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Spencer Radcliffe Shares “Mermaid” via SPIN + Tour Dates w/ Alex G, LVL UP, Pity Sex & More‏

September 21, 2015
Nathan Dragon

Nathan Dragon

 

Spencer Radcliffe Shares “Mermaid” via SPIN

Full Length Debut “Looking In” Due Out
October 2nd on Run For Cover Records

Fall Tour Dates Announced with Alex G, LVL UP, Pity Sex & More
Named Stereogum’s “Artist to Watch

 

SPIN are sharing Spencer Radcliffe’s new single “Mermaid,” the opening track to his stunning Run For Cover Records debut, Looking In, due out October 2nd. Having worked under his own name since the beginning of 2013, Radcliffe has made a point to let his music do the talking, keeping a low profile while remaining prolific with multiple releases each year since the project’s inception and an impressive back catalog of solo projects and bands. Following last year’s highly praised Brown Horse split with R.L. Kelly on Orchid Tapes, Radcliffe has expanded upon his songwriting with Looking In, occupying new sonic territory between intimate noise pop and reflective experimentalism where songwriting takes a firm focus.

Radcliffe shares a wide range of nuance throughout the immersive record, transitioning from traditional songwriting to tape manipulated noise within moments, simultaneously creating and deconstructing melodies at a whim. Radcliffe’s songwriting stands vibrant and challenging with one foot consistently pushing the envelope and another firmly placed firmly in blissful pop.

SPIN praised Radcliffe’s inviting aura, “using a churning ocean of abandoned guitar lines and seasick strings to slowly simmer opening track “Mermaid” into existence” before adding “It’s a lackadaisical thing, the sort of eyes-rolling delivery you might imagine from Will Oldham or Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, but he uses it to soundtrack vague existentialisms (“I was born for nothing at all”) — like some stoner mystic who through chemical addition or divine intervention knows just a little bit more about life than you ever will.”

STREAM SPENCER RADCLIFFE’S “MERMAID” VIA SPIN:
http://www.spin.com/2015/09/spencer-radcliffe-mermaid-premiere-stream-looking-in/

TOUR DATES:

10/10     Chicago, IL @ Pinky Swear $
10/11     Lansing, MI @ Mac’s Bar $
10/12     Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddah $
10/13     Montreal, ON @ le Divan Orange $
10/14     New Haven, CT @ Bar $
10/15     Flemington, NJ @ 90 Main &
10/16     Philadelphia, PA @ Philamoca *
10/18     Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
10/19     Albany, NY @ The Treehouse
10/21     Boston, MA @ Out of the Blue Gallery &
10/22     New York, NY @ The Silent Barn &
10/23     Bronxville, NY @ Sarah Lawrence College &
10/24     Newark, DE @ University of Delaware
10/25     Harrisonburg, VA @ The Clementine
10/26     Chambersburg, PA @ Nathan Miller Chocolate ^
10/27     Athens, OH @ The Bat Lounge
10/29     Atlanta, GA @ The Cleaners
10/30     Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Café @
11/1       St Louis, MO @ Firebird @
11/2       Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar @

$ w/ LVL UP
& w/ Pinegrove
* w/ Pity Sex & Wild Honey
^ w/ Elvis Depressedly, Rozwell Kid, Wishlist
@ w/ Alex G

Stereogum recently premiered the album’s first single “Mia” while naming Spencer Radcliffe an “Artist to Watch” in the ongoing feature series. “Yankee,” the album’s second single premiered on The FADER, who shared, “This fall’s going to be a lot of afternoons trying to decide between playing this and playing the new Alex G, and then just clearing your schedule to play them both.”

Currently living and working in Chicago, Spencer Radcliffe still calls Ohio home. Anticipating which direction he will be growing next as an artist, however, is not as easy to pinpoint. After self-releasing a number of brief albums recorded at different points in time throughout scattered locations, the multi-instrumentalist turned the ear of the underground in his direction last year with the release of Brown Horse, a split cassette on Orchid Tapes alongside R.L. Kelly.

This fall, he joins Run for Cover Records for the release of his debut full-length, Looking In. The album, recorded in solitude at Queen Mary’s Lighthouse in Chicago, encompasses all corners of Radcliffe’s songwriting style, leaving no part of his sonic map uncovered. Guitars and carefully outlined drums accentuate his pop craft on tracks such as “Mia” and “Yankee.” Traditional songwriting methods come apart naturally elsewhere through tumbling Rhodes piano, modified electronics, and brass in disarray. The one instrument that stitches the album’s atypical patchwork together is Radcliffe’s voice, allowing listeners to draw up their own impressions of his often equivocal work.

Looking In tracklist:
[pre-order]1. Mermaid [stream/embed]
2. Mia [stream/embed]
3. Folded
4. Relief
5. Parent
6. Looking In
7. Yankee [stream/embed]
8. World’s Disguise (CD/CS/Digital Only)
9. Otherside
10. Softspot
11. Salesman
12. E
13. Spelling Test

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