LEVERAGE MODELS
Greys ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
ANACHRONISME RECORDS | AE002 | DIGITAL ONLY
GREYS: A Digital Compilation to Benefit the
Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees
21 Tracks for $10 (*special Bandcamp-Only price)
Releases to Bandcamp, Aug 28, 2019 for discount price
Most major worldwide platforms, Sep 4, 2019
Order on Bandcamp NOTE: This EPK is NOT optimized for mobile devices
* Cover art by Benedict Kupstas (CLICK to enlarge and download high-res photo)
TRACKLIST
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Bring On The Fog (feat. Leverage Models) - Booker Stardrum
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Very Small People - Grant Zubritsky Remix
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BUGEISHA (Director's Cut) - Xenia Rubinos
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A Scout's Prayer - Quilla Remix
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Uncle Incision - Courtship Ritual
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If I Let You Stay (Leverage Models Cover) - Field Guides
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Day One (Leverage Models Cover) - C. J. Boyd
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Free - Kill Alters
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Dark Pools - DOV Remix
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When The Money's Gone (Leverage Models Cover) - Ben Seretan
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Masons (Whites Outtake) - Leverage Models
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Day One (Leverage Models Cover) - Emanuel Ayvas
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If I Let You Stay (Leverage Models Cover) - Wendy Eisenberg
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Neurologically Lost (feat. Leverage Models) - Trevor Dunn
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A Scout's Prayer (Leverage Models Cover) - Names of War
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Walking With Animals (feat. Leverage Models) - Lori Scacco
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When The Money's Gone (Leverage Models Cover) - Eliot Krimsky
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Day Two - Concierge Records & The Working Elite
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Senators (Leverage Models Cover) - Dave Scanlon (feat. Louisa Denison)
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She Swims in Hidden Water - William Tyler
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Instructions (Whites Outtake) - Leverage Models
"No one leaves home
unless home is the mouth of a shark"
SUMMARY
Leverage Models and Anachronisme Records present, GREYS, a 21-track compilation benefitting the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees ("MVRCR"). Contributors used material from Leverage Models’, Whites (2018) as a creative starting point, recording new work including thoroughly unorthodox re-constructions and original music in some form of lyrical / musical ‘conversation’ with the originals. Greys features new work by a crowd of idiosyncratic and brilliant independent artists/producers, including William Tyler (Merge Records), Xenia Rubinos, Booker Stardrum (Weyes Blood, NNA Tapes), Courtship Ritual (Godmode), Wendy Eisenberg, Trevor Dunn (Tzadik) W. Andrew Raposo (Midnight Magic, Classixx), C. J. Boyd (Joyful Noise), Kill Alters (feat. Hisham Bharoocha of Black Dice, Soft Circle) and more. As with Whites, the Greys album has a wide wingspan -- from the dance-floor to the bedroom floor -- amplifying its ecstatic, dark and fragile notes, and pivoting around themes of inclusion, privilege, abuse by caregivers & authorities, and a stubbornly persistent belief in social hope.
100% of album sales and streaming royalties will be donated to the MVRCR, an organization in upstate New York’s Mohawk Valley region that assists refugees, immigrants, and "limited English proficient individuals" through a range of community-centered programs in order to help them achieve independence and self-sufficiency. The organization also enacts programs to build a more multi-cultural and understanding community.
Mastered by: D. James Goodwin @ THE ISOKON, Woodstock, NY
FULL-TEXT GREYS PRESS RELEASE HERE
Download Greys Onesheet HERE
WHITES album press kit: CLICK HERE
CONTRIBUTING ARTIST DETAILS
TRACK No. 1
Booker Stardrum
Bring On The Fog (feat. Leverage Models) [3:20]
Artist Notes:
"Bring on the fog. Bring on the rain. Give me a fake head that looks just like mine with a different brain inside."
Bio:
Booker Stardrum is a Los Angeles based performer-composer. His recent compositions are sculptural, involving the dense layering of instruments, a focus on pan-tonality and an intuitive approach to rhythm. Booker’s sophomore solo release ‘Temporary etc.’ (NNA, 2018) is a highly personal amalgamation of electro-acoustics, minimalism, ambient, jazz, and contemporary experimental electronic music. Using integrative sampler technology, Booker’s newest live solo set seamlessly synthesizes acoustic and electronic sounds, combining drums, cymbals, and bells with deconstructed and reimagined recorded samples of horn instruments, vocals, synthesizers, and other collected sonic ephemera.
Aside from his solo practice, Booker has dedicated himself to the art of percussion across multiple platforms, having recorded and performed with rock-based groups like Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Landlady, Lee Ranaldo, and Weyes Blood, in addition to more experimental and free improvisation collaborations with Nels Cline, VaVatican, and many more. Booker has toured in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America and has performed at such festivals as Meltdown (U.K.), Brighton (U.K), Rewire (NL), Le Guess Who (NL), Festival Bo:m (ROK), and Ecstatic Music (US). His discography includes solo and collaborative releases on independent labels such as NNA Tapes, Northern Spy Records, Mexican Summer, Saddle Creek, Prom Night Records and Home Tapes.
Credits:
Performed and produced by Booker Stardrum
Links:
TRACK No. 2
Grant Zubritsky
Very Small People (Leverage Models Remix) [3:57]
Artist Notes:
"With this track, I tried to capture a contrasting focus to the original work, highlighting Shannon and Alena's vocals with an alternative arrangement.."
Bio:
Grant Zubritsky is a musician & producer that splits time between NYC and LA. As a session player, Grant has worked with Nick Murphy/Chet Faker, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans), Maggie Rogers, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and more. Working out of his studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Grant takes his years of performance experience and blends those live elements with his electronic production. The results typically live somewhere between psychadellic pop and electro-pop.
Credits
Produced and Mixed by Grant Zubritsky
Links:
TRACK No. 3
Xenia Rubinos
BUGEISHA (Director's Cut) [3:24]
Artist Notes:
"I started with the basic rhythm of the bass drum from "If I Let You Stay" as a jumping off point and had just read about Onna Bugeisha which were female fighters in Japanese culture who often took the place of their male counterparts such as "Empress Jingū, who in 200 A.D. led an invasion of Korea after her husband Emperor Chūai, the fourteenth emperor of Japan, perished in battle.” In 1881 Empress Jingū became the first woman on Japanese currency. My track "Bugeisha" was inspired by the tale of an onna bugeisha called Nayako Takeko. I was so struck by her story and the portrait I found of her that I full screened the portrait and started freestyling over a beat and thinking would it feel like to be her on horseback at the top of a hill looking down over her enemy with all her bad bitch gang behind her ready to put a hurtin on em. It felt incredibly raw and powerful. I thought about her strength, ferocity and how she was ready willing and able to do anything including asking her sister to cut her head off so it wouldn't be used as a trophy by her enemies when she was wounded in battle. The legend says her sister cut her head off and it was buried under a tree in a nearby temple, you can still visit it today. While she was leading a charge against Imperial Japanese Army troops she was shot in the chest. Knowing her remaining time on earth to be short, Takeko asked her sister, Yūko, to cut her head off and have it buried rather than permit the enemy to seize it as a trophy. It was taken to Hōkai Temple and buried underneath a pine tree.
The intro of the track is inspired by a cinematic opener of a movie, the title credit of a film before it begins. Then you hear Takeko riding up a hill on her horseback and climbing off to look down at her competition before going in to battle. I decided to keep the vocals sparse during the vocals and try to evoke this kind of hypnotic, trance like moment with her where she is at the top of the hill gathering herself and imagining herself succeeding in battle, she is looking down and feeling herself, her tassles are blowing in the wind, she is rooted like a tree and she has no fear, she feels a rush of adrenaline, a thrill at the sight of her enemy and a rush of power in her armor and trust in herself and the honor of her family, her sister rides with her, they are unstoppable, not even death can stop them from being as fierce and powerful as they are. I feel like this story redifines the hashtag of "rest in power". "
Bio:
Music maker Xenia Rubinos uses her powerful voice to create beats and melodies from scratch. Her sound grows from a wide palette of influences ranging from Caribbean rhythms and beat music to minimalism and indie rock all delivered with a soulful punk aura. Xenia’s ecstatic songs feature layered beats, crunchy keyboards, and driving syncopated rhythms.
Credits
Performed, Produced, Composed by Xenia Rubinos. Mixing, Additional Production by Marco Buccelli. Xenia Rubinos Appears Courtesy of ANTI- Records. (c) 2019 Jaba Jaba Music/BMI
Links:
TRACK No. 4
Quilla
A Scout's Prayer (Leverage Models Remix) [3:18]
Artist Notes:
"Quilla was inspired to pick apart the ecstatic layers of A Scout's Prayer to reveal the tenderness and intensity of Shannon and Alena's vocal layers in this sparse, darkly celebratory remix."
Bio:
Quilla (Anna Luisa Daigneault) is a vocalist, songwriter and electronic music producer. Originally from Montreal, she lives in Greensboro, NC. Known within the electronic music community as a versatile vocalist, she has written songs for Tiesto, Heatbeat, Sultan + Shepard, Feenixpawl, and many others. As an electronic producer, her work is inspired by house music, world beat, downtempo and experimental sounds. Her second album You Got It (2017) included tracks ranging from cathartic to contemplative. A reviewer from I Want EDM noted, “her ability to transcend genres and tie all the brilliant intricacies of her production together is majestic.” Her latest single "Sagittarius" came out in June 2019.
Credits
Remix by Quilla
Links:
TRACK No. 5
Courtship Ritual
Uncle Incision [3:19]
Artist Notes:
"Monica follows a "Manhattan Before 1990" FB photo group in which a kid named Fernando keeps showing up in photos and stirring up everyone's interest. He looks like a post-apocalyptic Peter Pan in the rubble of 1970's Alphabet City and the LES. He seems to be having the time of his life, despite what you learn from people who knew him were some pretty bleak circumstances. Ditching school with his brother Orlando, playing in stripped cars, riding the back bumper of the CBGB's truck, playing with stray dogs and rooftop pigeons, just getting into all kinds of adventures. The song is kind of like calling on his raw spirit to ward off the Uncle character in "A Scout's Prayer", or anyone who brings you down. Let Fernando take care of it"
Bio:
Courtship Ritual are Californians living in New York City.
Credits
Monica Salazar: Voice & Synth | Jared Olmsted: Bass | Monica Salazar & Tyler McCauley: Production & Mix (c) 2019 Courtship Ritual Group
Links:
TRACK No. 6
Fields Guides
If I Let You Stay (Leverage Models Cover) [4:31]
Artist Notes:
"You were such a strong kid
Now it seems like you get thinner every year
If I could, I would get fat and happy for you
(a satire of control)."
Bio:
Fields Guides are a band.
Credits
Julian Cubillos: bass, engineering
Rachel Housle: drum kit, percussion
Benedict Kupstas: electric guitars, field recordings, synthesizers, voice
Aaron Rourk: reeds and woodwinds
Alena Spanger: synthesizers, voice
Links:
https://fieldguides.bandcamp.com
TRACK No. 7
C.J. Boyd
Day One (Leverage Models Cover) [5:46]
Artist Notes:
"I love how the lyrics to this song approach something like optimisim without any illusion of hope. It captures the precise balance of wanting to improve things and the realism concerning how terrible they are."
Bio:
C.J. Boyd is a permatouring bassist, on the road non-stop since 2008. His sprawling 4-CD + book release, Kin Ships is out now on Joyful Noise Recordings.
Credits
Performed, produced, mixed by C.J. Boyd
Links:
https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/collections/cj-boyd
TRACK No. 8
Kill Alters
KAA 24 free [4:09]
Artist Notes:
...
Credits
Bonnie Baxter - vocals, drum machines, electronics
Hisham A. Bharoocha - drums, electronics
Nicos Kennedy - laptop, electronics
Links:
https://killalters.bandcamp.com
TRACK No. 10
Ben Seretan
When The Money's Gone (Leverage Models Cover) [1:49]
Artist Notes:
"A small attempt to claw out the tender, fleshy furby that lives at the center of LM's raison d'être with rhodes, singing, and synth, kind of like trying to build a terrarium in a jar for a firework.."
Bio:
Ben Seretan is a music maker and word writer from New York City who favors long hammocks of gentle tones and guitar solos that really take a walk around the block.
Credits
Produced by Ben Seretan. Ben Seretan appears courtesy of Whatever's Clever Records
Links:
TRACK No. 11
Leverage Models
Masons (Whites Outtake) [3:57]
Artist Notes:
Shannon writes: "This demo has been kicking around in various forms since we began work in 2013 on what became Whites. Alena and I reworked it in 2015, when Whites had been more or less abandoned. We both became very attached to the demo instrumentation (meant to be temporary) and the words...but never felt it quite fit with any of the other *very* pop demos we were working on at the time (and which remain in the closet). Also, I had a very strict 'no sad introspective ballads'' policy for a long time....mostly to guard against the fact that 'sad introspective ballads' are the only kinds of songs that easily come out of me. Which makes me feel *obvious* and *boring*. So I work very hard to avoid them. Alena, in her wisdom, wouldn't let me let this one go -- so blame her and her performance for selling it. Beyond that, the song explains itself: "All of this is trite but keeps a truth in it".
Bio:
Leverage Models makes pop songs about transubstantiation, ritual abuse, political apathy, divorce, white collar criminals, poverty, white liberal guilt, anxiety, & self-harm. with roto-toms.
Credits
Vocals: Alena Spanger and Shannon Fields. Recorded, performed,and mixed, by Shannon Fields at The Run-In, Jordanville, NY; Except acoustic double basses performed and recorded by Rob Lundberg in Madison, WI.. Alena's vocals were recorded by Andrew Barker (with Shannon Fields) at his unnamed studio in Brooklyn, NY.
Links:
You're in our website right now. All of our links are in the footer.
TRACK No. 12
Emanuel Ayvas
Day One (Leverage Models Cover) [5:08]
Artist Notes:
"When he asked me to join the project, Shannon mentioned he was curious what a more stripped down piano version would sound like. After improvising out a form and meditating on that for a week or so, it finally hit me the night before it was due and I tracked and mixed the whole thing (Including the singing with a friend sleeping in the other room) that evening until the sun rose."
Bio:
Emanuel Ayvas is a Brooklyn based musician and composer. He founded and leads the band Emanuel and the Fear, co-founded and fronts the band Pale Ramon, and also co-founded a noise/film project named Ayvas and Baller. Pale Ramon just released their debut album this spring. This coming year Emanuel and the Fear is going to be releasing a new full length album, Ayvas and Baller will be releasing a 30m noise/poetry film, and Emanuel will be releasing his first music as a solo artist starting with a suite of solo piano pieces coming out on Historical Fiction Records, followed by a self released EP.
Credits
Recorded, Produced, Mixed, and Performed by Emanuel Ayvas
Links:
https://emanuelayvas.bandcamp.com
www.emanuelandthefear.com
www.paleramonband.com
www.instagram.com/ayvasandballer
TRACK No. 13
Wendy Eisenberg
If I Let You Stay (Leverage Models Cover) [3:23]
Bio:
Wendy Eisenberg makes freely improvised and moderately composed pieces for guitar, banjo, voice, text and all the above in many different combinations, and with many different people.
Credits
Wendy Eisenberg: guitar and voice
Links:
TRACK No. 14
Trevor Dunn
Neurologically Lost (feat. Leverage Models) [3:14]
Bio:
Trevor Dunn is s an American composer, bass guitarist, and double bassist. He came to prominence in the 1990s with the experimental bands Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, and Secret Chiefs 3. Currently playing in various projects under the direction of John Zorn (Nova Quartet, Dreamers, Electric Masada, Aleph Trio). The Nels Cline Singers, Curtis Hasselbring's New Mellow Edwards, Melvins Lite, Endangered Blood, Tomahawk, The Darius Jones Quartet & Erik Friedlander's Bonebridge. "I still have plans for my own bands: trio-convulsant, PROOF Readers and MadLove" Also, Trevor says: "I continue to write music for independent films, practice long tones, pine over Daisy Lowe and drink shitty beer in heavy metal saloons"
Credits
Produced and Mixed by Trevor Dunn.
Links:
TRACK No. 15
Names of War
A Scout's Prayer (Leverage Models Cover) [5:30]
Artist Notes:
"Shannon and I bonded over a mutual love for all things melodramatic many years ago. Like so many of his friends and collaborators, he pointed me in the direction of artists who would become important touchstones in my own songwriting and performing (read: Jack Nitzsche, The Blue Nile, and Richard Hawley). It felt only natural to try to tease some of that out of one his songs. This version of 'Scout's' came tumbling out, chorus first, driving around in my car one day."
Bio:
Names of War is the musical moniker of Andrew Carlson; a native of Youngstown, Ohio and current resident of Durham, NC. Carlson currently tours as a member of The Building and backing up Heather Woods Broderick and has performed/recorded with St. Vincent, Leverage Models, JBM/Jesse Marchant, and Trippers & Askers. Names of War is about catharsis, grief, and dysphoria. The resulting music is romantic, even melodramatic, calling on the tradition of singers like Roy Orbison, Glenn Campbell, Scott Walker, and Jeff Buckley.
Credits
Performed by Andrew Carlson (Vocals/Guitar), Anthony LaMarca (Bass Guitar/Guitar/Keyboards/Percussion), and Jason Lawrence (Drums/Percussion). Produced by Andrew Carlson, Anthony LaMarca, and D. James Goodwin. Recorded at Peppermint Productions, Youngstown Ohio by Gary Rhamy. Mixed at The Isokon by D. James Goodwin
Links:
TRACK No. 16
Lori Scacco
Walking With Animals (feat. Leverage Models) [5:02]
Artist Notes:
"I couldn't stop listening to "A Life Around Terrified Animals." It's a masterful tune, beaming with light and exuberance and urgency, with lyrics that are at once inky and knife-sharp. So I decided to plumb the depths and slow it down to a dirge - to sit in that darkness for a while."
Bio:
Lori Scacco is a composer, producer, and sound collagist based in New York City. Using micro-sound, melody, acoustic resonance and digital processing, she creates liminal, elemental music through synthesis. Her scores and site-specific installations span the worlds of art, film, classical dance, and performance. Select collaborations have been presented by Harvestworks, the Joyce Theater, the Miller Theatre, the New York Choreographic Institute, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Credits
Produced and mixed by Lori Scacco with additional Performances by Lori Scacco
Links:
https://loriscacco.com/
Instagram: @ssscacco
TRACK No. 17
Eliot Krimsky
When The Money's Gone (Leverage Models Cover) [3:09]
Bio:
Eliot Krimsky is a Brooklyn-based composer songwriter and producer whose work is often defined by big ambience, unique and adept keyboard playing, empathy in the vocals and a search for identity. Following a degree from New England Conservatory in 2001, Krimsky went on to form indie bands Flying in 2005 then Glass Ghost along with Dirty Projectors’ drummer Mike Johnson in 2009. His new solo album Wave in Time features his distinctive falsetto voice—alongside sprawling, cinematic ambience and incisive, hook-heavy electronic pop—singing of fear, despair, humanity, and hope. Over the past decade Krimsky has collaborated with many notable artists including Meshell Ndegeocello, Here We Go Magic, Robert Stillman, Sharon Van Etten, Deerhoof, Travis Laplante, Shearwater and choreographer Beth Gill. Krimsky is a recipient of Performance New York’s RAMP grant / residency (2015), Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts residency (2016) w/ Open House, and BAM Next Wave residency and performance w/ Open House. His film music can be heard on Netflix, Amazon, PBS and HBO.
Credits
Produced, Performed and Mixed by Eliot Krimsky
Links:
TRACK No. 18
Concierge Records & The Working Elite
Day Two [6:51]
Artist Notes:
"'Day 2,' was created in a Trans-Atlantic sonic dialogue between both musicians without any notes, direction, or discussion prior to performance with only the mood of the first song on the Leverage Models album 'Whites' as their guide"
Bio:
W. Andrew Raposo founded Concierge Records in 2015 to champion unique and diverse voices from his hometown New York City. He and Daniel Nentwig (a member of The Whitest Boy Alive and the mastermind behind Berlin's The Working Elite) have been friends and collaborators for over a decade and currently share stages, studios, and shawarma in Hess Is More.
Credits
Roland TR8, Roland RE 201, Claps and Korg Lambda by W. Andrew Raposo (as Concierge Records)
Mini-Moog, Korg Mono Poly, and Crumar Spirit by Daniel Nentwig (as The Working Elite)
Concierge Records ASCAP, 2019
Links:
conciergerecords.com
https://beatsinspace.net/records/bis035/
hessismore.com
TRACK No. 19
Dave Scanlon (feat. Louisa Denison)
Senators (Leverage Models Cover) [3:29]
Artist Notes:
"The purpose of this cover was to highlight the song’s lyrics and distill its social energy."
Bio:
Dave Scanlon is a composer, guitarist, vocalist, and electronic musician. Scanlon is an active member of the experimental rock band JOBS (fka killer BOB). Scanlon has released music on New Amsterdam Records, Tzadik Records, Hometapes, Clean Feed Records, New Atlantis Records, and Primary Records. He has had the pleasure of performing at Jazz Art Sengawa (Japan), Sapporo City Jazz Festival (Japan), Incline/Decline (Canada), Pop Montreal (Canada), Hopscotch Music Festival (USA), SXSW (USA), Northside Music Festival (USA), and other festivals. He has performed at venues such as Issue Project Room (NYC), Roulette (NYC), The Stone (NYC), Shinjuku Pit Inn (Tokyo, Japan), Yokohama Airegin (Yokohama, Japan), Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), Casa Del Popolo (Montreal, Canada), and many more. In March 2013, Scanlon was honored to curate The Stone, a not-for-profit art space run by John Zorn. Scanlon's writings on music have been published in Arcana: Musicians on Music VII. In April 2016, Scanlon and quilter Emma Banay presented their collaborative project, Quilt Music, at Interlude Asheville hosted by the Black Mountain College Museum and the Media Arts Project. Scanlon has performed with Otomo Yoshihide, David Behrman, Elliott Sharp, Alvin Lucier, Jessica Pavone, Hayashi Eiichi, Yamamoto Seiichi (of The Boredoms), Nonoko Yoshida, Shannon Fields (Stars Like Fleas, Helado Negro, Leverage Models), Aaron Roche, Jason Ajemian, John Niekrasz, and others
Credits
Performed by Dave Scanlon and Louisa Denison. Mixed by Matt Mehlan at The Stuudio.
Links:
TRACK No. 20
William Tyler
She Swims in Hidden Water [5:28]
Bio:
William Tyler is a Nashville-raised guitarist and composer currently living in California. He spent years woodshedding and touring with Nashville groups like Lambchop and Silver Jews before breaking away to focus on his own version of instrumental guitar music.
Credits
Performed and recorded by William Tyler. William Tyler appears courtesy of Merge Records.
Links:
TRACK No. 21
Leverage Models
Instructions (Whites Outtake) [4:27]
Artist Notes:
"Made in a playful mood on a playful day, with scratch vocals and lyrics never meant to remain. Over time these things set and cure and it gets hard to remove them. Made in the same batch of material as Whites, originally intended for a cassette release on Seth Olinsky's Lightning Records that never happened. Fell out of love with this. Dave shredded all over it. Fell back in like with it. Didn't know what to do with it. Wanted to end the comp with William Tyler's achingly gorgeous instrumental. Then decided to sabotage the beauty, as I often do, by playing out on a hysterical note. Consider it a bonus track. I hope it makes you smile."
Bio:
Leverage Models makes pop songs about transubstantiation, ritual abuse, political apathy, divorce, white collar criminals, poverty, white liberal guilt, anxiety, & self-harm. with timbales.
Credits
All instruments recorded, performed, and mixed, by Shannon Fields at The Run-In, Jordanville, NY; Except electric guitars performed by Dave Scanlon.
Links:
All LM links can be found in website footer below. You are currently at. party hosted by: www.whyleveragemodels.com
CONTACTS
Distribution / Sales: Lance, anachronisme@gmail.com
General Compilation PR / Interviews: williamsfields@gmail.com
Radio PR: Shil Patel, shil@tigerbombpromo.com
LM Management & Other inquiries: leverage.models@gmail.com
Anachronisme Records
Instagram: @anachronisme_records
Twitter: @Anachronisme11
Bandcamp: https://anachronisme.bandcamp.com/