Generationals Con Law (Vinyl)

Con Law (Vinyl)

Recorded in phases between Public Hifi in Austin, Bent Black studio in D.C., and the band's hometown of New Orleans, Heza finds Generationals more satisfied in songs that breathe and grow over time.


	 These songs show restraint, with the hooks developing in the spaces between sounds and an attention to rhythms and textures revealing a more patient band willing to dig for deeper gems than in their previous work.


	 Tracks like "You Got Me" and "Put a Light On" use minimalist electronic frameworks to match the intensity of more straightforward guitarwork on "Spinoza" and "I Never Know," all of them placing the focus more on layers and arrangements than to forcing the hook.


	 On Heza, Generationals aren't so much shedding their old skin as growing more comfortable in the one they've always inhabited.

Generationals Heza (Vinyl)

Heza (Vinyl)

BRAND: Alternative Apparel


	 SHIRT COLOR: Eco Black


	 INK COLORS: Pink and White


	 FIT: Unisex

Generationals Triangle Eyes Crew Neck Sweatshirt

Triangle Eyes Crew Neck Sweatshirt

By now it’s no secret that Generationals have a knack for writing hooks that just don’t quit. And neither does the band -- releasing four full-lengths, two EPs, and touring around the globe since forming in 2008.


	 It’s precisely due to this desire to keep moving forward that the duo’s members -- Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner -- felt something lacking in the “hurry up and wait” approach of making albums, where new songs might not be released for six months or more after being recorded.


	 And so, following the release of 2014’s Alix, the pair decided to forego the traditional approach of writing, recording and releasing music in one large batch in favor of putting out singles as soon as they were completed.


	 Says Widmer, “We can tie the energy of creating the song much closer to releasing it, which is a more satisfying feeling for us and for the audience. It's more direct. I get jealous of the way writers and video-makers can finish something and release it immediately. Releasing singles lets us get closer to that immediacy.”


	 Joyner adds, “We let ourselves focus on individual songs at a time, letting each idea be its own thing, letting it go where it wanted to.”


	 Generationals satisfied this desire by releasing a slew of standalone tracks throughout 2017 and 2018 -- and now, for the first time, the nine singles the band unveiled digitally (along with an exclusive, previously unreleased tenth song) will receive a physical release via State Dogs: Singles 2017-18.


	 Though the songs on this collection were conceived at various times over the past couple of years, they stand together as a testament to Generationals’ songwriting prowess and ability to craft infectious melodies at any given moment.

Generationals State Dogs: Singles 2017-18 (Vinyl)

State Dogs: Singles 2017-18 (Vinyl)

Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer, friends since high school and Generationals co-captains since 2008, have been in each others’ faces for most of this century.


	 Natural songwriting partners, they made their first three records at home with the help of mutual friend Daniel Black, and in 2013 they launched straight into their fourth with surprising post-tour energy, but after years of creative brain-melding, the dyad had reached a point of ultra-familiarity and comfort in their work routine that, to them, threatened quicksand. They began to suspect their own productivity of being rut in disguise.


	 Determined to keep things fresh, they sought out a new producer who might be able shake things up, surprise them, and bring something new to the project.


	 How about Richard Swift? they said. He’s the best, he's the boss, he’s like the John Keating of cool drum sounds–a perfect fit for a pair of poppy throwback tape-lovers like us.


	 The Louisiana duo made their way, yellow brick road-style, to Cottage Grove, Oregon, ready to give their tapes over to Swift’s cultishly venerated magic touch, but the collaboration was hardly the scrap-it-all, start-from-scratch, give-up-the-reins-and-let-the-guru-do-his-thing scenario Ted and Grant had expected—hoped for even—when they began their pilgrimage to Swift’s National Freedom studio in February.


	 Swift deemed the demos album-worthy after all and the original versions were saved at his urging. With a little tightening rather than a vibe transplant, the songs solidified into a cohesive, finished record.


	 The final version of Alix materialized as perhaps Generationals’ most confident record yet, full of history and as multiphase as Ted and Grant’s friendship.


	 Built up with layer upon layer of rhythmic lines, computer noises, RZA beats, and poppy vocals that sometimes sound like a Janet Jackson/Prince face-off, Alix is everything T&amp;G like about music: old and new, vinyl and youtube, vocal chord and microkorg, gathered up from everywhere and arranged with great care into a good-smelling, subtly sexy, catchy-or-die mish-mosh of sensibilities and time-warp senselessness, lightly peppered with that signature Swiftian element, but undeniably Generationals in taste.

Generationals Alix (Vinyl)

Alix (Vinyl)

Brutal is one way of putting it. The only way, really, considering the thermometer-cracking highs that faced Generationals during the month-long sessions for their second album, Actor- Caster. “DC is very unforgiving in the summer. It just radiates heat,” explains singer/multi- instrumentalist Ted Joyner. “So even though it was sunny outside, we sat in the basement most of the time.”


	 That explains the melancholic/morose bent of the band’s lyrics this time around, like how Grant Widmer—also a singer/multi-instrumentalist—refuses to pick up the phone in “Goose &amp; Gander” or the way Joyner’s lovelorn melodies linger well after the last dust-clearing note of “Dirty Mister Dirty.” It’s as if they’re chasing every smile with a sneer, and at least one of them’s brandishing a knife behind his back.


	 As for the duo’s songwriting, it’s still sunbaked in spots (the persistent piano lines of “Greenleaf,” the galloping grooves of “Ten-Twenty-Ten” and “You Say It Too”), but nothing’s stuck in the ‘60s. More like the here and now, combined with the warm, inviting vibe of classic pop cuts. “It’s important for us to record the old way—with analog equipment and tape machines,” explains Widmer, “But we also incorporate lots of electronic elements that wouldn’t have been available to someone in the ‘60s. That combination is our sound.”


	 And by electronic elements, he means everything from the shimmering synth lines and spare handclaps of “Yours Forever” to the lonesome keys and lacerated drum loops of “Black and White.” None of which sounds all that strange when you consider the time machine tendencies of Generationals’ widely acclaimed debut album, Con Law, a decade-spanning disc that features the same producer as Actor-Caster (Daniel Black) and sounds as familiar as a stack of slightly scuffed 45s (the heated horns and heaven-sent harmonies of “When They Fight They Fight,” the snake-like bass lines and steam-pressed beats of “Bobby Beale”).


	 Of course, it helps that Widmer and Joyner have been close friends since they were 13—a pair of freshmen trying to learn Beatles tracks on their first guitar. The New Orleans natives have shared apartments, jobs, schools and stages ever since, to the point where they practically finish each other’s sentences. “We know exactly what the other person is going for when an idea comes up. I think you can hear that in this album,” says Widmer. “I played him the chords for ‘Black and White’ on guitar, and he knew exactly how to play them on piano and make them sound. So much so that it didn't even need a guitar after the piano was down; the guitar would have been redundant.”

Generationals Actor-Caster (Vinyl)

Actor-Caster (Vinyl)

Protection 
 Each record is protected within its record sleeve by a white vellum anti-dust sleeve.
 

 
Packaging 
 All items are shipped brand-new and unopened in original packaging. Every record is shipped in original factory-applied shrink wrap and has never been touched by human hands.

Generationals ACTOR-CASTER Vinyl Record

ACTOR-CASTER Vinyl Record

Generationals CON LAW (10-YEAR REISSUE) Vinyl Record

CON LAW (10-YEAR REISSUE) Vinyl Record

Generationals READER AS DETECTIVE Vinyl Record

READER AS DETECTIVE Vinyl Record

Generationals STATE DOGS: SINGLES 2017-18 Vinyl Record

STATE DOGS: SINGLES 2017-18 Vinyl Record

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Generationals

11" x 17" tour poster for Generationals Reader As Detective.


	 Please note: if tube is not purchased, poster is mailed folded.


	 If you add a tube to your order, we will roll all posters you purchase.

Generationals Reader As Detective Poster (11"x17")

Reader As Detective Poster (11"x17")

11" x 17" tour poster.


	 Please note: if tube is not purchased, poster is mailed folded.


	 If you add a tube to your order, we will roll all posters you purchase.

Generationals Poster (11"x17")

Poster (11"x17")

4" x 3" water resistant, vinyl sticker

Generationals Reader As Detective Sticker

Reader As Detective Sticker

Trust/Lucky Numbers compiles two early Generationals EPs on 12” vinyl for the first time.


Trust, the band’s first release following their debut full-length Con Law, finds the duo adding feedback loops, drum-machine beats, and abstractly dubbed-out, wobbling basslines to their shimmering hooks and girl-group choruses.


Lucky Numbers was released in limited scope as a tour exclusive following the band’s second album, Actor-Caster. This pressing features a third track (“Sale City”) not included on the original 7”.

Generationals Trust/Lucky Numbers (Vinyl)

Trust/Lucky Numbers (Vinyl)

3" circle water resistant, vinyl sticker

Generationals Sticker

Sticker

From their inception, Generationals have existed at the convergence of classic style and contemporary technique. Students of an analog school actualized in a digital medium, Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner have always felt most comfortable reveling in this juxtaposition. Grounded in a catalog of infectious pop hooks that feel both familiar and radically new all at once, Generationals mastered their distinct voice as a means to widen the path before them.


Reader As Detective, their new full-length album, weds vintage pop canon and modern pop production in a way this duo has proven incomparably adept. From the cornerstone sample of “I Turned My Back on the Written Word,” (a recontextualization of an unreleased b-side) to the playful synths &amp; stuttered drums of “Dream Box,” and jogging rhythms of "Breaking Your Silence," Generationals continue to push the envelope by playing by their own rules.


	 In the years following their last album, Alix, the band experimented by releasing one-off singles and videos immediately upon their completion, which eventually formed 2018’s State Dogs collection. This method – an exploratory dive in shirking the nature of traditional album rollouts – refined how they approached writing. Freed from the album-cycle mentality, the pair was able to focus on each track autonomously, rather than as a fragment of a larger batch of songs.


Reader As Detective is the result of purposeful time spent honing Generationals’ craft as progressive songwriters. With the help of producer and longtime collaborator Dan Black, they dug into new methods of creation with a fearlessness for experimentation that is equally vital to the experience of both artist and listener. With Reader As Detective, Generationals have reached a high-water mark in an already noteworthy career – isolation and celebration set to a major key.

Generationals

Official Generationals Merchandise & Vinyl

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