Fred Thomas, Gun Outfit, Mitski, Dreamcrusher

Overwhelmed by the rising sea of garbage seeping in through every crack in the earth and mind, Gun Outfit respond by playing human music. Their new record, HARD COMING DOWN, is the first one with bass, and it is a dark opening in a wall of artificial light. They think they are playing folk music because rock is folk music now, and anyway... they're country educated. Warm tones, heavy vibes. Although they drink the same water as the real believers of the past 40 years like Great Society, Relatively Clean Rivers, Meat Puppet and Lucinda Williams, Gun Outfit don't get too comfortable with the past, because they've got their own strange moment to capture.


Mitski warmly recalls a quote from sculptor El Anatsui, "Art grows out of each particular situation, and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up."

In the ever-evolving terrain of life in her early twenties, Mitski's environment throws more than its fair share of change and discomfort and love and passion. Mitski, a recent graduate from SUNY Purchase, has turned to a new chapter of her life upon moving to New York City, and with this renaissance comes an overflowing wealth of inspiration. Mitski's new full-length album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, out November 11th on DDW, welcomes the changes brought on by this foray into adulthood with open arms, while maintaining a rogue streak that reels against it.

With this nerve exposed lyrically, and having dived into her new beginning, Mitski chooses the new record to explore uncharted sonic territory, trading in large string arrangements for guitar and bass. While studying composition at Purchase's music conservatory, she had previously recorded music with a full orchestra, writing out parts in painstaking detail and organizing 60 of her peers to partake in these recordings. But as college graduation inched closer, Mitski moved away from the concert hall and into the campus' student venue, The Stood.

"I awoke to the fact that music didn't have to be this difficult and academic thing to be 'good'," Mitski says. She connected with friends at the now Brooklyn-based label Double Double Whammy, and was inspired by other artists of the Purchase circuit, like LVL UP, Porches., SIRS, Frankie Cosmos and Zona Mexicana. Upon moving to New York, she entered the stage at Death By Audio, Silent Barn, and Bed Stuy basements, entrenching her songs of love, fear, lust, and brilliant clarity into entirely sympathetic ears.

"First Love / Late Spring" is the first single off of Bury Me at Makeout Creek, gifted to listeners earlier in 2014. "I was so young when I behaved 25," she sings on this particular song, "yet now I find I've grown into a tall child." A veritable thesis speaks to sentiments of the poetry and beauty of struggling up the hill to adulthood. Mitski follows El Anatsui's humbling advice, cathartically revealing snapshots from her adventures in youth, and the empowerment found in sharing these stories with others.