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A Quiet Distance

from The Calm Before by Lach

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes Grammy-Nominated artist Peter Nevin's artwork and features Vocals from Richard Barone (The Bongos), Chris Barron (The Spin Doctors) and Lydia Ooghe. With Mike Visceglia on Bass (Suzanne Vega Band) and Billy Ficca on drums (Television).

    "This record somehow feels like it was years in the making, full of experience, pain and joy. It sounds cliché to tell people to listen to their elders and learn from what they've done, but in a time where kids start bands and just ape someone's style, there is lots to be learned from Lach."- Herohill.com

    "His new LP is his finest release to date: it’s heartfelt, intelligent, good-humored, and expertly constructed folk played with the irreverent attitude that has become the hallmark of the Antifolk aesthetic."- Movement Magazine

    "I’m rather fascinated with this album: it’s so familiar and yet so hard to pin down. The Calm Before is a collection of Lach's latest post-punk stripped-down-raw-to-the-bone antifolk genius. He’s catchy, funny, and doesn’t only appeal to a niche audience like so many of the followers of antifolk seem to do."- smother.net

    "I kinda like the whole punk folk thing and much as say, Weller is considered the Modfather, this guy is the leading influence in this genre and pretty damn good to boot."- rocksellout.com

    "Anyone who wants to find out what antifolk was up to before a bunch of young wannabes (Beck, Regina Spektor, Jeffrey Lewis, Moldy Peaches, to name a few) melted it down and made it into something new, should study this record carefully. Everyone else: batten down the hatches, sit back, relax and enjoy the storm."- Exclaim Magazine

    "Every now and then something arrives in the Incendiary shed that just blows me sideways. Lach’s The Calm Before has just done that. If there’s a place in the world where somebody with this kind of talent plays for next to nothing on a weekly basis, I want to be a regular. As it is, I’ll just have to settle for having this little gem of an album in my house. Jesus this is good. There’s your nutshell review right there. Stick it on a poster, you can quote me if you like. I want move to New York."- Incendiary Magazine

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lyrics

A Quiet Distance by Lach

My dad yells at newspapers
Ranting about the Knicks and Nixon
I complain about poets
who choke me with correctness
Everyone’s pointing fingers
But I'd rather be fingerpainting
Getting messy colors dripping on my hands

Home for the holidays
and my friends are getting famous
I try on emotions
like I try on clothes from storage
Nothing seems to fit
I'm not angry, sad or jealous
Confused I will admit
I'm like a song without a chorus

And the women here I know
talk like sisters over coffee
"How was San Francisco?" and "Are you really happy?"
They say, " I fell in love while you were gone
but just last week he left me,
So, I can't handle romance
can we just go to a movie."

I'm on a new road
but I had to come home to find it
Everything looks smaller when
you try to hide behind it
Get real close up and
you can't make out the picture
But from a quiet distance
everything seems so much clearer

So, now my horse is saddled
and I'm gonna ride triumphant
Away from the battles
the circus and the convent
A -yippie -aye- oh come on and sing along
and I'll make the ending chorus of the song
a -yippie -aye -ee -oo- a- yippie -aye- kye-yay!

I'd rather be fingerpainting
Confused I will admit
I can't handle romance
But from a quiet distance
everything seems so much clearer
A -yippie -aye- oh come on and sing along
and I'll make the ending chorus of the song
a -yippie -aye -ee -oo- a- yippie -aye- kye-yay!

credits

from The Calm Before, released December 17, 2013
Lach - Vocals, Guitars, Piano, Hammond B3, Glockenspiel

Billy Ficca - Drums (Except Tony Maimone on Positions of Power)

Mike Visceglia - Bass

MIke McGinnis - Reeds

Dan Donnelly - Mandolin

Munir Kahn - Tabla on Gone Gone Gone

Richard Barone, Chris Baron and Lydia Ooghe - Backing Vocals

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about

Lach Edinburgh, UK

Lach, founder of the Antifolk movement and star of BBC Radio 4's The Lach Chronicles.

‘Beat-punk-unplugged joy!’-The Guardian UK

‘Splendid! Best of it's kind!’- Mojo

‘Incredibly bright, influential, funny, poetic.’-Suzanne Vega

‘Best punk guitarist since Johnny Ramone.’-Billy Ficca of Televis
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