After nearly three years and sixty demos, Launder's full-length debut is happening, it will be out on July 15 through Ghostly International, featuring new singles "Chipper" and "Unwound". Get your copy here.
John Cudlip signed to Ghostly to build his recording project, developed out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV).
With live shows paused in 2020, he immersed fully into writing and arranging an overflow of ideas. Cudlip also embraced sobriety, redirecting his once-destructive addictive tendencies into studio craft — all his thoughts consumed by melody and texture, all his resources lobbed into gear, every buzz, hiss, and hum of this record became his entire world. The resulting set sprawls across a double LP release; it's a considered beast of a debut and he's proud of it, living with it, finally. Through its thirteen songs, Happening is timeless, grappling with something bigger than just melody, the cathartic and the tender, indebted to indie rock greats while informed by modern and prudent self-reflection.
Opening cut "Unwound" punches with soaring hooks; Cudlip and Zachary Cole Smith referred to the early demo as "arena rock," and one could picture its jagged riffs filling that sort of space. It's a compelling preface — in the school of mission statement album openers like Nirvana's "Serve The Servants," The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Darklands," and The Stone Roses "I Wanna Be Adored" — encapsulating the canonical quiet/loud songwriting of his youth. Behind the bright guitar lines is a darker thread; a character, or maybe a self, is interrogated; "you say you're clean now," he sings with disdain.
"Chipper" channels woozy downcast guitar phrasing with clear-eyed pop directness. Its succinct structure attests to both brash confidence and an aloof curtness. It is a love song written with smite, an indictment of fleeting lust.
Check out the album's tracklist and listen to "Unwound"and "Chipper" below.
Happening Tracklisting:
1. Unwound
2. Intake
3. Blue Collar
4. On a Wire
5. Become (feat. Soko)
6. Beggar
7. Rust
8. Withdraw
9. Lockwood
10. Harbour Mouth
11. Chipper
12. Parking Lot
13. Lantern
(facebook.com/launderband)
Tags: Launder
