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Jay Farrar recording Mermaid Avenue Vol. 6

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The Austin Chronicle reports that Jay Farrar is working on the next volume of unpublished lyrics from the Woody Guthrie Archives. Farrar, along with Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Will Johnson (Centro-matic), recorded the album in New York in March, and it “is currently in the mixing stage.”

“Jay sent me a priority mail package full of the lyrics, and I opened it at 4:30 in the afternoon,” Johnson recalls. “Within 17 minutes, I had already documented this one called ‘Chorine My Sheba Queen’ to the recording machine. That speaks far more about the song than anything I did. The lyrics struck me in a way that the music sounded automatic. It made such sense to my soul and my spirit. It’s got an empty and regretful tone but in a very beautiful way. I just latched onto it.”

The Guardian claims that this is “the third Mermaid Avenue collection,” but that’s not accurate. It would be at least the sixth seeing how the Klezmatics have released two albums in the series (Happy Joyous Hanukkah and Wonder Wheel), and Jonatha Brooke recently released another (The Works). Fact checking is hard!

Regardless, it still feels odd that Farrar would invite the inevitable accusations of following in the footsteps of his former bass player in Uncle Tupelo. Then again, I never would’ve thought he’d record with the guy from Death Cab either…

MP3: Jonatha Brooke – “All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me” (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)

Jay Farrar: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Woody Guthrie: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Jonatha Brooke: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki

Via lhb.

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Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel – Dual Hawks

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Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual HawksCentro-Matic/South San Gabriel – Dual Hawks (Misra)

Centro-Matic‘s only flaw may lie in their prolific output. It’s hard to focus on one achievement because the moment you do, they’re off releasing another album of equal achievement. And while their output is consistently better than other prolific artists (Ryan Adams immediately comes to mind), there is this nagging feeling that the band has sacrificed a masterpiece or two at the hands of simply divulging too much too soon.

If this minor complaint—the desire to have everyone recognize how amazingly good this woefully underappreciated band is—wasn’t enough, leader Will Johnson started a second band a few years ago under the name South San Gabriel. Essentially using the same supporters as Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel provides these Texans with an outlet for their atmospheric side.

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GLONO Video: Centro-matic and South San Gabriel

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Dual HawksCentro-matic‘s new album, Dual Hawks, is the band’s 9th full-length since it formed in 1996. Dual Hawks is also the 3rd full-length from Centro-matic’s atmospheric doppelganger South San Gabriel which was formed in 2001 by the 4 members of Centro-matic in order to accommodate the quieter side of Will Johnson‘s prodigious output.

In the era of mp3s, the bands have taken the unusual step of releasing a double-album containing one disc from each group. As a whole, the album highlights the differences between the two bands. While the Centro-matic side of Dual Hawks rocks in way that recalls the band’s raucous debut (Redo The Stacks), the South San Gabriel side is much more subdued – layering strings, piano, horns and guitars around Will Johnson’s voice to create the most beautifully haunting and fully realized South San Gabriel album. The result is a double-album that succeeds on both ends of the musical spectrum and never feels bloated or at odds with itself.

The GloNo Video crew caught-up with Centro-matic during the bands’ two-night stand at Schubas Tavern in June and put together dual videos profiling both Centro-matic and South San Gabriel. Check ’em out after the jump…

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GLONO Video: Will Johnson of Centro-matic

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Will JohnsonAs the lone songwriter for two active bands, Centro-matic and its offshoot South San Gabriel, you would think Will Johnson would have ample musical outlets. After all, Centro-Matic has released 8 albums in its ten-year career, as well as several EPs and 7-inch singles, while South San Gabriel has released two full-lengths since forming in 2003. But Johnson’s abundant song output (somewhere between Ryan Adams and Bob Pollard on the songwriter’s proliferation chart) has necessitated a solo career resulting in two more albums, Murder of Tides and Vultures Await.

Not that any of this has come close to soaking up the hundreds of songs Johnson has written that have never been recorded for a proper release. (He says he records all songs on a four-track as soon as they are finished and then sorts through them for those that best fit his current project.) Johnson’s favorite place to write is a walk-in closet at his mother’s house. When asked why that location seems to be so fruitful, he shrugs and says “it’s kind of like a womb… warm and dark and comfortable.”

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