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The Fool

by Young Jesus

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  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of The Fool. You get 2 tracks 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.
    Purchasable with gift card
    releases May 24, 2024

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *THIS IS A PREORDER ITEM. ALL ITEMS ORDERED ALONGSIDE A PHYSICAL PREORDER WILL SHIP TOGETHER ON OR BEFORE THE RELEASE DATE, MAY 24TH, 2024.*

    All preorders ship with custom notebook and tarot card!

    LP PACKAGING NOTES:
    - Sangria marbled vinyl pressed at GZ
    - Saddle Creek Exclusive
    - Limited Edition of 250 (Limit 2 per customer)

    Includes digital pre-order of The Fool. You get 2 tracks 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.
    digital album releases May 24, 2024
    item ships out on or around May 17, 2024
    edition of 250 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *THIS IS A PREORDER ITEM. ALL ITEMS ORDERED ALONGSIDE A PHYSICAL PREORDER WILL SHIP TOGETHER ON OR BEFORE THE RELEASE DATE, MAY 24TH, 2024.*

    All preorders ship with custom notebook and tarot card!

    LP PACKAGING NOTES:
    - Opaque white vinyl pressed at GZ
    - Limit 2 per customer

    Includes digital pre-order of The Fool. You get 2 tracks 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.
    digital album releases May 24, 2024
    item ships out on or around May 17, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    *THIS IS A PREORDER ITEM. ALL ITEMS ORDERED ALONGSIDE A PHYSICAL PREORDER WILL SHIP TOGETHER ON OR BEFORE THE RELEASE DATE, MAY 24TH, 2024.*

    All preorders ship with custom notebook and tarot card!

    Includes digital pre-order of The Fool. You get 2 tracks 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.
    digital album releases May 24, 2024
    item ships out on or around May 17, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $13 USD or more 

     

1.
Brenda & Diane in a car full of cash, credit cards, and that reckless abandon that comes with a win Put it all on three shaking hands, some dice, and a drink Yeah this place fucking stinks At least you don't have to think I was playing my songs I've had some ups and downs, I've played to no one at all except Brenda & Diane a couple drinks in their hand They said “son, do you know? We’ve been running for years til we run out of dough” and they stumbled a bit and asked me to sit I laughed and said “fine” Diane said “shut the fuck up. You think you’re being so kind to a couple old ladies who ain't worth your time.” She said “you cant imagine what we’re running from yeah your life’s on the line kid. Your life is a gift and you act like it’s a joke.” As I was driving home I reached into my pocket and I pulled out a note and it just flew out the window and I just kept driving home.
2.
Two Brothers
3.
Rabbit
4.
Rich
5.
Moonlight
6.
MOTY
7.
The Weasel 02:50
You don’t believe the broken heart of the liar Yet you need the weasel to take the snake into it’s teeth I buried evil and watched the nightshade flower I buried evil and fed the darkness just the same, the same The humans eat up the answers to their problems As if the demon was just a passing melody We watch the weasel die as it eats our poison The snake and nightshade are all that is left for us to blame, to blame You don’t believe the broken heart of the liar Who’s left to grieve then? when that heart’s broken just the same, the same? The same
8.
Am I the Only One
9.
Sunrise
10.
Dancer
11.
God's Plan

about

John Rossiter (a.k.a Young Jesus) was clearing trash out of a citrus orchard in Tarzana when he received a mysterious email from Shahzad Ismaily.

i was curious to reach out to Young Jesus about Milford Graves.

can you please put me in touch with them?

are they still LA based?

kind regards,

shahzad

Milford Graves was an interdisciplinary drum genius who explored connections between improvisational music, the human body, gardening, art, and science. Many years earlier, John had been asked if there were any artists he’d like to meet or collaborate with – Graves was the first name that came to mind.

John had quit music to study permaculture and to work in landscapes and gardens. His last album, Shepherd Head, was too much time spent on the computer. Music had left John tired, jaded, and disconnected. Working with soil and plants gave him some life back. He said, “You know, when gardening, the right decision to make for the landscape is usually the one that is already happening. It just takes time to read what that is."

So, John left the orchard to meet Shahzad (Feist, Lou Reed, Arooj Aftab) for lunch. They instantly bonded, talking about improvisation, rhythm, the heart. On a lark, Shahzad invited John to New York. When John demurred, Shahzad cooked up a scheme to have John working in his garden in between sessions. Half ruse, half invitation. Shahzad The Trickster, leading them deeper into their strange journey.

They improvised whenever they were in the same town. John would work in Shahzad's garden in New York. Back at home in Los Angeles, John met with Alex Babbitt and Alex Lappin to plant fruit trees and build paths from broken concrete. After work, they'd sit at a piano and sing their hearts out.

Songs started to form, songs about shame and grief, love and redemption. They came fast, a song a day for two weeks. It was different from past albums, which felt like years of hammering out lyrics and ideas. This one came in the wake of a long illness, where tunes came in a rush, as if they were physical, as if the body couldn’t heal without them. An almost involuntary outpouring, overrunning his usual self-consciousness.

Rossiter had to sit and transcribe without judgment: let the ideas grow on their own. Shahzad was in LA one day when John sat down at the piano and played them for him. They decided to record them at Shahzad's Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn – these songs would blossom into Young Jesus’ forthcoming album, The Fool.

The crew grew naturally from there. Lappin and Babbitt joined them in New York. Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Lonnie Holley) engineered and helped produce the songs. Aaron Roche came and sang. As the week went on, everyone grew closer, talking through the deep darkness in some of these songs. Building trust and friendship. Healing a bit. Rossiter remembers recording the tune "Rich". How it started so uncomfortably. Too much shame, sadness. No connection between the musicians. But, slowly, people showed up. Lappin's great aunt and uncle. Uncle Jack asked John if he'd ever talked to a therapist and everyone burst out laughing. Shahzad's daughter. Everyone shared some food and laughed. By the end they were singing the final line of the song - "back when I was a kid" - together.

Rossiter and Lappin went back to LA to finish the songs. They guided each other in the same way they built those broken concrete paths in the garden - sometimes using a sledgehammer, sometimes using their bare hands. Shahzad and Daniel Littleton (of IDA) happened to be in LA, and they came together to do a couple takes of "Rabbit" with Pete Min at Lucy's Meat Market. It was deeply connected music and they left the session laughing. Phil Weinrobe and Phil Hartunian (Westerman, Florist) mixed the record, former Young Jesus drummer Kern Haug mastered it.

Inner landscaping requires presence and bravery. It can get pretty dark and strange the deeper you walk into that jungle. And it’s from the absolute pits of that inner landscape that the truest music rises from.

At the end of the last session, Rossiter and Lappin sat down and drew tarot cards. John drew The Fool.

credits

releases May 24, 2024

produced by: alex lappin (albon), shahzad ismaily, john rossiter, and Phil weinrobe
engineered by: alex lappin, vishal nayak, pete min, harlan steinberger, and phil weinrobe
mixed by: phil hartunian and Phil weinrobe
mastered by: kern haug

musicians: alex lappin, shahzad ismaily, alex babbitt, aaron roche, cameron wisch, josh ehlke, jordan rose, daniel littleton, anika loa ismaily quilet, jack wiener, arlette theibault

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Young Jesus Los Angeles, California

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