Kevin Morby - Sundowner LP

Kevin Morby - Sundowner LP

ID: #1622969

Description

To Whom It May Concern, I am here to announce that my new album, Sundowner, will be out October 16th, 2020 via Dead Oceans. THE WRITING: (KANSAS CITY, KANSAS) In the winter of 2017 I moved back to my hometown of Kansas City from Los Angeles. The move was sudden and unforeseen, just as I was tying a bow on the writing process for what would become my 2019 album, Oh My God. I bought a Four Track Tascam model 424 off of an old friend to help me get to the finish line, but much to my surprise and excitement, this new piece of equipment in my all-but-bare home didn't help complete one album but rather inspire another: Sundowner. The new collection of songs came quickly and effortlessly as I did my best not to resist or refine the songs, but instead let them take shape all on their own. As the songs kept coming I cleared out the crowded shed that was sitting dormant in my backyard and built a makeshift studio before adding drums, lead guitar and piano to complete the demos. Each day I would teach myself basic recording techniques, watching the channels illuminate and pulse as if the machine were breathing, and then emerge in the evenings as the sun was getting low: - around 5:30 in the winter, when the Kansan sunsets look icy and distant, like a pink ember inside of a display case, and 9 o'clock in the summer, when the sunsets are warm and abstract. Landing back home felt jarring juxtaposed with a life full of chaos and adventure with my band on the road. But at the very least, I was happy to have - for the first time in my adulthood - a place to close the door, with no temptations other than to work on music and reflect on what I had built since I left. It was a new form of isolation, one I had never explored or expected to experience. Not ready to let go of the hand of the California desert, I spent the winter decorating the best I knew how; with mementos from my previous home, cactus and aloe vera and covering the walls in pinewood - immediately earning my house it's nickname, The Little Los Angeles. THE RECORDING: Sonic Ranch, Neve Room, Tornillo, Texas In January 2019 I contacted my friend and producer Brad Cook to help recreate what I had made in my shed. We chose to work in Texas; we wanted to make sure the record was done far away from any coastline, and in the heart of America. Brad played bass and some keys on the album, but beyond that he encouraged and inspired me to play almost everything else. All lead guitar, proper drums (save the drums on "A Night At The Little Los Angeles"), mellotron and what I believe to be the albums secret weapon - a WWII era collapsible and slightly out-of-tune pump organ - were performed by me. We did, however, bring in James Krivchenia towards the end of the session to fill out the percussion. It was an honor to work with him as he built maracas from pecans and played on the floor of the live room, adding flourish wherever he saw fit. On the last evening of the session, after everything had wrapped, we all climbed on top of an empty water tower on the property, giving us a view in all directions. To the North you could see an endless Texas, with long wisps of cirrus clouds above the desert floor, and to the South there was Mexico, the recent detention camps only a mile beyond, with large cumulus clouds hovering over, bringing us to an ominous pause. To the West, towards the setting sun, the two families of clouds merged, holding the last light of the day in purple and orange. Below, a freight train cut the landscape in half as it whistled in the distance. AFTER Almost as soon as the session wrapped, I was off and away on press trips and then proper tours for Oh My God, which came out in April that same year. Sundowner sat inside of a hard drive back at Sonic Ranch and did not see the light of day, until I found myself, as did the rest of the world, stuck inside their home and in quarantine in March 2020. My second year of touring for Oh My God was cancelled. Brad, Jerry and I worked from our respective homes, sending notes back and forth as we worked alone but together to mix the album, and suddenly, just like that, Sundowner was finished. Songs, like sunsets, are fleeting, and it's only due to a willingness and desire to catch them that you ever, if even only for a moment, grab a hold of one. When writing Sundowner, I was lucky to have had the Tascam 424 there to help capture both. Sundowner is my attempt to put the Middle American twilight - it's beauty profound, though not always immediate - into sound. It is a depiction of isolation. Of the past. Of an uncertain future. Of provisions. Of an omen. Of a dead deer. Of an icon. Of a Los Angeles themed hotel in rural Kansas. Of billowing campfires, a mermaid and a highway lined in rabbit fur. It is a depiction of the nervous feeling that comes with the sky's proud announcement that another day will be soon coming to a close as the pink light recedes and the street lamps and house lights suddenly click on. Kevin Morby, Kansas, 2020 Sundowner by Kevin Morby

Price

$19.98

Last Updated

17 August 2026, 03:37 UTC

Store Information

Bull City Records

physical store

Location

Address: 2600, Hillsborough Road, 27705, NC, US
Coordinates: 36.010835, -78.928740
Visit Store Website

More from Bull City Records

View all
NxWorries - Yes Lawd! 2LP

NxWorries - Yes Lawd! 2LP

$29.98

Anderson .Paak + Knxwledge! "NxWorries appeared in early 2015 on Stones Throw with "Suede." Knxwledge provided the dazed production, its beat a clipped gait -- Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson's "The Bottle" stretched and dragged to support Anderson Paak's freewheeling vehicular exhibition and macking seminar. Dr. Dre then sought Paak for extensive work on Compton, while the rising Knxwledge produced "Momma" on To Pimp a Butterfly and released a Stones Throw album. As Paak and Knxwledge sustained their prominence with separate collaborative and solo work, their activity as a unit gradually escalated to this full-length, released during the fourth quarter of 2016. It includes "Suede," two other cuts from an EP originally released as a download in late 2015, and 40 additional minutes of keenly bent and smudged soul loops. Though Paak is an accomplished musician and bandleader, as seen throughout 2016 in several televised performances to promote Malibu, he sticks strictly to singing and rapping, leaving Knxwledge to handle all the music. Reflective of their collaborative alias, Paak doesn't sound particularly bothered, apart from some irritation related in "H.A.N.," a deflection of leeches and critics, and some serious concerns and confessions within the supremely dreamy "Khadijah." Otherwise, he keeps it lighthearted as an irrepressible rolling stone. Audibly and lyrically coarse, he rarely sounds less than entirely self-satisfied and at least a little amused, whether he's dealing out wisecracking wordplay or quoting J Dilla as he deftly coasts over and darts between the beats. If not quite as substantive as Malibu, this is one of those albums that can be played continuously without risk of depreciation. Knxwledge and Paak are so occupied with other pursuits that this seems destined to take its place in the Stones Throw discography as one of the label's fine twosome one-offs in the manner of Madvillainy and Champion Sound." -All Music Guide

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Lambchop - FLOTUS 2LP

Lambchop - FLOTUS 2LP

$24.98

"FLOTUS (For Love Often Turns Us Still) is a new full-length from the seminal Merge band Lambchop. Kurt Wagner, inspired by hip-hop, minimalism, and early electronic music, brings us a new sound for the band—one that's totally original and refreshing, yet distinctly Lambchop. The album's closer, "The Hustle", is an 18-minute whopper, which premiered with the album's announcement back in August along with a Stereogum interview . It was the soundtrack to the archival footage film The Dockworker's Dream by Bill Morrison, which was shared by NPR's First Watch. The album's second single,"NIV", was featured on an All Songs Considered's New Mix, and a video directed by William Tyler's sister Elise premieres later this month. A long-form essay by Wagner on the inspirations behind the record will run on Medium. NPR First Listen will stream the record in advance of the release date. Another single is set to be release ahead of that, and features, interviews, and reviews are set for Magnet, The Rumpus, American Songwriter, Ghettoblaster, The Big Takeover, WUNC Morning Edition, Dinner Party Download, and more." -Merge

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Goat - Requiem 2LP

Goat - Requiem 2LP

$22.98

Mysterious masked Swedish psych group dabbling in Afro-beat 'n' Japanese psych influence rock. 3rd LP. "GOAT’s only outright declaration for Requiem is that it is their “folk” album, and the album is focused more on their subdued bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. But GOAT hasn’t completely foregone their fiery charms—tracks like “All-Seeing Eye” and “Goatfuzz” conjure the sultry heathen pulsations that ensnared us on their previous albums. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Requiem comes with the closing track “Ubuntu”. The song is little more than a melodic delay-driven electric piano line, until we hear the refrain from “Diarabi”—the first song on their first album—sneak into the mix. It creates a kind of musical ouroboros—an infinite cycle of reflection and rejuvenation, death and rebirth. Much like fellow recluse Pynchon, rather than offering explanations for their strange trajectories, GOAT create a world where the line between truth and fiction is so obscured that all you can do is bask in their cryptic genius." -Sub Pop

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee LP

Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee LP

$19.98

"The writing of the songs that became Heart Like a Levee started in a hotel room in Washington , DC , in January of 2015 during a powerful storm that darkened the East Coast. At that time I was feeling—more acutely than I had ever felt before—wrenched apart by my responsibilities to my family and to my music. Forgetting, momentarily, that for me, each exists only with the other. How could I forget? Though maybe my lapse was reasonable: I had just quit my job, the most recent and last, in a series of dead-end gigs stretching back 20 years, with the vow that my children would understand their father as a man in love with his world and the inventor of his own days. They would be rare in that regard. And then—driven by monthly bills and pure fear—I left for another tour, carrying a load of guilt that I could just barely lift. But in that snowy hotel room I found the refrain that became my compass: I was a dreamer, babe, when I set out on the road; but did I say I could find my way home?" -M.C. Taylor

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Girl Tears - Woke Against The Tide LP

Girl Tears - Woke Against The Tide LP

$16.98

"The Los Angeles/Orange County punk trio Girl Tears has mastered the art of the three-chord attack, delivering volatile blasts to the point of fury. Four tours and 100+ shows later, playing art spaces, houses, DiY venues, bars, barns, backyards, basements, and everything in between, Girl Tears has delivered a natural, confident progression from their debut. Woke Against The Tide wrestles with themes of Love/Hate, Good/Evil - and in particular - the space between these polarizing ideas. Cold Thoughtsand Uneasy personify the album's conflict. There are hooks, melody and structure, but also a bit of chaos built on a more complex arrangement that's constantly shifting and evolving, much like the band themselves. Whereas their debut Tension was more a discovery, Woke Against The Tideis more abstract. It creates a dense and unforgiving experience, really challenging the listener to keep up."

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Bull City Records T-shirt! (Brown Shirt / Gold Ink)

Bull City Records T-shirt! (Brown Shirt / Gold Ink)

$12.00

Printed locally by Holy Mountain Printing on Gildan Heavy Cotton shirts.

Updated: 2026-08-16 15:44 UTC