New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On November 13, Au Pair, a collaboration between Gary Louris of The Jayhawks and Django Haskins of The Old Ceremony, will release their debut album One-Armed Candy Bear via Sham/Thirty Tigers.
Stereogum premiered the album's first single "In Every Window" and said it's a "bright, breezy pop song... its appeal is obvious and immediate." Stream the track here:
Gary Louris said the track is "...a sunny song with a somewhat dark and twisted lyric. We are not encouraging stalking in any way, shape, or form. But we do take pleasure in our achievement of making it sound uplifting!" Django Haskins weighed in and said, "'In Every Window' began as a Left Banke-type pop song but quickly veered into creepy stalker territory where, to be honest, I usually feel more at home as a songwriter anyway."
Au Pair strikes a balance between classic songcraft and cheeky experimentation on their debut album, One-Armed Candy Bear. The core of the album consists of the duo singing and playing into a single microphone like a
Memphis Sun session. But then they take some strange turns: body percussion, feedback loops, avant guitar, Kraut rock touches, anything goes in the world of Au Pair. This openness was encouraged and enhanced by producer and secret weapon Brian Haran, who recorded the album at his studio in Durham, NC.
Gary and Django met in
Chicago in 2013 where they were performing as a part of a "Big Star's Third" concert, which celebrated the influential band's music with original drummer Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (REM) and many others. It was a fitting start to a musical friendship, as the Third record similarly takes catchy songs and throws them over the cliff into beautiful weirdness and existential dread. Gary and Django's first song, "King of the Valley," written in a hotel room in North Carolina, tells the story of a football player with a traumatic head injury. "Sullivan's Ghost" takes on the voice of brilliant but curmudgeonly
Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, while "One-Eyed Crier" unfolds like a lost Salinger story.
Au Pair began as a happy accident, developed into a laboratory of joyful experimentation, and now with One-Armed Candy Bear you can hear first-hand what happens when two vital songwriters take the odd way home.
Pre-order the album here: https://www.pledgemusic.com/aupair
Tour Dates:
10/3: Portland, OR - The Old Church *
10/9: Seattle, WA - Fremont Abbey Arts Center *
10/10: Prosser, WA - Brewminatti *
11/21:
Santa Monica, CA -
Morgan Wixson Theater #
* - Gary Louris Solo Show
# - Au Pair Official Show
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