Today, Sloan Brothers shares the upcoming Culture Bleed EP in its entirety ahead of its official digital release on Friday, Mar. 17. Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Southern Shelter archivist Sloan Simpson is once again joined by an impressive who’s who cast of backing musicians for this collection of songs, such as Carlton Owens (Cracker), Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) and Avery Leigh Draut (Night Palace). Counting down the remaining days of his 40s until his 50th birthday arrives on Sunday, Mar. 19, he felt an urgency to go ahead and release these songs into the world.
Below, Simpson shares his thoughts for a song-by-song listening guide.
1. “Fake”
Sloan Simpson: Ever since I started writing music, I’ve had a lot of doubts about the validity of my doing so. You can’t just show up in middle age (late middle age at that) and start creating art for the first time, can you? The lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, but the feelings behind them are persistent.
Lyrics
All my life I left art to the pros
Played my guitar but I did not compose
First song I wrote, was almost forty-eight
An imposter, how can I create
I’m a fake
Make no mistake
Other folks are artists
I don’t even try my hardest
I’m a fake
I’m a hoax
Compared to all the greats
My work is just a joke
Why do I feel like my art isn’t real
Why not me, I live and breathe and feel
I’d like to think that when I’m dead and gone
Someone will listen, then I will live on but
I’m a fake
Make no mistake
Other folks are artists
I don’t even try my hardest
I’m a fake
I’m a hoax
Compared to all the greats
My work is just a joke
2. “No Rhyme (Three Minutes At A Time)”
SS: When Chunklet put out the Sloan Brothers/Obligatory Refractions split 7” last fall, an old friend wrote me and said “Man, you sure can pack a lot of pain in a pop song.” That was one of my favorite quotes about my music, but I couldn’t use it for publicity because he’s not a writer! It eventually occurred to me that the line could have a song written around it instead. So, I set it in the voice of a fictional songwriter who’s pretty good at the craft, but not so good at maintaining a personal relationship. I have an odd relationship with humor in music, but can’t resist a little bit, and had to ask Avery Leigh [Draut] to voice the Whitney Houston reference in the song. It needed gang vocals and handclaps, which says SHEHEHE to me. I’ve wanted to get Jeff Rapier involved on bass for a while and this song lent itself to that. I also had the nerve to trade guitar licks with the master, Kevin Sweeney, here.
Lyrics
I can pack a lot of pain in a pop song
But I’m too dumb to figure out how me and you can get along
I can tell it to strangers on the internet
But I still don’t know just how to talk to you yet
Why can’t I just live in a song
Wrap it all up neat and move on
I know just what to do three minutes at a time
But I can’t make it work when there’s no rhyme
“Let’s Stay Together” sounds great on wax
But it don’t sound so hot when you’ve got the facts
“I Will Always Love You” gets you with the key change
But I can’t pull it off with you, I just don’t have her range
Why can’t I just live in a song
Wrap it all up neat and move on
I know just what to do three minutes at a time
But I can’t make it work when there’s no rhyme
Why can’t I just live in a song
Wrap it all up neat and move on
I know just what to do three minutes at a time
But I can’t make it work when there’s no rhyme
3. “Culture Bleed”
SS: This is a lament about how “progress” in a place like Athens, GA can push out the arts and artists. Who could afford to open a new rock club downtown? Where can a young artist moving to town afford to live and still create? Jay Gonzalez has become one of my most frequent Sloan Brothers contributors and his piano and vocals on this one are just gorgeous. I thought it was finished but began to hear Patterson Hood’s voice on it in my head, and he graciously agreed to join in as well.
Lyrics
Culture bleed
Is tearing us down
Who can live in this new town
Culture bleed
Why do we stay
Who remains to be betrayed
That little store
That we adored
Two million if you’re ready to move
A bidding war
We’ve lost our core
But someone’s bottom line is improved
Culture bleed
Leave us alone
Who would live in these new homes
Culture bleed
I can’t go back home
It happened there too so long ago
4. “Crush Me Out”
SS: So far all of my songs have started from the lyrics, which have dictated the arrangement to me. This time I had a groove in mind and was determined to retrofit lyrics to it.
Lyrics
I spent last night looking through photographs of you
Fading epitaphs from prehistoric times we lived through
No special reason just got nothing better to do
I lost your number or else I would be calling you too
Crown me now I’m your king of regret
Show me why we’ve never been there yet
Take the wheel of this confidant roulette
Crush me out like your last cigarette
That box of photographs has been with me for far too long
Time to sit down and put these thoughts in yet another song
Just like this kick drum wanting you will still go on and on (and on)
And when the beat stops that’s how you’ll know I’m finally gone
Crown me now I’m your king of regret
Show me why we’ve never been there yet
Take the wheel of this confidant roulette
Crush me out like your last cigarette
5. “Coca-Cola Lake”
SS: This instrumental was named for a vacation spot we went to as kids that was owned by the soft drink bottling plant where my uncle worked. When I hear pedal steel in my head it always sounds like John Neff, so luckily he was glad to help out here.
Set your alarm for Culture Bleed‘s official release via Soundcloud and Bandcamp on Mar. 17, and follow along with Sloan Brothers’ adventures on Facebook and Instagram.
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