Cassette Review // P'derrigerreo "The G is Soft" (Gleamer Disk)
Right away I feel the need to point out how I found out about this cassette. A musician I follow on Instagram posted about this label and the concept of it, and I was immediately in. The idea behind Gleamer Disk is that (and I'm paraphrasing here) you buy the cassette without really hearing the music first and then you get a download code. I believe the music is eventually out there in the world in a streaming way, but this is more of a "If you want to hear this, you'll have to buy the cassette" type of concept and I love it. If I created a label it would be like Gleamer Disk.
So what better artist to have your first release from than P'derrigerreo? The first song begins with the lines spoken: "This song goes out to everybody lining up at 5:45am outside of Neil's in the freezing cold" For those who are not from Connecticut, Neil's is a somewhat infamous donut shop here, with locations in Wallingford and Middletown and, yes, they really are that popular. (Side Note: In Wallingford they have Amor Apizza next to them and I definitely recommend their pizza as well. Go grab pizza and donuts!)
The songs on here are noisy and listening to "The G is Soft" makes me feel like P'derrigerreo really is this magical type of choose-your-own-adventure sound. A lot of what you hear in terms of what this sounds like to you, is going to reveal the very fabric of your musical listening history. As this has a rather noisy way about it I think about The Weakerthans. "My friends believe in God but I don't" is the hook on the second song and it comes out over these dark acoustic strums.
"Moon Is Upside Down" begins with what sounds like banjos and then there is also a medieval way about many of these songs. "Vamos" brings out the harmonica, group vocals and just all around party vibes as this can feel like folk punk in ways but not quite in other ways. There are horns in here at times as well, which can make me think of a band such as Streetlight Manifesto, but in a more acoustic way, and then I wonder if acoustic punk is folk punk what is acoustic ska? Is there a folk ska? (There probably is)
As much as I think about all of this, I'm also thinking about Pink Floyd. "You're So Sweet" has lines about lemons and sour grapes and if you listen to these lyrics closely enough you'll discover the poetry within them. "Accepting the Bit" (which I thought was singing "Accepting the bid" and was about eBay) has these keys and it's just taking everything I've ever loved about music and putting it together in one super sound.
On the flip side there is scale singing and thought-provoking lyrics such as: "No, I won't keep you from suicide just because you fear turning 55". It's kind of funny, but no one ever really talks about how getting older sucks in the way that your body starts shutting down and maybe we weren't meant to live this long so if someone doesn't want to experience intense physical pain every day for the rest of their life, why should they have to? Any way, there are also these horns which make this take on a surf vibe here on the second side.
"Power Outlet" has those banjos an the harmonica, which makes it feel like a real hootenanny. Those big rambling guitars and clanky blues make me think of twee, but I was also very into twee for several years so that might just be me hearing what I like to hear. By the end we turn into this march with the percussion and the song also turns instrumental. This is just such an amazing concept as a label for Gleamer Disk but you also just couldn't have asked for a better first release on the label than this cassette. This is looking at Cassette of the Year right here.
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