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TK WEBB “Phantom Parade isn’t a literary experience; it’s a sonic immersion.” – The New York Times TK Webb had not even released his previous album KCK when he began fleshing out a lot of this material in collaboration with Shannon Funchess. We still have a message on our answering machine TK left in the wee hours of the morning as he considered whether it was appropriate to play all new material at his record release party. As a duo, with Shannon’s wild singing and almost primitive percussion, TK was able to open up the breadth of his songwriting. By this point he had taken a box cutter to his dreadnought guitar adding a second pickup closer to the bridge bringing out a heavy bottom end, which when manipulated with a tape echo, formed a rhythm section for the two to build on. A few months later, TK enlisted Jared Eggers and Tim Shrider, of Brooklyn outfit Silent City, to play bass & percussion. TK managed to keep these new additions to his band under wraps, surprising everyone when he took the stage with a full band behind him at a support slot for Black Dice’s homecoming show at Irving Plaza in 2005. Nicholas Vernhes, who shared our excitement for this material after seeing the band live, volunteered to record at his studio The Rare Book Room. Phantom Parade is certainly TK’s most ambitious and fully realized recording to date, in the over thirteen years he has been playing music. At 28 years old, having been an in-demand guitar and harmonica player for years, having played both as sideman and solo artist all over the country, and playing an average of a show a week in NYC for years, TK came to this record with a wealth of experience and drive. You can hear this passion in the recording and you could hear it as he was making it, pushing the band in the sessions, treating every moment in the studio like it was his last. He even got Nicolas to sweat through a few days wrapped in a blanket riddled with a case of the flu. If you listen closely to the last track, "Classy," which has Toshi Yano of Kapow playing a Fender Rhodes, you can hear the confidence as he calls the band back in from the changes with a whistle. Phantom Parade is a record versed in the American musical tradition, woven out of everyday experience, and TK’s voice is riddled with the kind of gruff character that speaks volumes and contradicts the passive androgyny that permeates so much indie-rock today. |
Catalog Number: TSR027 Tracklisting: All Tracks Listed In Blue Are Linked To A Downloadable MP3 |