Musically Amusing

On September 28th, Vagrant Records will release the latest studio album from Pete Yorn. This collection follows Yorn’s two 2009 releases. Rolling Stone said, “Yorn has found his voice on Back and Fourth, a mostly acoustic beauty.” It was followed in September by Break Up, a collaboration with Scarlett Johansson.

Pete Yorn’s forthcoming album, a self-titled volume with a plain black cover, was recorded on the spur-of-the-moment, in the summer of 2008. Yorn was in the middle of making (his last album) Back & Fourth in Nebraska when he got an email from Frank Black (The Pixies) suggesting that they record some tunes. Intrigued by the notion of experimenting with Frank, Yorn hopped a plane to Salem, OR, where the two set up an impromptu studio. They recorded the album in a mere five days even though the singer-songwriter-guitarist came down with the flu two days into the process.

“Frank didn’t give a shit about getting sick, so we stayed in the flow,” recalls Yorn. “He has an incredible ability to distill a song down to its core.”

Frank recalls, “Pete told me he wanted to better define himself as an artist. I think he just wanted to rock out. But as we headed down a path of realization I stripped him down a whole bunch. We battled in the best sort of way. I tried to get the session into a fearless and raw place, and to his artistic credit Pete took his songwriting to a fearless and raw place. This listener will find his or herself sitting right next to Pete on the couch. And the record totally rocks out.”