Cleft Music: News

Fresh off the presses is Jonny Fritz's Down On the Bikini Line in wink wink nudge nudge PINK! Head over to the store to order a copy!

Tim Chad and Sherry kick off their UK full length release with two videos and a LIVE appearance on The Marc Riley show on BBC6!

Wednesday, December 5th, Jacob Morris and his MOTHS band will debut his first full length LP at the 40 Watt in Athens Ga. The album is a couple of years in the making and Cleft is very proud to be releasing it jointly with Athens label, Cloud Recordings. Order a copy HERE. 

 We have SOLD OUT of the limited 250 copy pressing of Jonny Corndawg GLOW VINYL. Pick up a copy on black wax HERE!

We've got a very smokey split coming up from two of Nashville's moodiest crooners, Kurt Wagner of Lambchop and the Altered Statesman. Cleft is thrilled to release this split as we've been fans of both for years. Pour a glass of scotch and sink into your arm chair for this one. It's lusciously recorded by Joe McMahan and features a very soulful backing band. Expect this early winter on beautiful sounding vinyl as a limited pressing of 500. Stay tuned....

Jonny Corndawg Fritz was in the Cleft Studios a few months back recording his masterpiece, Down On the Bikini Line. It's his first, full fledged, studio album to date (he's 8 albums into his catalog and probably more but it's getting hard to keep track). Seen here is Jonny working in the lounge upstairs on one of his many leather works while taking a break from recording. We are really excited to be offering this album on limited edition vinyl, including special glow in the dark copies which are even more limited. As for now, his album can be pre-ordered at various sites but here is a quick jump to Amazon where it's already available. Head over to Jonny's website and say HELLO! Like him on Facebook!

Here's a brief teaser of Chelsea Crowell's upcoming, second LP, Crystal City. Credit: Colm O'Herlihy. Crowell has European dates lining up for late October through November and the album will see a release state side, late Nov/ early December. 

As a preview to his upcoming, full length album recorded with Cleft, Jonny "Corndawg" Fritz appears on a split 7" with Rhode Island's favorite country sons, Deer Tick. Released by Partisan Records, this 45 comes in white and sky blue colors with only 500 of each pressed.  Pick one up HERE.

Jacob Morris of Ham1 fame, and who has backed other Athens artists such as Madeline and the late, great Vic Chestnutt, spent part of January, July and September working on his debut solo record. We are really excited about wrapping up this beautiful album, a mixture of folk and pop, steered by Morris's unique voice. Pictured here are Madeline Adams, who also tracked some songs for her upcoming album, and Elephant-6 alumnus, multi-instrumentalist, John Fernandes. Stop in to Wuxtry Records in Athens, Ga sometime and say HI!

It's finally here. After years in the making and a handful of DIY releases, Tim Chad & Sherry lay down their butt shaking testament on Baby We Can Work It Out, featuring TC&S classics like "Caller I.D." and "The Love I Make." With searing live cuts and laboratory science, this is the album your summer has been waiting for. Cleft Music is serving up this smooth slice of psychedelic dance on both 12" vinyl LP, compact disc, and digital download. COME JOIN US AT GRIMEY'S SATURDAY JULY 17th at 5. We'll have records on sale and will be giving away some copies! CLICK HERE to get a copy from our online store or digital download.

Chelsea Crowell made an appearance on All Things Considered this afternoon! We enjoyed hearing Robert Siegel announce the clip. Click HERE to listen to the performance!

Greetings friends! Cleft Music is happy to announce our lineup of new releases for Spring and Summer! Kicking things off this May, the studio debut of Nashville's psyche-soul lovers, Tim Chad and Sherry, drops an instant party on wax and cd as Baby We Can Work It Out. In tandem with this comes another debut, Jane Only's Jane Only. This country rocker is a pre-cursor to Chelsea Crowell's gorgeous solo outing, recorded with collaborator, Stephen Braren who has been busy with band, Cheap Time. Coming later this summer is Ham1's fourth album, Let's Go On and On With Ham1. This is currently our favorite band out of Athen's GA and we think the new record builds on last year's The Underground Stream, taking their unique blend of psyche folk spaghetti western surf rock to new and glorious heights. Lastly, we're proud to announce the release of veteran dive bar champion, Sunflower, as MONSTERS ON TELEVISION. Most folks know Sunny as the original drummer for Finnish freak rocker, The Mattoid. Life Is So Bizarre is a fierce compilation of hard hitting garage rock and angsty punk pop from a real Music City outsider. We'll have streams, downloads, store links, where's, why's, who's, and whatsitallabouts VERY SOON. Baby We Can Work It Out and Jane Only are NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER/PREORDER! Click here!

We have experienced a massive flood in Nashville and 51 other counties in Tennessee. Please donate to any of the following organizations. Cleanup and recovery will take a long time. Please contribute what you can. Hands On Nashville, 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Nashville, and Nashville Red Cross.

Late winter has seen Jonny "Corndawg" Fritz log some serious studio time at the Teacher's Lounge. Fritz has realized a "life long vision" recording his first project with a decidedly "Nashville Sound". Having assembled some of Music City's finest purveyors of country and Americana instrumentation, Fritz is sitting on a stack of what we think will be modern country classics. Down On the Bikini Line features studio recordings of some of his most popular tunes like "Life of a Bear", "Chevy Beretta", and "When a Ford Man Turns To Chevy" along with new material we've been digging a lot lately! Wait till you here "Red On the Head". All stars Ben Martin and Jordan Caress have coffee at this posting while the Corndawg goes over numbers. 'Bikini Line also features such killer musicians as Josh Hedley, the Legendary Rich Gilbert, and John McCauley from band, Deertick.

We're really excited to announce that our favorite psychedelic soul ballers, Tim Chad & Sherry will be performing at All Tomorrow's Parties in England this May! Pavement is curating and we're happy to see some friendly faces on the roster. We can't think of a better way to celebrate the release of T.C.&S's upcoming studio debut, Baby We Can Work It Out.

...Chelsea Crowell made the Nashville Scene's list of top albums for 2009! Our friends and sometimes collaborators, JEFF the Brotherhood, launch from the cover! Cleft produced and fellow Infinity Cats, Natural Child, also get a shout out. On top of all this, our friends and associates at Lake Fever Productions get a spirited write up by Scene writer, Sean Maloney. Check it out!

Sound the trumpets, spread the word... Chelsea Crowell's self titled debut is officially available on cd and numerous download sites including Itunes and Emusic. Join us at Grimey's for an instore performance on Tuesday, December 8th at 6pm! We'll have the record on 150gram vinyl by then. Of course, you can still order a copy directly from us here!

Just in time for the holiday season is our first ever compilation, Cleft outtakes, demos, odds and ends: Volume 1! In early December, we'll be offering this eclectic time capsule, full of some of Nashville's most unique songwriters and bands. This sucker covers the map with pop, country, folk, rock, power ballads, thematic dirges, garage rock, funny and sincere moments that, for whatever reasons, were left in the vault. It's 80 MINUTES of pure unreleased bliss covering the first six years of Cleft Music. Through the holidays, we're offering it for ONLY 5 BUCKS and we'll be donating a % from each sale to 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Nashville. 

Click HERE to preorder Chelsea Crowell's first full length album. It will be available on CD November 10th and vinyl November 24th. She's also got an upcoming release with her band, Jane Only. Stay tuned.

With all the the Next Big Nashville festivities going down around town in the next few days, Cleft productions is giddy with excitement about the array of talent playing at The Anchor this coming fall Friday evening October the 9th. LYLAS will be performing alongside The Ascent of Everest, Paper Navy, Pineapple Explode and O, don Piano. A show surely not to be missed. The finely monikered The Anchor is located at 629 3rd Ave S. and caters to all types, not just longshoremen, sailors or those with anchor tattoos.

Okay... so we didn't even have a chance to break the news on upcoming releases before the Nashville Scene slipped the skinny in their very snazzy and very glossy FALL GUIDE! Pick yourself up a copy and check out PAGE 22 or click here to read about what's coming up!

It's LYLAS season here at CleftMusic.net and you'll notice this is true because our handy music streamer should be piping some soft, sweet sounds through your computer from their newest release, "Do You Believe In Blood?" The Lylas gang released their 2nd album locally on 12" inch vinyl only. It will be available for download soon, however we highly suggest you pay a visit to the friendly folks at Grimey's and pick up a copy on wax with beautiful jackets silkscreened by Grand Palace in Murfreesboro. For a limited time, you can buy a copy directly from us on delicious 12" vinyl! 

Infinity Cat's latest 7 inch will feature a newer group with some familiar faces, Natural Child. The band includes members of Meemaw, Kintaro, and Esposito, Yes, Esposito, the band you went to see play at Guido's when you were in high school. 'Child recorded a quick, 5 song ep that is liable to melt your face off with songs like, 'Crack Mountain' and 'Shame Walkin'. It's already mastered and at United getting pressed so pick up some of that wax soon and turn it up!

The 5 spot is the place to be labor day weekend! Athens Ga's HAM1 return to Nashville to rock America's workers with their psychedelic folk rock! Closing the evening out will be none other than hungry birds, CLEM SNIDE! They'll be warming up for their tour starting the following day so you know it'll be a fun show! Kicking the night off will be two bands as one- Daniel PUJOL and SOME BEAUS/DENNY n the JETS. Most of you know Daniel from his glorious run with MEEMAW. Chris Denny drums for Pujol then rocks the last half, fronting his band, the Jets. SEPTEMBER, YEAH!!

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