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Sleepy Cat Records
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On The Green

by Gibson & Toutant

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    ***This is a preorder. We expect vinyl to arrive by end of May, and will stay in touch with any delays. Please email sleepycatrec@gmail.com with any questions!

    -Standard weight 12” black vinyl
    -Single pocket jacket on 24pt board with matte finish
    -Polybag
    -Poly-lined inner sleeve
    -Gatefold insert
    -Download code
    -Sleepy Cat sticker

    Shipping note: We place the inner sleeve + vinyl outside of the jacket and inside the polybag, next to the jacket. This helps prevent jacket damage during shipping. Let us know if you have preferred shipping practices.

    Includes unlimited streaming of On The Green via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    shipping out on or around June 1, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    -Duplicated CD
    -Wallet cases - 16 pt recycled board stock printed using green friendly ink
    -Insert
    -Sleepy Cat sticker

    Includes unlimited streaming of On The Green via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

1.
Carolina Shred 02:10
lyrics
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Someone is messing around in the dumpster Probably finding security numbers They could discover a company secret Recipes, memories, memos, and blueprints Carolina shred / Roll it What can become of these cabinet contents Trouble with trials or government audits Power it on and line up the edges 1 919 812 50 20 Carolina shred / Roll it
2.
Quoth My Baby 02:25
lyrics
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Quoth my baby / mm-hmm My baby calls me from a cloud From the center of a crowd She’s swimming down at Ocean’s pool She’s by the gate of the trade school Quoth my baby / mm-hmm My baby has a ring of keys Telephone and diary She hums a little song to me A secret daytime melody My baby’s scheming on a car Wants to drive it very far By herself no other way She’s gonna get there any day Quoth my baby / mm hmm
3.
Norm's Oranges 04:46
lyrics
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Vocals, electric guitar - Josephine McRobbie Vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboard - Joe O’Connell Drums - Matthew O’Connell Fiddle - Libby Rodenbough
4.
The Click 04:52
lyrics
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Norman was a regular customer At the family feed store Until he blew away in a snowstorm Nordic norm Lives alone Makes his work In the orange grove Every morning Sends up another sun Here comes another Here comes another one Nordic norm Tunes the dials In the field He shields his eyes Every morning Sends up another sun Here comes another Here comes another one Normal norm In a treasure trove Marmalade On the stove Every morning Sends up another sun Here comes another Here comes another one Serving himself tea Every afternoon Irish breakfast Hearing the broadcast Hearing the broadcast news
5.
Little Rider 06:39
lyrics
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In the coral-colored dusk I read novelty magazines Until it starts to seem Like a passion I no longer understand So I ride on my bike I stop at the toll booth On the customary net I work weekends and evenings But it stops the pulse Of my feelings, and it eats up my memories So I ride on my bike I stop at the toll booth Is the download slow? Or is it how I scroll?
6.
Vicky's Chimes 07:36
lyrics
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I hear ‘em in the window So I launch a browser tab What an inspiration I like what Vicky has The driver’s on my doorstep He offers me a box I put my ear against it No, that’s not what I want Vicky’s chimes It doesn’t even jingle It doesn’t even ring Return it to the sender Gimme the real thing (I find) Vicky’s chimes (On my mind) A fence still separates us It hides me when I blush Vicky’s got a stellar garden She’s got a certain touch
7.
The Fairway 04:09
lyrics
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She’s coming up upon the ninth Looking out from under her visor At the lay Of the fairway It’s another gorgeous day In another island landscape On the links Here’s a practice swing Steadying her club in place Check the concentration on that face Par five It’s a long hard drive Topping the leader board again Squinting now to see Let’s see where this one is gonna land… Sit down… She’s on the green

about

There’s a certain kind of intimacy in the music that Josephine McRobbie and Joe O’Connell make as Gibson and Toutant. Like any two people who spend their lives together, Josephine and Joe have developed the kind of interpersonal telekinesis that’s often phrased as “finishing each other’s sentences.” For On the Green, as with their previous projects, that connection takes the shape of a game of telephone. One of them passes along a snatch of melody to the other one, who adds lyrics, then passes it back, and so on–but never for too long, lest the spark die. It keeps the music light, intuitive, and, not for nothing, kept within the realm of creative possibility given that there is also a toddler in the house. It’s no accident that the album’s catchiest song is titled “Quoth My Baby.”

Fittingly, then, one of On the Green’s highlights is “Carolina Shred,” in which the two intone a lullaby-simple melody over a gently accelerating cacophony of captured sounds–including the strangely comforting tones of a touchtone phone. Summoning the spirit of lost communication by meditating on the contents of one of those paper-shredding bins you see outside of office parks, the song grows spookier as it plays, before cutting off suddenly–such is the nature of séance, I suppose. On “Norm’s Oranges,” they create their own folk hero with analog powers: a regular guy who blew away in a snowstorm one day, and now turns the dials in a field, summoning the sunrise and occasionally tuning in a news broadcast, as the music grows to a noisy climax suggesting Yo La Tengo or Califone. Like “Shred,” it’s music that couldn’t exist without digital technologies, but which beats with an analog heart.

Though it arose from the duo’s idiosyncratic home-recording process, On the Green is Gibson & Toutant’s most expansive recording yet, with numerous friends and local collaborators helping them animate their ideas. Recorded with Andy Stack (Wye Oak, Joyero, Helado Negro), the album was created amid Durham’s busy music scene, with contributors like Joseph Decosimo, Nathan Golub, and Nathan Bowles chipping in, and Joe’s brother Matthew O’Connell (Chorusing) adding drums and percussion. On the effervescent “The Click,” where McRobbie traces a modest escape from reading novelty magazines to enjoying the pleasurable repetition of stopping at a toll booth on a bike ride, that’s Jake Xerxes Fussell on guitar and backup vocals, and Libby Rodenbough contributing fiddle and vocals.

The contributors only enhance the fundamental sonic intimacy and curiosity of On the Green. This is an album that hones in on the kind of informational and emotional proximity encountered through listening to discarded answering machine tapes, scanning someone’s open browser tabs, or hearing a snatch of conversation through an apartment wall. This is “roots music,” in the broadest possible definition of the term: fiddle and guitar and grass and trees and cables and screens and transmissions over wires and magnetic tape, growing into something new. They take a small thing and make it something else in a few days. Did you ever realize it could sound like that?

- Eric Harvey

credits

released March 22, 2024

Performance:

Fiddle - Joseph Decosimo
Pedal steel - Nathan Golub
Drums, shaker, bongos, woodblock, sandpaper - Matthew O’Connell
Vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums - Josephine McRobbie
Vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, pump organ, melodica, xylophone, The Mutant - Joe O’Connell
Fiddle, cello, backup vocals - Libby Rodenbough
Electric guitar, backup vocals - Jake Xerxes Fussell
Keyboard - Andy Stack
Keyboard - Nathan Bowles

Production:

Written and produced by Josephine McRobbie and Joe O’Connell
Recorded by Andy Stack at Doom Homestead
Engineered by Andy Stack, Joe O’Connell
Mixed by Joe, additional mixing by Saman Khoujinian
Mastered by Alli Blois
Thanks to: Erica Titkemeyer, Annie Peterson, Durham Soccer Academy, Eric Harvey, Asia Harman, Mike Newins, Matthew O’Connell, and Hannah Rainey.

Art:

Cover Art by Gabe Anderson
Photos by Libby Rodenbough
Camcorder images by Asia Harman

license

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Gibson & Toutant Durham, North Carolina

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