Richard Edwards (Margot) - Ghost Electricity/Vampire Draw (October 7, 2022) Album • Page 3

Out everywhere today!

vinyl (shipping now) / t-shirt (shipping now) / spotify / apple music

 

Album is beautiful, as expected, and this $50 3-album clear vinyl set is mighty tempting especially since I never ended up picking up Soft Ache or New Mood:

Richard Edwards' Community

 

Richard Edwards Rare and Unreleased Box Set

Richard Edwards is in the pocket. He’s been there for several albums now, which he occasionally refers to as his Beach Bum trilogy: 2017’s Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset, 2020’s The Soft Ache and the Moon, and 2022’s Ghost Electricity/Vampire Draw (with 2018’s Verdugo as supplementary material, although solid tuneage not to be overlooked). If the Margot albums defined Richard’s twenties, the Beach Bum era may well define his thirties; and if The Bride on the Boxcar was the essential companion to those Margot records, then the Beach Bum trilogy will find its essential companion in Two Sad Little Islands Drift Together, Two Lonely Little Monkeys Find A Tree: Rare and Unreleased 2015-2023.

Beginning with Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset, Richard has been steering his ongoing body of work toward capturing being at sea. Life can find us at sea in any number of ways–in a marriage or partnership, or in the aftermath of one; in parenting and caregiving, with their ceaseless wonders and worries; in bodies and minds that confound understanding (whether just our own, or also that of professionals); in our rotting world, which we’ve fucked up beyond all repair. But still, undaunted by all that, the sun fills the ocean with diamonds sometimes...

“What does that sound like, though?” you may ask, to which I’ll reply: like Mike Bloom’s cascading fingerpicking in “Lil Dead Eye-d (b.),” or the tranquilizing combination of Dave Palmer’s piano and Perla Batalla’s multi-tracked vocals on “Love (b.)” Like the L.A. based Section Quartet on “True Love Waits,” or the triumphantly stoned Velvet Ocean jam-session that is “Jane Greer With A Gun.” Like Richard’s use of melody and imagery on “Pink Lightning (b.)” and lead single “Benzedrine,” where he is masterfully accompanied by Erin Rae (on the former) and Maria Taylor (on the latter). Like all of that, pressed onto wax and housed in a neat collector's box.

Unlike Richard’s past archival releases which have often featured home demo recordings, everything on Two Sad Little Islands... was produced in-studio. With this 3-LP vinyl box set adorned in artwork by Alistair Little, Richard Edwards presents just over two hours of material that once again makes his case as "the most underrated songwriter of our time” (LA Review of Books). Listen loud to catch the waves... -Matt Metzler

 

excited to check it out

also hope you got paid for the blurb!

 

Interesting view of Verdugo there. Did Richard provide any more context around that?

I absolutely agree with that assessment it's just super interesting that he seems to acknowledge it as well

 

i can’t even think of specific examples but it seemed like a side thing at the time even. maybe revisionist history though. either way, it rocks. minefield is one of his finest songs

 

Based on my understanding from him, Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset and Verdugo are essentially sister records (their tracks were written simultaneously and recorded during the same couple of studio sessions), but Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset is clearly the heavy-lifter of the two, if just by duration and reputation alone... Verdugo is just not quite substantial enough to claim one of the three spots in that trilogy, whereas Soft Ache and Ghost Electricity feel like they need to be included as major players.

 

Also, for Verdugo fans: there are renditions of "Gene" and "Howlin' Heart" on this new box set that are to die for. It feels like he took some of his best songs and recorded the prettiest versions of them possible.

("Minefield" was almost on this--there's a nice, bare-bones acoustic rendition from the Pity Party sessions which failed to make it onto that set, too. Reach out if you want it)

(OK sorry, one more thing about Verdugo: "Strange" is absolutely one of his top 10 songs of all time)

 

Nice work @Matt Metzler!

As much as I love Margot, I think I might like the Richard Edwards-era even more.

 

Hey y'all, Richard's getting his gallbladder taken out later this week, and everyone's really hoping that does the trick. He wants to play shows so badly... this might be his year, fingers crossed.

"Now That We Have Expired" and "Tell Me More About Evil" are both coming to Blu-ray this month, next month is the digital release of the 3xLP solo rarities set, and he's also started working on a Rot Gut reissue that will include the corresponding demo LP and possibly a full live set, too.

 

Richard switched up the track list of this just a bit (got rid of the interlude towards the end, added a re-recorded "Benzedrine" and a new interlude in the middle called "Neighborhood Girl with Dog").

I'll admit to being a little skeptical as to whether an album barely a year old needed a definitive revision so soon, but... this thing cuts so much deeper now, the back half in particular is just doozy after doozy.

I've talked to Richard about why he felt the need to make this change and what it does conceptually for the album, and he's said that he feels like "Benzedrine" is the natural counterpoint to "Ketamine," and that now the tone of the whole thing feels more realistic to him and more true to what he's trying to say big picture wise, about love and about time and how they work on each other.

Anyway, I hope you'll give it a listen, especially if you haven't since last year.

 

Hi friends, on Friday Richard is launching a beautiful book that he and I have spent the past two years creating together called A House With No Clocks.

It covers the past ten years of his life and his work. It's 300 pages, and the first edition will be cloth bound and foil stamped. It has his full handwritten lyrics for every album from Sling Shot onwards, guest essays from people who have been involved with his solo work, a full screenplay that Richard has recently finished writing to coincide somewhat with Ghost Electricity/Vampire Draw, and a lot more.

For two years, Richard has been openly sharing his archive with me; he's mailed notebooks to me and given me hundreds of photos straight from his phone (lots and lots from the Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset time period, and the neglected house that he bought with that money and converted into a really beautiful home for him and his daughter).

He sends me long, detailed voice memos answering every single question I have about this world he's been creating as he walks around his creaky house (there are always cats meowing), and then I transcribe and we go through it together. What we've ended up with is, in my opinion, all killer and no filler, and something really unique. I'll post again when it launches on Friday and I hope you'll consider snagging one. I'll try to drop a couple previews in here, too.

 

It'll still be in production for a couple months, but when it finally exists in the real world, I'm hoping to have a decent number of personal copies that I'll be able to unload here for a smidge cheaper than the preorder price.

 

Hello, friends! I changed my username on here to remove my last name, but it’s still me. I finally received my personal copies of A House With No Clocks from Richard. Richard is selling them for $50 plus shipping, I’d like to unload a few on here for $30 shipped, Venmo or Paypal. They’re beautiful hardcover books, and they go deep into all of his solo albums so far—everything from The Devil is a Dog sessions (which were scrapped and later became Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset) through last year’s re-recorded solo version of Sling Shot to Heaven. Full color, Richard’s handwritten lyrics to everything, essays by cool folks… send me a message if you’d like to buy one from me (for these copies, the money goes to me, not through Richard; you’re helping me pay off the debt I incurred for him about two years ago now). I also have red Buzzard cassettes, a few black Ghost Electricity t-shirts, and whatever oddball rarities or demos you might want to have digitally, just say. Thanks and much love.