September 07
The Pabst Theater
The Scarring Party
It’s been a while since we last heard from The Scarring Party, Milwaukee’s resident “end timey” troubadours. The group’s last album, Come Away From The Light, dropped in early 2008, and live shows in the ensuing two years have been few and far between. Luckily for fans of macabre, typewriter and tuba-accompanied folk ditties, the band has recently finished work on a new album, tentatively titled Losing Teeth. “The new album is certainly the most polished we’ve recorded,” Scarring Party front man Daniel Bullock told The A.V. Club. “It’s also much more varied in terms of instrumentation and arrangement. Going from a quintet to a quartet opens a lot of possibilities, because each of us feels obligated to combine instruments in different ways.”
Recorded at the venerable Howl Street Recordings in Bay View, the album buffs the group’s signature sound to a high shine while still retaining an off-kilter, kitchen-sink inventiveness. “The record has its share of ‘Muppet-y’ choruses and pop arrangements, but we also experimented with more acoustic dissonance,” Bullock says. “Bowing cymbals or layering incompatible chords invokes tension in these arrangements, which sets the tone for our predominantly narrative songwriting.”
A record release show is scheduled for August 13 at Turner Hall. Perhaps not coincidentally, the date happens to be a Friday the 13th. Until then, enjoy the premiere of the album’s lead-off track, “Losing Teeth.”
:D YAY! <3