VIOLET CLARK charges out from under the shadow of her legendary husband (and ex- Grand Duchy band-mate) Black Francis (Pixies) with the release of her unabashedly defiant solo debut KILLJOY -- out November 19th on the couple's label THE BUREAU RECORDS.
No, you’re not imagining it. Violet’s solo debut album KILLJOY seethes with frustration. There is a perfectly good reason for that impression, and it's that she’s fucking mad about some shit. Bad people and weird experiences can taint your world-view and make you cynical. When Violet began to realize that harnessing her pent-up anger was the key to more dynamic songwriting, she began to look at stuff that she'd previously worked hard to avoid. Themes of disgust, pedophilia, underachievement, power, powerlessness, drugs and self-medicating properties thereof, sexual longing, exploitation, neglect, obsessions, and a fuming intolerance toward societal programming, are all well-documented on KILLJOY.
The album opens with "A MOMENT OF SILENCE," an impromptu dorky white instrumental hip-hop track with dissonant, idiot-savant guitar and a stream of consciousness verbal assault on an emotionally crippled ex-boyfriend, making it into something au courant. The second track, “PURE O,” (the first single off the record) is Violet’s ode to her weird insatiable brain. Songs "POP ROCKS" and "SHAKE AND BAKE" are meaty, earthy vintage-sounding rockers propelled by some savagely naive guitar playing. "MR. SHIFTY," a re-examination of a childhood gut hunch, and the title track "KILLJOY," were given a more haunting, ethereal treatment lent in part by a layered keyboard arrangement and darker subject matter. She really lets it all hang out on the sassy track "POSITIONS" and on "BELIEVER," combining driving guitars and a bright synth element with raw, feisty vocals, into a hybrid variety of punk she likes to call "quirk rock."
credits
released November 19, 2013
Violet Clark - Vox, guitar, bass, organ, synth
Noam Schatz - Drums, backing vocals, circuit-bending
Matt Silberstein - Guitar on "Mr. Shifty"
Black Francis - Acoustic guitar, bass on "Pure O"
Haley Morgan - Backing vocals on "Pure O"
Matt Newman - Drums on "Positions"
Jeremy Dubs - Guitar on "Positions"
Written and Produced by Violet Clark
Recorded and Mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato at Sonelab, Easthampton, MA except "Pure O" mixed by Jason Carter at Wavelength, Salem, OR. "Positions" mixed by Ding Archer at 6DB in Salford, UK.
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