Get Mamalarky’s debut album on Creamsicle Vinyl + The “Full Wrap” tee for one low price.

Mamalarky spent two years working on their self-titled debut album (out via Fire Talk on November 20th). Raw and cerebral, the LP looks to a range of influences from their collective musical nerdiness. ''We might have a vocal melody that sounds like the lead steel guitar from Santo & Johnny, played over production that aims to be noisy and weird like Deerhoof or Sheer Mag, all the while steeped in the greats like Stevie Wonder or The Four Seasons,' explains Livvy. The album itself was cobbled together in a mix of DIY ways: home recordings with Livvy’s roommate Joey Oaxaca (White Reaper, Mo Dotti), singles with Daniel McNeill (White Denim) and a “final wrapping-up” with engineer Jim Vollentine (Spoon, Skating Polly). The result is an album that’s as musically fun and explorative as it is catchy and sweet. Or as Mamalarky puts it “We want to provide an experience that's exploratory and trippy, but far removed from the problematic and corny psych stereotypes carried out by all those 60s dude bands.”

I’m bored. we're all bored. we wrote and recorded a song during this boring time. Here is exactly what it sounds like as a waveform. It's about falling in love and not knowing exactly how to say it yet. This concept of shared love-'you say you love me but what does that mean?' It's like...does love mean the same thing to both of us? Can it ever entirely mean the same thing, being different people who experience life so differently? Maybe that's why they invented the 5 love languages, to reconcile with these little differences in how we give and take and feel love? Maybe this expression that you're listening to now is as close to an understanding of love as anything else. Everything on this track is the first take, meaning we only recorded each part once. It was home recorded, right after SXSW was called off by the covid. It was meant to be a demo and then we were like...actually this sounds more genuine than it would if we just sat in a studio and hacked away at different takes, trying to make it perfect. The result is organic and cage free, but may contain soy and tree nuts.

'Fury was inspired by acknowledging a suppressed crush, and how scary and exciting that can be. Confronting that truth is the most important thing, despite the difficulties, I definitely learned that the hard way. It feels like our most unhinged song yet, I think you can really get that energy from the layers of guitars and doubled bass line.

I wrote the chord progression for Fury during a soundcheck, feeling pretty pent up after a long drive and wanting something entertaining to play. The lyrics also got written in one go right after we recorded the drums, bass, and guitar tracks, so it feels really untampered with to me. Now that I think of it, the synth hook also happened spontaneously while we were recording, with no rehearsed part written. It's nice to have a song tumble out into the world like you're throwing dice, just seeing what you'll get. That's the general life strategy for Mamalarky lately!!!

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“I want nothing more than to be a loner,” Emily Kempf sings early on Flower of Devotion, the new album by Chicago trio Dehd. It’s a startling admission coming from a songwriter who, just a year ago on Dehd’s critically acclaimed Water, wrote eloquently about the joys and pains — more than anything, the necessity — of love, compassion, and companionship. But then, “admission” isn’t really the right word here, given the stridency of Kempf’s tone. “Loner” is a declaration.

The record ups the ante on Dehd’s sound & filters in just enough polish to bring out the shining and melancholy undertones in Jason Balla and Emily Kempf’s songwriting, even as it captures them at their most strident. Balla’s guitar lines at times flirt with ticklish cosmic country, while at others they reflect the dark marble sounds of Broadcast. Kempf, meanwhile, establishes herself as a singer of incredible expressive range, pinching into a high lonesome wail, letting loose a chirping “ooh!,” pushing her voice below its breaking point and letting it swing down there. When she and Balla bounce descending counter-melodies off one another over McGrady’s one-two thumps, or skitter off over a programmed drum pad, they sound like The B-52s shaking off heartache.

What makes Flower of Devotion so impressive is how its creation seems to have strengthened its creators, both as individuals and as a unit, even as they’ve stared down their own limitations. It’s also striking just how much fun they seem to be having in the process. “It’s okay to be lighthearted in the face of despair,” Kempf says. It’s a theme that runs through the album, from the opening back-and-forth build of “Desire” to the click-clacking chorus of “Haha,” which finds them deflating their own history. Flower of Devotion was recorded in April and August of 2019 in Chicago. It will be released on Fire Talk Records on July 17th 2020.

2nd Pressing
Glow in the Dark Vinyl - 300 Copies
Black in Bright Green Vinyl - 500 Copies
Black Vinyl - 500 Copies

1st Pressing
Neon Green Splatter Vinyl - 500 Copies
Black Vinyl - 500 Copies

* Additional color variants available via fine independent retailers everywhere.