New Releases
Other Ways of Living
by Local Tourist
Finding inspiration in tender psychedelia, existential poetry & literature, and the woollier, more expansive realm of the punk rock canon, Local Tourist have fashioned a sound out of defiant vulnerability.
Available on translucent or black vinyl with printed inner sleeves and download code.
DIVERS
by SOPORUS
2023 Grammy Award nominee for the beautiful packaging of this record!
On DIVERS, SOPORUS craft shimmering, immersive layers of sound using primarily guitar and bass augmented by accents of keyboard, electronics, and field recordings. The sounds blur together, obscuring individual instruments and creating a deceptively soothing soundtrack for our current apocalypse.
Pressed on black vinyl with printed inner sleeves and a handmade letterpress wrap that slides to reveal different aspects of the artwork.
Watch their record release show for DIVERS at the link below.
RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! SOUNDTRACK
by SWISH BLADE
SWISH BLADE’S soundtrack for the documentary RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! exists in a space shared by defiance, tenderness, lust, sorrow, anger, and humor. There is a simmering unease that never completely boils over and is often obscured by how rich and sensual the textures are. Using found sound, cut up sampling, synthesized keys, drum machines, and piano, SWISH BLADE creates an environment that is centered around the push and pull of emotive expression.
Pressed on yellow vinyl with printed inner sleeves.
Available on yellow vinyl, and digital.
Back Forty
by Rob Joynes
Back Forty is a collection of pensive, hummable songs that find power and emotional resonance in restraint. Sam Rosson’s clean and clear production gives the instruments a vibrancy that is complimented by Rob’s candid lyrics. The songs are concise and carefully-constructed, and while deeply personal, they also speak to universal themes of love, grief, family, and finding one’s place in the world. Occasionally, a debut album comes along that presents a fully-formed picture of the artist’s direction and aesthetic, and listening to it, you can feel that the artist has a long and accomplished career ahead of them. Back Forty is one such album.
Available on black vinyl, cloudy clear vinyl, CD, digital.
Forever Falling
by Joshua Daniel & Paul Gonzenbach
Available June 5, 2020
Forever Falling is an instrumental, melodic, almost-ambient collaboration between Seattle musicians Joshua Daniel and Paul Gonzenbach that explores the beauty and expressive qualities of opposites such as rhythmic vs. arrhythmic elements, organic vs. synthetic, and consonant vs. dissonant. The result is dreamlike and, at times, hallucinatory songs that are sometimes lulling and sometimes disorienting. It’s a record that is equally rewarding as a soundtrack for sleeping and worrying, the kind where you hear something new on each listen.
Available in black or red vinyl, same price. Red vinyl copies come with a hand-screened jacket.
Rhododendron
by Masc Acting
Masc Acting is the musical project of artist Jonathan Bell Wolfe. His music layers cascades of shimmering guitars over keys and drum machine, with the occasional recorder thrown in. His third album Rhododendron was recorded in all live takes, giving it an immediate, intuitive feeling. Rhododendron has its own logic that steers songs in unexpected directions, and its own language of loops, melodies, and textures. Pinning down the lush music is Wolfe’s tenor vocals, which speak of love, queer identity and experience, the natural world, and grief. Almost shoegaze, almost goth, beautifully melodic, with elements of noise woven in, Rhododendron is an unforgettable listen.
2LP galaxy swirl vinyl in gatefold sleeve.
Now, Now, Now EP
Driving at Dawn EP
On Unknown Shores EP
by Paul Gonzenbach
Three digital only EPs, free.
NEWS
PHOTO BY KELLY O
RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! Original Soundtrack by SWISH BLADE
Over the last seven months, the documentary RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO!, directed by Ryan A. White and Alex Clausen, has been an official selection at film festivals all over the world and has won the Audience Award at Wicked Queer Boston LGBTQI+ Film Festival as well as Best Documentary Feature at the GAZE LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland. Lovers Weekend is proud to announce that we will be releasing the soundtrack for this groundbreaking film, created by Seattle project SWISH BLADE, on yellow vinyl. Details to come.
Video for “Honor” by Rob Joynes
Rob Joynes has released a video for the track “Honor” off of last year’s Back Forty. The video was directed by Kevin Blanquies and Lauren Rodriguez and features some pretty dreamy/nightmarish imagery. Check out of the video here and order a copy of Back Forty here.
New EP by Paul Gonzenbach
On December 18, Lovers Weekend releases Driving at Dawn by Paul Gonzenbach, a companion EP to Now, Now, Now, which was released in September. Driving at Dawn will be released digitally only and will be free.
Back Forty Record Release Show
To celebrate the release of his debut album Back Forty on Lovers Weekend, Rob Joynes will be playing a show on Saturday, September 19. The show will be filmed with the help of the kind folks at Whalehouse Studio Cooperative in Seattle and will begin at 8:30 PM (PST). Please check back here on Saturday for the link to the show.
New EP by Paul Gonzenbach
On September 18, Lovers Weekend releases the first of a few planned EPs by Paul Gonzenbach. Now, Now, Now is a continuation of the direction Paul began on last year’s Holy Joy. However, it is not a sequel. This time, the number of instruments is pared down further by eliminating the more orchestral elements of Holy Joy. Whereas Holy Joy felt austere, Now, Now, Now feels more relaxed, languid, and warm. The arrangements also feel a bit more concise than on Holy Joy, and even though the three songs are each over seven minutes long, Now, Now, Now forgoes the hushed passages Holy Joy took to create space and breathe. Now, Now, Now will be released digitally only and will be free.
Premiere: “Even in Despair” from Back Forty by Rob Joynes
On August 28th, Lovers Weekend records is debuting a second track from Rob Joynes’ forthcoming album Back Forty, called “Even in Despair.” Built around carefully-crafted, arpeggiated piano and guitar figures, “Even in Despair” builds gradually and deliberately to a poignant instrumental peak with a call and response between cavernous guitars, backed with gentle distortion. Back Forty will be released on cloudy clear and black vinyl on September 18.
Hear "Even in Despair" and learn more about Rob Joynes.
Premiere : “Back for Good” from Back Forty by Rob Joynes
On Friday, August 14, Lovers Weekend is debuting the lead track on the album Back Forty by Rob Joynes. “Back for Good” uses guitars with clean, pure tones and piano accents to create an elegant, pensive bed for Rob’s tenor vocals. The lyrics are forthright and wistful without pretense or preciousness. Back Forty will be released on cloudy clear and black vinyl on September 18.
Hear "Back for Good" and learn more about Rob Joynes.
Lovers Weekend signs Rob Joynes
Rob Joynes, a singer-songwriter from Washington State, will be releasing his debut album Back Forty on Lovers Weekend in the fall of 2020. Featuring an array of local Seattle musicians, Back Forty is an album that uses Joynes’ signature blend of warm, melodic instrumentation as a frame on which to hang his evocative lyrics. The album touches on themes of queer identity, grief, family and growing older while maintaining a ruminating mood throughout. A dreamy collection of thoughtfully constructed songs, Back Forty is a heartfelt, sincere document of a specific place and time from an artist whose heart is buried somewhere in northern Spokane.
Check out a lovely performance by Rob on WDBK.
New video for “Odium” from Forever Falling
“Odium” is the fourth track on the album Forever Falling by Joshua Daniel and Paul Gonzenbach.
Forever Falling is available digitally as well as on regular black or bright red vinyl.
Joshua Daniel and Paul Gonzenbach to release instrumental album
Seattle musicians Joshua Daniel and Paul Gonzenbach will be releasing a collaborative album of instrumentals called Forever Falling on June 5, 2020. The two musicians have worked together on and off since 2008, when Joshua began playing in Paul’s live band. Their first collaboration was Joshua’s 2008 album Slowly Through the Turnstiles which used acoustic instruments recorded in a large space to give an expansive reach to the melodies. However, Forever Falling is an entirely different album. On this release, Joshua and Paul are much more concerned with tone and layered textures, with juxtaposing elements that sometimes fight and sometimes harmonize with each other. Instead of the mostly-traditional song structures of Turnstiles, Forever Falling’s five pieces follow their own logic, expanding or contracting in unexpected ways. It’s the kind of album that sounds completely different in different contexts, one where you hear something new on each listen.
Forever Falling will be available digitally as well as on regular black or bright red vinyl.