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Adam Werven started making proggy bedroom pop music under the moniker ‘Larry Wish’ during the 2008 – 2009 Capricorn season. It was a time of feeling entirely purposeless, yet at the same time highly creative. That winter, living in an apartment under Schneider Drug in Minneapolis, he wrote and self-recorded the first three Larry Wish albums: Larry Wish, Tinymantown, & Wishdom. They all contained similar elements that Larry Wish would become known for, emotional baritone singing, programed electronic rhythms, & melodies that blended dissonance with pleasant harmonies.
The rest of 2009 flew by. Werven left for Yellowstone that summer, and moved to Burlington, Vermont after making plans to move with a young woman he had met while working in the national park. After three tumultuous and unforgettable months of working and recording in Vermont, Werven found himself missing Minneapolis far too much to be away. He moved back that December, just in time for a new Capricorn season in the city that most felt like home.
2010 was spent writing and recording more solo Larry Wish albums, as well as formulating a plan for a live band. This idea had started in Yellowstone, where Werven had made a demo for a song titled “Traveling Family Man” that laid out specific parts for drums, bass, guitar, & synth. In the spring he moved into the Organ Haus, a house full of like-minded artists. Two would become the bassist and guitarist for the group: Sam Cramer & Tim Hudson. Werven enlisted two other close collaborators to join on drums and synth: Kate Farstad & Aaron Baum. The backing band was named “His Guys” after the multitude of action figures Werven had played with as a child. With Werven singing, the group began learning the first Larry Wish songs written solely for the new band, “Ubduction” & “Dangerous Fearing”, as well as some songs that had appeared on previous Larry Wish albums like “Once Again” & “Pleasure Dome”. Larry Wish & His Guys would play their debut show at the Kitty Cat Klub in December of 2010.
In the summer of 2011 after playing numerous shows around Minneapolis, Larry Wish & His Guys had enough songs to record their first full length. It would be recorded in the basement of the Organ Haus over the course of two days by producer and engineer Steve Earnest, an original resident of the Haus. The Man Who Even Has a Gun was originally released as 100 home-dubbed cassettes via Soothing Almonds Collective, a DIY tape label run by Cramer & Werven. It featured typewritten liner notes as well as a full color insert by local artist Dietrich Sieling.
Bumpy is extremely proud to reissue the seminal debut album by this beloved group of rascals. The Man Who Even Has a Gun by Larry Wish & His Guys has been mastered for the first time ever for best audio quality and is available on cassette as well as across streaming platforms.
credits
released April 10, 2020
Aaron Baum: Synth, Voice
Sam Cramer: Bass, Voice
Kate Farstad: Drums, Voice
Tim Hudson: Guitar, Voice
Adam Werven: Percussion, Synth, Voice
Produced & Engineered by Steve Earnest at Organ Haus, June 2011
Originally released by Soothing Almonds Collective, Aug 2011
Mastered by Adam Werven in 2019
Art & Layout by Adam Werven
supported by 5 fans who also own “The Man Who Even Has A Gun”
What's not to love from such a legendary line up? My favorite part is probably when it goes "weeeewOOOO wee waaahhhh" and then it's like "AAAAGGGHHHH" moduS ponY
supported by 4 fans who also own “The Man Who Even Has A Gun”
This album is a wonderful study of industrial ambience - combining harsh tones with gentle atmospherics for a dense and intriguing journey. Ohsaurus (Webelotrax)
supported by 4 fans who also own “The Man Who Even Has A Gun”
So intensely comical that if taken at face value this music product with its intermittent deadpan narrative might be considered a 100 percent real and earnest audio journal documenting a tour with a friendly/slightly weirdoball guide helping you visit places that are really here somewhere in your mind watching and observing. spicyinvalid
The Los Angeles-based electronic music producer turns to the Middle Eastern and Indian pop of their youth, alongside house, disco, and R&B, and transforms it into four-on-the-floor dance anthems. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 12, 2021