• Image of COMPACT DISC    "What Moon Things"   by  What Moon Things

CD & digital release date: 03 June 2014

All songs recorded at The Dump in New Paltz, NY
Spring & Summer 2013

Produced by What Moon Things & Scott Nicholas
Mixed by Scott Nicholas at Skirt Space – Athens, GA
Engineered by What Moon Things at The Dump
Mastered by Jesse Mangum at
The Glow Recording Studios – Athens, GA

All songs written/performed & published by What Moon Things
Except "Moon Things" written and performed by Scott Nicholas

Artwork by Kayla Curran & John Morisi
Photography by Terry Phan
Inspired by Philip Burne Jones', "The Vampire"
Additional layout by Callie Prickett

Management by Left Brain Artist MGMT

Thanks to our family & friends, Beau Tepper, Eric Sowalskie, Kelsea Adams, Chris Daly, Tom Christie, Kyle Miller, Eric Velzis

all rights reserved...Hot Grits, LLC

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Conceived in a dark, moldy basement during the summer of 2012, New Paltz, NY-based What Moon Things blends distorted guitar hooks, somber synthesizers, and the rubbed-raw vocals of Jake Harms and John Morisi to jolt listeners wide awake with stinging dreamo (shoegazey, dreamy, and a little bit emo…) sound. Drawing inspiration from a range of influences including the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Modest Mouse, and the Cure, the band, comprised of Harms (guitars, lead vocals), Morisi (drums, lead vocals), and Chris Kehoe (bass, synths, backup vocals), began recording together in the early summer of 2013, and within a few frenetic months had completed their eponymous debut LP.

Though recorded in Morisi’s sparse and tiny New Paltz apartment (nicknamed “The Dump”), WMT’s full-length album was mixed by Scott Nicholas and mastered by Jesse Magnum in Athens, GA, a town whose legendary music scene has produced such acts as R.E.M., the B-52s, and Neutral Milk Hotel. All but one of the record’s eight songs were co-written by Harms and Morisi, who form the band’s creative core (“Moon Things”, a roiling noise collage, was contributed by Nicholas). Their songs exist as the two bandmates’ reciprocal transmissions on disappointment, monsters, and the human vulnerability revealed through death and heartbreak. Harms and Morisi share lead vocal duty on the record. Their fevered tenors undergird the wide-hipped, reverby vessel of the album, serving as anchors for Harms’ messy, brilliant guitar work and Morisi’s syncopated drum motifs.

The real bursts of brilliance on the album—”Astronaut,” “Squirrel Girl,” “Staring at the Radio,” and “Doesn’t Make Much Sense”—send the listener on an undulating journey through waves of fuzzed-out plasma, floating among fractured tempos and searing vocals. These tracks are awash with Harms’ and Morisi’s shared pathos on the subject of growing up. “I’m nostalgia, I’m an astronaut,” declares Harms on “Astronaut.” “I’m still a punk kid, starting fights / with my neighbors.” What Moon Things succeeds not only in creating a mood, but in pulling anyone who happens to be within range into the same warm, dark space it occupies. It is music that seeps in slowly and dawns on the mind of the listener like a dream; a record that belies its small-town provenance and creates a sound much larger that its origins.

What Moon Things is managed by Left Brain Artist Management (founded by Deerhunter and Drive-by Truckers producer David Barbe, also member of Sugar) in Athens, GA. What Moon Things is set for a June 3rd issue on 12” vinyl and CD as the inaugural release on the Athens label Hot Grits Records.

PR Contact: alyssa at teamclermont dot com

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