The Thin Man: Spectres
©2008 Thin Man
Purchase CD/MP3s at CD Baby. Purchase MP3s at iTunes

I sang backups on “The Last Dance” and “Don’t Look Back”

I sang lead on one song (“Songs from a Hotel Bar”) and did backups / extra vocals on two others.

Watch the video for “Sugar Waltz” on YouTube… I sing, but I’m not in the video. But’s it’s a great video. :-)

Description
(which I totally ripped off from Amazon!)

Morning Recordings returns with its second full-length, The Welcome Kinetic, which finds the Pramod Tummala-led ensemble (now including The Coctails’ Barry Phipps as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist) eschewing the intimate monotones of the first record in favor of a broader aural palette. Dub-inflected Latin, underwater Bachrach-ian pop, waltz-time sound collage, and warped ’70s funk are all rendered with a balladeer’s touch. Drag City artist Edith Frost joins the group to sing on three of the tracks, including the bewitching lead vocal on “Songs from a Hotel Bar.” Utilizing a talented group of musicians and eclectic instrumentation (vibraphone, pianos, cellos, horns, tape machine, acoustic and electric bowed metal, upright bass, Japanese table harp, and field recordings), Morning Recordings has created a work that is sonically bold and sweepingly cinematic.

“A time machine to 1975 AM-radio-pop nirvana. Pramod Tummala has a honeyed drawl that’s an ethereal instrument all its own.” — Magnet

“A warm base of guitars, bass, and slowly clocking drums is fleshed out with airy touches of piano, vibraphone, Rhodes, and strings … the result is a gentle lushness. Tummala’s vocals are welcoming and soothing, a match for the Sunday evening serenity of the album’s mood.” — Punk Planet

“Mellow music for laid-back lovers.” — Insound

“With sparse, gentle vocal melodies that evoke the ghost of Elliott Smith on top of intricate but subdued instrumental arrangements, Tummala succeeds in creating a record that is both relaxing and compelling, sort of like Iron & Wine but with organs and harmonium instead of acoustic guitars.” — Pop Culture Press

“Another notable chapter in Chicago’s post-rock scene opus.” — Chicago Free Press

I sang backups (along with Kelly Hogan and Nora O’Connor) on the song “Day in the Life of a Heel”.

More info at Sonny’s…

I sang backups on the songs “Hamstrung and Juvenile”, “Rice Scars” and “Lost Solid Colours”.

I sang backups on the song “Just a Star”.

Edith Frost: IT’S A GAME
©2005, Drag City #DC301 (LP and CD)
Download the one-sheet
Purchase the CD or LP at Drag City, or get the CD on Amazon
MP3s are available from iTunes and Amazon

Produced by Rian Murphy
Engineered & mixed by Mark Greenberg at Mayfair Recordings and Barry Phipps at North Branch Studio

All songs written by Edith Frost / ©2005 Marfa Music (BMI)

Back cover photo by Eric Ziegenhagen
Front cover photo by Edith Frost
Drawings & lettering by Laura Park
Layout by Dan Osborn
Mastered by Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering

Musicians:
Edith Frost, Azita Youseffi, Dave Max Crawford, Emmett Kelly, Jason Toth, John Hasbrouck, Josh Abrams, Lindsay Anderson, Mark Greenberg, Rian Murphy, Ryan Hembrey

Songs:
(Side A) Emergency, It’s a Game, What’s the Use, A Mirage, Playmate, My Lover Won’t Call
(Side B) Lucky Charm, Larger Than Life, Just a Friend, If It Weren’t For The Words, Stars Fading, Good to Know, Lovin’ You Goodbye

Thank you:
My family; Eric Ziegenhagen; Sarah Dandelles; John Whitney; Archer Prewitt; Dan Koretzky; Dan Osborn; Melissa Severin; Zach Cowie; Scott McGaughey

(…and a lot of other people I didn’t have room to mention, you know who you are!)

You can download an outtake of Good to Know from the It’s a Game sessions.

Reviews…

The game Edith Frost refers to on her fourth long-player isn’t necessarily a fun one. Nope, the game here is love and from the start it seems Frost is all too often on the losing side. But that’s not to say there isn’t a brightness in the San Antonio-raised songwriter’s gentle brand of twanged whimsy.

It’s a Game – the follow-up to 2001′s Wonder Wonder – is a record of simple beauty and warmth as much as of yearning and heartache. Now settled in Chicago and with a brilliant roster of Windy City musicians behind her, Frost has made an album that glows with delicate arrangements and emotive candour.

Husky guitars, piano and gently brushed percussion underscores her note-perfect delivery. Most remarkably, she manages to balance the distant, swaying traditionalism (the smoky swagger of “What’s the Use” and the classic country balladry of “A Mirage” and “Lucky Charm”) with the stark, markedly personal immediacy of songs like “Playmate.”

“I want to find somebody to press against in the night,” she croons. Frost may be losing the game of love but her record is the better for it.

- Dan Rule / The Age (Australia)

After a too-long absence, Edith Frost returns with It’s a Game, her first album in four years. Though the trippy Telescopic and the full-fledged pop of Wonder Wonder suggested that she might continue to decorate her songs with elaborate productions, this album is actually her sparest-sounding work since her debut. That doesn’t mean it’s without variety, however; Frost’s singing and writing have both broadened and deepened with time, and more than ever, she’s able to take the best from different styles of music and songwriting and make them her own. “A Mirage” is a deceptively innocent-sounding song styled after traditional country ballads with a melody sweet enough to be played on a music box, while the charming “If It Weren’t for the Words” is as witty and tightly structured as a classic pop song. Likewise, “My Lover Won’t Call” has the aching elegance of torchy vocal jazz. On the other hand, “Just a Friend” and “Stars Fading” work (and work well) in a more contemporary-sounding singer/songwriter vein. Throughout It’s a Game, Frost captures the ups and (mostly) downs of relationships. She excels at capturing the specifics and fine shadings of heartache: the worry and dread surrounding an inevitable breakup on “Emergency”; the weariness of trying to hang onto someone with one foot out the door on “What’s the Use”; and eventual, bittersweet acceptance on “Lovin’ You Goodbye.” Even the album’s happier songs are seeded with sadness. On “It’s a Game” itself, trying to have a good time is the best that can be hoped for. Crucially, though, Frost not only boils painful situations down to their essences, she makes them sound beautiful instead of dreary. As always, Frost’s music has the ring of truth, so much so that you hope for her sake that it’s not too autobiographical. Let’s also hope it doesn’t take another four years for her to deliver another collection of her thoughtful, finely crafted songs.

- Heather Phares / Allmusic.com, November 2005

It’s been awhile since we’ve last heard from Edith Frost — four years to be exact. Apparently in the wake of a hefty tour after 9/11, she decided to take an undetermined absence from making music. Luckily she didn’t throw in the towel all together, as her songwriting, while being vastly underappreciated, still had room to develop.

Within minutes of “It’s a Game,” it’s clear that not rushing another album was the way to go. The music behind Frost’s words is simply perfect. It’s nothing too complicated: just nice, folk arrangements that are reminiscent of Gillian Welch’s early work. At times, she gets dreamy and slow (“Mirage,” “Lucky Charm”), while “Emergency” and “It’s a Game” are beautiful piano ballads and “What’s the Use” flirts with Iron & Wine-style rootsiness.

Frost’s voice is still sweet and innocent sounding, but her subject matters are hardly lightweight material. Heartbreak, lost loves, jerks, loneliness: subjects that are often too familiar to singer/songwriter types are vivid in her hands. In fact, Frost is so skilled at conveying pure honesty that listeners can’t help but adore her.

- Michael D. Ayers / Billboard.com, November 2005

“It’s A Game” follows the longest break of Edith Frost’s career, and the time off seems to have done the trick; it’s the best thing she’s recorded since her first album, 1997′s Calling Over Time.

Like that album, this one is a post-heartbreak autopsy, but it’s no retread. The accompaniment is not so pared-to-the-bone; the edges are a bit softer thanks to the upholstering furnished by keyboardists Azita Youssefi, Lindsay Anderson and Mark Greenberg. The backing, which shifts from country to torch-song jazz to yearning pop, is Frost’s most eclectic to date, and it’s executed throughout with an understatement that keeps the vocals front and center. Such restraint is key to It’s A Game’s success; the singing is similarly underplayed, which counterbalances the naked pain in some of her lyrics.

Frost and producer Rian Murphy have ordered the songs into a narrative that starts with a suspicion that something is wrong and takes the listener through a crumbling affair’s episodes of rejection, isolation, and resignation. She’s never written so directly before; the anxiety and frustration is more palpable, the hurt deeper than anything she’s previously recorded. But Frost never oversells her heartbreak, and the album’s hopeful resolution feels as genuine as the smile she throws over her shoulder on the back sleeve.

- Bill Meyer / Dusted, November 20, 2005

Recovering Texan Edith Frost describes her sound on MySpace.com as ”pensive countrified psychedelia.” Indeed. Yet It’s a Game brings her slo-mo alt-folk into sharper-than-usual focus, with melodies that stay rather than drift away. Grade: B+

- Will Hermes / Entertainment Weekly, November 14, 2005

Despite Edith Frost’s typically lengthy list of collaborators, It’s a Game sounds more like a solo effort than 2001′s robust Wonder Wonder. But that air of solitude after four years of silence has less to do with her sparse arrangements than with her melancholy, lovelorn subject matter. “A Mirage” finds her clutching to the shimmering memory of a bygone relationship, while she bemoans her search for an equally broken-hearted companion on “Playmate.” While some cuts are eerily reminiscent of other artists (the interlocking vocals on the title track reek of early Liz Phair, and the lilting choruses of “What’s the Use” recall Aimee Mann’s plaintive coo), Game brims with Frost’s conversational, intimate tone. Rather than a collection of weepy lovesongs, the album portrays the confidence of a woman for whom independence has become an obsession.

- Catherine P. Lewis / Harp Magazine, December 2005

Chicago-based singer-songwriter Edith Frost hasn’t been heard from all that much in the past few years, but her return, the autumnal It’s A Game, shows her in fine form. Sounding at times like a less mannered Aimee Mann, Frost uses her songs to dissect relationships in a brutally honest and sometimes startlingly plainspoken fashion. Frost doesn’t mince words when getting to the often-rotten core of romantic entanglements. The music ranges from lazy country reveries to dusky folk excursions. A few of the songs, like “Lucky Charm,” even take on the guise of a classic countrified torch song; you can imagine Patsy Cline bringing the house down with that one. Frost’s way with a minor-key melody and her affect-less vocals make It’s A Game a pleasure throughout.

- Tyler Wilcox / Junkmedia, October 25, 2005

Edith Frost has been awfully quiet for the last few years; then again, she’s pretty quiet all the time. Her near-magical 1996 EP — released, somewhat incongruously, by Drag City — set the template for Frost’s spare, sad, soft career. Subsequent albums never begged for attention, content instead to find homes with other melancholy bedsitters. But close inspection to the new It’s A Game reveals a melodic and atmospheric sense both timeless and beautiful: She experiments with twinkling sounds and country-ish lights, but all in service of lovely little songs.

- Josh Modell / The Onion‘s avclub, November 17-23, 2005

Tracks:

01 Who
02 Cars and Parties
03 Temporary Loan
04 On Hold
05 One-Chord Complaint
06 Dreamers
07 Walk on the Fire
08 Pony Song
09 Wonder Wonder
10 I Get the Craziest Feeling* (Floyd Tillman)
11 Look What Thoughts Will Do* (Lefty Frizzell)

* With Ryan Hembrey, Jim Becker and Jim White

All songs written and (c) by Edith Frost / (p) Marfa Music (BMI) except where indicated

Artwork by Davina Pallone

I also have some extra blatherings I did for this, that I didn’t bother including on the Comfort Stand page, only because Rian Murphy’s intro seemed to say everything that was really necessary. But I don’t suppose it would hurt to put them here.

Tracks 1-9 were written and recorded at home in Brooklyn and Chicago between 1996 and 2000. I sang, played guitar (a blue Stratocaster and a red Washburn acoustic), and added a bit of keyboards here and there using a Farfisa, a Roland SH-101 and a cheap Casio. The sound effects on track 7 are from the Willard Grant Conspiracy album 3am Sunday @ Fortune Otto’s.

Studio versions of these songs can be found on my albums Calling Over Time (1997), Telescopic (1998) and Wonder Wonder (2001), plus the Drag City Supersession album Tramps, Traitors and Little Devils (2001). All are available through Drag City.

Tracks 10 and 11 don’t appear on any of my albums. I recorded them in various apartments in Chicago around 2002, with the help of Ryan Hembrey on bass and piano (he of the bands Manishevitz, Central Falls, Boxhead Ensemble and Pinetop Seven), plus Jim Becker of Califone on guitar, dobro and violin, and Jim White of the Dirty Three on drums.

Here’s a Pitchfork review

A very limited edition 180-gsm 12" EP featuring 5 alternate vocal versions of songs that appeared on Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories. I’m doing vocals on Haiku 11 this time, alongside other contributions by Mark Mulcahy, Carla Torgerson and James William Hindle.

SIGMATROPIC: Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories
©2003 Hitch-Hyke (Greece) / Tongue Master (U.K.)
More info • Purchase at Amazon

I did vocals on the track “Haiku 8″. I also sang on “Haiku 1″ which is included on the limited edition bonus disc. Also, my version of “Haiku 4″ is included in the #13 issue of Comes With A Smile magazine (more info). AND, there’s a limited edition 12″ single with yet another track of mine! :-)

Other featured singers include Robert Wyatt, Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), Alejandro Escovedo, Mark Eitzel, Cat Power, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) and many, many more…

The Greek-vocals version of this album was released in 2001 on the Hitch-Hyke label. The international version was released in September 2003 on Hitch-Hyke, and on October 6th on the Tongue Master label (U.K.).

Rather than try to explain the album any further, I’ll copy something from Sigmatropic’s website…

Back in 2001 SIGMATROPIC had the idea to create a sprawling and magical musical trip: a musical accompaniment to an imaginary journey. The album “16 Haiku & Other Stories” is based on the Japanese chopped up poetry style Haiku. But this isn”t just any poetry. This music is based on the work of the great Nobel laureate GEORGE SEFERIS. His Haiku poetry, in which he had adopted in his early life, was an ideal inspiration to a musical adventure that involves all the elements of nature. The wisdom & simplicity of these short poems float around the embracing music in a carefree manner. Anyone that has travelled through the majestic Aegean and experienced the sea and stars will clearly identify with SEFERIS”S colourful observations. AKIS BOYATZIS is the nucleus of SIGMATROPIC and has created an atmospheric musical odyssey that invites this poetry wordplay. His programming skills weave an ethereal spell full of Spartan peaks and bleak terrains. The voiceovers float around like a magic wand spelling out stories about colours, nature and the seasons. The soundtrack “feel” quality of this recording is grainy and mystical and ideally compliments the masterful poetry.

After this album was released in its original format in Greek, early 2002, spurred on with its success, AKIS BOYATZIS stuck his neck out enough to boldly extend an invitation to overseas musicians: to recreate the spirit of this album, retaining the same music with the same poetry translated into English. And thus here is the English version of his original dream. Eighteen vocalists from diverse musical backgrounds and from far flung cities, each choosing and singing their favourite Haiku. Each individual vocal is a sparkling testament that has enriched this international project, which features an outstanding and diverse range of cult alternative vocalists from both sides of the Atlantic, instantly making this one of the greatest albums ever to come out of Greece.

Together with SIGMATROPIC & AKIS BOYATZIS the full guest vocal line up for “16 Haiku & Other Stories” is a truly awesome musical motley crew.

Click here for a full list of invited artists, plus music samples.

Each song has a different guest singer. I sang backups for Sally Timms on the song "Long Black Veil".

All artists’ proceeds benefit the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Also featuring songs by Tim Rutili (Califone), Dave Alvin (Blasters, Knitters), Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), Otis Clay (smoooth soul singin’ legend), Kelly Hogan, Rico Bell, Chris Mills, Deano (Waco Brothers), English folk heroine Charlotte Greig, Alejandro Escovedo, Rebecca Gates (Spinanes), Rhett Miller (Old 97′s), Rex Hobart, Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Gurf Morlix, The Meat Purveyors, English folk-rock weirdo genius Kevin Coyne, Jon Rauhouse, a classic track from The Sundowners, and much more.

Kelly Hogan and I did backup vocals all over this record. But there are a LOT of vocals happening, so I’m still trying to figure out exactly which songs I’m on.

Reviews: Ink19 * PopMatters

I sang backups (along with Nora O’Connor) on Kelly Hogan‘s offering, "Why Me".  Other artists include John Doe, Tom Verlaine, Chuck Prophet, Polara, Mark Kozelek, Jon Langford, the Mother Hips, Paul Burch, and Stephen Bruton.

Jon Langford and the gang consign songs of murder, mob law, and cruel, cruel punishment to the realm of myth, memory and history.  All artists’ proceeds go to the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project.

Each song has a different guest singer. I did vocals on "Sing Me Back Home," written by Merle Haggard.  Other singers include Steve Earle, Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family, Rosie Flores, Janet Bean of Freakwater, Neko Case, Diane Izzo, Devil In A Woodpile, Sally Timms and Paul Burch.

I did backup vocals on the songs "Gratitude" and "It Could Happen Again"

This is Birddog’s third album.  I sang backups on the song "Rattlesnakes".

Jenny Toomey is the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition.  You’ll also remember her from the band Tsunami, and the label Simple Machines.  This is her first solo record; one disc was recorded in Chicago and the other in Nashville.  I sang backups on some of the Chicago tracks: "Patsy Cline", "Baby Would It Matter", "Word Traffic", "Clear Cut", and "Breezewood, PA".

Featuring original songs and covers performed by Neil Michael Hagerty (Royal Trux), Bill Callahan (Smog) and Edith Frost.

Produced by Neil Michael Hagerty

Band:
Bill Callahan; Edith Frost; Neil Michael Hagerty; Tara Key; Brendan Murphy; Rian Murphy; Jim O’Rourke

With:
Matt Bauder; Jessica Billey; Mark Greenberg; Azita Youssefi

Songs:
Zero Degrees; Charley’s Girl; Texas Dogleg; The Girl on the Billboard; Leaving the Army; Everyday; Nothing Rises to Meet Me; Old Man; N.I.B.; One-Chord Complaint

I sang and wrote two of the original songs on this record, "Leaving The Army" and "One-Chord Complaint", and sang lead on two cover songs, "Charley’s Girl" (a Lou Reed tune) and "Old Man" (by Randy Newman).  I also played acoustic guitar on "The Girl On The Billboard" and "One-Chord Complaint", and did backup vocals on "Texas Dogleg", "Everyday", and "Nothing Rises To Meet Me"

A review by Brian Mock that appeared in the Tucson Weekly on 10/11/2001…

Edith Frost: WONDER WONDER
©2001 Drag City #DC209 (CD and LP)
Reviews • Lyrics
Purchase the CD or LP at Drag City, or get the CD on Amazon
MP3s are available from iTunes and Amazon

My third album, also released in Japan on P-Vine.

Produced by Rian Murphy
Engineered by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Recording, Chicago, Illinois
All songs by Edith Frost, published by Marfa Music (BMI)
Mastered by John Golden
Cover image by Deborah Moore
Other photos by Mark Nomura
Layout by Dan Osborn

Musicians: Amy Domingues, Steve Dorocke, Edith Frost, Mark Greenberg, Ryan Hembrey, Glenn Kotche, Bill Lowman, Paul Mertens, Rian Murphy, Archer Prewitt, Rick Rizzo, Susan Voelz

Songs: True; Cars and Parties; Who; Wonder Wonder; Hear My Heart; The Fear; Dreamers; Further; Merry Go Round; Easy to Love; Honey Please; You’re Decided

Reviewed by Colin Berry on NPR’s All Things Considered, July 31, 2001

I did backups, along with Carla Torgerson of the Walkabouts, on almost all the songs.  A slightly different version was released in Europe on Glitterhouse, on September 25, 2000.

Reviews:

"With last year’s Mojave, Willard Grant Conspiracy solidified its reputation as one of the major comers in a second wave of alt-country that champions story and literate wit in song as much as it does straw cowboy hats and Tecate. On Everything’s Fine, the Conspiracy continues with an 11-song steamroller of confused hearts, pretty guitars and the kind of bittersweet jubilance that has already made the band such a critic’s favorite. Here the group makes the most of its expanded lineup, for a lushness that rivals even that of Lampchop, and anchored, as always, by Robert Fisher’s husky reveries. (Edith Frost fans listen close: She’s in there, too.) With just a few albums under their belt, the members of Willard Grant Conspiracy come off with the weary charm of old pros as they quietly but self-assuredly build a catalog of unbelievably honest American music." (CMJ)

"�’Everything’s Fine" is a majestic affair, the first WGC album where Fisher and guitarist Paul Austin’s frequently epic vision fully translates into a concrete song-cycle, a holistic masterpiece as opposed to the episodic collected sketches comprising its predecessors." (Uncut)