Saddle Creek Records remains very active in These Days of COVID. Today the label announced it’s releasing the self-titled debut EP by Quarter-Life Crisis, a new project from Ryan Hemsworth featuring collabs with Creek label-mates Frances Quinlan (Hop Along) and Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) as well as Charlie Martin (Hovvdy), Claud, and Yohuna.

It sounds like sort of an Alan Parsons Project-type deal, with Hemsworth handling production and instruments while the collaborators write the lyrics and sing. From Nova Scotia, Hemsworth won a Juno Award in the electronic album category for 2014’s Guilt Trips (Last Gang Records), and has produced tracks for Mitski and Tory Lanez, among others.

The EP drops Dec. 4 (preorder now), but the single “Postcards from Spain” featuring Quinlan, was released today. Check it below.

With that new Tomberlin EP, Projections, ready to drop Nov. 13, this will count as the 12th release so far this year for Saddle Creek.

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As everyone knows by now, yesterday Eddie Van Halen passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. Dudes of a certain age (I don’t know many female fans) grew up on Van Halen, scribbling their logo on the cover of their notebooks or scratching it into school desktops (along with Zoso and the Pink Floyd prism).

Van Halen music was ubiquitous with partying and having a good time. It always put me in a good mood no matter what mood I was in, and still does. I’ll be cracking open a cold one tonight for you, Eddie, while listening to the Van Halen mix tape I made back in ’84. Now what are we gonna do with all these brown M&Ms? Rest in Powerchords…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily (if there’s news) at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Growing up I owned two comedy albums. The first was Cheech & Chong’s Big Bambu. My brothers bought it for me as a birthday present because I had a copy of C&C’s “Earache My Eye” single and thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I was seven years old. The album, which I still have, came with a neat piece of printed rice paper. It would be about 10 years later until I understood what the paper was for.

The second comedy album was Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small, which came out in 1977. Steve Martin was one of the funniest guys in the world back then (he’s still pretty funny) and it seemed like everyone had this record. I knew every word to every bit, which wasn’t so funny when I did them.

I haven’t owned a comedy album since then because these days, once I’ve heard the joke, I’ve heard the joke. What was funny the first time becomes simply amusing and then merely interesting and then not interesting. (But there are exceptions. I recently replayed the two Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee episodes with Bob Einstein and I laughed my ass off again).

Adam Cayton-Holland, Performs His Signature Bits (2020, Saddle Creek)

But I’m the exception to the rule. I mean, just look at how comedy is taking off. So much so that now even our hometown record label, Saddle Creek, is getting into the game. Today the label announced it’s releasing its first comedy album, Adam Cayton-Holland Performs His Signature Bits, which actually came out 2018 and is still available on Spotify. But now you can own it on yellow-orange vinyl for $18.99, because jokes just sound funnier on vinyl. Actual street date is Feb. 21. Order here. I’m making a wild guess that by rereleasing this one on vinyl, Saddle Creek will be first in line to release ACH’s next album? We shall see…

While I’m on the topic of Saddle Creek, Frances Quinlan of Hop Along saw her debut solo album, Likewise, drop last Friday on the label, and for me it meets and in some ways exceeds the Hop Along stuff. The reviews have been off the charts. It’s currently pulling an 82 on Metacritic, and Rolling Stone went ga-ga over it. Now we’re all just waiting to hear what Pitchfork thinks…

I also forgot to mention that Saddle Creek announced No. 11 in its Document Series — “Big Moon” b/w “Rufus” by New York band The Big Net. Check out the A-Side below. The single drops Feb. 28.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Crazy busy lately, which is why no update yesterday. There’s also been a deficit show-wise. That should reside this weekend (hopefully).

Coming Lazy-i events include feature stories on The Rentals (including a podcast interview with Matt Sharp)(BTW, no podcast this week) and Dereck Higgins, both written for the May issue of The Reader, which should be out next week.

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Other than that, there’s a lot of buzz about Hop Along, Saddle Creek Records’ latest signing, and for good reason. The band’s Creek debut, Painted Shut, is one of the best records I’ve heard this year and among the best things that Creek has ever released. You have to go back to the Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley days to find a non-Nebraska based Creek artist that has had this kind of national push going into a release.

Among the hype is this Village Voice blog item that just came out and includes an interview with front woman Frances Quinlan. Says the writer, “Painted Shut is less a vast departure from what Hop Along have created previously than a confident leap forward, in terms of musicianship, storytelling, and studio mastery…. And on the verge of Painted Shut’s release, those aren’t stars in the members of Hop Along’s eyes — though they’ve produced a knockout record. They’re not gunning to quit their day jobs. In fact, Frances says, ‘I’d just like to see what the album does over time.’”

This follows a Q&A in Vice’s Noisey blog (here) “… they don’t look like they plan on hitting the wall softly, but exploding through it...” and an “A”  review at AV Club, which concluded with “Unfortunately for some, Painted Shut signals the end of Hop Along’s tenure as a little-known buzz band. For everyone else, it’s the sound of being welcomed to the party.”

I suspect more hype to come, plenty more. It’s deserved. The album drops May 4.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.