Papercuts

Papercuts

You Can Have What You Want

Panam

REISSUED ON VINYL!!! Papercuts' You Can Have What You Want is the third phase in Jason Quever's ongoing pop investigations. The relatively earthbound happy/sad pop of Mockingbird and Can't Go Back has been launched into the vault of the skies. Here, Quever delves further into epic dream-pop using mostly vintage organs, pulsing bass, and Kraut-via-Ringo-inspired drum rhythms. Intact from those earlier efforts is Quever's sense of arrangement and drama, as well as his soaring vocals, draped in reverb gauze. The words reveal a fascination with mortality and things cosmic, while sonically the voice acts as another instrument. This obsessively all-analog effort (no computer processing here whatsoever!) cuts across several eras of dreamy sound: '80s/'90s Creation and 4AD Records, The Zombies, '60s French pop, even Can's Future Days--and then there's the inevitable connection to former tourmates Beach House and Grizzly Bear. Indeed, Beach House's Alex Scally helped with some of the arrangements, though You Can Have What You Want is its own strain of addictive pop. For many, it will be the blissful/melancholy jam of the spring and summer. Quever was raised on a commune in Humboldt County, orphaned, and moved up and down the West Coast before calling San Francisco home and starting Papercuts, initially as a four-track recording project. When not performing with his own band, he can often be found recording others in his studio and filling in when needed as a multi-instrumentalist in friends' groups. "It takes a few seconds of Papercuts' second album, Can't Go Back, to...

Papercuts

White Are The Waves

Gnomonsong

The Papercuts return with a new single featuring a brand new song, "White Are the Waves," backed with a Neighbors (Vetiver / Gnomodomo Andy Cabic and producer Thom Monahan) remix of "A Dictator's Lament," a track from last spring's You Can Have What You Want album. Recorded on the heels of extensive touring (most recently the UK, France, and the US West Coast) in support the highly regarded You Can Have What You Want, "White Are the Waves" shows the band in tip-top form. Papercuts leader and songwriter Jason Quever doesn't depart from the retro future cosmic fragile pop fever-dream of his latest album, laying the melody out on the most soulful wash of Casio strings, over a simple, drop-dead perfect beat. Quever is as judicious with the guitar as ever, though it still rears its fuzzy head on the bridges and choruses of a song that could have been an AM-radio staple in the mid-'70s. The flipside remix will surprise a few, as Neighbors offer a quite different take on the original version, roughing the song up with an insistent beat and a perfect "Could it be '80s?" vibe that has manifested in the duo's studio work over the last few years.

Papercuts

You Can Have What You Want

Gnomonsong

Papercuts' You Can Have What You Want is the newest phase in Jason Quever's ongoing pop investigations. The relatively earthbound happy/sad pop of Mockingbird and Can't Go Back has been launched into the vault of the skies. Here, Quever delves further into epic dream-pop using mostly vintage organs, pulsing bass, and Kraut-via-Ringo-inspired drum rhythms. Intact from those earlier efforts is Quever's sense of arrangement and drama, as well as his soaring vocals, draped in reverb gauze. The words reveal a fascination with mortality and things cosmic, while sonically the voice acts as another instrument. This obsessively all-analog effort (no computer processing here whatsoever!) cuts across several eras of dreamy sound: '80s/'90s Creation and 4AD Records, The Zombies, '60s French pop, even Can's Future Days--and then there's the inevitable connection to former tourmates Beach House and Grizzly Bear. Indeed, Beach House's Alex Scally helped with some of the arrangements, though You Can Have What You Want is its own strain of addictive pop. For many, it will be the blissful/melancholy jam of the spring and summer.  Quever was raised on a commune in Humboldt County, orphaned, and moved up and down the West Coast before calling San Francisco home and starting Papercuts, initially as a four-track recording project. When not performing with his own band, he can often be found recording others in his studio and filling in when needed as a multi-instrumentalist in friends' groups.  "It takes a few seconds of Papercuts' second album, Can't Go Back, to think that maybe you've...

Papercuts

Can’t Go Back

Gnomonsong

Papercuts is Jason Quever's cathedral of sound, stemming from a desperate analog worship and respect for musicianship of the old world. His new album for Gnomonsong, Can't Go Back, is a marriage of timeless songs, richly textured studio sounds, classic rock/pop hookery, and focused narratives -- all delivered with Quever's warm voice and wonderfully layered melodies.  The first formal Papercuts release, Mockingbird (2004), received a warm critical reception, earning four stars in Great Britain's Uncut. The song "Pan American Blues" was a top-five download of the week on insound.com and the album rode the CMJ Top 200 for months.   Before this, life was different. Raised in a commune in Humbolt County, Quever drifted up and down the West coast, eventually making a home for himself in San Francisco.   The seeds of Papercuts were sown in 2002 when he broke into a vacationing friend's apartment, eight-track in tow, to record piano tracks for Cass Mccombs' Not The Way. Ever since, Quever has kept busy, playing with and recording other friends' bands. He's collaborated with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, The Skygreen Leopards, as well as Vetiver, and considers working intimately with such contemporary songwriters to be a significant influence.