If you’ve been plugged into the W.A.S. socket this last year, you’re blissfully familiar with Sean McVerry, New York’s most dangerous song-slinger and frequent W.A.S. collaBOYrator. But you may have missed a couple of critical recent facts, and this is a fact-flinging newsletter first and foremost, so check this out: Sean’s new album, Steve, is out June 26, and one of its many marvelous songs drops today as a single. That song is “Better,” and it’s a good enough tune that we’ve added it to the Great Apes series, which puts Sean in league with Sarah McLachlan, Bruno Mars, REM, Pavement, and Don Henley — incidentally the five artists he credits with his “sound.”
To help demystify the McVerry artistic process and also as an excuse to drink beers at three in the afternoon, we sat down yesterday at the Albany Hotel in Cardiff (i.e., “the stoop”) with a $1400 interview recorder (iPhone). The conversation veers sometimes into wonky songwriter territory, but you should be able to keep up after ear-f***ing “Better” a few times over at your favorite streamer (the lyrics come under special focus).
Here’s Keith’s version, in case you can’t pick out all the words in the official track (Sean sings with his cheeks full of caviar — it lends his voice a rich, velvety timbre, but does impede tongue movement)…
It should be clear by now that we hold Sean in the highest regard and believe he will someday soon be very famous and rich, and that it will be incumbent upon him to put us on his stadium tours. Please join us in getting all riled up for his record Steve, which we have heard in full, and which Rollingstone is probably going to award 5 stars (Pitchfork 4.1).
Here’s what you should do:
Sean on Instagram (good for laughs).
Listen to “Better” (another McVerry slam dunk).
Presave new album Steve (wall to wall).
Come to the Steve release show/party June 28th at Sleepwalk, Brooklyn (Caligulan bacchanal).
The images in today’s post were shot by Casey Ryan (@fuckincaseyphotos) during this week’s show in Birmingham. Casey comes to a gig every year or so and shoots pics and just keeps getting better and better — we’re happy to have him in W.A.S. fold.
Kudos to Casey, Sean McVerry, and everybody else out there who spends their time making cool shit. If you’re someone who doesn’t yet make cool shit, you’d be surprised how good it makes you feel. We can’t recommend it highly enough. Dirty little secret? It doesn’t even have to end up very cool to have the desired effect. Grab a pencil, a plectrum, or your $1400 video camera (iPhone) and get to work! (Grab, too, a beer.)
💜,
the Keith & Chris
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