{"title":"Greg Mendez","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"first-time-alone","title":"First Time \/ Alone","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFirst Time \/ Alone\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mendez's\u003c\/strong\u003e new EP and first release with Dead Oceans, came together in late summer and early fall of 2023. The songs here appear in the order in which they were written, recorded straight to four-track in the small spare room of his West Philadelphia apartment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s a four song arc, a spectral passageway, one brief and fluid body of work that hangs together from the mournful opening of \"\u003cem\u003eMountain Dew Hell\u003c\/em\u003e\" to the pitched-up vocals on \"\u003cem\u003ePain Meds\u003c\/em\u003e,\" a tiny song floundering in the enormity of grief. The experience of listening through is like waking up from a half-remembered dream, a shadow in the corner of the room, a strange solitude, a temporal New York autumn with gray skies and naked trees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut while the release is sparse and spontaneous, it’s tactile and consuming, a glimpse into the beautiful, lonely worlds that live in the core of a \u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mendez\u003c\/strong\u003e song. \u003cem\u003eFirst Time \/ Alone\u003c\/em\u003e is the inverse of his 2023 self-titled album, a meticulous and labored-over collection of songs that went on to become a surprise slowburn success.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMendez\u003c\/strong\u003e has released music in various capacities across 15 years living in Philadelphia and New York, but the self-titled was what propelled him to a wider attention, a critical breakthrough on best-of lists from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Paste, and more. That forward momentum came to a quick halt following an intensive surgery on his right wrist in the summer of 2023 – a four-month purgatory of bad TV, canceled touring, and physical therapy ensued, a painful stretch of boredom leaving \u003cstrong\u003eMendez\u003c\/strong\u003e unable to play guitar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eMountain Dew Hell\u003c\/em\u003e\" and \"\u003cem\u003eFirst Time\u003c\/em\u003e,\" the funereal A-side of the EP, are time capsules of that fever-dream; \"\u003cem\u003eAlone\u003c\/em\u003e\" was the first song \u003cstrong\u003eMendez\u003c\/strong\u003e wrote once he was able to play guitar again. Likely none of the songs would have existed as-is if \u003cstrong\u003eMendez’s\u003c\/strong\u003e right hand hadn’t been out of commission, but they’re artful in their directness and simplicity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMendez\u003c\/strong\u003e is an intuitive songwriter, melodies channeled through ether, a storyteller who across his catalog has chronicled vivid violence and instability – a wallet chain to the head, a crack house arrest, the misdeeds from addiction that hang around like a ghost of past lives – but it’s threaded together with love songs, too, with odes to friendship, true dedication, the things that can buoy one through the worst.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMendez\u003c\/strong\u003e has a habit of noticing those things, of finding the light, exacting poetry from even the bleakest, shit-caked situations. In his songs there is an innate ability to balance grit with gentleness, cruelties rewritten through preternatural sweetness, a heart thrumming unendingly, confidently, through the dark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dead Oceans","offers":[{"title":"Black 7\"","offer_id":50396894200139,"sku":"2222376","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/UoVyqgqQ_a5d3356e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726486423"},{"product_id":"greg-mendez-47lhjt","title":"Greg Mendez","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor \u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mendez\u003c\/strong\u003e, reflection doesn’t mean a static image in a mirror, or even a face he recognizes. It’s more a kaleidoscopic mirage, where paths taken shapeshift with the prospect of paths untread, and the subconscious merges with the intentional.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn his self-titled new album, the Philadelphia-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist investigates the shaky camera of memory, striving to carve out a collage that points to a truth. But there isn’t a regimented actuality here; instead, Mendez highlights the merit in many truths, and many lives, and how even the hardest truths can still contain some humor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile this is technically Mendez’s third full-length album, his back catalog boasts an extensive range of EPs and live recordings. He’s a prolific and thoughtful songwriter, understanding the joy in impulse, and shying away from the clinical sheen of overproduction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e2017’s \u003cem\u003e¯\\_(ツ)_\/¯\u003c\/em\u003e and 2020’s \u003cem\u003eCherry Hell\u003c\/em\u003e garnered acclaim for their quiet, lo-fi urgency, exploring themes of addiction and heartbreak with an intentional, authentic haze, and it’s this approach that has solidified Mendez as a staple in the DIY community for years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mendez\u003c\/strong\u003e was written in fragments, some stretching across more than a decade, with Mendez reworking old ideas and arrangements, and others blossoming much more recently. The weight of time––and perhaps the anxiety in running out of it––clouds the album, as Mendez prods at some painful experiences from his childhood and early adulthood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe common thread connecting the characters is their evident imperfections, and the various degrees of damage they cause, both knowingly and unknowingly. But where do we draw the line between a good person and a bad person? For Mendez, it’s never been that easy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreg Mendez\u003c\/strong\u003e is an intimate dialogue between the chapters we’ve experienced, and how they can inform the reality we perceive. It’s a reminder that we are constantly shifting, ever-changing selves and that if we ruminate too long, we may find ourselves stuck in the seriousness of it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHere, Mendez allows us to take the time to notice what happens outside of the framework we may have built for ourselves, and the beauty that can occur when we finally do.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dead Oceans","offers":[{"title":"Green LP","offer_id":50396895740235,"sku":"2118395","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Black LP | Signed Copy | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50396897804619,"sku":"2239019","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/product_id._067f535d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726486455"},{"product_id":"cherry-hell","title":"Cherry Hell","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe long-awaited vinyl release of Greg Mendez's beloved LP \u003cem\u003eCherry Hell,\u003c\/em\u003e in honour of the record's fifth anniversary, originally released February 28, 2020. All songs written and performed by Greg Mendez, while Veronica Mendez sang harmonies on 'Purity' and 'Long Division,' and played one of the guitars on 'Cherry Hell'. Evan Bernard engineered the drum sessions at Big Mama's Recording, bounced all the songs from the tape, and ran 'Long Division' and 'Donut Shop' through the space echo. Ian Farmer mixed the record at The Metal Shop, played some of the tambourines and shakers, and engineered some random overdubs. Mastered by Ryan Schwabe, Philadelphia PA. Art by Kyle Appelgate and Greg Mendez.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Forged Artifacts","offers":[{"title":"LP - Green | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":51389928210763,"sku":"R0349-0372","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a4040816945_65.jpg?v=1741180045"},{"product_id":"beauty-land","title":"Beauty Land","description":"\u003cp\u003eGreg Mendez has always been an economical songwriter – he wields restraint and simplicity as tools, the core of his songs sharpened into simple, cutting truths. On \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e, his new album and debut LP for Dead Oceans, we’re guided by a wry but forgiving narrator, an underdog who has learned to balance cynicism and faith. These songs are self-effacing without self-pity, carefully constructed altars of imperfection channeled through pop melodies, shimmering but urgent guitars, and a voice that reaches for choir boy innocence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land \u003c\/em\u003ewas recorded directly to tape, almost entirely alone in Mendez’s makeshift home studio in Philadelphia - a small room with no natural light. It’s his first full length since his unexpected self-titled breakthrough in 2023, which was a slow burn success following 15 years of writing and recording music in relative obscurity between Philly and New York. \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e picks up where we left off three years ago – plumbing the depths of grief, love, and addiction – but its intense, quiet clarity shows Mendez at his songwriting best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParts of \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e feel like a lucid dream, dented characters carve their way through a world that’s cartoonish and warped – the broken-clock march of “I Wanna Feel Pretty,” the chiming toy piano on “Gentle Love.” “Mary \/ Dreaming” begins as a sparse, finger-picked lament before cutting abruptly to a deflated, Beach-Boys-but-make-it-fucked-up resolution that brings both melancholy and joy; a sense that all things can be true at once. None of the 14 tracks here break three minutes, but they tell stories that span lifetimes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDeath floats through the record, whether it appears as a memory or a threat. Everything feels precarious. There’s a fragility to how these songs are built: the way the funeral organ hits alongside the morphine on “Looking Out Your Window,” the devastating simplicity of “Frog,” with its slowed-down keyboard and bare refrain: “Please forgive me for my faults.” \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e feels, at times, impossibly lonely. Which makes it really count when it doesn’t – like when Mendez sings in harmony with his wife and bandmate, Veronica near the end of “So Mean” and it feels like a cherished reunion, a fleeting moment of redemption, a temporary parting of the seas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dead Oceans","offers":[{"title":"LP - Red Nebula Splash | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":56682185720139,"sku":"R9737-1416","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Crystal Clear","offer_id":56682185589067,"sku":"R9737-6257","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":56682185621835,"sku":"R9737-7957","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":56682185654603,"sku":"R9737-6735","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":56682185687371,"sku":"R9737-2310","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/GregMendez-BeautyLand.jpg?v=1772539413"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/greg-mendez.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}