Saturday, June 25, 2011

East River Pipe "We Live in Rented Rooms"


I discovered this guy several years ago playing required new music on my heralded WPRK morning drive show "PM in the AM."  And it really is just one man with that tortured artist history of alcohol, drugs, depression, living in a train station, etc..  Enter lovely woman who hears his songs and rescues him, sobering him up and making a TASCAM his drug of choice.  Well, all I know is that the 2003 album "Garbageheads on Endless Stun" was a hypnotic effort unlike most everything else at the time and I was hooked, enough so that I purchased the next recording in 2006, though I was completely out of the music biz.  And here it is another five years later and ERP has maybe his finest effort yet.  So what was he doing in those five years?  Touring?  Making videos?  Nope.  How about raising a daughter and working at Home Depot?  Ding ding ding!  Correct answer!  Hard to believe, but true, music for the music's sake, not fame and fortune.  Apparently, he's afraid of touring, fearing an urge to relapse into previous hells.  Subsequently, a web search for East River Pipe videos won't get much at all, but here is a link to the album cover while one of my favorites from the record plays

Though I never heard it in his music, ERP is a David Byrne fan, and visa-versa, as Mr. Byrne has covered ERP songs.  It's the one-man band set up like Toney Carey/Planet P.  The treated vocals remind me of an early Beck recording.  The lyrics have a David Lowery/Cracker intelligence without the humor...quite the opposite.  The overall main comparison I would make would be Karl Wallinger/World Party on Quaaludes.  "...Rented Rooms" is best absorbed with a nice, relaxed buzz. 

This record is well worth the $9 -$14 you'll spend on it, depending on format.  I'll make it easy for you...here's the link to Merge Records.  There's also a Facebook page that he is actually active on.  Look it up.  Finally, I'll share this from the record label's site.  I couldn't have put it any better...
East River Pipe's music has been described by the New York Times as "gentle, smart, and unspeakably sad." Rolling Stone characterized him as "one of our generation's great eccentric songwriters." Sometimes harrowing, occasionally scathing, and often heartbreakingly beautiful...

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