Alicja Pop: (Memphis, TN, Lost Sounds, River City Tanlines, Mouserocket, Clears)
Alicja Trout (Alicja-pop) first became infatuated with songwriting at 16 years old when she heard a tape by a classmate’s older brother Tim Feleppa. Tim made music on a 4-track cassette recorder in his little NYC apartment. It was like nothing she ever heard on the radio, and she wanted to make some too. Several of her friends were really into this tape of great poppy lo-fi songs, experimental drones, and cool sound effects. Several years later she got her own recording set-up and was trading ideas and tapes with musical friends. She was a part of the “4-trackers” who were making songs at home with headphones and whatever weird cheap or discarded gear they could get their hands on. This was Alicja’s biggest influence and inspiration for Alicja-pop. Even though her musical style can manifest as rough and dark, Prince was always a mainstream influence because of his diverse catalog and the fact that he wrote and recorded it all.
Each song on this new Alicja-pop album explores a different style and theme. “Howlin’” is a compilation of several years of songs. Some tracks are minimal with one instrument, some are studio recordings with layers of vocal harmonies and instrument overdubs. Some tracks fall in between. Each song included on “Howlin’” is crafted with catchy hooks and easy flowing chord progressions. Alicja-pop is both a solo endeavor and a group venture. Alicja-pop performs as a live band currently featuring Lori McStay, Jared McStay, and Andrew Geraci. Alicja Trout also performs with River City Tanlines, Mouserocket, and Sweet Knives (ex-Lost Sounds).
Greg Ashley Band: It can be difficult to adequately describe what Greg Ashley brings to the table, when it comes to the music he has made over the last quarter century. Starting with the wild punk sounds of the teen-aged Strate Coats, on through the psych rock of The Mirrors, and into the alternatingly dark and menacing / dreamy and pastoral explorations of perhaps his best known outfit The Gris Gris, Greg has followed his muse wherever it has taken him with unhinged and reckless abandon. And that’s just (some of) the music he has made in a *group* setting – his vast *solo* catalog paints an equally compelling canvas of styles, touching on damaged folk musings, symphonic psychedelic suites, barroom honky-tonk – and everywhere else the muse takes him – all of it coming to life like poetic and sometimes bleak passages torn from the diary of a world weary soul. It brings to mind the likes of kindred spirits Hank Williams, Lee Hazlewood, Ray Davies, Syd Barrett, Leonard Cohen… “Fiction Is Non-Fiction” is Greg Ashley’s seventh solo album and was recorded at Capitola Analog Recording Studio in Creuse, France. Ten more vintage Greg Ashley moments, including covers of Sonic Youth and the late 70s Finnish punk band Briard.
