Grace Sings Sludge

Grace Sings Sludge

Christ Mocked & The End Of A Relationship

Empty Cellar

“Recorded at El Studio by Phil Manley (Life Coach / Trans Am), mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control) and released by Empty Cellar Records—home to [Grace] Cooper’s old band The Sandwitches—the album will be accompanied by a 32-page book of Coopers’ illustrations and lyrics.“There has always been a dreamy American gothic sensibility to Cooper’s sound, and on Christ Mocked she continues to lean into this mood and presents us with a collection of deeply felt ballads and stories that have as much in common with Shirley Jackson as they do Karen Dalton or anything we’ve heard from her before.“Taking the album to the studio has added some polish to Grace Sings Sludge but as these songs and stories intertwine, it’s clear that Cooper is evolving her sound forward in strange and unexpected ways —even putting her own spin on audio drama with ‘The Hackers’ and ‘Borderlands’. This is very much the sound of an artist experimenting and pushing expectations. Beneath the surface of these songs is a lovely mystery; a whelm in the gloom; a hope and a resilience that glow and thrive in the bottomless sea.“Grace Cooper plays all instruments on Christ Mocked, except drums and piano on ‘Horror for People That Don’t Like Horror’ played by Nic Russo / Dick Stusso.”    —Glenn McQuaid (Tales From Beyond the Pale) 

Grace Sings Sludge

Life With Dick

Empty Cellar

Life With Dick is the new album by Grace Sings Sludge (The Sandwitches, The Fresh and Onlys). It’s the continuation of a world Grace Cooper began illustrating as one of the lead songwriters of the San Francisco band The Sandwitches, and on her previous three collections of solo home recordings (released as limited run cassette tapes). As with the other solo albums, Cooper does the artwork for the album. Her delicate yet disturbing pen and watercolor creations are the perfect accompaniment to her songs, as though they’ve emerged from the same troubled dreams. Though understated, a sense of urgency permeates this record. Cooper’s voice dances through the songs with a chameleon quality that’s sultry and commanding on “In Spite of Doom” and desperate, vulnerable and sharp on “Can’t Play” and “Everlasting Arms.” Her lyrics contain the weariness of giving in to a love requited, and the unsettling realities of maintaining that love. In some pieces it seems she no longer knows where to direct her endless yearning. She observes on “Bad Timing Pt. 2”: “Two boats they don’t meet up in the night, they glide by each other and forever out of sight... they might just be the lucky ones.” The spookiness of Cooper’s sound—a sound influential in some of The Sandwitches’ best songs like ”Joe Says” and “In the Garden”—is still present here and especially on the darker second side. Piercing guitars and heartbeat drums on “Everlasting Arms” warn that “something’s growing in the basement” and something comes “from...