The Lonely Atom is Out NOW 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞

LETS GOOOOOOOOO

🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 The Lonely Atom 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞

Today is the day!!!! My new album The Lonely Atom is out now! That means that you can open up your digital streaming platform of choice and give it a whirl, grab a digital copy of the album on bandcamp, or order a cassette from either Furious Hooves or People | Places records. Regardless of how you listen to The Lonely Atom, I’m grateful for your time and attention. I am over-the-moon happy about how this album came out and I think you’ll enjoy the results of the hard work my collaborators and I put into these songs. If you’re just joining the party, here’s the short version of what the album’s deal is, written by Cat Costa-Jones:

The Lonely Atom is the second studio album from the Brooklyn-based heavy alternative rock project Lamniformes. It is a concept album about the isolation of modern life, the fractured projections of the self that exist outside of us in digitally mediated spaces, and the struggle for real connection in an increasingly atomized world.

But don’t just take Cat’s great words for it, check it out yourself:

I’d like to take a quick moment to thank everyone that helped make this album possible. First, Jack Greenleaf who co-produced the album with me. Jack and I have been making music together since we were teens. He’s been involved in every Lamniformes album, even the ones that predate the band name. Jack was more involved than ever on The Lonely Atom, first as an encouraging ear while I worked on demos, then as the album’s engineer as we worked on the final product. It was Jack’s job to dive head first into the bloated project files that I’d assembled from musicians across the country and pull coherent songs out of them. Because new elements were arriving nearly every session (as a singer who needs a LOT of takes to feel satisfied, I was as big a culprit for this overflow as anyone) Jack had to land the plane while it was still being built mid-flight. Over two years, three apartments in two boroughs, and two laptops, he got us home safely. Our sessions weren’t turbulence free, but Jack and I have never been more creatively in tune with each other. Despite being plagued (haha) by tragedies both local and global, I have nothing but fond memories of the nights spent at Jack’s pouring over a song’s finer details, often with a basketball game or 5k walking tour of some far off city silently playing in the background, until the two of us were crossed-eyed. Cheers, buddy!

Before COVID changed my plans, I was gearing up to record The Lonely Atom with a band that I’d been rehearsing with since moving back to New York. Most of that band ended up playing on the record, and I’m incredibly grateful for their flexibility to roll with the world-historical punches. Thank you Frank Meadows, AJ Santillan, Adam Holmes, and Alex Doyle for making Lamniformes feel like a real band. AJ’s guitar tracks were some of the first parts we locked in on the record and completely reinvigorated my faith in the material at my lowest point in the process. Adam’s willingness to experiment and offer guidance in the mysterious world of pitched percussion resulted in some of the prettiest finishing touches on the album. Frank, gamely handling both bass and a fleet of keyboards, filled all of the space in between as the album’s sonic backbone. And though Alex couldn’t contribute to the album, he was an absolute trooper about learning the old Sisyphean material and was always a great hang in rehearsal. Rounding out the east coast instrumentalists, massive shouts out to Siddhu Anadalingham and Emmet Ceglia of Semaphore. Siddhu and Emmet both met me first as a member of the music media, but they didn’t hold that against me when I asked them to play on my album and for that I’m immensely grateful. Shouts out as well to Daniel Müller of Wilderun for adding some old world charm to the album’s final track, and to James Wilcox for helping make “A Hair Out of Place” sound appropriately futuristic.

Though most of its creation took place on the east coast, The Lonely Atom began its life in Chicago. I have to take a moment to thank Mike Lambert and Parker Langvardt for reprising their roles from the Chicago version of Lamniformes on this album, as well as Sam Brown, Josh Stanely, and Logan Bloom for jamming on “Familiar” before I shipped off to New York. The Lonely Atom would also not be possible without the Chicago Handshake of Indie Audio, returning for their third and fourth Lamniformes projects respectively, Greg Obis and Seth Engel. Having previously engineered, mixed, and mastered my music, I knew I could trust Seth with the drum parts that I could not record myself. Greg once again gave the record the elusive final pass and made it ready to take on the world. Both are absolute pros and will make any record sound better.

Speaking of returning collaborators, thank you to Joseph Klomes and Richard Gin for making both me (see below) and the album (see above) look cool. Thank you to Ryan at Furious Hooves and Andrew at People | Places for believing in this material and making it look beautiful in real life. Thank you Cat Costa-Jones for wonderful blurb. Thank you to Joseph Schafer and Preston Wollner for their patience and honest criticism as I showed them early chunks of the album. Thank you to everyone who submitted a spoken word sample to “From One, Many” whether voluntarily or because I bugged them about it personally.

Before I can it and let you get to the tunes, I’d like to thank everyone that sang on the album with me. The lyrics on this album mean more to me than any other project I’ve worked on. I nearly busted my head open as a consequence of singing on this album. I’m not kidding. It mattered that much to get it right. I am beyond grateful to Anna, Joey, Ella, Oliver, Emily, and Felix for stewarding my words and melodies into reality. I write these songs alone, but I always imagine them with a plurality of voices. I couldn’t have asked for a better plurality. Finally, I’d like to thank Montana “One-Take Monty” Elliot. Considering how little time you had left, I can’t say thank you enough that you spent some of it on my music. I miss you a lot.

-Ian

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Now, on to your regularly scheduled newsletter.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here are five songs that I enjoyed listening to recently! You can find a playlist with all of this year’s tracks at the bottom of this section.

“Dead Man Walking” by David Bowie (Earthling, 1997)

If you’re coming here directly after listening to The Lonely Atom it probably won’t surprise you that I have a real soft spot for the music Bowie made while mentoring Trent Reznor in the 90s. If you get over the assumption that mixing strobe-light club grooves and boomer rawk guitars is inherently trashy, it’s pretty easy to see how this raver bridges the pop-forward music Bowie wrote in the 80s and his jazz inflected late era.

“Anti-Tank (Dead Armour)” by Bolt Thrower (Those Once Loyal, 2005)

Had I typed what I am about to on twitter in the late 10s I would not live to see the next sunrise. But since this is Substack I fear no such repercussions. The fact of the matter is that I have been lukewarm on Bolt Thrower for years. I respected the hell out of them on principle and liked a lot of bands that were following their treads, but every thing I’d heard from them was slow, plodding, and eventless. Turns out I just hadn’t heard Those Once Loyal yet. This is a masterpiece of mid-tempo double kick playing, turning a constant stream of 16th notes into something this groovy is a magic trick.

“Used For Glue” by Rival Schools (United By Fate, 2001)

“Used for Glue” came on while I was hanging out with the Laughing Stock guys before our show at Gold Sounds last December. I immediately stopped what I was doing, asked Zach what the song was then rushed outside to escape the venue’s shitty wifi and added it to my queue. I first heard of this band back when I met with math rockers like Seth Engel who’d come to the Chicago scene around the same time I did. I’d assumed by proximity that they sounded like American Football or Snowing or something and never bothered to check them out. My mistake! This is much closer to the Helmet wing of alternative hard rock. That main riff is tough! By the way, you know what else rules? The opening theme to Rival School: United By Fate

“The Only Thing She Needs” by UK (Danger Money, 1979)

I’ve been keeping up with the new wave of Mike Portnoy drumming content since Portnoy rejoined Dream Theater. Old habits are durable. In one video interview with Drumeo, Portnoy mentioned that Danger Money was a key influence on his style. The late 70s/early 80s generation of prog bands isn’t my strongest area, so I took Portnoy’s name-drop as an opportunity to fill some gaps. I absolutely see the connection. A lot of Bozzio’s fills would fit right in Images & Words, and the switch the uptempo 4/4 during the keyboard solo is classic Dream Theater.

“White Seal (Shell & Spine)” by Candy Claws (Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time, 2013)

I guess the theme of this letter is “stuff I am surprised that I wasn’t into before”. I mean, could you imagine how hard I would have went for this back in 2013?? In the year of Sunbather and Nepenthe? When I was into freshly into shoegaze and giving chillwave a post-college try? This would have been an all day every spin that summer.

\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /

Now, onto the five micro reviews. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in late 2020, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.

Sin After Sin by Judas Priest (1977) - Heavy Metal

I was pretty late to Priest. I didn’t get into them until college. I always got the impression that they were more of a rock band than a metal one, and maybe that warded me off. That exact quality is what now makes this record so interesting to me. They switch between metal and rock and sound natural in both forms. The softer tunes help give shape to the record, so when they drop the hammer on the last track it REALLY matters. Great drumming from ambidextrous session legend Simon Philips on this album.

Samsara by Yakuza (2006) - Mathcore

I bought this after moving to Chicago because when in Rome, etc. Very strange mathcore with sax solos and long druggy interludes. Left me scratching my head. I either wish this was wilder or more focused. There are interesting ideas and juxtapositions of tone, but they aren’t organized into compelling songs. I respect the creativity and exploration though.

United Abomination by Megadeth (2007) - Thrash Metal

If anyone thought that modern social media alone is responsible for the proliferation of anti-“globalist”/right wing Christian paranoia, here’s Dave Mustaine mixing both back in 2007. What he should have mixed instead was this record. Good lord is this thing loud. The potentially redeeming playing is reduced to brick walled noise. A deeply stupid album, and not in an entertaining way.

Pigeon John and the Summertime Pool Party by Pigeon John (2006) - Rap

I saw Pigeon John open for Peeping Tom in high school and had a great time, so I bought the record. At the time I was still getting over a lot of racist and classist assumptions about rap, so something this toothless and good natured made it easier to get on board. I mean, look, this is fine for what it is, which is clean Christian rap. The production is, as the title suggests, upbeat and summery. Lots of horn samples, etc. The self censoring is extremely corny, as is the nerdy approach to rapping about flirting. Good live show from what I remember, though!

Dead Heart in a Dead World by Nevermore (2000) - Heavy Metal

This is another metal band that was huge in the 00s that no one really talks about anymore. Maybe they had too much 90s groove in their DNA to appeal to traditionalists but were too traditional to appeal to the next generation. Maybe it’s just cause they broke up. This album is pretty good. The Simon & Garfunkel cover is a strange choice but the riffs they wrote for it are pretty killer. How much you enjoy this hinges on whether you can hang with the very dramatic vocals. I’m into it, personally.