The Cairo Gang – “Take Your Time” from Maximilla Lukacs on Vimeo.

SPIN premiered a new video directed by Maximilla Lukacs for The Cairo Gang’s “Take Your Time” from their latest release, Tiny Rebels.  It is super psychedelic…

Get your copy HERE!

This is the debut full-length by Joseph Childress. The ten songs on this record, dubbed “The Rebirths” by fans, were penned on the road during nearly two years of “hard traveling” – hopping freight trains, hitchhiking, and eventually living out of a car. All this came to a halt shortly after finding trouble in New Orleans, prompting Joseph to find his way back to his childhood home in the Colorado Rockies. Once there, he locked himself in the bathroom with his road-worn guitar – its neck cracked while jumping from a train – and recorded this album. Filled with young wisdom, heartbreak, and spirited jubilee, this self-recording of Joseph Childress is a stirring introduction to a young songwriter with a soul-piercing voice and an undeniable gift of song.

A low-fi snapshot of his experiences, The Rebirths captures a moment of euphoria as Joseph’s personal stories unfold into timeless songs. Peppered with thumps, creaks, improvised percussion, the weather outside the bathroom window… these recordings serve as a raw document of the time and space in which these tracks were laid. Joseph’s emotionally charged voice is powerful as it tackles tragedy and triumph over guitar that ranges from intricate finger-style to furious strumming. Fans of haunted troubadours Jason Molina, Jackson C. Frank, Townes Van Zandt and early lo-fi pioneers will find many similarities in Joseph’s music, but even more striking will be Joseph’s refreshingly original command of song.

Joseph Childress – Dance With Me from Empty Cellar on Vimeo.

In print due to relentless demand, this presentation of The Rebirths – available worldwide on bright white vinyl and digital – is newly mixed by our pal The American Opry and mastered for the first time by Paul Oldham. Limited to a single pressing of 500 copies get yours HERE

“‘The Rebirths’ provides the perfect soundtrack to daydreams of a nomadic life” — American Songwriter

“If Childress’ captivating live performances are any indication, the album will pull as much energy as possible from a single voice and guitar” –The Bay Bridged

“‘The Rebirths’ wears its humble, bathroom recorded origins on its sleeve, feeling like an intimate performance for an audience of one, but thanks to a proper remastering by Paul Oldham the album’s quiet solitude now envelops the listener like wood smoke in autumn.” — Raven Sings The Blues

“The first thing that’s clear when listening to Joseph Childress is that the man can play guitar—he’s on some Tallest Man on Earth level six string prowess. But then, just around the corner is his whispery croon, warmer and more filled out than Kristian Matsson’s, and that’s where the Vernon comparisons come into play.” -– Pigeons and Planes

“It seems Joseph Childress is that classic fast disappearing vagabond American storyteller. He can pull off this heart-wrenching confessional songwriting style, like the greats of the genre.” — 7 Inches

"That playful dichotomy between big and small turns out to be the anchor for the album’s title track, a pretty, march-like drone drenched in so much reverb the sunny vocal harmonies sound like they’re shining in through a pinhole."
– Pitchfork

Empty Cellar Records is proud to introduce to you the first single from Tiny Rebels, the forthcoming album by The Cairo Gang (out 7/23). Listen below and watch a video by Angel Olsen for an alternate mix of the track. Pre-order HERE

Track Listing:
Side A: Tiny Rebels / Take Your Time / Shake Off
Side B: Shivers / Father Of The Man / Find You With A Song

Tiny Rebels is a new collection of songs by The Cairo Gang. They are about awareness. They show a new economy in the work of The Cairo Gang’s leader Emmett Kelly, conjuring up quick and defined songs un-housed in the shimmering of two burning electric 12-string guitars. the sound of them a swirling desert night sky under which songs call to arms multiple voices that long to be freed from the contraints of song. to be re-blooded in a frenzy of hard hitting drums and bass. all the while set against a wild array of compressed overtones that jangle by the hand of Kelly’s inversly delicate touch.

In The Cairo Gang’s previous efforts The Corner Man and the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy collaboration The Wondershow of the World, Kelly displayed a heaviness in subtlety. The songs laboured over and performed so that the fire and rage were things to play in tandem with, as a pranaic exercise even. the result is audience for a certain type of in-tuneness, that although powerful and realized, nurture both the playing and the fire and the rage… this can be a dangerous place. this leads to Tiny Rebels. Recorded in a week, it is an epiphany of sorts. it is the boiling point that which Kelly surrendered to in one sense, but obliterated in another. the songs are empowering leaps of faith:

“Say what you want, babe. dont just sit and listen to what you are told. you’ve got what it takes.
Lord knows the only way that can suit you well.”

And from that leap they fall at a speed..

The sound of this record is what distinguishes it the most from previous works. Each song has the same instrumentation. two electric 12-string guitars, bass, and drums, with many voices often double tracked exciting a gorgeous spring reverberation and cut fiercely onto quarter inch tape. always in the red and fighting for space, the layers are deeply compressed and pulsating, creating an un-ease that fluctuates as if the listener is in a vacuum, pushing and pulling. or a wave pool. when cranked, it sounds as if there is music happening beyond the music. in the abstraction of the guitar sound. in the spacial irrecognition of the tape and reverb. the non-presence of the drums.. the jagged tremoloes. The Cairo Gang has armed itself well on this record. turn it up loud and let it wash over you like an ocean. Get yours HERE!

This is the first music video by Cool Ghouls, taken from their debut Self-Titled LP on Empty Cellar (available here).

Tomorrow, Tuesday 5/7, BURGER RECORDS will be releasing their self-titled debut on cassette!

ALSO tomorrow, they will be headlining this month’s Wood Shoppe at Brick and Mortar

Directed by ada bligaard søby, cinematography adam nilsson and ada bligaard søby, edited by jacob schulsinger, music by The Sandwitches from the album Mrs. Jones Cookies