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Event
Loma
This is an intimate living room performance in a private residence. Full details on the location will be provided at the end of ticket purchase.
TICKETS:
No paper tickets will be sent.
ADMISSION:
Print and bring your confirmation which will include the address and other details. Please don't share this info with anyone! In addition, your name will be on a list at the door. No additional tickets will be sold at the door. You must buy tickets here to get into this show.
DATE:
4/7/18
SHOWTIME:
8:30PM
SEATING:
This show will be general admission floor seating. Feel free to bring a pillow or cushion to sit more comfortably on the floor.
ALL SALES ARE FINAL. SORRY, NO REFUNDS:
Due to the limited number of tickets please make sure you can attend before you make your purchase. If you can no longer attend a show you can give or sell (at face value) the tickets to a friend. Contact us (livingroomshowlbc@gmail.com) before the show to transfer your tickets. We'll cancel any tickets resold for higher than original
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Lomas self-titled debut reveals a band obsessed with songs as sound. There are endless details to discover here, stoked by the albums urgent and searching lyrical themes (exquisitely delivered by the translucent voice of Emily Cross); and on headphones, the album feels both intimate and expansive, like casting your eyes over a detailed painting on a vast canvas.
Its also the product of a joint pilgrimage around the globe by fellow touring musicians. Jonathan Meiburg is best known as the singer of Shearwater; Cross and the multi-instrumentalist and engineer Dan Duszynski form Cross Record, originally from Chicago. They met through Ben Goldberg (of Badabing! records, who helped launch the careers of Tune-Yards, Beirut, and Sharon Van Etten), who sent Meiburg Cross Records 2015 album Wabi-Sabi, which led to the two bands traveling together across America and Europe throughout Shearwaters 2016 tour for Jet Plane and Oxbow, often crammed into the same van. The tour was Cross Records first, but Meiburg was shocked by their maturity and confidence. I couldnt believe all that sound was coming out of two people, he says. They had their own world, their own rules, and they slayed every night. They were mesmerizing.
While in the van or at soundchecks, they shared their musical knowledge and love of nature and animals. I think Jonathan is one of the most special people weve ever met, says Cross. Its hard not to like him. He has such a curious mind. And after an especially memorable show in Belgium, Meiburg approached Cross and Duszynski about working together. I fell in love with their music, he admits, and I wanted to know how they did it.
They convened for two weeks in the house outside Austin where Cross Record recorded Wabi-Sabi to see what would happen, recording Joy, the gorgeously ambivalent I Dont Want Children, and the beginnings of five more songs. An album seemed surprisingly imminent. There was something special about the combination of the three of us, Meiburg says, and very different from either of our bands. But I think we were afraid to say so out loud, for fear of jinxing it.
For the next few months, they convened for two weeks at a time, shaping new songs and casting away others. It was a strangely charged time, not least because when the album began, Cross and Duszynski were a married couple, but their relationship came to an end during the sessionsan atmosphere Meiburg found challenging but strangely inspiring. There was no drama where I was concerned, he recalls, and I didnt really know what was happening; but there was an unspoken feeling of urgency, and a sense that a big change was coming for all of us, and I think we all tried to channel that into the work. The house was out in the country, off a dirt road, surrounded by the sounds of birds and wind; and it seemed like a world of its ownfull of joy, fear, and heartbreak.
The place itself became the albums muse. I got sort of obsessed with capturing every sound inside and outside the house, recalls Meiburg. (Remember the whippoorwills? asks Cross; Meiburg doesnt know offhand if they made it into the album or not). From the cicadas and frogs of Relay Runner to the whooshes of wind and leaves on White Glass and Black Willow, Loma often sounds as if youre not so much listening to it as living inside it. The dog solo on Sun Dogs is one of my favorite moments, Meiburg says; and I remember Emily making a drum out of the cast-iron pot we cooked breakfast in. There were no rules; nobody was the designated drummer, or the bass player, or the guitarist. This freedom from their usual roles gave the trio a fresh rulebook to invent from. Jonathans melodies were so different from the ones Id choose, says Cross. He has a rich knowledge of songwriting. My approach is more unrefined and experimental, and it created a strong balance.
Meiburg had never written for someone else before. What a relief! he laughs. I was scared at first, but I tried to project myself into things I imagined Emily might say, or sing, or thinkand in the end we landed on a voice thats not quite herbut its not me either. Cross, meanwhile, found a freedom in singing someone elses words. Usually vocals are scary for me, she says, but since I didnt feel like I had to present entirely as myself, I felt open to doing things I wouldnt normally do. The album became a place where buried thoughts and energies found expression; Cross wrung catharsis from Meiburgs lyrics and melodies while Duszynski buried himself in the sonic details of engineering and mixing (and conjured up some catharsis of his own in the hammering drums of Dark Oscillations).
The process also helped Cross locate a voice shed never found before. While tracking I Dont Want Children, her vocals were accidentally recorded at the wrong speed, and when played back, they were pitched slightly lower and slower than normal, yielding a voice that was recognizably hers, but deeper and more coarse-graineda sound she decided to use for the rest of the album.
This sense of discovery extends to the listener; at times, Loma almost seems to be listening to you. But it doesnt sound small, or hushed; Dark Oscillations and Jornada have a gritty, futuristic grandeur, and theres also the loping groove of Relay Runner, the galloping euphoria of Joy, and the resolutely ambiguous choir of Black Willow. The album is a journey, muses Meiburg, but we didnt know where we were going until we arrived. The journeys end came with a surprising lesson. Its about having to let some precious things go, Meiburg says, so that new ones can take their place.
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LocationTo Be Announced (Long Beach, CA)
Displayed After Purchase
Long Beach, CA 90814
United States
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