10 - Marley

09 - There Is Mercy

08 - The Highwayman

You’d think the libertines had arrived, and maybe they have. But make no mistake, they aren’t the ones singing these songs. Nick Flessa’s dolores reach acute levels on his new EP, Shootin the Shit. The symptoms however, appear in four very differently styled songs which range in tone from light crooning to trot-tempo rock. This brief journey doesn’t find its soul amidst a particular sonic thesis, rather in the malaise of its lyrics which take their time in describing a musician who is frankly not-too-down with the goings on around him. Stuck, like most of us, in an era of anomie, male debauchery, and recreational lifestyles which are rewarded for never shutting off, Flessa’s commentary takes aim at a kind of prevalent misfiring of American cultural life. The record assumes the “call out” as its form––an opportunity to push back on the encroaching distribution of bad ideas staining the surface of probity and the greater musical field where serious ideas can be valued as such. These are anti-love songs. These are songs of caustic account. Joining him on the record is producer/Valley Queen bassist Neil Wogensen, J.D. Carrera (pedal steel) and John German (synths). All four tracks were written shortly following a US tour in the fall of 2017. They are a prelude to Flessa’s upcoming, second full-length LP, after 2018’s deft Flyover States.