Greg Mendez

Descripción

<p><strong>Artist Presale:</strong> March 4 @ 10:00AM PT<br><strong>MRG Presale</strong>: March 4 @ 10:00AM PT<br><strong>Spotify Presale:</strong> March 5 @ 10:00AM PT<br><strong>On Sale</strong>: March 6 @ 10:00AM PT<strong><br><br></strong>Greg Mendez has always been an economical songwriter &ndash; he wields restraint and simplicity as tools, the core of his songs sharpened into simple, cutting truths. On <em>Beauty Land,</em> his new album and debut LP for Dead Oceans, we&rsquo;re guided by a wry but forgiving narrator, an underdog who has learned to balance cynicism and faith. These songs are self-effacing without self-pity, carefully constructed altars of imperfection channeled through pop melodies, shimmering but urgent guitars, and a voice that reaches for choir boy innocence.<br><br>The bulk of <em>Beauty Land</em> was recorded directly to tape, almost entirely alone in Mendez&rsquo;s makeshift home studio in Philadelphia - a small room with no natural light. It&rsquo;s his first full length since his unexpected self-titled breakthrough in 2023, which was a slow burn success following 15 years of writing and recording music in relative obscurity between Philly and New York. <em>Beauty Land </em>picks up where we left off three years ago &ndash; plumbing the depths of grief, love, and addiction &ndash; but its intense, quiet clarity shows Mendez at his songwriting best.<br><br>Parts of <em>Beauty Land</em> feel like a lucid dream, dented characters carve their way through a world that&rsquo;s cartoonish and warped &ndash; the broken-clock march of &ldquo;I Wanna Feel Pretty,&rdquo; the chiming toy piano on &ldquo;Gentle Love.&rdquo; &ldquo;Mary / Dreaming&rdquo; begins as a sparse, finger-picked lament before cutting abruptly to a deflated, Beach-Boys-but-make-it-fucked-up resolution that brings both melancholy and joy; a sense that all things can be true at once. None of the 14 tracks here break three minutes, but they tell stories that span lifetimes.<br><br>Death floats through the record, whether it appears as a memory or a threat. Everything feels precarious. There&rsquo;s a fragility to how these songs are built: the way the funeral organ hits alongside the morphine on &ldquo;Looking Out Your Window,&rdquo; the devastating simplicity of &ldquo;Frog,&rdquo; with its slowed-down keyboard and bare refrain: &ldquo;Please forgive me for my faults.&rdquo; <em>Beauty Land</em> feels, at times, impossibly lonely. Which makes it really count when it doesn&rsquo;t &ndash; like when Mendez sings in harmony with his wife and bandmate, Veronica near the end of &ldquo;So Mean&rdquo; and it feels like a cherished reunion, a fleeting moment of redemption, a temporary parting of the seas.<br><br><strong>Have an MRG Credit/Gift Card? Redeem for tickets&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://mrglive-redeem.square.site/s/shop" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="a"><strong>HERE</strong></a></p>