***“If you don’t know it yet, it’s my privilege to tell you that Ryan Davis is one of the greatest songwriters of his generation. Bold instinct immediately insists that I lose the qualifications: he’s the greatest of his generation, he’s one of the greatest ever. Whatever. Posterity—if there is a posterity—will sort it out. Happily, New Threats from the Soul has beaten the Doomsday Clock to the wire, and we appear to have a little while left to revel in it, receive its revelations, and be revealed by it......New Threats from the Soul is a masterclass in reducing the sublime to the prosaic, immensity to infinitesimality, and vice versa (the trick can only work both ways). Everything in our universe is essentially flotsam or jetsam, rubbish heaps of fragments and shards, a 'pile of voodoo dolls and iron scrap in the backyard for the meek to inherit.' We, especially, are jerry-rigs of bubblegum and driftwood, inconsistencies and incoherencies, dead dreams and necrophagous hopes, 'mismeasurements between the place where [we are] and the place where [we] could have been,' although somehow not—miracle of miracles—bereft of simple joys. The record functions in parallel with Kafka’s winking dictum that there is an infinite amount of hope in the universe, just not for us. At least, I would venture for coldest comfort, not as we have constituted ourselves. When Ryan has the penny slot yell 'What even am I, by god?’ toward the high stakes room, the soul chills and thrills at being so...
CD $10.00
07/25/2025
2XLP $32.50
07/25/2025
***"At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana—just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky—multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter RYAN DAVIS’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded STATE CHAMPION, long-running member of TROPICAL TRASH, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with Dancing on the Edge, a rich, 2xLP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage. Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like JOAN SHELLEY, CATHERINE IRWIN (FREAKWATER), WILL LAWRENCE (FELICE BROTHERS, GUN OUTFIT, JOHN EARLY), JENNY ROSE (GIVING UP), CHRISTOPHER MAY (MAIL THE HORSE), ELISABETH FUCHSIA (FOOTINGS, BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY), and AARON ROSENBLUM (SON OF EARTH, SAPAT), Dancing on the Edge draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis' tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light)—a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the ROADHOUSE alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colorful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and Comes A Time-era Neil should all easily find bounty.
CD $11.00
02/02/2024
MC $11.00
02/02/2024
***"At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana—just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky—multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter RYAN DAVIS’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded STATE CHAMPION, long-running member of TROPICAL TRASH, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with Dancing on the Edge, a rich, 2xLP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage. Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like JOAN SHELLEY, CATHERINE IRWIN (FREAKWATER), WILL LAWRENCE (FELICE BROTHERS, GUN OUTFIT, JOHN EARLY), JENNY ROSE (GIVING UP), CHRISTOPHER MAY (MAIL THE HORSE), ELISABETH FUCHSIA (FOOTINGS, BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY), and AARON ROSENBLUM (SON OF EARTH, SAPAT), Dancing on the Edge draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis' tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light)—a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the ROADHOUSE alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colorful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and Comes A Time-era Neil should all easily find bounty.
2XLP $31.45
11/03/2023