PRODUCT DETAILS
First Time / Alone, Greg Mendez's new EP and first release withDead Oceans, came together in late summer and early fall of2023; the songs here appear in the order in which they werewritten, recorded straight to four-track in the small spare roomof his West Philadelphia apartment. It's a four song arc, aspectral passageway, one brief and fluid body of work thathangs together from the mournful opening of "Mountain DewHell" to the pitched-up vocals on "Pain Meds," a tiny songfloundering in the enormity of grief. The experience of listeningthrough is like waking up from a half-remembered dream, ashadow in the corner of the room, a strange solitude, a temporalNew York autumn with gray skies and naked trees. But whilethe release is sparse and spontaneous, it's tactile andconsuming, a glimpse into the beautiful, lonely worlds that livein the core of a Greg Mendez song.First Time / Alone is the inverse of his 2023 self-titled album, ameticulous and labored-over collection of songs that went on tobecome a surprise slowburn success. Mendez has releasedmusic in various capacities across 15 years living in Philadelphiaand New York, but the self-titled was what propelled him to awider attention, a critical breakthrough on best-of lists fromRolling Stone, Pitchfork, Paste, and more. That forwardmomentum came to a quick halt following an intensive surgeryon his right wrist in the summer of 2023 - a four-monthpurgatory of bad TV, canceled touring, and physical therapyensued, a painful stretch of boredom leaving Mendez unable toplay guitar. "Mountain Dew Hell" and "First Time," the funerealA-side of the EP, are time capsules of that fever-dream; "Alone"was the first song Mendez wrote once he was able to play guitaragain. Likely none of the songs would have existed as-is ifMendez's right hand hadn't been out of commission, but they'reartful in their directness and simplicity. He initially thought hewould need to refine them, building them out to the same scaleas self-titled, but the more he returned to the work, the more itfelt complete and true as-is.Mendez is an intuitive songwriter, melodies channeled throughether, a storyteller who across his catalog has chronicled vividviolence and instability - a wallet chain to the head, a crackhouse arrest, the misdeeds from addiction that hang aroundlike a ghost of past lives - but it's threaded together with lovesongs, too, with odes to friendship, true dedication, the thingsthat can buoy one through the worst. Mendez has a habit ofnoticing those things, of finding the light, exacting poetry fromeven the bleakest, shit-caked situations. In his songs there is aninnate ability to balance grit with gentleness, cruelties rewrittenthrough preternatural sweetness, a heart thrummingunendingly, confidently, through the dark.
Tracklist:
- Mountain Dew Hell
- First Time
- Alone
- Pain Meds
UPC: 656605167213
Label: Dead Oceans
Release Date: 12.6.24
Format: 7 Inch Vinyl Single
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RETURNS
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PRODUCT REVIEWS
ABOUT US
For over 10 years, Pale Blue Dot Records has shared and supported your love of vinyl records. We are an independent online record store located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we’re passionate about music, the vinyl community, and doing our part to protect the environment. Learn more about us here.
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