{"title":"Callahan and Witscher","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"think-differently","title":"Think Differently","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/i\u003e is the debut LP by the duo of Callahan and Witscher. Jeff\nWitscher has been one of the most daring voices in underground American\nmusic for two decades, highlighted by releases on Pan and NNA Tapes. Jack\nCallahan’s focused, uncompromising approach to sound caught the attention of\nboth Demdike Stare’s DDS label and Swiss composer Jürg Frey, who took\nCallahan on as his first composition student. Fans of their individual work might\nexpect opacity, disruption, or rhythmic irregularity from their collaboration, but \u003ci\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/i\u003e sounds like a pitbull in a convertible, a sand-kicking beach\nparty, the dopamine hit you get from 311 or Smash Mouth. It’s a punchy,\ncrunchy, highly infectious record. How did Callahan and Witscher cut the path\nfrom the ghostly margins of avant garde musics to the gutters of post-grunge\nAmerican hard rock? In the words of Callahan, “at some point, you start to need\na stronger drug.”\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe most potent characteristic of this stronger drug is the guitar. And not just\nany guitar, but a sassy, contagious, blithe guitar. Its presence is a drastic shift\nfor two guys who’ve combined to make dozens of records over the years, not a\nsingle one of which has a recognizable guitar sound on it. Alongside the cool\nbreezes and hyperactive fretwork of Callahan’s guitar playing, the songs are\nbackboned by strutting, groove-happy vocals: all bark, all bite. Every song is a\ncareful collage, light but dense, ornate with gang choruses, soulful femme\nvocals, autotune and whisper scratches. This accumulation almost manages to\nhide the record’s potent undertow of dread.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/i\u003e unfolds carefully, a slow-motion demolition that reveals the\nanxiety of second guessing, the exhaustion of tour, creative bankruptcy, willful\nmisunderstanding, the pain of caring. Setting this lyrical cynicism against such\nsonic glee isn’t a spoonful of sugar, it isn’t a bait-and-switch, it isn’t a prank.\nAfter all, the dumb bliss of Sugar Ray’s “Fly” shades a song about Mark\nMcGrath’s mom dying. “All Star” is about climate change. Most Sublime lyrics\nare a bummer. But there’s still room for a raised beer, for a dumb grin. Like\nthese ancestors, Callahan and Witscher aim at maximum uplift, at sounds that\nwarm and dazzle like a sped-up sunrise. In spite of overdraft fees, in spite of\nbad art, in spite of self-doubt.\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Post Present Medium","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50531581198667,"sku":"2208261","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Think_Differently_c498c6a2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728110017"},{"product_id":"sorry-to-hear-that","title":"Sorry To Hear That","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJack Callahan and Jeff Witscher were tired. They had each been toiling in the American underground experimental music scene since the turn of the millennium, under names you may or may not recognize: Rene Hell, Marble Sky, die Reihe, too many to name. Their first full length \u003cem\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/em\u003e was the result of a confluence of end points: the dissolution of their underground scene and, in no small part because of that, the abstract music they had made separately and together as long as they could remember was not hitting like it used to. Where else to go but to the other side of the horseshoe: pop music. So why not heed the writing on the wall? Make a turn-of-the-millennium guitar-driven pop rock anthem record about being aging underground musicians who don’t want to make noise music anymore. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWell, \u003cem\u003eSorry to Hear That \u003c\/em\u003eis a record about \u003cem\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/em\u003e. If \u003cem\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/em\u003e was a meta-conceptual record, \u003cem\u003eSorry to Hear That \u003c\/em\u003eis a meta-meta-conceptual record. Meta Meta+Hodos. It was recorded over the course of 9 months in the wake of the first record. It was a period of personal and professional disruption: their initial optimism from the attention \u003cem\u003eThink Differently\u003c\/em\u003e received quickly spiraled into zealotry, inevitably descending into fear, disappointment and fracture. The record they wound up making is a document of and a narrative about this time period. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eSorry to Hear That i\u003c\/em\u003es a sequel that continues where the first left off sonically and conceptually. Here we have more guitar, more breakbeats, more navel-gazing malaise, more humorous self-effacement. It captures perfectly what the duo had set out to convey from the onset; it is a blistering record filled with commentary from both sides of the aisle, the player and the played, amped up to infinity. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eSorry to Hear That\u003c\/em\u003e features a number of guest appearances from old and new comrades in the trenches of independent music: Shed Theory ringleader Marlon DuBois, Dylan Baldi and Jayson Gerycz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Post Present Medium","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":56717414334795,"sku":"R6854-2066","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a4097665132_16.jpg?v=1772877724"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/callahan-and-witscher.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}