Jason Simon, guitarist and vocalist from Washington D.C psych-rockers Dead Meadow, returns to his solo endeavours with a pristine and bucolic album that guides his versatile guitar signature through a dreamy and yearning lyrical universe. In one of his clearest efforts to date, A Venerable Wreck brings together ideas from his band’s records displayed on a new instrumental dimension inhabiting lands lying somewhere between cosmic psychedelia, backwoods Americana, and intimate folk.
Album opener ‘The Same Dream’ sets the mood and context for the rest of the album. a droning country-fantasy that cuts to the bone with an emotive amplified banjo marking tempo and measures. Jason explains, “The Same Dream was written on a banjo where I’ve attached a 60’s gold foil pickup to the head allowing it to be amplified in way akin to an electric guitar and using a tuning I picked from the likes of Clarence Ashley and Dock Boggs. Lyrically the song investigates our shared delusions inherent in the concept of endless economic growth.”
After several albums with Dead Meadow on labels like Matador and Xemu Records (his band’s own music imprint), Simon, surrounded by new collaborators, is adventuring into distant lands and releasing his solo album through Chilean BYM Records (Föllakzoid, Chicos de Nazca, The Ganjas) who recently celebrated 10 years of existence. Jason became impressed with the label and decided he wanted to work with them during a visit to the country in 2016, when Dead Meadow played a festival and some shows at the record label. In the last couple of years, in between releasing records, Jason recorded the new songs at his own and several studios in his resident city, Los Angeles CA, where he and Dead Meadow have resided for the last decade.
Working with a number of musicians, including Nate Ryan and Jason “Plucky” Anchondo from The Warlocks, the songs were recorded over the last few years, giving room to a melting pot of arrangements that brings to life tales and well-constructed poems from the likes of Leonard Cohen.
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