Sick & Tired

Shady Baby - Come To Life

Producer & Mix: Andy Kres
Master: Pat Coefficient

Heavy Heart

Ford

There's A Mouse In My House

Written and performed by CIEL
Produced and mixed by Steven Ansell
Mastered by Katie Tavini

Talk

Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness

Counting Empties

Dream + Lie

Lyrics:
Had to pick my jaw off the floor
When you walked into the Black Cat upstairs door

Ain't seen you in 15 years
But of course you'd find me here
After I've consumed too many beers
Gotta talk to you in italics
Acting like a smart Alec
I've always been a nervous wreck around you

This is not how I pictured this
On the back of my eyelids
Every night since 2006

Had to pick my heart off the floor
When you walked away, brought me back to Baltimore

Ain't seen you in 15 years
But of course you'd find me here
After I've consumed too many beers
Gotta talk to you in italics
Acting like a smart Alec
I've always been a nervous wreck around you

This is not how I pictured this
On the back of my eyelids
Every night

This is not how I pictured this
Thought I'd be skinnier and swimming in success by now
This is not how I pictured this turning out

Credits:
Written by Mike Toohey
Produced by Mike Toohey and Kyle Downes
Mastered by Scott Craggs
Cat illustration by Kristian Toohey

Black Cat

Public Practice is reanimating the spirit of late ‘70s New York with their intoxicating  brand of no wave-tinged dark disco. The band came in hot with their punchy balance of punk, funk, and pop on the critically acclaimed Distance is a Mirror EP in 2018, paving the way for their highly anticipated freshman record. Now, after a year of intimate and experimental songwriting in their home studio, they have fleshed out the energetic, playfully oblique sound captured on their debut full-length Gentle Grip. 

Together, the foursome creates bold, slinky rhythms and groove-filled hooks that get under your skin and into your dancing shoes. The musicians’ unique chemistry and approach to songwriting is part of what makes their world so intriguing. Magnetic singer and lyricist Sam York and guitarist and principal sonic architect Vince McClelland, who were creative music partners for years prior to Public Practice’s formation, come to the table with an anarchic perspective that aims to eradicate creative barriers by challenging the very idea of what a song can be. Paradoxically, Drew Citron, on bass/vocals/synth, and drummer/producer Scott Rosenthal are uncannily adept at working within the framework of classic pop structures. But instead of clashing, these contrasting styles challenge and complement one another, resulting in an album full of spiraling tensions and unexpected turns.

Inspired by influential New York bands like Liquid Liquid and ESG, the foursome has a natural inclination toward music that sounds rough-hewn. “We were thinking about classic New York dance albums, and the thing that stuck out is that many sounded like they were recorded in less-than-ideal situations,” McClelland says. “There was always something about them that felt somewhat home-cooked.” McClelland has spent the past few years constructing a home studio with carefully chosen and occasionally hand-made equipment in an effort to recreate that “cobbled together” sound. As three quarters of Public Practice are engineers as well as instrumentalists, their collection of gear, combined with the recording rig McClelland built, allowed the band to record Gentle Grip largely at their own hybrid practice space/studio in Brooklyn. “Having a space and setup that is unique, you're always going to have more of a signature sound,” McClelland explains. They spent the better part of 2019 playing with sounds, riffing on McClelland’s demos, and recording a number of songs live to tape. Although a handful of sessions occurred in traditional recording studios, the band’s autonomy and ability to record themselves imbues their music with a sense of freedom and gives it a distinct character — a home-cooked sound that is purely Public Practice.

Black Cat

Irish Basement

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