VANITA HYPE!! SAYS:

"it's not random enough to be 'experimental and cool' a la Panda Bear or Liars or something like that...it sounds like something some kid recorded in his basement in about 10 minutes." -- Anonymous blogger regarding PdL's Stop Means Go

Wrong. Stop Means Go was recorded in a bedroom, not a basement! And it took nearly 105,120 times longer than ten minutes to finish it.

This blogger is, however, right about one thing. Stop Means Go isn't "cool", nor is it supposed to be. If this album were a kid in high school, people would probably call it a dork. But PdL would be cool with that. He has no intention of being like the cool kids--whether they're Panda Bear, The Liars, or anyone. He just wanted to make some beautiful songs.

Each track on Stop Means Go is pretty short. It presents what it needs to present and ends. The songs evolved out of a broad range of topics: a small town at the northernmost part of Zealand in Denmark, free online "research" papers about Columbus, Phil Spector's biography, Peggy Guggenheim's garden. The lyrical approach is generally more collage-like than narrative.

The music is constructed similarly: emphasis on melodies over a bed of textural contrasts. Drawing heavily on toy instruments (plastic violins, some little thing that's like a baby toy sho, small blue tambourines, recorders, tin flutes), electronics and of course vocals, processed by home-made circuits and a reel-to-reel tape machine that PdL found on the street last summer.

Stop Means Go is now available digitally through vanitaphonecompany.com, soon to be available on iTunes. The digital release includes remixes by Johan Sigerud, Max Krafft, Leif and Slow Drugs. A special limited edition of 180 is available, packaged in a t-shirt that contains various objects in small circular felt pouches--each symbolic of the various songs on the album. These pouches are dry-felted onto the shirt, and create a ring over screen-printed lyrics on the inside of the shirt. (see images below)

PdL goes by the IRL name of Christopher McDonald, not to be confused with the actor of the same name. He has done shows with Belly Boat, The Finches, Old Gold, Snowblink, Laura Goldhamer, and Michael Leviton. He has also played internationally as a guest member of The Loud Objects, and recently set up a photobooth with his LED light machine (named Gertrude) at the Bent Festival in NYC.

Photo Credit: Collin LaFleche
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NOTE: This page is operated by Vanita Hype!! If you would like to book, interview, or build sandcastles with PdL, please contact him at his e-mail or myspace.

PEOPLE!! - see all 91

PRESS/LOVE!!

* welikeit.indie
* Listen Up! Podcast
* FLUXBLOG
* BIGSTEREO (Matt & Lil Kim)
* Discobelle (Cassie remix)
* Palms Out Sounds (Cassie remix)
* MAKE (Gertrude, LED light machine)

OTHER PROJECTS!!

* Gertrude: LED light machine
* ASDF;: laptop rock
* Rock Paper Scissors Forest: planting seeds instead of throwing gang signs
* Hell Yup: DJ sets
* Cute Cute Awesome Awesome: what does it SOUND like?
* Mirror Boiyz: homo-hoppin'
* Spleenless: mastering yr face off.

DISCOGRAPHY!! - see all 3

• 

  Stop Means Go

• 

  Stop Means Go remixes

• 

  Double Ice Creams Tonight (Matt & Lil Kim)

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