Monday, August 29, 2016

SIDE WOUND WORSHIP PRESENTS: "SEMIFLORAL"

the new monogamy record is out. order here or here from us, here for the "angelic gold" limited version via Citizen of the World, and here for the handpainted version from Almost Halloween Time in Italy. bless

words by Isaac Levine (isaaclevine.bandcamp.com): 

"Monogamy is releasing the 7" 'semifloral' ... and its one of the best things I've heard made in Ann Arbor since living here. Don has really struck his own in terms of songwriting and record "feel" and lightened up on the distortion a bit (just a bit) which I dig (jus sayin!). 
Don's deep record knowledge definitely informs his own style of more driven music and ballads alike. In the world of being some kind of 'DIY Songwriter', Don deftly avoids the pitfalls of preaching about friendship and aching love in ways too obvious or indulgent and instead speaks of his own far-out feelings as a story through which others can access what I can only guess is a long walk home under burning streetlights - red and clairvoyant, occasionally frustrated and wide open. . . and for me - epiphany prone." 

----- 

here's the record. i thanked a lot of people in the zine but also forgot a bunch of people. let life break your arms 

----- 

review from The Answer Is In The Beat: 

"This is a fantastic slice of multi-tracked noise-pop, carrying on the spirit of Eric’s Trip and the Microphones/Mount Eerie for the current era of DIY music. Don plays almost everything himself, including a ripping sax solo, an incinerating guitar solo, and buzzy synths on the jammer “Twenty-Twenty”. “Low Morale” is a Casiotone For The Painfully Alone-esque chipper electro-pop anthem about being really depressed. “Finally Happy” is a devastating ethereal goth This Mortal Coil ballad/duet, and Don’s voice kind of sounds like Mark Hosler from Negativland here. Fred Thomas mastered this and recorded most of it, so of course it sounds fantastic." 
theanswerisinthebeat.net/2016/08/27/monogamy-semifloral-7-ep-almost-halloween-timecitizen-of-the-worldside-wound-worship-2016/

video premiere from Half Gifts: 
"Crunchy as dead foliage and just as warmly toned, "Enormous Mirror" is neat mound of autumnal decay piled neatly at the foot of a suburban lawn. Creaky power chords plus a sprinkle of glockenspiel accompany Monogamy's spectral stanzas and the deterioration of VHS footage. 
A pickup truck infiltrates the Circle K. 
The noisy floorboard wheezes." 
half-gifts.blogspot.com/2016/08/premiere-monogamy-enormous-mirror.html 

single premiere from Modern Vinyl: 
"Monogamy began as the solo work of Ann Arbor, Michigan multi-instrumentalist Donald Alfred Lyons III. Around the recording process of Semifloral, a five-track effort resulting from Lyons’ first experience with an outside producer, Lyons fleshed out his live roster with two more members to augment his one-man band. His noise pop, audible on “Low Morale” as intersecting synth melodies are suffocated by dirty, bitcrushed feedback, now features background vocals lifting to match his carnivorous yelp. Despite the upgraded roster, this latest iteration of the Michigan project is hungrier for absolution, pairing lyrical scenes of holding rosaries with another baring sharp teeth, than accessible songwriting, but perhaps catharsis is designed to precede catchiness." 
modern-vinyl.com/2016/08/22/exclusive-spin-monogamy-low-morale/