Strange Flesh by Steve Slagg
Singer-songwriter Steve Slagg has self-released music since 2011, both as Youngest Son and under his own name, in addition to playing keyboards for ten years with Chicago powerpop mainstays Mooner. Slagg’s tender, funny and complex songs explore spirituality, sexuality, and the beauty of the natural world. His third album Strange Flesh is the culmination of Slagg’s life as a musician and his existence as a queer person of faith. A lot of these songs’ “I”s are really “we”s, and in their triumphs and tragedies, love and rage, excommunication and communion, they aim for truth, whether through memoir or fiction.
When choosing collaborators, Slagg chose to highlight his bonds within the Chicago music community, working with producers (and Mooner bandmates) Lee Ketch and Kit Shields at Harlot’s Progress and engineer Dorian Gehring at Foxhall Studio (Ohmme). Contributors to the record also include members of Contorno, Dusk, and The Obleeks, as well as cellist Cathy Kuna and singer-songwriter Allison Van Liere. The songs' settings draw out the camp and humor in these stories, with arrangements that pay tribute to the baroque pop singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s, as well as queer-of-center artists from Queen to Judee Sill to Labi Siffre. Slagg’s shared the stage with artists as diverse as Over the Rhine, the Flamin’ Groovies, the Vulgar Boatmen, Erin McKeown and Aaron Lee Tasjan.
Tracklist
| 1. | Strange Flesh | 3:44 |
| 2. | A Thousand Tongues | 5:21 |
| 3. | Barbara | 3:52 |
| 4. | Craters of the Moon | 2:59 |
| 5. | Blessed Assurance | 1:38 |
| 6. | Dismemberment Song | 6:07 |
| 7. | What I Need | 1:58 |
| 8. | Saint E. | 3:57 |
| 9. | Learning to Sing | 6:41 |
| 10. | Still Waiting for the New Man | 4:05 |
Credits
- Steve Slagg (piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, organ, vibraphone, melodica, harpsichord, harmonica, micro-KORG, EML-101, other synths & VSTs, vocals)
- Lee Ketch (bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, EML-101, Roland JP-08, other synths & VSTs, percussion, vocals)
- Kit Shields (acoustic guitar, vocoder, EML-101, stylophone, glockenspiel, vocals)
- Andy Ketch (drums, tambourine, shaker)
- John Gargiulo (12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel, acoustic guitar)
- Cathy Kuna (cello)
- Allison Van Liere (accordion)
- Julia Blair (viola)
- David Ketch (guitar)
- Dorian Gehring (synths)
- Choir vocals by John Bagley, Brent Bailey, Alyssa Barringer, Blade Barringer, Julia Blair, Josiahduke Harrist, Lee Ketch, Amy Myers, Kit Shields, Allison Van Liere
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produced by Kit Shields and Lee Ketch
recorded by Lee Ketch at Harlot's Progress and Dorian Gehring at Foxhall
mixed by Dorian Gehring at Foxhall
mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering Service
cover artwork / design / digital collage by Allison Van Liere
photography by Jonathan Randall Grant: grantatchurch.com
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thank you to lee & kit, erin mckeown, linford detweiler, karin bergquist, daniel knox, david rubin, tim hunt, allison van liere, matt jones, blade barringer and brent bailey
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for nancy, ray, gramma, and dr. foster
