Melting Vinyl: Bringing the cream of live music to Brighton.

Melting Vinyl by arrangement with PRB presents…

The Handsome Family + Daniel Knox

ON SALE NOW

Melting Vinyl are thrilled to bring husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks aka The Handsome Family to the ethereal setting of St. Luke’s Church in Brighton.

The Handsome Family have written some of the most haunting and beautiful songs in American music. During a 30-year career, Brett and Rennie Sparks have created songs that transform the mundane landscape of modern life into a place of mysterious portent.

Initially influenced by early country, post-punk and DIY indie rock, there is a compelling seam of darkness which underpins the lightness and laughter of their live shows. Their songs take place in parking lots and big box stores, under overpasses and in airports. They sing about Custer’s last stand and automatic lawn sprinklers in the same song and  Rennie’s lyrics often focus on the myriad creatures that live at the edges of the man-made world: the sparrows, rats, cockroaches and crows that share our cities.

Many great songwriters have covered their work, among them Jeff Tweedy, Jason Lytle, and Andrew Bird as well Christy Moore. David Bowie wrote the words, “The Handsome Family” in a notebook right before his death. Who knows what could have been?

“Far From Any Road,” which became a global hit after it was used as the theme to season one of True Detective has garnered The Handsome family a whole new audience,  including Bruce Springsteen and Guns ’N Roses who have used “Far From Any Road” as walk-in music.

In 2020 Loose Music will release their first two records, Odessa (1995) Milk & Scissors (1996), on vinyl LP. This will be the first time these records  have been released in Europe. 

For Handsome Family fans these records are a must. Odessa reveals the early style of the band and Milk & Scissors illustrates how their songwriting transformed after Rennie began writing lyrics. On their spring 2020 tour they plan to play selected gems from these new/old records. 

Daniel Knox

With a baritone as dynamic as it is indestructible, Chicago-based Daniel Knox narrates compositions with a perverse and sometimes comical wit, guiding the listener through sprawling worlds that exist just out of frame.

His work has inspired a diverse cast of collaborators that lie inside and outside his realm of alternative Americana, such as Jarvis Cocker, Thor Harris (Swans, Freakwater), and The Handsome Family with recent performances that include the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird, and Swans.

One year on from his critically acclaimed grand, holistic album Chasescene – an album which confirmed his posItion as both a ‘rare talent’ (Loud and Quiet) and as a ‘master storyteller’ (The Observer) – Daniel Knox  has today announced a new mini-album ‘I Had A Wonderful Time’. The mini-album will be released on 13 December via Knox’s own label H.P Johnson Presents alongside the reissue of his 2015 self-titled album – an incredible work of world-building and song-craft, under- appreciated at the time but now reissued on blue vinyl.