{"title":"Buck Meek","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuck Meek is a folk musician best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of Big Thief. Born and raised in Wimberly, Texas, Buck was introduced to the guitar during his youth. His teen years were spent playing blues, manouche jazz, and western swing in bars and dance halls across the state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter moving to Brooklyn, he self-released two EPs as a solo artist: \"Live from a Volcano\" (2013) and \"Heart Was Beat\" (2015). In the meantime, he connected with Adrianne Lenker, who he performed with as a duo before forming the band Big Thief.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn May 2018, Buck released his debut album through Keeled Scales. Later that year, he relocated to Los Angeles where he wrote most of the material for his next record. His second solo LP, \"Two Saviors,\" was released in January of 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"haunted-mountain","title":"Haunted Mountain","description":"\u003cp\u003eTexas-bred singer \/ songwriter and Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek releases his new album, \u003ci\u003eHaunted Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e. His first release for 4AD, Meek also shares the lead single and title track, ‘Haunted Mountain’, a song co-written alongside his friend and long-time hero Jolie Holland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing his beloved 2021 album, \u003ci\u003eTwo Saviors, Haunted Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e marks Meek’s third solo album. Haunted Mountain is about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, something that doesn’t challenge love exactly but stands in contrast to it. A soulfulness, or a soul-seeking fullness. Meek says that loves songs are the hardest write. “Not break-up songs, but an actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now,” he says. “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLead single ‘Haunted Mountain’ is anchored by sweet lyrics penned by Meek and Holland, who is also from Texas and shares co-writing credits on five of Haunted Mountain’s 11 songs. The first two verses and chorus of ‘Haunted Mountain’ were written by Holland as a love song to Mount Shasta in northern California, with the final verse written by Meek, together seeking reciprocity with nature. “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins,” he says. Propelled by the pristine chemistry of his band, ‘Haunted Mountain’ is presented alongside a Riley Engemoen-directed video that captures the group’s in-studio magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e560 miles from Meek’s hometown of Wimberly, TX, the Franklin Mountains – or more reverently named, Sierras de los Mansos – rise over the tops of the endless acres of pecan trees that surround Sonic Round in the border of Tornillo, where Haunted Mountain was recorded. The songs were written in mountains: by sold springs in the Serra de Estela of Portugal, on the submerged volcano of Milos in the Cyclades, Valle Onsernone in the Swiss Alps (where Haunted Mountain’s cover photo was taken), and the Santa Monica range where Meek now calls home – all where his new love was born.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn \u003ci\u003eHaunted Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, love often assumes a natural form – crystal ball dew-drops, green rivers and grasses, tears bottled. Sometimes it becomes artificial – mood rings, earrings, a pair of jeans, motorcycles and spacecraft. Sometimes cosmic – “I fell into a black hole with the hot flux of hazel” (from ‘Paradise’). Love is a consciousness here, interacting with the lovers, greeting them, watching them sometimes, becoming them sometimes. It extends beyond romance, examining the inexhaustible bond between mother and sun, and asks – is love a form of magic? “When you are in love, it inhabits your environment, animates the inanimate, charging everything around you with a sense of meaning,” he says. “and not just new love; also love of many years.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince Buck’s self-titled full-length album, his band has remained consistent – Adam Brisbin (guitar), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Mat Davidson (pedal steel, bass on Buck Meek and Two Saviors). In the year or so leading up to recording Haunted Mountain, they were joined by Ken Woodward (bass) as well as Meek’s brother, Dylan, who joined them for the session on piano and synths. Produced by the band’s own Davidson, Haunted Mountain was recorded and mixed in two weeks by Adrian Olsen, who also performed the sound manipulation via modular synthesizer that can be heard throughout the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne intention was to make a hi-fi album that contrasted with the intentionally lo-fi approach of \u003ci\u003eTwo Saviors\u003c\/i\u003e, while preserving the intimacy. Recorded live to two-inch tape, the group played together in one big room, with no headphones. In Davidson’s words, “the music here is an expression of a group. I asked for the job because I felt strongly that we shouldn’t bring in someone from outside the band. Otherwise, the only personal desire I had was that we be able to explore space, that we let the music open up and slow down in contrast to previous records – not in terms of tempo but rather overall movement, information between the beats.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeek believes that all of the great love songs have not been written yet. In between the lines of \u003ci\u003eHaunted Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, we hear that love, in every form, is the creation of home, from within – forever leaving one to find another.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"4AD","offers":[{"title":"Green LP","offer_id":50411286692171,"sku":"2025887","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50411285807435,"sku":"2025885","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50411286135115,"sku":"2025886","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Album_Packshot_copy_e2ecb106_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726655542"},{"product_id":"buck-meek","title":"Buck Meek","description":"\u003cp\u003eBuck Meek (Big Thief)'s songs are for the lost dogs of honest mechanics, good guys and girls born into a life of crime, runaways, snow spirits, the ghosts of Central Park, unsung diving-board stars, the affection shared through gambling, and so on. Bred in Texas, more bread in New York City, Meek spins outlaw ballads and quotidian fairy tales into a yarn, with Adam Brisbin on guitar (Jolie Holland, Sam Evian, Katie Von Schleicher), Mt. Davidson on bass (Twain, The Low Anthem, Spirit Family Reunion), and Austin Vaughn on drums (Here We Go Magic, Luke Temple, Sam Evian). Meek's self titled debut was recorded and mixed by ace engineer Phil Weinrobe (Really Big Pinecone, Ceramic Dog, Nick Murphy) at both Rivington 66 - an orange den beneath the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the cork womb of Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, as well as the wainscoted old-growth oak joisted parlor of the Lethe Lounge in upper Manhattan, with engineer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Nick Hakim). In addition to the core band, the album personnel includes Mikey Buishas (Really Big Pinecone) on pump organ, Dave Harrington (Dark Side, Nicolas Jaar) on pedal steel, Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) on vocals, Buck's brother Dylan Meek (Miguel, Grant AME Gospel Choir, Post Malone) on Wurlitzer, and Michael Sachs (Little King, Secret Sibling) on clarinet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Keeled Scales","offers":[{"title":"Orange | LP","offer_id":50469143740747,"sku":"1087544","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Green | LP","offer_id":50469144854859,"sku":"1087545","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50469146100043,"sku":"1044409","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50469146984779,"sku":"1044410","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ada64c71-afcf-4bd1-b501-9773461a142f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727357000"},{"product_id":"two-saviors","title":"Two Saviors","description":"\u003cp\u003eBig Thief’s Buck Meek releases his new solo album, \u003ci\u003eTwo Saviors\u003c\/i\u003e, on Keeled Scales. While his last album, 2018’s \u003ci\u003eBuck Meek\u003c\/i\u003e, is a yarn of blue-collar fairy tales and character driven narratives, \u003ci\u003eTwo Saviors\u003c\/i\u003e emerges as a cathartic, naked confession of heartbreak, resiliency, and enchantment. The first word on Two Saviors is “pareidolia.” It is a word about recognising shapes where none were intended to exist - like searching for images in the clouds. It’s an uncommon word, with a beautiful sound, and serves as an apt guide through these new songs of Buck’s, which are themselves uncommon and beautiful, and which invite a deep, cloud-gaze state of attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTwo Saviors \u003c\/i\u003ewas recorded by producer and engineer Andrew Sarlo (who produced the first four Big Thief LPs), under his specific conditions: they make the album in New Orleans, during the hottest part of the year, spend no more than 7 days tracking, all live, on an 8-track tape machine with only dynamic microphones, and no headphones, not allowing the players to hear back any takes until the final day. The band, featuring Adam Brisbin (guitar), Mat Davidson (bass, pedal steel, fiddle), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Buck’s brother Dylan Meek (piano, organ), set up in a Victorian house one block from the Mississippi River and worked within these limitations, encouraging every recording to be imbued with the living, intuitive, and human energy of a first take.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe songs on this album shine with this wisdom and are not ostentatious about it. This is true to Buck’s nature. He is recording life, consciously and unconsciously on a broad spectrum of planes. A new album from him is a gift, a chance to wonder about ways we could be seeing, recording.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Keeled Scales","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50479181300043,"sku":"1104339","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Clear | LP","offer_id":50479182053707,"sku":"1104340","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":50479182446923,"sku":"1104341","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50479181627723,"sku":"1104338","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/157935e4-d020-4605-a6d4-64aae57cd4e9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727503347"},{"product_id":"the-mirror-3","title":"The Mirror","description":"\u003cp\u003eBuck Meek releases his new album, \u003cem\u003eThe Mirror. The Mirror \u003c\/em\u003esearches for new meaning and the familiar is reframed through Meek’s singular voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eThe Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e, love, as an idea, is always close – but in its reflection comes an afterimage of the way things could be and how they’ve been before. Meek holds the absurdity of devotion, the choice to love – with equal parts ache and grin, as on today’s single, ‘Gasoline’. He sings, “Making words up while we made love \/ one month and she’s in my blood.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmerging from a decade of work together in Big Thief, the partnership of Meek and producer James Krivchenia on \u003cem\u003eThe Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e arrived from the idea to combine the band’s live, kinetic energy with an oblique electronic world. From production projects including Big Thief’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You and his recent solo record, Performing Belief, Krivchenia’s work is enlivened through electronic elements, always seeking to deepen sound. The concept for The Mirrorwelcomed a collective atmosphere in which simultaneous experiment could occur – the musicians responded to each other in real time, while their instruments triggered modular synthesizers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor \u003cem\u003eThe Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e, Meek and Krivchenia welcomed in friends, family, and longtime collaborators including Adrianne Lenker, who contributed vocals, Adam Brisbin on guitar, and Ken Woodward on bass. New creative partners and longtime friends like composer and ambient musician Alex Somers joined in on synthesizer, toy microphone, an old piano, and Mary Lattimore brought in the sounds of her prismatic harp. A rotating cast of four drummers: Jesse Quebbeman-Turley, Jonathan Wilson, Kyle Crane, and Krivchenia provide a wide dynamic arc of grooves. Germaine Dunes, Staci Foster, Jolie Holland, and Lenker sing as a choir on many songs. Meek’s brother, Dylan Meek contributed piano, keys, and vocals. Adrian Olsen created a wide range of sounds and melodies with modular synths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith his songwriting acting as a compass to the recording process, Meek invited interaction, instead of limiting the tracks to something controllable. The album was recorded in Meek and Dunes' Los Angeles log cabin studio, Ringo Bingo. Meek recorded vocals outdoors on the front porch, looking through the living room window where the band played inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs an artist, Meek continues to reveal his singular aptitude as translator of human feeling and its endless portals. Through The Mirror, he aptly embraces the unknown with an abiding desire to find the right questions to ask, rather than their answers. “I don’t know the meaning of your dreams,” Meek writes on ‘Déjà vu’, “Though tell me everything.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"4AD","offers":[{"title":"LP - Crystal Clear","offer_id":56239238676811,"sku":"R5100-4312","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":56239238709579,"sku":"R5100-5321","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/BuckMeek-TheMirror.jpg?v=1767715739"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_441d9391_thumbnail_4096_be8b12f8-716c-4c86-9a3b-f7774370f4d8.jpg?v=1726012335","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/buck-meek.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}