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| "No One Gets Hurt Ever" is Billy Coté and Mary Lorson's follow up to Madder Rose's 2019 comeback album "To Be Loved" |
Writes Mary Lorson...
"I didn’t feel much music during the pandemic. I learned some simple tunes to play at the nursing home where my mother spent her last months, and that was about all the music I could muster, other than going over to Billy’s to sing these songs on Sunday mornings. That’s how Billy spent the pandemic: he wrote and produced these beautiful songs. For that I am grateful! Regarding the song "MLMR," Billy liked the fragility of my demo of it, and encouraged me to finish it, but when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to, we went into improvising mode to deliver this mood piece. I’m glad we all “came together” to make this album. Singing with Matt Verta-Ray in person was a special treat!"
Billy Coté’s song notes:
Tangerine – This song is for someone who has finally been released, floating away, free of all pain and worry and strife…look through any window. Apologies to Led Zep and also Buffalo Tom, but the title just seemed to work for this one. We put Mary’s amorphous and increasingly abstract background vocal melodies to the fore (this record is full of her ghost vocals).
Mystery Date – A narcissist sailor comes to town and sells Iris’ clothes out on the street, among other things. A tribute to Berlin in the lyrics. Matt plays the lead guitar at the end, as well as joining me on feedback. This song was started in 1999 shortly before Madder Rose went on hiatus, and Chris remembers playing it at the Mercury Lounge. No recording existed. Mary said she’d like to do it, so I found the lyrics in an old notebook and added the quiet middle section. At times, Chris’ bass part sounds like Grand Funk Railroad, an early favorite of mine, but probably no one else’s (though I imagine Rick had some of their albums, being raised in the midwest). In their time, Grand Funk sold out Shea Stadium while rarely wearing shirts, but were forever scorned by critics. I just took off my shirt.
What Do You Know About My Lover? - Searching for signs, lying to one’s self, jonesing for their love – oh dear. We already know what the inevitable conclusion will be, but sometimes you must give heartache its due. Drama can be its own reward, I guess, so let’s get nuts! Chris’ bass moves the song along in a nice manner - his playing is almost impatient, much like Chris himself. This song features the use of Laura Cannell’s piece, Until I End My Song, from her beautiful and haunting record, The Earth With Her Crowns. We thank Laura for letting us use this (it’s the violin part throughout the song)!
Lou Mystery – The original four Madder Roses, and a quintessential old-school Madder Rose song. A duet between Mary and Matt. Mary and I went down to Matt and Rocio’s studio, NY Hed, and recorded the vocals with him. We also recorded some random feedback with a Magnatone amp and Matt’s rockabilly guitar, which gave me the idea to make the song evolve into a distortion cloud. An appropriately loose drum feel by Rick (my favorite drummer). This may be my all-time favorite Madder Rose track. The lyric is a walk around downtown Manhattan, circa the 90’s. In a city of such close quarters, good fortune daily rubs shoulders with despair. Methadone can be procured on the same block as designer handbags, but at some point everybody must get in line. When I told my son Roman that we were working on a song called Lou Mystery, he said, “Oh, like Lou Mr. Reed.”
Bird (Splinters) – Bird of sorrow, bird of envy - sometimes it’s best not to look up. This is one of two songs on this album that features keyboards. Everything else is guitar. Throughout the album I used layers of guitar feedback to create keyboard-like pads. Also a volume pedal. Shit was noisy in my house for a while. The last minute of Bird is what I consider to be a “guitar symphony” - also known as a bunch of guitars playing at the same time. This song was inspired by Spacemen 3 and the first couple of Spiritualized albums. I once approached Jason Spaceman at a festival hospitality tent, and told him how much I loved his records. His response was “low-key.”
City Rain – A somewhat romantic song, even as love lies dying in the rain. In a more realistic version, there are no cabs, and you mostly end up with wet shoes. This song begs the question, “Should we try one more time?” In my experience, the answer is always no.
My Love for You is Out of Control – I got this title from an old James Gang record I had when I was little. I can’t imagine how I ended up with such a record when I was seven. Even then I could tell that it was only okay. I always interpreted the title as someone driven mad by love. I now understand that love doesn’t drive you mad - it’s the surrounding jealousy and insecurity and competition and resentment that does it. Here’s to walking away!
MLMR - Mary’s song.
If I Drift Away - It’s been quite a day, if only in my head.
I Want a New Me (girlghostboyghost) - I was surprised to find this song on my phone, among the many musical voice memos that end up there. It probably should have been listed under “vodka memos.” We did it quickly, with Rick on a stand-up kit. It sounded like a nice way to end this album - slightly more lighthearted than our usual gloomy bullshit. Perhaps this is the protagonist from the previous nine songs, still searching for that magic. And why the fuck not?
Rick found the LP’s cover photograph. It is called, “West Side Highway abandoned with burned out Camaro, 1975“ taken by Andy Blair. Rick thinks he may have even seen that Camaro when he moved to New York in the 1980’s. The vehicle now resides in the NYC Memorial Crack Museum, located somewhere in the parking lot of the former Yankee Stadium.
Sending love and peace to Madder Rose and friends.
We sincerely hope you enjoy this album - it’s a succinct 36 minutes. I don’t think we put in any extra notes, though we did use all of them. – BC
The new Madder Rose album "No One Gets Hurt Ever" is out August 4th via Trome Records UK. Get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Watch a 2016 performance of "Swim" in Ithaca, NY below.
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