Hi everyone, hope you’re enjoying the last days of Summer.

This morning I poured a liter of everclear over a couple hundred lemon verbena leaves to infuse. Never made this stuff before and am very excited to see how it comes out. I’m sending a note because last Friday I released a new album.

The Cradle’s Cornucopia is a collaborative record made with Paco Cathcart. If you’re unfamiliar, Paco makes music as the Cradle. They’re a lofi/freak folk wizard and has been a bastion of the NY diy scene for over a decade. I wanted to talk a bit about Paco’s work (of which I am a massive fan) and our album creation process so buckle up, this is going to be a wordy one. Big thanks to the boys of Window Sill Records for putting the record out and to Bobby Ditta for the cover art.

I learned of Paco just over a decade ago when I got a text from my friend Dan (who currently plays in Victory Land, Billboard Style, and 6,000 other bands) saying there was a show in a few hours that I couldn’t afford to miss. At the time I was living in DC and there was a great diy venue just above a cajun restaurant called The Bayou. The venue was appropriately called “Above The Bayou.” That night I took the bus downtown with my friend Jesse and heard Paco play songs from their album Drink the Water on a wooden xylophone that was running through a reverse delay via contact mics duct taped to the edges of the instrument. It was raw and melodic and unlike anything that I had ever heard in my life. I was in awe. Since then, I’ve followed Paco’s work as both a fan and a friend. A little about Paco and my relationship to their music:

• Paco plays live relentlessly. I’ve seen them play around 30 times in a myriad of different configurations (solo, two-piece, three-piece, five-piece, electronic, acoustic, autotune sets, drum machine sets, horn ensemble sets, you name it!). Every show is a totally different experience and each is more transcendent than the last. I’ve been fortunate enough to play shows with Paco 5-6 times over the years in a few different groups. Once very notably, Paco recorded my band’s set from the crowd on a tape recorder and then sampled us during their set 25 minutes later. Mind bending shit. I’ve got a bootleg of this set if you’re interested.

• Paco also plays in a ton of other projects including Old Table, Big Neck Police, Sweet Baby Jesus, Climax Landers, Eyes of Love. If you’ve seen these bands, you’ve seen Paco. They also produce albums for a ton of bands (including my band Boon’s third album Morning’s). Recording with Paco opened my eyes to how there are no rules to making a record. The guitars on the album Paco produced for my band were recorded into microphones that were all duct taped to a chair and pointed at three different guitars. We tracked them all at once, and after three takes Paco would say “that’s enough, next.” They have such a ramshackle and raw method of capturing sounds - real sonic alchemist type shit. Their bandcamp page used to say “get in touch to record if you want that analog jank” or something of that sort.

• Paco has dozens and dozens of albums released on bandcamp. I have every single one that was released on tape or vinyl in my physical collection. The output is as varied as it is consistent and beautiful. The Cradle is your favorite band’s favorite band’s favorite band if you know what I mean. Below I’ll recommend a bunch of their records for those of you who are not already familiar.

At some point in 2023 I got the idea that it would be cool to open some heads in the ambient world to Paco’s work. As a way of starting this, I took a bunch of their old music and processed it beyond recognition. Time stretched it, passed it through dozens of delays, and looped/rerecorded pieces into collaged clouds. Then I hit up Paco and asked if they had a day in the next few months to meet and capture some sound. A few weeks later I pulled up to their apartment adorned with unique/modified instruments (toy pianos, painted tiny guitars, hand drums, etc.) and got to work. I set up a bunch of microphones and cassette recorders all over the room while they tuned their guitar, we shared a joint and then hit record. I gave Paco a pair of headphones that played back the mangled Cradle recordings I had made at home and they improvised over them for a few hours. Paco had no idea they were playing along to their own music until we were done. It was a sort of musical sleight of hand. I remember telling Paco when we finished and they were like “huh? no waaaaay.”

I went home and further processed the improvisations, cut them up, collaged them together, layered some field recordings from this pond I love in Pine Plains, NY,  and eventually passed them to Andrew Weathers for mastering. This process was slow, I took my time, it was a calming meditative side quest to a lot of the other shit I was working on at the time. This record is the result.

I’m honored to be offering a new lens through which people may be able to experience Paco’s genius. Even beyond their music, the way Paco navigates the swirling cesspool that is the music industry offers a glimmer of hope into what’s possible for diy artists in our modern age. If you’ve made it this far down the email, I fear that you are a part of a very small subset of people left that are truly interested in active music discovery. This tiny community of freaks is all we get in this stupid world. Paco is the embodiment of this community. I highly recommend you join the Cradle Music Club on Patreon here and support their work. They share so much music through this page (outtakes, live albums, early access records, etc) and it all rules. We talked for a while about whether or not to put our album onto big streamers and we landed on not doing it. Bandcamp and Subvert only. An album that will never be spoon-fed to people by an algorithm that prioritizes profit over art. Hopefully we’ll do some shows soon.

I’ll drop this here again… listen to/purchase The Cradle’s Cornucopia

The Cradle - a listener’s guide: Here are a dozen of my favorite Cradle albums in no particular order. 

1. Bag of Holding - Probably the one I’ve listened to the most. One of Paco’s more straightforward works, amazing songs, amazing string arrangements, perfect album top to bottom.

2. Drink the Water - The one that started it all for me. Tripped out rambling folk. Distortion, beautiful guitars, loopy loping glory. The title track is a life changer. Hints of Sun City Girls!

3. Laughing in My Sleep - A buffet of sound. Lots of awesome rhythmic, driven guitars, tender songs, and jubilance, This one is a journey.

4. Half a Double Life - Saw Paco play live a lot around the time this one came out. Chords of the Lord is an all timer. Lush, analog, beautiful!

5. Radio Wars - Really awesome electronic/acoustic hybrid sonic palette. Every song on this one is an ear worm.

6. Bodies Coiled Around Themselves - Older album that’s gorgeous in its ecstatic chaos. Got an early AnCo feel to it during certain moments.

7. Walking With The Moon - Early versions of songs from Down on Them (mentioned below) appear on this album in their raw, lofi original form. Bottleneck Blues is an all timer.

8. The Layers of Honey - Another classic, this album has the song Calendar Boy on it, which is undeniably one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life.

9. Down on Them - Paco goes hifi. A great band and a great new side of what they’re capable of.

10. Temperate Lands - Julian Lynch style freak folk. Lots of walls of strange instruments. Also a lot of stripped rambling ballads.  Feels like a safari through a cartoon wonderland.

11. The Glare of Success - Totally insane album. Disjointed, frantic, catchy, busted, singular.

12. Get Yourself a Man & Other Love Songs - Paco’s newest. Lots of french horn. Still getting to know this one but already love it.

Oh and one more thing! I’m playing at a cinema in San Francisco next week on Friday 9/25. One night only, very special gig with Isaac Sherman and Agnes Martian. Grab tickets here.

As always thanks for reading and listening. Until next time.

Brendan