Shady Retreat

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Here’s the dilemma: I like a lot of divergent genres. Living in northern Europe the past eighteen months, I’ve been able to embrace my unabashed love of electronic club music and synthpop. I live in the birthplace of Eurovision, in the land of ABBA. Well, I’m twenty miles south of Sweden, but you get the idea.

My partner and I are making plans to move home within the calendar year, though “home” may become anywhere from NYC to Silicon Valley because he’s a start-up guy looking for funding. On an intercontinental phone call with my Indiana-based best friend the other night, I lamented how much I would miss The Voice, a European answer to what MTV was when it actually played music. I can switch on the appallingly commercial station at almost any hour of the day and catch a mix of Danish bubblegum pop, American hip-hop, and French club music. “When I get back, I’ll have to go back to listening to my college radio cry rock again,” I moaned to my pal, only then fully realizing just how far removed I’d become from the world I’d once inhabited.

To ease back into the idea of being stateside, I’ve been listening to Peasant. A bit more heavy-handed production-wise compared to Damien Derose’s first album, Shady Retreat is an excellent follow-up for folks who dig mellow songwriter jams—or people like me, who have to force themselves back into a once-loved genre.

The opening track, “Thinking,” starts rather abruptly, almost as though the producer meant to fade up the track but got excited at the last minute. Thankfully, other songs make up for the unsettling intro. “Prescriptions” is a cross between mellow folk-rock and a country ballad, complete with the clop-clop horse trotting sound effect in the background. It may be nothing more elaborate than a block being hit with a stick a la elementary school music class, but it produced an endearing, lo-fi quality for a wanna-be country gal like myself. I even felt my own Midwestern instincts kicking back in as I listened to “Into the Woods.” “Don’t go out into the woods,” Derose croons. No joke. I can get behind staying home where it’s safe and warm.

If you think you’re a club kid who hates sad bastard singer-songwriters, think again.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, April 4th 2010

On The Ground

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:09:00 +0000

By Peasant

Paper Garden Records

Damien DeRose, the musician and songwriter behind the Peasant name, could be any hybrid of melancholy and charming—The Shins meets the late Elliott Smith—a consumable sadness that Wes Anderson will no doubt eventually co-opt for a postmodern movie soundtrack. While I know this observation may not be a unique one, Peasant has already reached high-minded and popular audiences on National Public Radio's Second Stage and TV shows like The United States of Tara and Bones. I wouldn't be surprised if DeRose ends up on tour opening for Iron and Wine, or Bon Iver. Folk hipsters love a working class acoustic guitar strummer. Beards are the new black unless you're so cool, you've already moved on.

The first time I listened to this album, I was sobbing by track three. More related to my own circumstances than the melancholy sounds of On The Ground, it is nevertheless certifiable sad bastard indie folk rock. You can decide whether or not this is an endorsement.

Despite my cheerless reaction, the second album from Peasant combines soulful crooning with melodic bursts that I suspect are meant to inspire and hearten sad folk like me, with the songs offering a nod of somber solidarity. On "Exposure," DeRose explains that he's hiding from that exact thing, which makes me think how much I agree as I look for some cozy blankets under which to hide. "Fine Is Fine" finds our peasant wishing for simpler existence—"Can't we just be friends?"—instead of the monotony of discussing life's administrative details. "Those Days," refers to how "hazy" life can be. Is confusion really supposed to be so elegant? At least someone can make it sound that way.

Out on Paper Garden Records, a tiny Nashville label committed to environmental consciousness, the most earth-friendly purchase of this album would be in digital form.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, March 3rd 2009