Song of the Day: Cory Hanson – Replica

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Replica” by Cory Hanson, from his 2017 solo debut, The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo, on Drag City.

Cory Hanson – Replica (MP3)Today’s garage rockers don’t take breaks. They just start new projects. So, following the release of the past Wand album, 2015’s 1000 Days, after touring with Ty Segall’s band, The Muggers, and while waiting for the next Wand LP to drop, frontman Cory Hanson took the opportunity to release his solo debut. A short, mostly acoustic album, The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo makes a big impact in just over 30-minutes. On it, Hanson trades his band’s usually electrified psychedelia for a gentler, pastoral approach, while avoiding potential pitfalls of self-indulgence, thanks mostly to his choice of strings. Heather Lockie, Cory’s longtime friend, manages to tie together fragments of songs he’d conceived during his years thus far in Wand with orchestral arrangements that turn kaleidoscopic eyes toward lush green fields of Anglic folk. Hanson even seems to approximate a faux-British accent at times, yet still his songs feel deeply personal, even when they’re lyrically obtuse, as on “Replica”, today’s featured song and the album’s second single: “You were always searching for a way to make it right / Look into the mirror and it stares back from your eyes / Sorting through the images you age for several hours / Slept along the river and snuck out of paradise”. We might not clearly perceive it, but there is an intimate other, and it’s a disconnection we can understand: “You wouldn’t know if you looked me in the eye / We’re burning at two different times”. It may or may not be a breakup song, but no matter how you interpret it, “Replica” is no mere imitation of true feeling. Somehow, Cory Hanson takes us closer to reality in this fantastic romp through the grass.

Cory Hanson already strolled through Seattle during a short West Coast solo tour earlier this month. There are no further plans yet for more tour dates, but he will be on the Southwest highways with Wand right around SXSW-time. Hopefully, more dates will follow. If and when they do, you’ll find them on his label page at Drag City. Fortunately, we recorded a session with Cory and Heather while they were in town. Look for video of that session in a few weeks. Until then, here they are performing “Evening Glass”, from the new album, live in a steam room: