We come across plenty of one-man (or woman) bands, but not all of them can sound like an entire fun house orchestra dishing out madcap pop and a lost loner psych home recordist channeling his demons, all in the space of one section of one song. Quinn Walker's somewhat reminiscent of Spencer Krug in his seeming need to have dozens of parts in his more ambitious tracks, but though he does do some Bowie here and there, he's more usually sipping at the weirdo pond of Tiny Tim and his outsider brethren. He's a serious jokester, able to channel beauty, guffaws, and then wheel into a tune like "Capital Punishment," where a one-man, warped sound round repeats "I will murder all those deserving to die" over a spinning analog background of multi-tracked voices and crackle. Or he goes disco. And he makes us think Magnetic Fields colliding with Panda Bear on a song like "Let Freedom Ring" ... before he starts shouting "fuck taxes."
The tunes are home recorded, the instrumentation an amalgam of guitars, keyboards, computers, cell phone beeps, bells, trumpet, etc. Quinn's been releasing his own work for a while now, but debuts with a double album -- Laughter's An Asshole and Lion Land -- on Voodoo Eros in the New Year. We're happy to offer a couple gems after the jump. "Plenty Of Water For Mud" goes into a sorta Wooden Wand/Grateful Dead sky-high prairie sky. He sings with a baby-talk on "Baby Neon," a lovely pastoral that oscillates like Glass with a little more of that Animal Collecting.
Quinn Walker - "Plenty Of Water For Mud" (MP3)
Quinn Walker - "Baby Neon" (MP3)
Both of those tracks are from the Laughter portion of the record; you can check out a couple Lion Land songs -- the comp 'n' synth plinking, typewriter-clicking anti-office lament "Cubicles" and the Ziggy Stardusted "I'd Donate Organs For You" -- at his MySpace. Or check out this gorgeous performance of "I Know How To Be Alone" at this past CMJ ... startling transition from spoken voice to harmonized tung song.
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Love how he's goaded into mentioning the new record. He doesn't quite pull off the percussive transitions, but recently did some shows opening for CocoRosie in Europe, so perhaps he's solidified things a bit. No other tour news really -- for now there's a show by his lonesome 12/5 at Union Pool in Brooklyn.Also look for Quinn in his band Suckers.
Lion Land/Laughter's An Asshole is out 1/29 on Voodoo Eros.
