Paco Cathcart has recorded over 50 albums under the moniker the Cradle, but today the native New Yorker is announcing their first album under their own name. Down On Them is slated for release in May on Wharf Cat, and the lead single "Bottleneck Blues" is a serene preview.
"When I moved to Crown Heights in 2014 and found myself a forty minute bike ride from Rockaway Beach, I learned a few things," Cathcart explains, continuing:
One is that to the people in the neighborhoods on the city’s coasts, New York is still a maritime town — a swimming town, a fishing town, a town where you see seagulls among the pigeons and where the air tastes salty. Having grown up in Williamsburg — by the East River, but far from the Atlantic — my exposure to the ocean as a kid consisted of the occasional trip to the Coney Island boardwalk and visits to my Abuela’s house in Florida.
This shore-bound city-around-a-city, where I found a distinct, brinier New York, has fascinated me and drawn me back over and over to swim and explore for the last decade- Dead Horse Bay, Fort Tilden, Jamaica Bay, the bike paths winding through the marshes by Canarsie Park, the many beaches. The spots are myriad and deep. In these places I find a sense of emptiness and openness that is rare in the big city, where the claustrophobic bottleneck blues will get you every time.
Down On Them features bassist Miriam Elhajli, keyboardist Ellie Shannon, and drummer Bailey Wollowitz (fantasy of a broken heart, Water From Your Eyes). Check out "Bottleneck Blues" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Your Reflection"
02 "Bottleneck Blues"
03 "Cry On Command"
04 "O, Joy"
05 "Ella Viva Sola"
06 "TM Joint"
07 "Gender Neutral"
08 "Can't Recall My Dreams"
09 "Something Moving In The Dark"
10 "Pale Grey Light"
11 "Just Love You"
12 "Invasive Species"
Down On Them is out 5/2 via Wharf Cat.
