Spirit
THE GENA ROWLANDS BAND plays songs about b-movie starlets, x-movie starlets, waitresses, people born in the wrong skin, blonde strangers, barstool wisdom, bad parties, hope in the face of long odds, and the Man in Black looking back at the love of his life.
"These songs are barstool ruminations about women, wine and faith," says Bob Massey. "Because all three can be sources of mystery or revelation. And they're all intoxicating, in their own ways."
"It's tragic, hilarious, brilliant writing," says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of The Gena Rowlands Band. "A stunner," says Miami New Times. "Every song is great," according to The Houston Press.
Flesh and Spirits is The Gena Rowlands Band's third full-length recording for Lujo Records. It's is the band's most focused, cohesive, and catchy work yet.
To create his finest album yet, GRB ringleader Bob Massey assembled a virtuosic band of Washington, DC's most acclaimed musicians. GRB regulars Jean Cook (who also plays with Beauty Pill, Ida, and Jon Langford) and David Durst were joined by Vin Novara (formerly of CrownHateRuin, Oswego and Canyon) as well as Jason Caddell and Eric Axelson (formerly of The Dismemberment Plan).
The result is eleven instantly memorable songs built on Massey's trademark lyrical formula that combines dry wit, darkness, and glimmers of love and light. If the band's debut (La Merde et Les Etoiles) was the soundtrack for a night of heartache, Flesh and Spirits is the jolt to get you out of bed in the morning.
Flesh and Spirits was recorded and produced by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill (Dischord) and TJ Lipple of Aloha (Polyvinyl) of Silver Sonya, in Washington DC's legendary Inner Ear studios.
The GRB has toured with Andrew Bird, Enon, The Dismemberment Plan and others. In March 2007 the band made their third appearance at SXSW in Austin, TX, as part of a tour of the southwestern U.S.
The Gena Rowlands Band are graduates of the Washington D.C post-punk community. But what you hear is utterly unexpected. Strings stolen from a b&w movie score or New York's experimental scene. The skitter of jazz brushes. A voice that draws more power from a whisper, a wry lyric, or a soulful falsetto than a scream.