MATT KIVEL - Escape From L.A. - LP - Black Vinyl [DEC 12]

LP - Limited Standard Edition Black Vinyl. Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter returns with an autobiographical song cycle of his life in L.A.

Kurt Vile once sang that he had a freeway in mind, but Matt Kivel (Vile’s former Woodsist labelmate) literally has a freeway mind. Kivel grew up in Santa Monica, California, getting shuttled up and down the 10, the 101, PCH, and all the other freeways Angelenos lovingly affix definite articles to. He started out in music as part of the buzzy, Eagle Rock-based indie band Princeton, toured the country relentlessly, burned out, and then resurfaced with a series of bleak, hauntingly spare solo albums that garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Over the ensuing decade, Kivel collaborated closely with a growing set of brilliant, and varied musicians from across the globe, including Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Alasdair Roberts, Madi Diaz, Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes, Jana Horn, and Satomimagae. He moved to Austin, Texas then left for New York City for a spell and then returned to Austin where he settled down. In 2017, he started writing the songs for what would become his eighth solo album, “Escape from L.A.”

“Escape from L.A.” is an autobiographical song cycle that chronicles the first 33 years of Kivel’s life in the City of Angels. The material was laboured over, rewritten, rearranged, and rerecorded numerous times, between LA, New York, and Austin. Kivel self-effacingly refers to it as his “bootleg as hell Blood on the Tracks” with myriad alternate sequences, tempos and arrangements that will never see the light of day. It involved over 20 collaborators, a string section, pedal steel guitars, and a renewed lyrical and vocal clarity that allows the narrative vignettes to unspool in vivid detail.

Kivel sings about freeway pile ups, the Northridge earthquake, the fall of the twin towers as transmitted via television news, the glitter of Hollywood celebrities, and a mythical tsunami that could wipe out all of LA and then pairs it with the quotidian details of his life — teenage romances on the beach, a dying dog, the failure of his first band set against the backdrop of Vampire Weekend’s meteoric rise, a meditative conversation with his twin brother outside Dodger stadium, and, strikingly, the tale of his family’s move to Los Angeles in 1988, spurred by the casting of his father in the baseball epic The Natural, alongside Robert Redford.

It's a beautiful, grounded statement and one of Kivel’s best. The album comes out December 12 via Scissor Tail Records. Kivel will tour in support of it through the fall and winter with dates announced alongside friends Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Grace Rogers, and North Americans.

Tracklist: 

Side A
1. Santa Monica
2. Robert Redford
3. Tidal Wave 
4. Little Mark
5. Laugh At Death
6. Kids

Side B
1. Vampire Weekend
2. For The Roses
3. Sapphire Days 
4. Some Boys
5. Barbara's Ocean

All songs written by Matt Kivel
Produced by Matt Kivel and Don Cento
Sound engineering by Don Cento, Adam Brisbin, and
Matt Kivel
Mixed by Don Cento
Mastered by James Driscoll

Matt Kivel: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, fender rhodes, Moog synthesizer, Yamaha synthesizer
Don Cento: electric guitar
Adam Brisbin: electric bass
Sean Mullins: drums, percussion
Scott Davis: electric bass
Matt Johnson: drums
Matt Galceran: electric guitar
Eamon Fogarty: electric guitar, electric bass, fender rhodes
Jana Horn: vocals
Alex Dupree: vocals
Summer Rose Wood: drums, fuzz bass
Dan Patrevito: upright piano, fender rhodes, farfisa organ, casiotone
Bill Mccullough: pedal steel guitar
Chris Votek: cello
Ben Bartelt: viola, violin
Zeke Jarmon: electric bass, electric guitar
Gaspard Sicx: drums
Matt Mcgrail: fuzz bass
Andy Aylward: electric guitar

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