Out Now: Gabe Eisner - visions of domestic tranquility

démodé recordings is thrilled to bring you Visions of Domestic Tranquility, the latest album from the highly prolific and, until now, mostly unheard  songwriter Gabe Eisner, out now.

For the past 10 years, the Montreal based artist has been churning out experimental bedroom pop music in near anonymity, quietly uploading his releases to Bandcamp without any sort of formal promotion, fanfare, or social media posts.  To date, the prolific Eisner has released 14 full-length albums (soon to be 15), a collection of singles and a handful short EPs — an impressive body of work that jumps between sounds, aesthetics, and moods, from classic singer-songwriter folk to ‘60s bubblegum pop, beat driven electronica, art pop and even Atomic era exotica. Eisner successfully dips and weaves through such contrasting genres of music due to his masterful earnest approach to songwriting, which acts as a steady anchor and guide through all of his experimentation and exploration.

“Recording music is my attempt to archive my education in songwriting.” Says Eisner, “I’ve always recorded the second I’m done writing the song so everything is sort of suspended in amber. Every step of the way, for better or worse, learning how to sing, how to write a bridge, program drums, play keyboard etc, has been captured. I assumed that would only be interesting to me but who knows. I think there’s value in an uncurated glimpse into a songwriter's education. Personally, I think I’d be more blown away by a trick if the magician showed me how it works before even seeing it for the first time and I can’t be the only one drawn to a song's demo more than its final version.”

All of this education and experimentation culminates in the aptly named Visions of Domestic Tranquility, a stunning collection of songs self-recorded in the dead of winter 2023. 

“VODT began as a writing exercise. Originally the concept was to write simple songs about the house I had just moved into with my girlfriend and another couple, and to do so with little to no literary devices. Turns out everything is a metaphor and its next to impossible to write about a room and not have it be about you.

This is perfectly reflected in the achingly nostalgic “Three Tiers” which strips away Eisner’s typically lush production flourishes to a hushed intimacy with mostly just an acoustic guitar and delicate vocals. The warm and paired down  production mirrors Eisner’s heartfelt  lyrics.

“‘Three Tiers’ was the first song I wrote for the album. I set out to write about the things I saw in different rooms of our new house: a pail of paint, some drawers, a spider. I tried to keep it upbeat and simple. My roommate had one piece of art with her that she put up in the kitchen, a black and white photograph of the New York skyline with the World Trade Center standing tall. The chorus on that song ends with “a picture of the world trade” which is just a literal description of a thing in a room but it’s also this foreboding symbol that perhaps captures an anxiety about the foundation of our new house. That’s about the time I realized everything is a metaphor.”

Eisner also has a knack for writing undeniably catchy yet compositionally extravagant guitar pop that calls to mind XO era Elliott Smith, Jon Brion and Beach Boys. This isn’t accidental…

“I listen to a lot of Rocketship, Stereolab, The Softies, The Impressions, Yo La Tengo, Sparklehorse, Lily Konigsberg, Kleenex Girl Wonder, Quasi, but I’m not so sure they show up in my music the way Elliott Smith’s influence does. I taught myself how to play guitar by learning his songs and I think at this point his style of playing is pretty inextricable from my understanding of what a guitar even is. I’ve always been attracted to music that seems paradoxically impossible to grasp how it was made and like it’s the most accessible thing in the world. I think all those bands have that in common.”

The song “Phone Booth,” is a perfect example of this style of paradoxical songwriting not only compositionally but thematically, juggling whimsy and reflection with a healthy dose of humor.

“There’s that anecdote about Wilco needing to write a hit for ‘Summerteeth’ so Jeff Tweedy penned ‘Can’t Stand It’ on an airplane. It's this pop music cliché where all these great songs were written in five minutes. ‘Phone Booth’ was my attempt at speed writing a hit for VODT. I’m not so sure it's about anything. It’s kind of psychedelic which I guess is further proof it's not about anything.”

Many artists try to experiment with contrasting moods and genre clashing explorations but typically end up with albums that feel disjointed, over-produced, or disingenuous. On Visions of Domestic Tranquility, Eisner never lets his production upstage the songwriting at hand. Each swell of mellotron, popping percussion, or orchestral strings serve to round out the sparse, emotive song-writing that serves as the anchor and beating heart of the album. “I tried to record with little to no editing. The skeleton of each song is a guitar and vocal track, usually first take, with minimal overdubs after the fact. To achieve maximum homeyness, I figured mono cassette tape was the way to go. In short, simplicity in form and content equals VODT.”

In the current age of limitless accessibility, it’s rare to stumble upon such a young, masterful songwriter releasing mini-epics in near total obscurity. But now, at the urging of close friends and fellow musicians (and the help of Izzy MK, the creative force behind NYC post-punks Stripes, who took it upon herself to upload all of Eisner’s releases to an online distributor) his entire catalog of releases are now available to stream everywhere for the first time, a true treasure trove of songwriting gold waiting to be discovered. With Visions of Domestic Tranquility, we hope to open the door to folks a little wider.

“I’ve also been doing it so long one way, why not the other? I’m glad the music I listen to was released. I think this new record builds on everything I love about songwriting whilst not trying to up the ante or showboat. Seems as good a record as any to step out with.”

Editor’s Note:
I personally met Gabe in NYC through Craigslist in the winter of 2022 after he responded to a post I had up looking for bandmates and/or songwriting partners. When we eventually met in person, I was  A) relieved to find that he wasn’t a serial killer or scam artist and B) overwhelmingly surprised to discover that he was one of the kindest people I had ever met and equally one of the greatest songwriters I’ve ever heard. Listening to Gabe’s music and engaging with him in endless talks about songwriting inspired me even more to better my songwriting and eventually release my own album. Everytime I hear a new song from him I get inspired. I can confidently say that Sunshine Convention wouldn’t exist today without his friendship, guidance, encouragement and art.

FLOOD NEIGHBORHOOD SESSIONS: GOON

Watch Goon perform “Ochre” and “Bend Back” from their latest album ‘Hour of Green Evening” for FLOOD Magazine’s “Neighborhood Sessions.”

OUT TODAY: GOON - HOUR OF GREEN EVENING

PURCHASE / STREAM HERE

‘HOUR OF GREEN EVENING’
“A romantic listen… Hour of Green Evening is vibrant and green-hued pastoral rock.” - Nylon
“Hour of Green Evening is a dreamy combination of psych rock and muted grunge.” - FLOOD
“Hour Of Green Evening is a journey we’ll keep coming back to time and again." - Atwood Magazine
“Elliot Smith-style melodies…electronic psychedelia.” - FADER
“Excellent…comfortingly melancholic.” - Stereogum
“Nostalgic and transgressive.” - Consequence
“[‘Emily Says’] an introspective lyrical and sonic pairing” - Cool Hunting
“Shimmery summer track [‘Ochre’]” - American Songwriter
“Alluring moon-lit beauty, conjured via haunting vocal melodies" - Under The Radar
“A journey beyond the conventional” - Indie Shuffle
“Positively breathtaking…[‘Emily Says’]” - Buzzbands.LA
"Goon isn't just a band, it's an experience... Simply put, this is some of the best indie I've heard in a while." - (5/5) Alt Revue

ABOUT

“Come along and wake up on the way,” sings Goon frontman Kenny Becker, “orange shapes arrange and change again/quiet Isaac in a mild dream.”The lyric evokes the hazy dreamscape spaces occupied by the band’s new album,Hour of GreenEvening. It describes an in-between time, the pre-dawn quiet over a still-sleeping suburban neighborhood, insects buzzing and the creatures just stirring awake.The yearning of kids in their beds for the world beyond, of being stuck just on the precipice of everything.The sun soon to rise, the whole world about to be in bloom.

Goon began as Becker’s Bandcamp solo project in 2015.At a friend’s encouragement, Becker compiled the best of his tracks and released them as an EP, 2016’sDusk of Punk. He recruited bandmates from his college buddies and released a second EP, all the while working on the band’s first full-length, 2019’s Heaven is Humming on Partisan Records, followed by the self-released Paint By Numbers 1, a collection of his mid-pandemic home recordings. After several band members departed for other jobs, cities, and life experiences, Becker recruited anew band—Andy Polito on drums, Dillon Peralta on guitar, and Tamara Simons on bass—and set about recording a second LP, Hour of Green Evening, in Tropico Beauty studio in Glendale, California, working with producer and engineer Phil Hartunian. Alex Fischel from Spoon also sat in on the session, providing piano and keyboards.

“We tracked ten days in the studio to start, and ended up working a total of twenty,” says Becker.“For the first six or seven days we did it live, the four of us in the room, with Phil in the control booth, tracking straight to two-inch tape. It was isolated deep pandemic vibes.We felt like we had enough days booked away from the world to really take our time.”

The evolution of Goon has come to full fruition onHour of Green Evening. It’s the band’s most complete statement, engaging all aspects of their sound to stunning effect.The record conjures the nighttime suburban world of Becker’s youth, a mix of concrete and cookie-cutter homes with the lush beauty of California landscapes. The album thrums with mystery, with the half-remembered past hazy as dreams, the mixed sense of comfort and longing for freedom so essential to youth. The world of Hour of Green Evening is lush and strange, populated by people dreaming, sleeping and waking, existing in that in-between space of the nighttime world. Plant references abound, the “hydrangea lawns” of “Last Light On,” the “eucalyptus wall” of “WavyMaze,” the oleander in the hypnotic “Lyra,” all swirling together in an endless suburban gloaming.

The dew-soaked morning maw of “Angelnumber 1210” blurs the space between waking and dreaming as distorted guitars cut through the atmospherics. “In a past life you softly slept through waking hours” sings Becker, “and in the boughs beams of sound play a welcoming.” It’s the merging of worlds, the divine suggestion of angel numbers leading the earth-bound narrator towards trust, growth, and progress, even across various lives and timelines. The light, rangy “Ochre” is a deceptively dark song. Again, Becker calls to the imagery of the half-asleep times, singing, “I wandered out of bed/cuz there’s a firing line in my head/and it worked for a minute/opened my evil eye.” The calmness of the music and the ease of Becker’s delivery belies the anxiety at the core of the song, with images of fire, destruction, and pain drifting by, accented by Alex Fischel’s manic piano flourishes.

The quiet, beating heart of the record is “Emily Says.” The title references both the Velvet Underground and Becker’s wife, Emily. Distorted guitars alternately sludge and sparkle while Becker sings his best melody, gliding soft as a bird over the maelstrom, a strange, idiosyncratic take on the traditional love song. “It’s about how falling in love can save your life,” says Becker,“but it doesn’t fix any of your problems. The chaos of life will persist, but it’s a little bit better, because we’re not facing it on our own anymore. We’re together.”

Hour of Green Evening stands as the most powerful statement from Goon yet. Becker and company evoke a sense of childhood yearning in a night-blooming suburban world, a sleepwalker’s journey beneath the orange-glowing streetlights. It’s a record of melodic richness and finely textured production, slipping easily between heavy guitars and glimmering vocals, a fullness that comforts but never overwhelms.The songs have a melancholy to them, but they never succumb to hopelessness, knowing at the heart of the darkest night there is still light, goodness, and maybe even someone else there to help you wander through

PRAISE FOR GOON
“Right down to its name, Goon captures the essence of '90s college radio.” - NPR
"An image of SoCal summer painted in golden sludge." - Rolling Stone
“Vibrant and sinister, reckless and pensive.” - Los Angeles Times
"I think they might be my new obsession..." - Tom Ravenscroft, BBC 6
“And the shoegaze gods said… let there be GOON.” - KCRW
“Goon have range, damn it.” - Paste