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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The Switchblade Moon EP vinyl 12" ships with a full color postcard.
Includes unlimited streaming of Switchblade Moon
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$17USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The Switchblade Moon EP vinyl 12" ships with a limited edition zine, full color postcard, an original signed artwork, and a personal message from Jasmine Dreame Wagner.
Includes unlimited streaming of Switchblade Moon
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
SWITCHBLADE MOON
Cool switchblade moon
slicing through the thick of you
Cool switchblade moon
slicing through the thick of you
I'm not looking for an answer, no
Not a minor cure for cancer though
I want to take an open sky
and slice it through
You go into a restaurant
you order what you always want
you've got no choice
You take the best of what you've got
and all those guns you almost shot
and you hold them tight
and I am holding
I am holding on
I am holding
I am holding on to that
Cool switchblade moon
Cool switchblade moon
slicing through
slicing through the blue mist of you
ALL THE KING'S HORSES
All the king's horses and all the king's men
holed up in the mountain in a jettison den
They hauled out the smokescreen
to tie up their hands
to simulate dying and rising again
and all they ate was cake and ice cream
and their boats were caked with frosty icing
The buses held up in the station there
The cancelled flights, they hung in error
And the long-haired lawyer's meditation
suggested homeschooling, medication—
and the blonde-haired lawyer's medication
suggested homeschooling, meditation
And all we knew, it came from books,
outdated preachers' ghost-end hooks
and the lines and lures of heaven
All the king's women and all the king's cats
clawed up the mountain to state their demands
and how they fought the wicked glass
hallways, cattle-prods, and brands
And all they were served was cake and ice cream,
but they would not be fed—
They come and they grow so thin
Until the holy land goes and cracks itself
off the continental shelf
and all we feel comes from a paper bag
with a new blue logo and a loose price tag
Jasmine Dreame Wagner’s Switchblade Moon EP is the first installment of a song cycle that explores the sprawling American landscape. Wagner's meditations on climate change, economic recessions, and dystopian narratives pay tribute to the great American songbooks of Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone, the arrangements of Scott Walker and Annette Peacock, the novels of Don DeLillo and Rachel Kushner, and the poetry, multidisciplinary works and operas of Anne Carson, while traversing America's cultural echolalia of nostalgia, reference and homage.
Recorded over several years at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY, 4th Street Recording in Santa Monica, CA, Old Soul Studios in Catskill, NY, and at various apartments and homes in Brooklyn and upstate New York, the tracks feature performances by Wagner (vocals, grand piano, acoustic guitar, synthesizer), Joe Magar (double bass), Oscar Albis Rodriguez (guitar), Charlie Rauh (guitar), Charlie Dye (percussion), Chris Barrick (vibraphone), John Panza (percussion), Lauren Hilary Clune (guitar), C. Ryder Cooley (saw), and Meghan Maguire Dahn (backing vocals).
As an artist working across music and film, poetry and lyric essay, Wagner's lyrics are foremost in her arrangements. Her compositions are inspired by twentieth-century songwriters captured on analog tape machines, chamber works performed in open halls and carpeted living rooms, and political protest songs and pop music from the 1960s and 70s.
Wagner has toured across the United States, self-releasing music and booking her own tours over the course of her career. She collaborated on the video for “Switchblade Moon” (the EP's title song) with Director of Photography Jonathan Schwarz and Editor Maisie Weissman and shot and edited the album art photography, a series of documentary photographs of American car and consumer culture. She considers directors Wim Wenders and David Lynch, producers Berry Gordy and Brian Wilson, with their holistic visions and saturated visuals, as major influences on her work.
Wagner is also a poet. She is the author of On a Clear Day (Ahsahta Press), a collection of poems and lyric essays deemed "a capacious book of traveller's observations, cultural criticism, and quarter-life-crisis notes" by Stephanie Burt at The New Yorker and "a radical cultural anthropology of the wild time we're living in" by Iris Cushing at Hyperallergic. Her debut poetry collection, Rings (Kelsey Street Press), was hailed as “powerfully exercised, technically masterful, and encyclopedic in its scope” in a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.
The Switchblade Moon EP vinyl 12" ships with a limited edition zine and full color postcard. Limited orders will also receive a signed original artwork by Jasmine Dreame Wagner.
credits
released June 26, 2020
Switchblade Moon EP
Produced, Written, and Arranged by Jasmine Dreame Wagner
Jasmine Dreame Wagner - Vocals, Grand Piano, Moog, Guitar
Joe Magar - Double Bass
Charlie Dye - Drum Kit, Orchestral Percussion
Chris Barrick - Vibraphone
Charlie Rauh - Electric Guitar
Oscar Albis Rodriguez - Electric Guitar
Lauren Hilary Clune - Electric Guitar
John Panza - Marching Bass Drum
C. Ryder Cooley - Saw
Meghan Maguire Dahn - Backing Vocals
Sejo Navajas - Piano & Vocal Engineer, 4th Street Recording
John Davis - Recording Engineer, The Bunker Studio
Aaron Nevezie - Recording Engineer, The Bunker Studio
Nolan Thies - Mix Engineer, The Bunker Studio
Theo Aronson - Mix Engineer, St. Felix NYC
Jasmine Dreame Wagner - Mix Engineer
Alex DeTurk - Mastering Engineer
Album photography by Jasmine Dreame Wagner. Additional overdubs recorded at Old Soul Studios and in various apartments and houses in Brooklyn and Chatham, NY. Special thanks to Beth Wagner, Matt Sargent, Jonathan Schwarz, and Maisie Weissman. Music, lyrics, recordings, images copyright Jasmine Dreame Wagner.
supported by 8 fans who also own “Switchblade Moon”
Stumbled across this and couldn't believe my ears! Amazingly beautiful and emotional sounding songs! Extremely powerful and heartfelt music! Beautiful! Count Feedback
supported by 7 fans who also own “Switchblade Moon”
What does "fuvk" mean in the first place? Well, find the letter "v" on a computer keyboard, and it will strike you immediately. An unusual name for an artist, and so is her music. I don't know from which corner of her head Shirley Zhu gets all of these splendid song ideas - but nevermind, I hope this source never runs dry. Sven B. Schreiber (sbs)
The avant-pop of Griffin Brown works elements of free jazz and experimental electronic music into its tapestry of sound. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 5, 2021