Hermetic Recordings - Songs: 2004-2016

by The Lovely Sparrows

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1.	Shake the Shadow 03:18	buy track
2.	Chemicals Change 03:01	buy track
3.	Year of the Dog 03:23	buy track
4.	While Sailing 04:09	buy track
5.	Department of Forseeable Outcomes 03:16	buy track
6.	Flowers Will Bloom 03:12	buy track
7.	National Monuments 03:26	buy track
8.	I Have A Need You See 03:17	buy track
9.	Bury the Cynics (Daytrotter session) 03:45	buy track
10.	If Love's A Sparrow (Demo) 05:07	buy track
11.	Take Care (Big Star Cover) 02:25	buy track
12.	The War Has Seen the Best of Me (Demo) 03:49	buy track
13.	Teenage Viking 02:55	buy track
14.	The Evening Wore On (Live on KVRX) 05:19	buy track

about

The Lovely Sparrows are one of Austin, TX’s finest bands and best kept secrets. Over the past decade, the Lovely Sparrows have forged an impressive body of work out of founder Shawn Jones’ sophisticated pop and dark folk leanings. In this newish century, the Lovely Sparrows' music has received positive reviews from the likes of Harp, Pitchfork, Spin and Paste as well as airplay from stations such as KUT, KVRX, and KSZU. The band has showcased at SXSW and Pop Montreal, toured much of the US, recorded a Daytrotter session and racked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube and Vimeo with the animated video for "Year of the Dog". The Lovely Sparrows are a living, pulsing amoeba of a band, deftly able to stage a show with as few as one and as many as seven members.

Hermetic Recordings collects songs from the entirety of the Lovely Sparrows' existence, from "I Have A Need You See" from their long-out-of-print debut, self-released 7", Take Your Hats Off You Godless Bastards, to "Shake the Shadow" from their long-awaited upcoming LP of the same name.

Head Sparrow Shawn Jones is a brainy songwriter with a gift for wordplay, unexpected rhymes, and occasionally startling imagery - PITCHFORK MEDIA

As the project of singer/songwriter and music teacher Shawn Jones, Austin's the Lovely Sparrows roll tender layers of brass, strings, and woodwinds over a brisk folk foundation. A storyteller first and foremost, Jones takes his cues from bookish, introspective acts like Belle and Sebastian...- SPIN

Through intensely intricate chamber folk arrangements, the Lovely Sparrows gesture toward Sufjan Stevens’ balance of orchestral grandeur and meditative calm, while Jones nasally swooning pop lifted vocals recall Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel - TEXAS MUSIC MONTHLY

A diverse, ambitious, and incredibly satisfying listen, bursting with countless feats of technical precision and patience-rewarding payoffs; never abandoning an unmistakable adoration of good old-fashioned pop music, dark hymnals, and simpler times – KUT / TEXAS MUSIC MATTERS

Bury The Cynics is one of those records, the ones that after a few spins will really start to show you its hidden treasures, all the bells and whistles that help albums get better over time. But it's also an immediately gratifying listen – NEW HAVEN REGISTER

I'm still wondering why this band hasn't somehow become massive, why they haven't been blasted out of Austin like a swarm of cannonballs - RCRD LBL

credits

released June 10, 2016

Artwork by Derek Van Gieson - derekvangieson.tumblr.com
Engineering and all around encouragement - Michael Landon
Video - Eric Power, Christy Tappe, Katie Green
Mastering - Alan Douches, Carl Saff, Jim Wilson

The Lovely Sparrows is, was and shall be again:

Shawn Jones
Lauryn Gould - too many instruments
Christopher Cox - bass, guitar, synth, vox, production
Matthew Shepherd - drums and percussion
Jason Cooper - bass, vox, production and arranging
Robert Ellis - guitar and vox
Earl Vallery - drums and percussion, keys, guitar
Meaghan Perry - guitar and vox
Gray Parsons - drums and percussion
Matt Hines - guitar
Lindsay Greene - bass and synth
Stephen Pierce - guitar
Steven Garcia - bass
Justin Sherburn - guitar
Paul Brinkley - drums
Jonas Wilson - guitar
Lauren Gurgiolo - slide guitar
Nathan Siler - bass, vox, piano
Steven Stark - cello, vox, guitar, string arrangements
Sweney Tidball - synth

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about

The Lovely Sparrows Austin, Texas

The long awaited second LP Shake the Shadow arrives November 16th on Abandoned Love Records, after an extended hibernation. Once again, Jones asks: “is there any real magic?”

Images of reclusive animals, the Church of the Night, and the neon carnival glow of impossible highways- are all woven between rich, orchestrated sound collages for a looser album that breathes now, more than ever. ... more

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