Two Houston originals are combining forces for their first vinyl release. Each side of this LP features songs from lengthier digital releases dropping this spring.
In the long-awaited follow-up to 2021’s Breviary—selected as one of the Houston Chronicle’s top ten albums of the year—National Pleasure presents Visitor Center, an audio travelogue through a handful of almost real cities of the southern United States. Equal parts gothic anxiety and haunting electronica, Erin Rodgers expands on her previous body of work with new rhythmic and tonal experimentation in collaboration with producer Josh Applebee and Anthony Barilla’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Chronicle calls Rodgers “one of the support beams of Houston music”, but Visitor Center makes the case that her music deserves a much wider audience.
The contents of Merel & Tony’s Exquisite Remains are suggested in the album’s title: a large collection of lyrics, poems, instrumentals and collaborations they’ve collected and nurtured over the past 11 years of their ongoing partnership. Pop songs give way to spoken word which in turn fades into live experimentation, reflecting the duo’s interest in all of music’s manifestations. Fans of their theater work, their live bands, and their instrumental scores will all find something to love on this sprawling collection of dreams, love confessions and morbid obsessions.
You’re invited to join us for the vinyl release party and first live performance by National Pleasure at 3:00 on April 27 at Cactus Music in Houston, TX.
