’ll find on this album. Take this less as a conscious display of versatility (although it does demonstrate Cohen & Co.’s ability to shape-shift) and more as a result of the freewheeling, haphazard recording environment described above. A ghostly choir of female voices open the album like a seance. And the spirit they conjure proceeds to flit about over the course of the ensuing ten tracks, animating various stylistic forms, from the baroque pop of “Forest of Kates” to the icy post-punk of “I Held the Ring.” There’s the air-tight R&B groove of “Startling Chimes,” the krauty “Purest Thing,” a jammy side-to-side trot that moves “First Thought” along, taking a detour into country before culminating in a glorious Grateful Dead indebted coda. But throughout, it’s Tim’s lyrics that are pushed to the front of the mix. This album is a display of solid songwriting – collectively fleshed out, but from Tim’s composition book, and with Tim’s lyrics about family and about himself. These songs are the sound of his friends helping him suss through the conflicts of his new dual existence as father and musician, between old self and new.

Magic Trick’s 2013 offering, River of Souls, opens with Cohen asking, “Should we live from the mirrors other side?” Maybe, what you have here on Other Man’s Bluesis an attempt to do just that. You can hear that his scope is widening, is being forced to widen by his circumstance. These songs are full of empathy. They reckon with notions of sacrifice and devotion, acknowledge the “winds of desire” and admit that “musings come from below” like a force of nature. Our protagonist is mid-transformation or maybe even pre-transformation. He is able to “regard his gruesome self” only because he is becoming a new man. Both sides are present. Which is the Other Man? Who is Tim Cohen? What is this magic he is trying pull off? Is it a trick? Or true sorcery? Either way, he must evolve.

PREORDER NOW

Track Listing:

1. More
2. Forest of Kates
3. I Held the Ring
4. Scorpio
5. First Thought
6. Mockingbird
7. Eternal Summer
8. Purest Thing
9. Startling Chimes
10. Oysters

Magic Trick Dates
8/3 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop w/ The Cairo Gang (Tim Cohen Solo)
8/18 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel (Record Release Show)

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COOL GHOULS – ‘ANIMAL RACES’ OUT 8/19!

“Its melodies are simple and near-perfect, its guitars jangly and unembellished. It’s distinctly West Coast in its feel, but it’s also the sound of a band that are increasingly their own.” – Noisey

Empty Cellar Records is stoked to announce the third full-length release by San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Animal Races. Fans of their self-titled debut and 2014’sA Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye will be similarly stoked to hear how this band has continued to evolve. If the first album was a celebratory debut, and the second an earnest venture into deeper waters… this third album is like the crystal born of the murky womb that was the second, fertilized by the initial intention of the first. Not only have the ghouls reaped the crop they sowed; they’ve baked it into some new kind of bread!

For the uninitiated – Cool Ghouls play rock’n’roll. That’s about all there is to it. They’re California natives. They try to do a good job. They like to try to elevate and get far out. They also like to keep it real. They like to make friends and have a good time. They don’t like bullshit. They want to keep growing and learning how to become more powerful musicians. This record reflects the discoveries they’ve made over the last five years about live performance, themselves, and each other.

The eleven tracks, recorded to tape by Kelley Stoltz in his backyard studio, are first and foremost documents of the four-piece’s live performance of the tunes. Many of the songs were road-tested, but – unlike the prior records – a few of them were not. This opened the door for some new looks: an acoustic guitar, some synth, upright piano, a little pedal steel wizardry from Tom Heyman, etc. It’s Cool Ghouls doing what they’ve always done, but in more ways and better.

Animal Races will be available on LP/CD (8/19/16) in the US via Empty Cellar Records and the EU/UK via Melodic Records, and worldwide on cassette viaBurger Records. All versions feature full-color artwork painted by Shannon Shaw(Shannon and The Clams). Distributed by Revolver/Midheaven (USA).

PREORDER HERE

Track Listing:

1. Animal Races
2. Sundial
3. Time Capsule
4. When You Were Gone
5. Days
6. Just Like Me
7. The Man
8. Brown Bag
9. Never You Mind
10. Material Love
11. Spectator

Cool Ghouls – 2016 Tour Dates
8/11 San Francisco, CA – The Chapel (Record Release Show)
8/16 Los Angeles, CA – The Resident
8/17 Tucson, AZ – TBA
8/18 El Paso, TX – Monarch
8/19 Austin, TX – Barracuda
8/20 San Antonio, TX – Limelight
8/22 Denver, CO – TBA
8/23 Salt Lake City, UT – TBA
8/24 Boise, ID – The Olympic
8/25 Portland, OR – Baker Ballroom
8/26 Seattle, WA – TBA
9/1 Zagreb, HR – Mochvara Club
9/3 Vienna, AT – Chelsea
9/4 Prague, CZ – Famu Club
9/6 Gent, BE – Cafe Video
9/8 Lille, FR – Le Biplan
9/9 Paris, FR – Espace B
9/10 Chatillon sur Seiche, FR – Rock on Noyal
9/11 Tilburg, NL – Incubate Festival
9/12 Antwerp, BE – TBA
9/13 Brussels, BE – Pin Pon
9/14 Dortmund, DE – Rekorder
9/15 Breda, NL – Electron
9/16 Berlin, DE – Bassy Club
9/17 Dresden, DE – Ostpol
9/20 Brighton, UK – Sticky Mike’s Frog
9/21 Northampton, UK – The Black Prince
9/22 London, UK – Birthday’s Dalston
9/23 Liverpool, UK – Liverpool Psych Fest
9/24 Sheffield, UK – Picture House Social
9/25 Manchester, UK – The Eagle Inn
9/27 Strausbourg, FR – Mudd Club
9/28 Geneva, CH – La Graviere
9/29 Heilbronn, DE – TBA
9/30 Lausanne, CH – Le Bourg
10/1 Florence, IT – Annibale Night
10/15 Oakland, CA – New Parish with The Sonics

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