www.liamgowing.com

A lifelong multi-instrumentalist musician and occasional session player, Dallas-born LA resident Liam Gowing put his first love on the backburner for most of the last decade as he concentrated on a career in journalism, working variously for the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, the A.V. Club, SPIN, Filter, Paste, Flavorpill and the NME. But after the death of his father in late 2009, he returned to writing and recording music with renewed fervor, tackling dainty subjects like life, death, addiction, suicide, betrayal, American nationalism—and his favorite T-shirts—with a heavy dose of black humor. The resulting album Drunk Sluts Forever, a mostly DIY project co-engineered by 1000 Clowns alumnus Jerry “Mr.” Pao and mixed by guitarist Bill O'Neil, collects 10 of his recent compositions.

Released Nov. 5, 2013 on the homespun imprint MojoSon Music, the record features Gowing on meticulously layered vocals and an extensive array of instruments—guitar, bass, piano, drums, harmonica, recorder and percussion as well as (through the magic of a MIDI keyboard) organ, synth, electric piano, vibraphone, steelpan, strings, horns and woodwinds—along with a smattering of public domain sound effects and percussion loops. The result is an eclectic assemblage of aggressive melodic pop encrusted with chunks of stoner rock, psychedelic funk, surrealist disco and electronica plus a Gothic-cum-sci-fi Western instrumental, two or three classical interludes, a hip-hop influenced funeral march and even a quasi-country tune complete with a Bluegrass guitar solo. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.