ARTIST: The Dreadful Yawns
TITLE: Rest
LABEL: Exit Stencil Recordings
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 199kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 35m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-05-07
RIP DATE: 2007-05-02
Track List
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1. You've Been Recorded 3:25
2. Changing States 2:07
3. When I Lost My Voice 3:22
4. Candles 7:24
5. Mountains 1:41
6. November Nights 3:25
7. Due South 3:45
8. We Go Up 4:42
9. Being Used To You 2:14
10. End Of Summer 3:54
Release Notes:
Rest is the latest CD from Cleveland, Ohio's Ben Gmetro and his band The
Dreadful Yawns. The album was produced by Ben Gmetro and is the first of two
records The Dreadful Yawns will be releasing on Exit Stencil Recordings. The
creation of Rest is a story full of u-turns, set backs, and challenges that
often mirror the turbulence of the band's history. The album took nearly two
years to complete and was recorded in three different studios, during which time
four of five band members quit. Original tracking was begun by Tim Gerak of Six
Parts Seven (Suicide Squeeze). When money ran out, the remnants of the band
recorded the bulk of the album at the Davenport Collective Spot. Various
overdubs were finished up at Parish Hall by Ryan Weitzel. The songs presented on
Rest are logical successors to the psychfolk muses of their Dreadful Yawns album
on the legendary Bomp! Records, while at the same time representing a
significant aesthetic departure. Originally conceived as a stripped down
experimental rock album, over time Rest transformed into an artistic statement
filled with lush orchestrations, beautiful pedal steel, finger-picked guitars,
and richly layered vocal melodies. Rest finds the band pushing the country
influenced rock style exemplified on The Dreadful Yawns to its conceivable
limits resulting in a beautiful, timeless, and essential document of the genre.
Guided by principal singer-songwriter Ben Gmetro's constantly evolving and
ever-improving songwriting, The Dreadful Yawns have undergone numerous artistic
and personnel transformations in their tenure as a band. With their 2003 debut
release Early on Chicago's Undertow Music, The Dreadful Yawns drew heavily upon,
and gained glowing comparisons to, folk-pop luminaries such as Nick Drake and
Neil Young (PopMatters). Following the critical success of Early, The Dreadful
Yawns became the last band to sign with Greg Shaw on Bomp! Records, and released
their beautifully executed self-titled album in 2005. This release saw a more
psychedelic incarnation of the band, garnered them critical acclaim from such
storied publications as the Wall Street Journal, and earned them numerous
comparisons to both classic and modern psych-folk bands such as Beachwood Sparks
and The Byrds.
In keeping with the fluidity of the band's history, The Dreadful Yawns are once
again in the process of reinventing themselves musically. Ben Gmetro has
assembled a new band in order to achieve his ever changing musical vision which
has segued from country and folk sentiments to a looser, more adventurous
manifestation of The Dreadful Yawns. The current line-up is comprised of: Ben
Gmetro on vocals & guitar, Elizabeth Kelly on vocals, keys, bells, & tambourine,
Chris Russo on drums & vocals, Clayton Heuer on keys & violin and Eric Schulte
on guitar & vocals.