Each cover burned by hand (so each will be slightly different). Back cover art adapted from original hand-drawn back cover by guitarist Steve Pritchard. Includes insert. Resealable bag, because single-use plastics suck.
Includes unlimited streaming of TVA/Starvation
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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edition of 300
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Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
A first-ever reissue of Picks & Lighters’ 1997 private-press LP TVA/Starvation, two sides of tumbling lo-fi guitars-and-drums improvisation that stumbles across the under-explored territory that lies between the rough minimalism of early Terry Riley and the protean drone of Hill Country blues.
"Beautiful (in every which way) is the debut LP by Knoxville, Tennessee’s Picks & Lighters. TVA/Starvation (Living Room). The fact that it came out in 1997 does not detract from its glory one jot. A trio at the time of this recording, two guitars and one drum sullenly slam into each other with the lo-fidelity magnificence that so many strive for, but so few achieve. Rambling in a way that is almost incoherent at times, this is music made by humans and you’re never allowed to forget that for a second. It also has a cover that will make you slap your forehead and say ‘WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?’"— Byron Coley, Arthur No.18, Sept. 2005
"Almost every day throughout late 1996 and early 1997, husband and wife Steve and Mary Ann Pritchard would gather with Bill Warden in the front room of the house the trio shared in Knoxville, Tennessee, to play music. An RCA controlled-reluctance microphone and a mic from an old TEAC reel-to-reel recorder funneled the music to a commercial-grade dual tape deck. There was a lot of room sound, and usually everything was in the red.
Picks & Lighters recorded almost every time they played, which was often. It’s how the trio spent most of their time. A few tapes and CDs would find their way into the world, including a cassette of the first time they ever played together. But a record represented the seriousness of your endeavor. It’s how you left your mark, how someone in the future might know you existed and maybe speculate about who you might have been by listening to your music.
Self-released records were not common or inexpensive at the time. Picks & Lighters could have easily assembled a more traditional album compiled from dozens of hours of tapes, showcasing their catchier riffs and more traditional songs. They chose to leave a record of what they sounded like one summer’s day in 1997. That speaks to a philosophy as much as it does an aesthetic.
Though this music sounds like little else of its time, and maybe thereafter, it wasn’t created in a vacuum. Twin Infinitives’ scabby fingerprints are all over it. Exile on Main Street and old Mississippi blues records were in heavy rotation. Various Krautrock albums circulated after a copy of Julian Cope’s book, Krautrocksampler, made the rounds.
The idea for placing plain white album covers on a hot stove burner came to Steve Pritchard in a dream, and was tested out on a Gordon Lightfoot record. It’s a remarkable album cover, though Warden allows that Breadwinner’s Burner record was getting a lot of play, and its artwork might have sparked the idea.
Only 200 copies of TVA/Starvation were originally pressed, most going to friends or left at record stores or crash pads following scattershot shows in Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans. Given a second life two decades on, this musical document, made by a group that existed to explore a sound without ever resolving it, has another chance to stretch out and be heard." —Eric Dawson, reissue liner notes, 2019
credits
released October 4, 2019
Guitars: Steve Pritchard, Bill Warden
Drums: Mary Ann Pritchard
Remastered from cassette by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering
Reissue art direction by Austin Stahl
THIS REISSUE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF STEVE PRITCHARD
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Ok Ça c'est pour les tripeux comme moi! Écoutez ça!
Wow! wow! I found something truly historic! I love this sound. I remember that! Some progressive bands have used it! I can't believe I found this album amazing!! So happy!
Maman pirate buzz totalement sur le trésor qu'elle vient de trouver! ;-) Lavinie Cloutier
