This past May Day (5/1) was nuts. Not only did Bandcamp waive its platform fees, initiating a free-for-all music-loving bonanza, but a very special compilation popped up without warning. That compilation, Waiting on a Sunrise, was a 10-track celebration of Connecticut artists (specifically from the New Haven area), and its roster is incredible. And I know what you’re thinking: “of course it’s ‘incredible’, he has to say that if CT music is involved.” Nah bro, you don’t get it. I would be thrilled to see a song from any one of these artists, let alone ten all at once! In one place?!
And I didn’t even tell you the best news, yet: it’s only Volume 1. There are at least another two volumes planned, released on a monthly basis this summer. Those tracklists are being kept under wraps for now, so hop over to the compilation’s Bandcamp page and give it a follow. There will be more soon. Okay, actually the best news about the compilation is that your purchase / contribution of these songs gets kicked back to the artists themselves, with 25% of the revenue going to the New Haven Arts Council. So if you have been thinking about how your favorite artists are “getting by” while the world sucks, here is your chance to help support them. Your Spotify streams are not enough.
Before I jump into each of these songs, a quick shout-out to Alex Burnet who put all of this together. He got funding from the New Haven Arts council to help organize this, and he created a digital-only label (Free As Birds) just for the occasion. Burnet also released a quarantin-EP last month, that I highly recommend as well. Also, if you like the cover art to this compilation, you can find more work by Karli Hendrickson on her professional website.
you can read more (actual journalism) about this compilation via the New Haven Independent and New Haven Arts.
pat dalton – “picking up after the lord”
I wasn’t surprised to see Pat Dalton’s name on this… were you? He has been making music with Burnet via The Proud Flesh, and Sans Serif Recordings helped master the compilation. What I was surprised to hear, though, was how damn funky “Picking Up After The Lord” was. It isn’t the Americana-tinged, earthy tones you might expect! Dalton’s music is just as informed by the gospel traditions of his earlier works, but this time around, his arrangements lend more to an electronic Parliament-Funkadelic. I suppose that’s why it’s being billed as “Pat Dalton” instead of “The Proud Flesh”, right?
ceschi w/ deadpan darling – “these days”
Just a few weeks ago, Ceschi released a remix of “Love Song for the Apocalypse”. If there’s ever been a time to revisit that song, now’s the time. Similarly, Ceschi — always a prolific and profound artist — had shelved a recording called “These Days”, waiting for the right project to give it a home. And could there be a better home for “These Days” than a compilation that was created out of a sense of love, urgency, and loss?
daniprobably – “love u”
A few weeks ago, the Daniprobably instagram account teased a few bars of a song-in-progress. Recorded entirely at home, the song mixed an electronic undercarriage with Dan Capalbo’s signature beautiful croon. That snippet proved to be the basis for “Love U”, a quick pivot to synthpop. They’ve been previewing something on social media, so it might be a good idea to keep your ears to the ground and your eyes on their bandcamp page.
tony from big fang – “don’t let me drown”
Big Fang debuted with their excellent Human Distance EP last summer, and they are already working on a new release with Sans Serif Recordings. The new material they’ve previewed live is outstanding. If you’ve been craving some new songs from The ‘Fang, you’re just going to have to wait! Tony Mascolo returns with a kinda-solo “Don’t Let Me Drown”, which carries all the same immediacy and power-pop hooks of Big Fang. And damn, those drums sound fantastic. Whoever laid those down is incredibly talented: holy fuck those drum fills at the end.
lys guillorn – “dolores & i”
Perhaps one of the finest songwriters in New Haven, if not the entirety of Connecticut, I was thrilled to see Lys Guillorn’s name show up on this tracklist. Her 2019 song, “Chipped Fingernails” is one of my favorite songs she’s ever released, and “Dolores & I” carries its same mischievous, whip-smart spirit. There’s scarcely more here than Guillorn’s voice(s) and guitar (and maybe a xylophone?), but “Dolores & I” feels huge. The song dreams months ahead, wondering what life might be like on the other side of all this covid bullshit: “How transgressive will it feel to hug everyone I meet? Will the bells ring out in the street?”
brian ember – “the space between the notes”
In case you missed Brian Ember’s great new record, The New Chastity, he’s got a new song to catch you up to speed. “The Space Between The Notes” is the music you hear in the middle of a noir, when our morally-uncertain protagonist strolls into an unfamiliar club and sits down at the bar. That mysterious music that plays, which could either be diagetic or not (we don’t know), is “The Space Between The Notes”. It’s bluesy, jazzy, spacey, and sophisticated, just like a lot of The New Chastity!
glambat – “i learned ableton in quarantine”
Leave it to Glambat to undercut pain with humor: just check the song title. “I Learned Ableton In Quarantine” sonically lands in a place more similar to their stellar cover of “I Love You Always Forever” than their songs on I Feel God In This Chilis Tonight. The song is great (yes, a sentence that could have probably gone untyped given the song’s author), but stay for the extended outro, where Glambat lets the song drift off into the electronic ether.
evelyn gray – “cement mixer”
The magic of Evelyn Gray’s songwriting is that her lyrics are so incredibly specific, yet they translate and map onto lived experiences that everyone has had. In that way, Gray threads the needle of making music that is precise and personal but entirely relatable. “Cement Mixer” comes from (in her words) the wish to “shove the words coming out of your mouth back in”, and her lyrics cast those same words as deceitful, betraying objects.
kaiser wilhelm – “fat girty”
Bill Readey is recording under the name Kaiser Wilhelm now! You may know Readey as a behind-the-scene New Havener, recording with M.T. Bearington and Rudeyna. Most recently, he helped record The New Chastity with Brian Ember! “Fat Girty” is a fast, dirty rock-n-roll song that feels written to break the speed limit to. (don’t analyze the grammar of this post, please). It’s a rousing catharsis for the end of the compilation, right before we get to the denouement of Balmy Wind, next.
balmy wind – “fruit of the wolf tree”
Michael Slyne has been writing and recording some truly terrific records with Slyne and the Family Stoned. What I love about the Family Stoned is how their music (whose roster fluctuates) is presented as a snapshot of a moment in time. The recordings feel organic and lived-in; there’s little (if any) fussy production tweaks. It’s just a space that is created and capture by a group of talented, intuitive musicians. In the same spirit, Slyne has created this sprawling sound collage with “Fruit of the Wolf Tree”, a 17-and-a-half minute long outro for Waiting on a Sunrise. It is, at times, noisy, and at others, wonderfully tuneful. Chaotic and at peace.
Ok! That’s all. I’ve written too much. Thank you Alex Burnet for putting this together and for all of the songwriters for contributing. I love you and hope that you are safe.
