"I could tell you what you mean to me (oh yeah yeah)..."
The power of nostalgia especially when those powerful emotional cues are amped up, tilted a bit sideways and saturated with the midrange sheen of an old AM radio (but in stereo) is incredibly impactful. It touches you in dramatic ways especially if you are a student of film, of history. The evocative debut single "Going, Going, Going, Gone" by the magnetic Connie Cunningham and the Creeps and from the album "Going, Going, Going Gone - The Rare Recordings of Connie Cunningham and The Creeps, Vol. 1" (dropping September 8th, 2023) sucks you into another world.
Connie Cunningham and the Creeps is the creation of Nick Kinsey (played with notable acts such as Waxahatchee, Cold War Kids, Elvis Perkins, etc.) as well as Cassandra Jenkins (Pitchfork's Best New Music), Josh Kaufman (credited on records from Taylor Swift, The National, Waxahatchee, etc.) As a songwriter Kinsey went deep like a method actor. [When Nick Kinsey moved into his farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley, he dreamed that he would stumble upon a trove of unreleased music from some eccentric artist who’d previously lived there.] The result is something that almost feels like a ghost recording and as press notes indicate [“I needed to create a fictional character to get into the headspace necessary to finish this group of songs,” Kinsey says. “I was able to escape my usual writing blocks and get away from any need to sound ‘cool’ by pretending I was this fictional weirdo and failed session musician.” And after rounding out his compositions with some key collaborators, the first volume of Connie Cunningham and the Creeps fulfilled Kinsey’s dream in the form of six brilliant, retro oddball pop planets circling one oddball songwriting star.]
This first glimpse is dazzling in the way it rolls over you. Kinsey's decision to bring sounds to the forefront that would not be if this was an actual 50's or 60's recording plays with the period's archetypal sound. The sharp drum hits like gun fire, Cassandra Jenkins' beautiful backing lilt (oh yeah yeah) and harmonies feel perfectly rendered, a bouffant hairdo'd performance through an echo that feels sandpapered. In fact, their is a sort of scratchy distortion overall giving the track a rustic haunted quality. The way Kinsey ends that track with a sort of bending of time or radio transmissions heightens the surreal quality. It is feels like life behind white picket fences full of cracks and fading paint with other sections of the pure white patina rotting away.
Nostalgia is a double edged sword. "Going, Going, Going, Gone" plays off of tropes but maybe through a dark filter. It could be used provocatively in a film, the dark sides of that time, abject racism, gay bashing on high and overall hate of "the other" stands in the corner. That is why this sound feels dark in the hands of a David Lynch or either of the Cronenbergs and maybe feels like a complex beautiful reminder of the darkness seeping into far right side of the GOP and other hate groups. The beauty of "Going, Going, Going, Gone" is formidable and impactful because it fortifies the remembrance of the good ghosts and very bad ones and how hard we have to fight to not let history repeat itself.
I look forward to hearing the rest of the album.
Pre-order of Going, Going, Going Gone - The Rare Recordings of Connie Cunningham and The Creeps, Vol. 1. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3IfsqWZdjts335Mwss1c8W
https://conniecunningham.bandcamp.com/
When Nick Kinsey moved into his farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley, he dreamed that he would stumble upon a trove of unreleased music from some eccentric artist who’d previously lived there. If anyone would be inclined to expect that kind of treasure, it would be the prolific Kinsey, who in addition to his own music has produced and played on Waxhatchee’s St. Cloud, toured with Kevin Morby, and drummed for AC Newman, Hand Habits, and Cold War Kids, among many others. And with all those various styles and ideas swirling around his head, that imaginary stash of songs appealed more and more. “I needed to create a fictional character to get into the headspace necessary to finish this group of songs,” Kinsey says. “I was able to escape my usual writing blocks and get away from any need to sound ‘cool’ by pretending I was this fictional weirdo and failed session musician.” And after rounding out his compositions with some key collaborators, the first volume of Connie Cunningham and the Creeps fulfilled Kinsey’s dream in the form of six brilliant, retro oddball pop planets circling one oddball songwriting star.
Connie Cunningham and the Creeps, indie rock, revival rock, surreal rock, complex nostalgia, dark noir, 50's noir, 60's noir, Nick Kinsey, New York’s Hudson Valley, singer songwriter, producer,
When Nick Kinsey moved into his farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley, he dreamed that he would stumble upon a trove of unreleased music from some eccentric artist who’d previously lived there. If anyone would be inclined to expect that kind of treasure, it would be the prolific Kinsey, who in addition to his own music has produced and played on Waxhatchee’s St. Cloud, toured with Kevin Morby, and drummed for AC Newman, Hand Habits, and Cold War Kids, among many others. And with all those various styles and ideas swirling around his head, that imaginary stash of songs appealed more and more. “I needed to create a fictional character to get into the headspace necessary to finish this group of songs,” Kinsey says. “I was able to escape my usual writing blocks and get away from any need to sound ‘cool’ by pretending I was this fictional weirdo and failed session musician.” And after rounding out his compositions with some key collaborators, the first volume of Connie Cunningham and the Creeps fulfilled Kinsey’s dream in the form of six brilliant, retro oddball pop planets circling one oddball songwriting star.
The burst and bubbling AM radio pop of lead track “Going, Going, Gone!” sets a clear tone for Connie Cunningham and the Creeps Vol. 1--as if composed of classic samples stretched and pulled like sugary taffy, though then showing flourishes of intimate humanity and intense musicianship. Beyond his own imaginary realm, Kinsey pulled from a blend of familiar and off kilter references to flesh out these songs. Equal parts Latin Playboys polyrhythms and Beach Boys sentimentality, the opener fuses taut girl group harmonies (courtesy of Cassandra Jenkins and Annie Nero, AKA The Creeps), psychedelic backmasking, and California gold guitar shudders, all wrangled together by Kinsey’s honeyed vocals.
As a contributor to so many excellent records, Kinsey had a large pool of talented musicians to draw from in order to round out his compositions. Many of his collaborators were drafted from his tight-knit community in Hudson Valley, which sits two hours north of New York City. Multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman also contributed to Waxahatchee’s record, and here adds additional guitar, keyboard, and percussion. Kaufman also hosted sessions in his Brooklyn studio for a few days, after the majority of the record was completed in Kinsey’s own Chicken Shack studio. With the contributions of trumpeter Mike Irwin, guitarist Oliver Hill, and Celeste player Jared Samuel rounding out the tracks, the min orchestra provided the robust backing needed to make the dream of the Connie Cunningham persona a reality.
True to Kinsey’s vision, tracks like the slippery “The Breaking of the Chain” feel as if they’re pulled from some dusty crate--but on closer look, the structures and melodies are far fresher and more complex than meets the eye. The swank “Flood Gates”, for example, bounces between classic waltz horns and glockenspiel to ominous bass percussion thundering, lending an extra eerieness to Kinsey’s in-character insistence. “All I ever wanted was to break a woman’s heart/ But I could never find someone to love me from the start,” would feel lovelorn in a truly vintage track, but carries an extra edge here.
Whether the seaside noir of “The Old Way” or the jaunty sidewalk bounce of “Buildings and Planes”, Connie Cunningham and the Creeps Vol. 1 embraces a cinematic depth, each track the soundtrack for its own film. In Kinsey’s mind, the thread tying the tracks together is a sense of escape, of leaving. “This is a going away record: wanting to leave, dreaming of leaving, threatening to leave, things leaving, people leaving, time leaving,” he says.
And though this album feels like a remarkably complete universe for a debut, the winking insistence of the “Vol. 1” in the title shows just how much more is in store for Connie Cunningham. “I really love the unfinished quality of archival, bootleg, and outtake releases, so I wanted to borrow that language a little,” Kinsey smiles. And with “Vol. 2” already lurking somewhere up in the proverbial attic, that unfinished world will only continue to grow and expand in its mystic yet familiar depth.
As a contributor to so many excellent records, Kinsey had a large pool of talented musicians to draw from in order to round out his compositions. Many of his collaborators were drafted from his tight-knit community in Hudson Valley, which sits two hours north of New York City. Multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman also contributed to Waxahatchee’s record, and here adds additional guitar, keyboard, and percussion. Kaufman also hosted sessions in his Brooklyn studio for a few days, after the majority of the record was completed in Kinsey’s own Chicken Shack studio. With the contributions of trumpeter Mike Irwin, guitarist Oliver Hill, and Celeste player Jared Samuel rounding out the tracks, the min orchestra provided the robust backing needed to make the dream of the Connie Cunningham persona a reality.
True to Kinsey’s vision, tracks like the slippery “The Breaking of the Chain” feel as if they’re pulled from some dusty crate--but on closer look, the structures and melodies are far fresher and more complex than meets the eye. The swank “Flood Gates”, for example, bounces between classic waltz horns and glockenspiel to ominous bass percussion thundering, lending an extra eerieness to Kinsey’s in-character insistence. “All I ever wanted was to break a woman’s heart/ But I could never find someone to love me from the start,” would feel lovelorn in a truly vintage track, but carries an extra edge here.
Whether the seaside noir of “The Old Way” or the jaunty sidewalk bounce of “Buildings and Planes”, Connie Cunningham and the Creeps Vol. 1 embraces a cinematic depth, each track the soundtrack for its own film. In Kinsey’s mind, the thread tying the tracks together is a sense of escape, of leaving. “This is a going away record: wanting to leave, dreaming of leaving, threatening to leave, things leaving, people leaving, time leaving,” he says.
And though this album feels like a remarkably complete universe for a debut, the winking insistence of the “Vol. 1” in the title shows just how much more is in store for Connie Cunningham. “I really love the unfinished quality of archival, bootleg, and outtake releases, so I wanted to borrow that language a little,” Kinsey smiles. And with “Vol. 2” already lurking somewhere up in the proverbial attic, that unfinished world will only continue to grow and expand in its mystic yet familiar depth.
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