Reviews

We did a nice little Dusted "Listed" feature.

Pitchfork used the wrong cover art for Ghost Man on First.

Foxy Digitals said nice stuff about Ghost Man on First.

This online zine reviewed Ghost Man on First.

A dutch website reviewed Ghost Man On First.

A dutch website reviewed the unreleased demos for Sleepwalks In The Garden Of The Deadroom.

A dutch website reviewed UML.

MOJO reviewed Unpacking My Library.

DIW review of Unpacking My Library.

Cmsienko Foundation reviewed the Medleys 12".

And www.nudeasthenews.com said very nice things.

Splendid e-zine had a nice one too.

Sincere brutality.

I love the foreign ones -- they are great when run through a text translator.

Magnet magazine review.

In Christgau there is no east or west.

Boston Phoenix.

Review from www.indiepages.com

Review from www.invisibleyouth.com.

Isollae review.

WRVU top ten in the Nashville Rage.



Press Bios

NYC's Currituck County CD Out Now On Lexicon Devil

Yup, you heard it right. Just when you thought that Lexicon Devil was going to be horribly typecast for the rest of its life as being a label only dealing in high-grade, no-holds-barred, top-of-the-line psych/noise/space/punk/gunk, we've taken a detour and released a CD of honest-to-Pete FOLK MUSIC, fer chrissakes! What in the dang heck is up?!

Currituck Co. is one Mr. Kevin W. Barker of New York City. An ex-resident of Washington DC, he's been kicking around that good city's underground rock scene for a good half-decade or more, and indeed has a couple of discs on the estimable Teen Beat label to show for it (a 2002 Currituck Co. CD and one from his "rock band" Aden). But I digress...

Currituck Co., however, is a different kettle of fish to any kind of standard "rock" fare or the type of upwardly-mobile pop usually associated with Teen Beat. Currituck Co. is just Kevin, his guitar and a smattering of assorted instruments. With a record collection that undoubtedly contains a few titles on the Topic, Folkways and Takoma labels, Mr. Barker creates an awesome world of sound that thankfully avoids the pitfalls of being cute, overbearing, whitebread or simply the Sounds Of A Man With A Cool Record Collection. The music of Currituck Co. is subtle, haunting, intricate and deeply melodic.

With a transatlantic sound that brings together both UK and American folk influences, Currituck Co.'s Ghost Man On First CD is a unique blend of sonics that occasionally brings to mind an imaginary meeting of Bert Jansch and Robbie Basho, the mixture of covers and originals is a mesmerising stew. There's the traditional banjo/vocal two-step of "I Truly Understand", Jansch's "Silly Woman" and Nina Simone's "Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" (reworked as the folk-raga piece "A Raga Called Nina") as well as Barker originals like "Requiem for John Fahey", the astounding "A Raga Called Pat Cohn", which blends acoustic guitar with tablas and Silvertone air organ to hallucinatory effect, and the fearsome "March of the People Who Do Not Know You", an electric guitar freakout bound (and likely aimed) to upset folk-purist dullards everywhere.

With a busy show schedule alongside such kindred spirits from the East Coast Out-Folk scene as Devandra Bernhardt, Animal Collective, Tower Recordings and Fursaxa, previous material on respected labels like Troubleman Unlimited and Teen Beat and raves from the undie press, Lexicon Devil is proud, pleased and excited to announce the release of Currituck Co.'s Ghost Man on First CD to anyone who'll listen.

- Dave Lang/Lexicon Devil


Currituck County "Ghost Man On First" (lexdev010)
Length: 42 minutes / 8 songs

Radio people should play: "Requiem for John Fahey" (track 2); "A Raga Called Pat Cohn" (track 3); "Silly Woman" (track 5).

Lexicon Devil is distributed exclusively in Australia by Fuse Music (www.fusemusic.com.au) and in the USA by Forced Exposure (www.forcedexposure.com). Other territories please contact Lexicon Devil or Shock Exports (www.shockexports.com).

Please write to Lexicon Devil for other releases by F/i, Jennifer Gentle, Boy Dirt Car, Verdure and Vocokesh. Coming soon: Vibracathedral Orchestra.

LEXICON DEVIL: PO Box 125 Richmond VIC 3121 Australia
lexdev@yahoo.com.au

CURRITUCK CO.
Unpacking My Library
Teenbeat Records

Unpacking My Library is the first country rock album in 30 years. That is, if the point of country rock isn't for rockers to put on funny accents and pretend to be drunk and bittersweet, but to try and make something new out of those beautiful alien worlds locked away in dead white people's records. Currituck County don't sing one word about booze, but their songs are lit by the shining notes of steel-stringed guitars and the lightning rhythms of banjos so fast they drone. And as gentle and funny as it is, Unpacking My Library is dark, sometimes almost black, with a sense of lost time and impossible things. But the very loneliest moments of a song like "Henry" are detonated with insane pop hooks and a mesmerizing Bluegrass riff--as indulgently sweet as a hard cry, without any stains.

Currituck County's mentors--John Fahey, Bert Jansch, The Byrds --were collectors who worked alchemy with traditional music. For them, tradition wasn't sterile or cute. It was a seductive force, something at once homespun and exotic that could take you to a universe richer and deeper than ours, or just get you hopelessly lost. It's no accident that Fahey--the mad record collector who used his thousands of lost 78's to invent his own guitar style--wrote an autobiography called How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life. Yet in Currituck County's hands this sad, faraway music feels close-up and welcoming.

Kevin Barker's vocals have a conversational intimacy you could compare to Elliot Smith or Townes Van Zandt; on songs like "Concrete" and "Nightmares" he's alternatingly ghostly and sweet. The spare, deadpan voice contrasts starkly with the sumptuousness of his music, playful arrangements flawlessly produced and backed up by Mark Greenberg (the Coctails, Archer Prewitt). But what makes Unpacking My Library completely distinctive is the guitar. It's played by Kevin Barker, who contributes Television-esque melodies to Jeff Gramm's dry, thoughtful songwriting in Aden. Here it's something entirely new: British folk hooks out of Bridget St. John or Nick Drake; fluid, hypnotic fingerpicking so delicate you'd be afraid it would blow away, til you hear the deliberate slownesses, jarring overlaps and bright chimes. Currituck County aren't bogged down by their influences--they turn a deep sense of what's come before them into something private and surreal that's also accessible and beautiful.