April done. May here. Let it begin.
It is time for our first new-new release of the year. The OF. Five simple letters, one space, that give you very little when you Google them. Starring in Escape Goat. Their new album with songs that are over ten minutes and barely over two. A second album with a title that can be found in the American Slang Dictionary (ditto The OF). An album bereft of central possibility but swathed in human beauty.
Things we shared with the International Press that shouldn’t need explaining:
The OF would like you to think they a group of space lobsters from some outer realm of existence. Well, that is not true, but it may as well be. Even in remote Roslyn, WA, their secret headquarters, these foil-clad colander-wearing toilet-busting barbecue-banging lunatics are often misunderstood.
The video made for their song “Damn Dirty Hippy” is not likely to help the situation. It features a close shave. Head OF, John Carey, interviewed here.
Like their first album, Escape Goat has mostly long songs with many parts. You will find them beautiful. You may also find them weird. The OF are unique and that, dear friends, is no longer an easy thing to be.
For their first album, Oh It’s The OF, they were a mere four-piece. They have added another guitar player and a sax player and sometimes percussion; they are now an advancing army of six or seven. More players invoking the compositions of Mr. John Carey is six or seven times more beautiful than other brands.
Their album cover comes from a collage assembled by a lumber monkey on a working clip board over a period of ten years. It is pure. It is multi-leveled. It is Art! Art of the proletariat!
100% TRUE FACT: I put out The OF’s music for one simple reason. They are great. Prove me wrong!!
Other things of note. Next month we release Jimm McIver’s Sunlight Reaches. Tasty. In July it will be Tom Dyer’s New Pagen Gods – History Of NW Rock Vol.1 1957-1968 (our longest band name/album title combo ever) or Fur For Fairies, who are a top secret group brought about by an alcohol fueled suggestion. So many choices!
May 2 – King County Queens at Darrell’s in Shoreline
td
May 2015
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Escape Goat (GM1029)
1. It’s A New World
2. Damn Dirty Hippy
3. Escape Goat
4. Bottom Feeder
5. Double Shift
6. Cat Sqeezer Blues
7. Refrigeration Leak
8. Weezils
Words & Music by John Carey
© 2014 John Carey except,
“Damn Dirty Hippy”
© 2014 John Carey and Pat Nevin
Cover design Tom Dyer and John Carey
Cover collage by Kip Phillips
Collage photo by Carlton Stephen Lonergan IV
Escape Goat photo by Rich Jaenicke
Mastered by Tom Dyer
The OF is:
John Carey: Guitar, Keyboard, Digitalfx, Compositions
Patrick Nevin: Yowling Hippy
Ian Gray: Bass Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin
Mike Brown: Guitar
Travis Yost: Drums
Jansen Dustin: Woodwinds
Jim Morgan: Studio Mayhem Percussion
Special guests:
Dan Taylor keys on Bottom Feeder
Seth J. Garrido baritone sax on Bottom Feeder
Lightnin Joe Meyering harp on Cat Squeezer Blues and It’s a New World
Colton Carey trombone on Escape Goat
The OF website
The OF Facebook page (“like” us)
Here’s some nice things people said about their first album:
“It’s not often that a CD begins with a spoken introduction, but when the first song revolves around a hermit crab and some seagulls fighting over a french fry, it’s nice to have a little help. Using standard rock instrumentation plus cello, mandolin, and triangle in unusual ways, the self-named “foil-rock” quintet creates music as eclectic as its members’ onstage attire: tinfoil togas and colanders as hats.
AZARIA PODPLESKY/Seattle Weekly
“Part Residents, part Mothers/Zappa/Beefheart and a whole lotta shaking, belching, vomiting, moaning and groaning amidst some damn bitchin’ guitar wailing and crazed B-52’s-like tomfoolery add up to a party atmosphere that we can all use right about now.
Jeff Penczak/Terrascope
“The Of is a great independent rock pop quintet who is not afraid to tackle the “fear of the unknown” with dark and obnoxious melodies that cover many different genres of music. The quintet’s latest CD “Oh It’s the OF” is a haunting, but whimsical journey through humanity’s wild imagination.
Leslie Snyder/Elephant Talk Indie