THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I have spent so many years working in other mediums — film, theater, fiction — and working in the art world, that I wanted to return to my roots, where I feel most at home being creative,” said Aaron Louis of The Clamor. “That’s music” — in the form of his band’s eponymous full-length release, an album that recalls the freewheeling, genre-busting sound of Joe Strummer’s post-Clash work with The Mescaleros.
“The album is not me trying to recreate that atmosphere but a place to begin where I left off,” continues Louis. “Even if that just means having fun — like not being too precious, finding ways to be vulnerable, and embracing the collision of styles, all of which I hope you feel in this album. I like this moment in my life and feel like this album was a way to create a sort of sonic snapshot of what I’ve been thinking about and what’s important to me. And thinking of how fast it goes. Like in Cardiac Soundtrack — I wondered what it was that the great Joe Strummer might have been listening to when he had his heart attack. U-Roy? The Jay Tees? What will I go out listening to? And what music can I leave behind?”
The first questions are anyone’s guess. But the latter can be answered (at least partly) by this adventurous, shape-shifting set of eight songs that embrace everyting from swaggering guitar-rock and twitchy post-punk to soulful ska and rugged, rude-boy reggae-rock. It’s a sound as varied as the crew that recorded it.
“I wrote all the music and brought the song demos to the producer, Omer Leibovitz, and he assembled a group of killer Brooklyn musicians (himself included), to get the full band sound that I wanted,” Louis explains. “Then he brought along the excellent engineer at Studio G, Jeff Berner, and with Alan Douches mastering, I felt I couldn’t be in better hands. The album artwork was done by one of my favorite illustrators, Roxanna Bikadoroff. I first discovered her artwork on the cover of my favorite Flannery O’Connor books and I actually cold-called her and coaxed her out of applied-art retirement with punk rock.”
In his other life, Louis is currently the director of AV at The Museum of Modern Art, a freelance producer, and a board member at 3-Legged Dog Media + Theater Group, Ideas Beyond Borders and This is 42. His producer credits include the recent documentary Islam And The Future Of Tolerance, featuring Sam Harris. He is also the author of a number of books, including the 2003 novel Things That Hang From Trees and the 2006 Aviles Street Productions screenplay adaptation. Aaron began his career as a musician, and after several years as the principal singer-songwriter for the 11-piece acoustic punk band, Dandelion Wine, he went on to release a solo album called If So in 2000. He has also served as the in-house booking agent for mulitple music venues, producing over 1000 shows with regional and national bands, and the owner of Galaxie 500, a live music venue and performance space in northern Florida. He currently lives in Brooklyn.”
