Bowl Of Plums, by BEN SERETAN

Bowl Of Plums

by BEN SERETAN

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Bowl Of Plums via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 200 7 remaining

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
New album by Ben Seretan.
Limited edition of 200 on light blue vinyl, the rest on black vinyl.
Featuring a risograph-printed insert and kitchen table graphic inner sleeve.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: Ben's label Whatever's Clever is releasing the American version! It's out June 24th. Much cheaper shipping to buy from them. Check benseretan.bandcamp.com

*****

"I’m really all flowers
inside and you can
really have them
I’ll name them
for you."
-Eileen Myles

A greatest hits collection
A beginner's guide to botany
The sound of one heart swelling
A book of hymns to joy
The clumsiest among us suddenly discovers grace
A bowl of plums on the table, peaceful and juicy in the afternoon sun
Rhododendron and plumeria
Dandelions and hyacinth
Honeysuckle and lavender

These songs were written on an island in Alaska, my mother's condo in California, a greeting card factory in Queens, a pharmaceutical factory in Brooklyn, and by the light of a miniature Christmas tree. They were recorded and mixed in 7 studios in 5 different states over the course of a year. They really mean a lot to me and I hope you enjoy.

Read on:
bser.tumblr.com/post/145218338360/press-release-bowl-of-plums

*****

All songs written by Ben Seretan

With performances by:
Alex Lewis, Nico Hedley, Ethan Meyer, Rose Blanshei, Alex Tatusian, Maia Friedman, Dave Lackner, Katie Von Schleicher, Jake Nussbaum, & Will Stratton

"Blues," "Cottwonwood Tree," "Bowl of Plums," "Blood in the Muzzle," "Kudzu," & "Thommy" recorded by Kyle Pulley at Headroom Studios, Philadelphia, PA
"My Lucky Stars, part II" recorded by Julian Fader and Carlos Hernandez at Gravesend Recordings, Brooklyn, NY
"In a Twin Bed," "Getting Out," and "You Are on the Water" recorded by Elio DeLuca at the Soul Shop, Medford, MA
Intro to "Bowl of Plums" and "I Like Your Size" recorded by JJ Beck at Akin Studios, Hoosick Falls, NY
Additional tracking recorded by Alex Mead-Fox at Spaceman Sound, Brooklyn, NY
Mixed by Victor Nash, Destination: Universe! Portland, OR
Additional mixing by Tim Shrout
Mastered by Gus Elg, Sky Onion, Portland, OR
Cover photo by Michele Mirisola
Design by Alex Tatusian

Includes unlimited streaming of Bowl Of Plums via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

ships out within 3 days

edition of 300

Purchasable with gift card

€10 EUR or more
Streaming + Download

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

Purchasable with gift card

€7 EUR or more
Ben Seretan's first two solo albums at a special bargain price.
Bundle includes "Bowl Of Plums" on LP (turquoise vinyl copies while stocks last) and "Ben Seretan" on CD.

Includes free download/streaming of all the records.

Includes unlimited streaming of Bowl Of Plums via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

€20 EUR or more
Full Digital Discography

21

releases

Get all 21 Love Boat Records & Buttons releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Gold And Shine EP, Frusta EP, Holy Cobra Dub, Inferno Bizzarro, Similou / The Thugs EP, Il numero undici (Remaster 2022), Riddims 2010-2014, More Riddims, and 13 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

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	1.	You Took My Blues Away 03:54
	2.	Cottonwood Tree 03:33
	3.	Bowl of Plums 04:27
	4.	My Lucky Stars, Part 2 03:23
	5.	In a Twin Bed 02:19
	6.	Getting Out 03:12
	7.	Blood on the Muzzle 04:12
	8.	Thommy 03:53
	9.	Kudzu 04:11
	10.	You Are on the Water 04:05
	11.	I Like Your Size 01:57

about

I’m really all flowers
inside and you can
really have them
I’ll name them
for you
(Eileen Myles)

*****

"Still songs that are sung and usually played with a guitar. Two songs featuring a baby grand piano. Less jamming, but one very satisfying guitar solo up top. Tighter songs. Toe tappers. Some really juicy vocal harmonies throughout. A more 'classic' feel, perhaps. Lots and lots of slide guitar - the slide guitar kind of binds everything, like ribbon around a christmas present.

Bowl of Plums is a bowl of fruit, a refrigerator door full of postcards, the day after the party, a serene still life with dried flowers, a roll of film with pictures from last summer, a book of hymns to joy. Feeling okay. A greatest hits album.

Greatest hits albums take a few of the best cuts here and there from over the years and lovingly package them in a new structure, revealing the hidden undercurrents and through-lines of a life.

I wrote these songs all over the country at different points in the last four years - on broken down pianos on an island in Alaska, on my grandmother’s nylon string guitar from 1953, in my tiny, freezing bedroom at an art gallery in Queens while nursing a hangover… and I worked on the recordings all over, too - in upstate New York, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Portland - with a huge cast of musicians and engineers.

A lot of these songs were hammered out while touring Italy last summer. Some were recorded to analog tape, some were recorded in high-def digital formats, a lot of them are a mix of both. And so the songs all sound a little different, like they might have been taken from a whole career of albums. Each track seems to me to hint at a nonexistent record that might have been made in the last two years. These are the best of them, the shiniest plums. The greatest moments.

The first music I ever bought with my own money (from the Wherehouse Music in Santa Ana, CA) was the Violent Femmes' Add It Up (1981 - 1993), still one of my favorite albums. You hear the life of the band for those 12 years, you hear them grow and maybe start to hate each other, you hear rare glimpses of their material you maybe wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I had that record in mind while making Bowl of Plums."

*****

"The pain-killing sensation of gratitude welling up and warming up your blood,
the time my friend Alex sent me a postcard from Alaska in the middle of the summer and describing the trees making it look like snow and talking about landing a plane on a glacier,
feeling so happy that you start crying,
talking to your friends on the phone,
trying to sleep next to someone in a bed that’s clearly too small,
saying I love you but, more than that, saying that I’m in love with you,
plants,
fruit,
feeling determined and certain that you will walk out of a situation that is causing you distress, like calmly exiting a burning building,
the iron-willed glee of a well-deserved hangover,
vanquishing the goblins of bad vibes,
there’s one straight-up country love song,
of course flowers,
arriving on your lover’s doorstep in the snow as a blizzard rains down on New York City and hearing just the right phrase to melt away decades of body anxiety,
swimming,
dreams I’ve had,
taking a nap in the afternoon sun."

credits

released July 8, 2016

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Love Boat Records & Buttons Italy

DIY record label based in Torino, Italy.

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