Cleveland-based songwriter Brian Straw has teamed with Wax Mage Records for the double LP, THE HIDDEN YEARS 2000-2007, which offers a retrospective of Straws’s creative evolution during his early years with selections from his out-of-print CDs ONCE YOU’RE LOST YOU’RE ENCOURAGED TO STAY LOST (2000), BACKFEED POOLS (2001), and BLEEDING SUN (EP 2004 and LP 2006), and more. The double LP sees release on February 14.
Pre-order the record here. This Wax Mage artist signature variant pressing is limited to 100 copies and every record has a unique hand-poured vinyl design. They look gorgeous! Some other very limited variants will be available from Wax Mage.
Straw will perform a release show on Saturday, February 15, at Little Rose Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, with Talons’ and Powers/Rolin Duo. Details are here.
Brian Straw was born in the mid-’70s in small-town Indiana. Music started to drive and inspire Straw’s creative pursuits and aspirations at an early age. That fire in his belly, was, and still is, his calling card – as a continually evolving artist with a deep thirst for expression and discovery.
As a teenager in Indiana, Straw began writing/composing music, playing in bands, and plotting his artistic path. Straw attended Oberlin Conservatory for composition, but dropped out after a couple semesters and moved to NYC with his band. The band broke up in short order and Straw then made the decision to change directions drastically, and start over in Cleveland. Straw found his people and his new home at Speak In Tongues (the DIY punk venue). There, Straw forged new musical ideas based around noise, improvisation, and experimentation.
At his first few shows at Speak In Tongues you would hear Straw screaming in his acoustic guitar soundhole, bowing layers of drone with a homemade gascan cello, and utilizing various other inventive sonic techniques for added texture and confusion. This new sound came in stark contrast to his humble songwriting beginnings. Straw saw an opening there though and fiercely accepted the challenge of morphing between these two opposite extremes.
On Straw’s solo debut from 2000, ONCE YOU’RE LOST YOU’RE ENCOURAGED TO STAY LOST, these musical dichotomies are on full display. Presenting a forward-thinking artist unbound by convention or the boundaries of expression.
In 2003 Straw began collaborating with seminal instrumental band, The Six Parts Seven. It was a beautiful marriage that helped foster Straw’s songwriting chops to a new level. This collaboration came to fruition on the 2004 release, BLEEDING SUN EP, and in 2006, BLEEDING SUN LP.
Straw made the rounds in the early 2000s touring nationally with The Six Parts Seven and solo tours throughout Europe. Life got in the way though. Straw found himself saddled with addiction issues and put everything away for nearly 15 years. Through years of therapy, personal growth, and eventual sobriety, Straw made a loud and meaningful return in 2022 with the new double album, BABY STARS/DEAD LANGUAGES. Revealing a “lived in”, emotionally raw, and musically cultivated Straw. Straw is currently in the studio and very close to finishing a new record.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Chasney.
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