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September 22, 2015 (Madison WI) – If you were to get lost while driving through a somewhat familiar ghost town, and you happened upon an old white church whose paint was chipping off, Jeff German’s music would be playing inside. His new record, 12 Packs and 8 Tracks and Black & White TV, is a soundtrack not just for the journey but for the experience of being lost. Of having faith not because miracles abound but because it’s the only thing you have left.
Recorded in a small cabin over the course of three days, German says this album is more personal than his first solo release, 2013’s 12 Rounds. German learned the music business in the Cur Dogs and backing the likes of Lydia Loveless, but now he’s grown more confident in his own gifts of story. “The first song I wrote for this record was ‘Texas,’ and it felt different immediately. The lyrics were very personal and relatable. It was a song dealing with forgiveness and despair. The songs continued to come and continued to be very personal,” says German. His vulnerability was never more life-affirming than on “Hang On,” a pleading ballad that soars with Todd May’s backing vocals. Threaded through the whole album is Matthew Wilson’s pedal steel, winsome and masterfully mixed.
All that sorrow doesn’t mean German’s lost his ability to turn out the blue collar rock that built 12 Rounds. “Woodshed,” the debut single from the new record, celebrates music-making and camaraderie among friends. This song’s title describes both a place where music is made an the act of making it. German praises “writing songs and tellin’ lies / the way it oughtta be / hangin’ out in the woodshed with my old friends and me.” Later, “Somewhere Between” excavates the flickering hope that comes with uncertainty, German’s dutiful acoustic guitar driving the beat. Another standout is German’s cover of Fred Eaglesmith’s “Wilder Than Her.” You can easily picture German grinning and shaking his head in admiration of a woman who’s bested him and knows it.
Through it all, the fragility and the fun, German’s voice is brave, especially at its most tremulous. In moments, he channels other Americana staples like Richard Shindell. Like enduring singer-songwriters before him, German has a range of modes, paired with the skilled counterpoint to pull off each of them.
12 Packs and 8 Tracks and Black & White TV is out September 22, 2015 on Slothtrop Records. The album will be available for download via iTunes.
For more information on Jeff German, visit:
reverbnation.com/jeffgerman
sonicbids.com/band/jeff-german-the-blankety-blanks
jgblanketyblanks.com

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September 22, 2015 (Madison WI) – Slothtrop Music is pleased to announce the signing of Austin-TX based singer-songwriter Jessie Torrisi. Torrisi, who records as The Please Please Me, has joined Slothtrop to release her upcoming CD, which blends pop, country, and R&B.

Slothtrop Music, based in Madison, WI, is a record label that also offers management, publishing, and consulting to musicians.  It was founded in 1995 by Eric Hester, who finds new talent across the globe. Says Torrisi, “”I crossed paths with Eric when I first moved to Austin & put out X in Texas. That was the beginning of my songwriting career. All these years later, I’m excited to work together and join a label that invests in great songwriters.”

Torrisi, a Philadelphia native, cut her teeth as a drummer in a number of New York City bands. She’s previously self-released music, including 2009’s critically acclaimed Brûler Brûler.

The Please Please Me’s newest release, Year of the Horse, will be out on Slothtrop in autumn 2015. This record includes the moody slow burn of debut single “F This,” As with her other releases Torrisi’s dusky vocals serve as simultaneously world-weary and enraptured guide.

For more information on Jessie Torrisi and The Please Please Me, visit http://www.thepleasepleaseme.com.  More information on Slothtrop Music is available at http://www.slothtrop.com.

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March 18, 2014 (Madison WI) – Ohio based singer/songwriter Jeff German releases his debut effort, “12 Rounds” March 18th on Madison, WI-based Slothtrop Records. The LP takes an eclectic mix of musical styles – country, punk, arena rock, bluegrass, gospel – and pummels them into a blue collar brand of Americana all his own.

“I never set out to write a certain type of song. The songs usually strangle me until I get them right,” says German. If that’s true, then12 Rounds, is evidence that German has had many close calls at the hands of his own songs. While German may be new to many as a solo act, he is a veteran musician. He was a member of quintessential Ohio band The Cur Dogs and works often as a studio musician in the Midwest and as a supporting musician for numerous acts such as Bloodshot Record’s Lydia Loveless.
Though the album is straight-up “blue collar rock,” it is built on a variety of influences. This diversity is in part thanks to German’s older brother, whose collection inspired the musician throughout his formative years. Jeff German grew up listening to his older brother’s record collection: Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Stones, Faces eventually morphed into The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and then into Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. In addition to drawing on a wide berth of musical influences, German has been enriched by a wealth of life experience. With his trademark humility, German says, “I am the son of a strong union electrician. I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I am a 50- year-old man who, after taxiing teenagers around and coaching high school hockey, has a few hours left in a day to cobble together some songs and some tunes.”

Ten of these tunes comprise 12 Rounds. “12 Rounds was nothing like I thought it would be. I was going for a ‘five guys in a room playing’ type of feel and wound up with a full on Midwest Rocker. No complaints but that’s the truth,” says German of the new record. And rock it does, from the album opener and lead single “Sit and Think” on. That track’s chorus finds German singing “This town needs a bar ‘cause I need a drink,” over a building drumbeat. “This is a song that was inspired by characters in books I read that just come at me and won’t leave me alone. Good guys stuck doing wrong things and not knowing how to stop the cycle,” German says of the single, which will be available in a special 200 piece vinyl limited edition with original artwork. Other standout tracks include “Kro-Bide,” a triumphant working-class anthem with a winning guitar solo. On “Long Road to Nowhere,” German intones a tribute to radio with impeccably timed delivery.

The imagery that dapples German’s lyrics—bars, sweat, and radio stations on long drives—might be familiar in Americana music, but it’s exciting and new to hear someone pull off music, vocals, and lyrics all with equal, outstanding panache.

12 Rounds will be released March 18, 2014 with the first pressing receiving a special 200 piece limited vinyl edition featuring hand numbered original artwork. More info about 12 Rounds and Jeff German is available at the band’s website, http://www.jgblanketyblanks.com/ or via their record label, http://www.slothtroprecords.com

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