This exciting new album was the group’s first full-length release. For those who tire of main-stream popular music, Songs From A Random House will provide a welcome and refreshing relief. Typically, they match offbeat subject matter with unusual instrumentation: Ukeleles (soprano and baritone), mandolanjo, lap steel guitar, old plastic chord organs, violas and ethnic instruments are all employed to produce a collection of unique musical miniatures. The subject matter is by turns domestic and intimate, passionate and ironic, mysterious and witty, their songs present succinct slices of life that are almost always surreal: The name Songs From A Random House implies that events portrayed in the group’s songs could happen in anyone’s life, in a house chosen at random. Many of the songs explore the moment when the familiar becomes strange, and the strange becomes familiar. A good example can be found in Water, in which the mundane activity of washing dishes becomes oddly unsettling: “Now you are awake. You’ve been sleeping for a long time, many hours. You run some water into the dishes in your sink. Water.”
Credits:
Alan Drogin: soprano ukelele, Magnus chord organ, mandolanjo, lap steel guitar – Gregor Kitzis: viola, lap steel guitar, tamburitza – Steven Swartz: voice, baritone ukelele – Jason DiMatteo: acoustic bass – Graham Instrall: drums & percussion
TRACK LIST:
1. EGGS, PART I (1:51)
2. EVERY DAY HAS A NUMBER (4:51)
3. HAT COVERED WITH FISHING LURES (2:56)
4. THE MILLERS GIRL ( 4:23)
5. SURFACE ISNT SAFETY (2:58)
6. THEM THERE HILLS (2:50)
7. SHELTERED LIFE (3:05)
8. LOOM (2:47)
9. WATER (4:27)
10. BORN IN A BARN (2:56)
11. WONDERFUL THING TO FORGET (3:09)
12. WHITE TREES (5:05)
13. WHEN IT HAPPENS (7:58)
14. EGGS, PART II (1:23)
Also available as downloads:
