misra 20 - liner notes
“Big Push” - Good Sport
From the forthcoming 2020 album Boring Magic, Ryan Hizer (aka Good Sport) has created a jam for the ages. “It was one of the first songs I wrote when I put together my solo live rig, which was kind of limiting,” Hizer says. “It’s all loop-based and you build loops in real time. It came about trying to figure out how to perform live. By way of trying to figure out how to make this thing work and make it enjoyable to watch, I also accidentally wrote an OK song!”
Hizer has also co- written, produced, and/or performed on material for a long list of artists that includes Spirit Night, Sad Girls Aquatics Club, Librarians, Rave Ami, Shaky Shrines, Soft Gondola, The Emergency, and Rich, among others.
“Valley” - BBGuns
Released by Misra Records Label Group subsidiary Crafted Sounds, “Valley” was the first single from what would prove to be the final album by BBGuns to date, 2019’s Help Yourself. BBGuns, comprising of vocalists Lazy JP and Barz Blackman, combine elements of underground hip-hop and indie rock, balancing lyricism, originality, and songcraft. Speaking to the challenge of combining rock and hip-hop, the band credits Gorillaz as inspiration, noting their approach of balancing indie and critical influences as a guide-post.
“Valley” was produced by noted Baltimore rapper Height Keech and featuring a sample of “Berkay Oyun Havasi” by Turkish folk-rock pioneers Moğollar.
“Hangin’ Around” - Knowlton Bourne
From the 2015 album Songs from Motel 43, Mississippi singer-songwriter Knowlton Bourne is not your standard trooper in the Gram Parsons Memorial Marching Band. Bourne’s version of Cosmic American Music eschews the Nudie suit baubles and the homagistic motifs for something more akin to denim-clad Ameritronica. Someone call Keith Richards pronto - a fellow traveler has arrived.
Knowlton Bourne now makes his career as a copywriter living in New York. Beyond his two albums for Misra Records, Bourne has also been published in McSweeney's Internet Tendency and has directed several short films.
“Tamale” - Benji.
Originally released as a standalone single, and now expected to also appear on the forthcoming 2020 album WATERCUP (a joint collaboration by Misra and Capitol Records subsidiary Since the 80s), “Tamale” showcases Benji. at the height of his powers. The younger brother of J.I.D producer/collaborator Christo, one would find it hard to argue that hit-making runs in the family!
Having spent much of 2019 on tour in support of Grammy-nominated hip-hop group EarthGang, Benji. is now certain to be ready for his time in the spotlight!
“2AM, Chinatown” - Julian Jasper
The 2016 debut single by Julian Jasper is the sound of Los Angeles nightlife personified, distractedly strutting and bouncing from one disused phone booth to another looking for a connection, awash in a surreal trashed-out decadence, struggling to make sense of it all.
Originally the A-side to a 7” single of the same name, which was later expanded to become the band’s eponymous debut EP, the song was featured on the Freeform (formerly ABC Family) sci-fi/crime drama Stitchers and has accumulated over 500,000 Spotify streams to date. Julian Jasper vocalist/guitarist James Clifford continues to record and perform today under the names Modern Howls and Primaveras.
“Two Free Hands” - Anthonie Tonnon
Originally released as a standalone single, and now currently slated to also appear on the forthcoming 2020 album Leave Love Out of This, Anthonie Tonnon is a songwriter and performer originally from Dunedin, New Zealand. He first collaborated with Misra on the 2015 release Successor and later also worked with the label to reissue his previous records, 2010’s Fragile Thing and 2012’s Up Here for Dancing.
Tonnon continues to tour New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and North America regularly with his planetarium-based show A Synthesized Universe as well as with his show Rail Land, which occurs completely on a passenger rail system.
“Nanana” - Paperhaus
From the 2017 album Are These the Questions That We Need to Ask? - the layers of inquiry in said album’s title ripple underneath this song, which takes glimpses of doubt and frames them with optimism and, on occasion, a little showmanship. When founder/frontman Alex Tebeleff asks, “Can you believe the times we’re livin’ in?/ How can we get through it?” at the outset, he hardly sounds defeated or bummed. When the “na na na” chorus kicks in, it’s more like a fight song for the DIY nation—imagine Radiohead’s “Airbag” as a jock jam.
Having long been a mainstay the Washington DC music scene, Paperhaus has recently relocated to Los Angeles.
“Broken Noses” - André Costello and the Cool Minors
Lead single from the 2018 album Resident Frequencies, “Broken Noses” is the best work yet from André Costello, an Ellwood City, Pennsylvania native who previously served as the lead guitarist of indie-rock band The Slant before embarking on his own solo career. Costello depicts the song as being loosely based on his brother, who he describes as a “scrapper” growing up. The jam chronicles bar fights, busted lips, and broken noses in a chic kind of way.
Costello works during the day as a mentor for music and graphic design workshops for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Teen Digital Media Lab.
“Saint Fuck-off” - Rave Ami
When it comes to Rave Ami, fans and critics seem to agree on one thing: the loudest rock ‘n roll band in Pittsburgh is a group you simply need to hear live, and this pre-production demo (from the outtakes record Somewhat Bohemian, which was compiled from sessions tracked in anticipation of what would become the 2018 album All Great Bands Break Up) manages to indeed capture them live in the studio. The power trio plays a room-rattling push-pit of haggard grunge, beer-stained power-pop, and fuzz-drunk indie-rock. Their frantic, powerful sound and staggering live energy are reminders that the spirit of rock n’ roll is very much alive and well.
“City Deer” - Roger Harvey & The Wild Life
The A-side to a 7” single of the same name released in 2014 on Misra Records Label Group subsidiary Wild Kindness Records, this was the song that announced Roger Harvey’s solo career to the world. The former White Wives guitarist and his producer, J. Vega, spaced out the sessions for it at Vega’s Wilderness Recording Studio in Zelienople, Pennsylvania over the course of a year. The song itself is a pop-punk gem, with Harvey’s seasoned knack for melodies and sing-along lyrics making it a track not easily forgotten. The music is beautiful and soul-searching, characterized by Harvey’s intensely personal songwriting, illustrating the push and pull between growing up in an isolated rural community and growing older in major cities like New York and Philadelphia, where Harvey currently resides.
“wave Backwards to MASSACHUSETTS” - Hallelujah the hills
Originally appearing on the 2007 album Collective Psychosis Begone (the first of two records that the band released with Misra), this song was later re-released as the A-side to a limited-edition 7” single in 2016 to celebrate the band’s 10th anniversary. The irresistible "Wave Backward to Massachusetts," feeling like an excerpt from Alien Lanes or Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, exhibits the band’s knack for crafting fist-pumping anthems from absurdist word clusters.
Hallelujah the Hills frontman Ryan Walsh is also a journalist, and in 2018 became the author of the New York Times best-seller Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968.
“Two years” - Emily ROdgers
From the 2016 album of the same name, “Two Years” is burgeoning with bittersweet hope, buoyed up mostly by its sprightly violin. Emily’s beautiful voice trembles with feeling, though she keeps the listener at a distance. It’s like watching life through dirty lenses: you squint to see everything, but reality is only partially revealed. Rodgers is deliberate and intense, quiet and bookish, and it's in its very quiet intensity that her music commands a listener’s full attention.
Rodgers is an English Professor at Duquesne University and Community College of Allegheny County. She has a menagerie of pets and is married to her guitarist Erik Cirelli.
“Christian Name” - William Matheny
Originally released as the B-side to a cover of the Centro-matic song “Flashes and Cables” on a 7” single in 2018, the song has since taken on a life of its own in both William Matheny’s discography and live catalog. A favorite of Tyler Childers, the confessional track complements the lyrics with melodic, garage-influenced twang.
The Alpine swift can fly continuously for seven months, even while they’re sleeping. After spending all of 2017 on the road, Matheny returned home exhausted, spiritually and physically running on fumes. He describes “Christian Name” as his attempt to get back on his feet after crawling for a very long time.
“California” - Malena Cadiz
On the 2016 album Sunfair, Malena Cadiz made an escape from NYC to the vast, arid desert terrain of Joshua Tree. The sound is stripped, raw, sparse, and beautifully barren, hearkening to a newly unearthed inward solace. The song is designed to feel over-exposed and faded out, like a Polaroid left too long in the sun. The masterful control of emotion and minimal arrangement dually take the listener on Cadiz’s specific journey and make her self exploration more universally relatable.
Cadiz currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, fashion photographer Mikael Kennedy, and their daughter.
“Tightrope Walker” - PJ Orr
Sydney, Australia's own PJ Orr has made something very special with his latest solo album (his second since leaving Hailer), due out in Spring 2020. A guitar record that will leave you levitating as strangely familiar sounds swan and seesaw all over your soft subconscious. PJ Orr is the fogged-out suburbanite poet who still needs his girl, even if they both know they'll have to come down sometime.
This lead single of the same name is a clever little squirrel takes a few listens but - especially on headphones - gradually turns into something truly loveable. Gentle waves lap at its shores, but under the surface there’s a glint of teeth.
“Plans” - Land Lines
From the 2015 album The Natural World, Colorado-based trio Land Lines demonstrated their masters of minimalism and restraint on “Plans” - every beat, lyric, and bowed string is presented against such a background that you can't help but give it your full attention. And while the song may be instrumentally sparse, it simmers its way to an explosive chorus with a passionate, arresting yell. It's dramatic and powerful in a way that you wouldn't normally expect from this type of reserved music.
Land Lines has the distinction of being the first Misra act to appear on the NPR Music series Tiny Desk Concerts.
“Heart Dance” - Mars Jackson
From the 2018 album Good Days Never Last Forever, the first hip-hop record ever produced for Misra, Mars Jackson taught our hearts how to dance with this Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones-inspired lead single.
Jackson explains, “It’s just a vibe, man. If you put that song on and just really let it rock, it’s one of the best vibes you’ll get. I wrote that song about a night on the town with my girlfriend. I put imagination in there, like I threw in Weekend at Bernie’s and I put in a Golden State lyric that I hope people caught. It’s just giving you a vibe of what can be for the summer. I’m bringing you good vibes this summer!”
“Nervousness Fangs” - Will Johnson
Released as a single following the Record Store Day 2016 title Inclined/Moccasin Bones. Johnson describes the writing and recording process: “I set up a mic or two in the middle bathroom, maybe an amp in the hall, and tracked to a Tascam 424. I remember writing the guts of that chorus on a trail run.”
Will Johnson, formerly the frontman of Misra acts Centro-matic and South San Gabriel, had also recorded with Jason Molina as the duo Molina & Johnson. Additionally, he was a member of the supergroup Monsters of Folk with Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, and M. Ward of She & Him.
“Celebrate” - Chet Vincent & The Big Bend
The title track to the band’s 2016 release for Misra, “Celebrate” demonstrated their best work to date. Vincent says, “We didn’t know we were making it at the time, but when we went back looking over everything, it feels like a late-20’s coming-of-age theme runs through it — primarily the notion that happiness is tied to self-acceptance. That we can strive to make ourselves better, but at a fundamental level we can’t change who we are. And although this ‘love yourself for who you are’ idea is often expressed on cheesy inspirational memes, it’s actually quite profound: we all have insecurities, we are all getting older, not everyone finds love, not everyone is successful. ‘Celebrate’ is about us coming to terms with that aspect of life and learning to love it.”
“Dusty Wing Spirit” - Adam Torres
From the album Nostra Nova, which was recorded in 2006 and re-released by Misra in 2015, “Dusty Wing Spirit,” remains simple and barebones to the finish. “Somebody’s looking down on me,” Torres croons, tenderly emoting against impossibly warm keyboard accompaniment. “Dusty Wing Spirit” unites fluttering moths with a voyage through the inner passages of someone’s body. From vocals that can flutter into a vulnerable falsetto to orchestration ranging from harp to glockenspiel, Torres creates some truly beautiful chamber folk.
Torres is a former member of the Misra group Southeast Engine, and as a solo artist has gone on to release several albums with Fat Possum Records.