It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Anders Parker, former member of Space Needle and Varnaline, solo artist and half of the duo Gob Iron (with Son Volt’s Jay Farrar). Now we’re finding out why: he’s been holed up in the studio making not one, not two, but four new albums. He released two of them together last year as a double-disc set called “Skyscraper Crow.”

The first disc, “Skyscraper,” is a collection of what his publicist calls “laptop pop tunes,” as demonstrated by the spare, catchy song “Calling Out to You.” The second, “Crow,” has a more rustic indie-folk sound on “72nd Street Horses.”

Parker, a Vermont transplant (shown here with his custom Creston guitar — very nice), describes “Skyscraper” as “my love/hate letter to New York and my life there.” With “Crow,” he says, “I was trying to create small little worlds with each song. I had just moved into my new home on a block surrounded in every direction by squawking crows.”

The other two albums — one consisting of “improv guitar instrumental noisescapes” and one rocked-up full-band record — are set to follow sometime this year.

LISTEN
Calling Out to You mp3
72nd Street Horses mp3

January 14, 2010 at 11:35 am | Share |