photo by Shannon Claire
words by Chance Solem-Pfeifer
After busy, upbeat, lauded starts to 2014, the new split 7'' between Matt Whipkey and Brad Hoshaw feels a bit like a ruminating epilogue.
Released on a 300-record run of vinyl at Record Store Day last Saturday, the 7'' comes on the heels of Hoshaw (and Whipkey in his band, The Seven Deadlies) releasing their sophomore LP, Funeral Guns, in February. It also follows Whipkey taking home the Omaha Entertainment and Arts awards for Best Artist and Best Album for last year's Penny Park: Omaha, NE: Summer 1989.
The pair of songs on the split, "I Miss You" and "Sorry," find both Whipkey and Hoshaw (respectively) in a mood of initimate and lonely contrition, detached from the band-driven magnetism of Funeral Guns, two sides of a somber acoustic coin. The musicians will hold a release party for the 7'' tonight at Harney Street Tavern in Omaha. RSVP here.
On "I Miss You," the listener's closeness to Whipkey's crooning enhances the feel of intimacy, recorded in such a way that his voice is all-surrounding. While Whipkey is known for blazingly clean electric guitar solos, he picks only with thumb and fingers here, back by pedal steel, on a song about the seasonal woes of yearning for a person. The changing of the Hallmark greetings bring no solace. The lyrics tear off several months of calendar pages, but the message is always the same: "I miss you."
"Sorry" is probably draped in regret in an even darker way, a song in which Brad Hoshaw's narrator offers a litany of apologies for his drunken behavior, pauses, and then apologizes further for probably not apologizing correctly. Lyrically, it demonstrates a mournful sense of Hoshaw's patience with an ending that sounds like an open promise of the narrator's suicide. But the song is then carried out to sea with no more words, just an outro toned entirely by cello.
This 7'' is the first release on Omaha photographer Chip Duden's new boutique label, Duden Ranch Records.
Listen to the digital premieres of "I Miss You" and "Sorry" here:
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. Reach him at chancesp@hearnebraska.org.