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Lioness

Second single from Joyboys In The Grindhouse

Shot by Name Sayers. Directed & animated by Devin James Fry.  +++++

 

Magnetism plus dread. Thrill with a chance of evasion. Desire feels like that.

 

Through animation we used the kind of vivid visual language you might find in a dream to explore the primordial attraction, usually mingled with a touch of resistance, that two people feel before they know precisely what it is about that other person that attracts them. As the song unfolds, bodies and faces become objects of mineral value, and sometimes aversion, and animal allure, mixed with alarm.

 

We tend to be interested in the in-betweens. Life is not cut and dried. But we do like things concrete. In other words, we try to be precise, or at least explicit, but about ambiguity. 

 

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Credits:

Devin James Fry // guitar, vocals, taishogoto, Jitter Getter

Grant Himmler // bass, synthesizers, programming

Garrett Hellman // guitar

Marc Henry // drums and percussion

Nat Tate // backing vocals

Produced and recorded by Grant Eppley, Name Sayers, and Devin James Fry at Hen House Recording in Austin, Texas and at Fry's home studio in Denver, CO. Copyright 2023 Name Sayers LLC.

Shot by Name Sayers and animated by Devin James Fry

More about Name Sayers' new album:

Joyboys In The Grindhouse (front).JPG

Joyboys In The Grindhouse

Produced by Grammy nominee Grant Eppley (for Spoon's Lucifer On The Sofa)

Mastered by Steve Fallone & Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound NJ

Featuring guitarist Wayne Kramer and rappers Chris Conde and E-Turn

Singles: "Reaper," "Lioness,"

"Three Will Grow Back (ft. Wayne Kramer, Chris Conde, and E-Turn,"

and "Gravedancer (ft. Chris Conde)"

Joyboys In The Grindhouse will be released in July of 2023.

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Name Sayers is pleased to announce the July 2023 release of Joyboys In The Grindhouse.  The album marks a pop evolution for the band, incorporating elements of psych rock, hip hop, synth pop, and cumbia, and featuring guest appearances from guitarist Wayne Kramer of The MC5, Brooklyn rapper Chris Conde, and Orlando rapper E-Turn.  The album was produced by Grammy nominee Grant Eppley (for Spoon's Lucifer On The Sofa).

Name Sayers' personell includes Devin James Fry on vocals and various instruments, Grant Himmler on bass, Garrett Hellman on guitar, and Marc Henry on drums.

"We made some brutal pop songs," says Fry, "and celebrated everyone's creative input along the way.  Joyboys dips in and out of sonic worlds while still being very much a Name Sayers joint." 

The band has a history of organizing, producing, and promoting successful destination shows, including supporting the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney collaboration, Superwolves, in the towering main chamber of Longhorn Caverns, and the Black Angels' Alex Maas, in the picturesque desolation of a Texas ghost town. 

 

The taut lyrics of Joyboys In The Grindhouse touch on sex, psychonautic tour experiences, self-medication for social anxiety, and the resiliency which can result from sustained political resistance.
 

The album's title nods to both a wry sense of camp that imbues the project and to Fry's hands-on profession as a surgical instrument sharpener. Fully 49 songs were written, demoed, and culled to the 11 that constitute Joyboys. 

 

"In making a record, as in sharpening," says Fry, "you grind away what you don't need."

The album cover, meticulously photographed in the style of a Dutch Old Master by Dylan O'Connor, features such disconcerting preparations as a chocolate-drenched ham, dangerous utensils, wires suspended in melting Jello, a salad dressed with cigarette butts, and other details.

 

"It's a Carravagio of ruin, like most of life," says Fry. "You either laugh or die even sooner."

Joyboys In The Grindhouse will be available as an audiophile 180-gram LP, as well as digitally and on CD.

-June 2023

Where Devin James Fry's sprawling former outfit Salesman offered snapshots of a gently psychedelic Americana that seemed to blur at the edges, Name Sayers snaps into focus, wrapping tight, darkly offbeat pop arrangements around unlikely hooks. Fry plays coryphée to this troupe of gravedancers. Grant Himmler on bass and synthesizers, Marc Henry at the kit, and Garrett Hellman on guitar.

"Like Leonard Cohen on a DMT trip" - The Austin Chronicle

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