- Photo by Adam's drunk friend
The album recorded in one marathon session in Northeast Ohio late last year by Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Adam Marsland and his band is now available. Titled Hello Cleveland, its 14 raw, immediate tunes were written in a few days preceding the band’s gig at the Barking Spider in early October and recorded two days later in less than eight hours with engineer Bill Korecky at Mars Recording.
Marsland’s best known for Beach Boys-influenced power-pop, like that on his album Go West, which came out in the middle of last year.
He says, “One might wonder why a new album less than six months after Go West came out. Hello Cleveland came out spontaneously on the road, borne of the frustrations of touring and just dealing. It’s been called “the anti-Go West” by a few people. Go West is long, diverse, layered, thoughtful. Hello Cleveland is short, obnoxious and in your face. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of an album I would write if I was in a really pissy mood, wonder no more.”
The CD, which Marsland describes as “an angry, satirical, rocking and darkly funny album that takes a dead aim at pop culture and the state of rock and roll,” features Marsland’s East Coast touring band — bassist Teresa Cowles, keyboard player Charlie Zayleskie and drummer Jon Braun — along with Cleveland’s Bill Stone, formerly of Paranoid Lovesick, on backing vocals.
It features tunes like “The Day I Bought Micky Dolenz a Beer,” “40-Year-Old College Student,” “Dave Matthews Again,” “Sports Bar” and “My Name Is Jonas Brothers.” A video for the latter is currently posted at Marsland’s website.
Marsland’s pressing only 500 copies of the CD — retail-ready, glass-mastered, professionally reproduced — and is selling them only through his website. “When they’re gone, they’re gone,” he says. —Anastasia Pantsios
