$8.99
Sold by music on Tradebit
The world's largest download marketplace
3,251,083 satisfied buyers
The world's largest download marketplace
3,251,083 satisfied buyers
MP3 Paul Labrise - Planet of the Love Guitars
15 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, ROCK: Americana
Details:
“Labrise writes intricate songs, that take you on a journey to a safe place in your mind, and remind you of a time when you’ve been surrounded by those you love.”
"Planet of the Love Guitars” is voted among the 20 Best Pop CD’s of 2000 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Planet of the Love Guitars” CD Review
By Mike Shanley
In Pittsburgh Weekly
January 26, 2000
Erstwhile guitarist Paul Labrise has avoided the dreaded “solo project pitfall” phenomenon on his new disc, Planet of the Love Guitars. Instead of sounding like a set of unfinished doodles--the danger of recording everything yourself--Planet’s 15 tracks are fully matured songs that stand firmly on their own without vocals. The songs retain a simple beauty that could be described as indie folk, peppered with a few jazz chords and sampled voices. Although Labrise’s electric guitar appears on several songs, his acoustic picking plays the lead melodies most of the time. Drums and bass--upright in one case--fill things out. When Labrise adds slide guitar on “Flying Trains,” it--surprisingly--enhances the purity of the vibe rather than overpowering it. Most of the tracks clock in under three minutes, never letting a melody wear out its welcome. And when he exceeds the eight-minute mark on the gentle waltz of “Tea Party,” it unfolds so sweetly, pushed by a slight off-key, that time never drags. ***1/2
“From Bitter To Sweet” CD Review
By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Music Critic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Thursday, January 27, 2000
When guitarist Paul Labrise left Bitter Delores in 1998, he did it because he was writing more material that didn’t suit the band, and he needed an outlet. So he formed the Haw Flakes.
When the Haw Flakes lost a drummer and nothing was happening over the summer, he needed another outlet. So he cut a solo album, “Planet of the Love Guitars.”
It’s all Labrise -- the drums, the bass, the lover guitars, the sound effects, the haunting tin whistle on “Grandeur.” It''s all instrumental, recorded at home on a four-track reel-to-reel machine and mastered in New York by original Haw Flake drummer, Greg “Spanky” Hoy.
Looking back on the four years he spent as a member of Bitter Delores, Labrise says, as much as he liked it, “It got to the point where I felt like I was always going to be looking over the fence.”
His friends in Bitter Delores were cool about his leaving, to the point that drummer Tom Emmerling recently joined Labrise’s band.
The Haw Flakes--including original bassist Ray Vasko--recorded a four-song effort that first summer and released it on their own to sell at shows.
The instrumental road Labrise’s taken on the solo disc is nothing new. He’s always written instrumentals.
“Pretty much the day I graduated from college, I started writing music,” he says. “And it was like being reborn. I went home for a month and then I moved away to live with a friend in Columbus. And basically, I lived in this kid’s studio apartment while he lived with his fiancee and I didn’t know anybody, which is perfect to get into writing when you’ve never done it before, if nobody’s around.”
He would have liked to have some friends around to work on “Planet” with him, but it only would have slowed him down and maybe compromised his vision.
“I was really in a fever,” he says, “just working on this thing. And at 3 in the morning, I can’t call Tom or any drummer, really, to come down and play. ...So it was just simpler to do it myself. And there were some things that I wanted to do that maybe some people wouldn’t really want to play. The same beat the whole time. Who wants to do that? They’ll add fills. Any drummer will add little things, and that’s not really what I wanted. So I learned how to do it and did it myself.”
Labrise is working overtime tonight to hype his low-key, low-fi instrumental treasure. First, at 8, he’ll be playing acoustic with Vasko at Cafe Au Lait. And then, at 10, Labrise with a full band plays a gig at the 31st Street Pub.
File Data