Music

Perfumed Letter   Year: 2003 | Run Time: 51:57

©2003 Paste Music. All songs written by Bill Mallonee, CyBrenJoJosh Music (BMI)

Track List

    1. She's So Liquid [2:59]
    2. Perfumed Letter [4:38]
    3. Life on Other Planets [4:24] YouTube
    4. Extraordinary Girl [2:29]
    5. Two Become One [4:20]
    6. Silver Transparent [3:27]
    7. Crescent Moon [4:47] YouTube
    8. That Little Something [4:19]
    9. Wintergreen [4:20]
    10. After All You've Done for Me [4:50]
    11. Shirts and Skins [6:02]
    12. Your Bright Future [3:54]

    Did you know?

    Perfumed Letter was released on August 26, 2003. An early working title for the project was Custom Critical. Two tracks were sent out as lead-off singles: "Life On Other Planets" went to Triple A stations and "Extraordinary Girl" went to college radio.

    Quotes from Bill Mallonee

    Jul 31, 2003: Perfumed Letter feels like affirmation of God and Love (and Love-making) and Innocence and patient Goodwill that we were hoping to do after Summershine... Only i think we're doing it better now... better sounds, more experience, bigger colors to paint with...

    Oct 11, 2003: Sadly, i see that there really is no audience to even sing to... 900 units? OUCH! well, that's "piss poor" as they say... i would have thought it'd do way, way better... especially with this kickin' band we have.

    Nov 4, 2003: I think Perfumed Letter has FAR MORE to do in keeping with the sound of AAA radio-friendly "REAL DOWN TOWN (our "biggest so called hit") than ANY of the 4 or 5 records worth of Americana leanings culminating in Audible Sigh!... so what's the problem? why has Perfumed Letter sold far less...? well, it's partially because it's not really in stores, and if it is by chance, it's not at listening posts or being profiled.

    Nov 18, 2003: Another record down the toilet... I was pretty upset by having to put another great band to bed after months of rehearsing and barely one month of shows... good good guys...

    Dec 17, 2003: I tend to be old school here: it's an Artist's job to make good records (which we feel we have consistently done)... and it's the LABEL's job to sell them... that seemingly didn't happen... there may be many reasons... it wasn't 'cause the record wasn't garnering very involved and glowing reviews!... but the distributor (Telegraph) was drowning from day one and I don't think Paste knew it... promises and plans such as listening posts and adverts were also left out of the marketing... these are simply avenues one uses to expose and position an artits... and we had little to none of it...

    Feb 3, 2004: PL sounds great considering what amounts of $ were avaliable to go into it... it's a college indie-sound... but I think one of the reviews actually complained that it sounded too expensive and produced! I take that as a compliment.

    Mar 27, 2004: It's always funny what sorta things you bring in your heart when you walk into a studio, do your art... and then walk out to risk it in the world... I can't seem to NOT be ruled by fickle feelings... are they a curse or blessing? I'm such a kid... clueless. Last summer, I felt so very positive about Perfumed Letter... was really braced in expectation for this explosion... when stuff went wildly south with business and oblivion...

    May 7, 2004: And with each commercial "failure," labels shy away... (I couldn't buy a deal today)... and then I began to get in touch with the feeling (about 3 years ago now), that these things really aren't small and they really do HURT... It 's one of the reasons I had banked so much on Perfumed Letter... my first OFFICIAL SOLO thing... it was my most ambitious record, hitting the mark all over the indie/college pop spectrum; referencing everything from Beatles, to Pet Sounds to psychedelia, to Athens guitar rock... and it just didn't get the push... THAT was the bottom of my emotional ride...

    Jun 12, 2004: Well... you know there are countless reasons why Perfumed Letter didn't have a day in court... lots of excuses... some very valid. I honestly believe it to be my/our most ambitious record... I can only come at it with the art in mind... we took such a small budget and did this BIG thing with it! Kevin and Jake felt the same way... Sad thing was is that while we were getting rev-ed up as a band to do the "live" thing, we could get no info on how it was doing or not doing for weeks... So, I sent the band home after less than 3 weeks on the road... they (Brandon Reynolds, Jon Radford, Jake and myself) were really coalescing into a great little pop-rock item! I also had about another 6-7 songs in similar vein that would have been the next "evolutionary" step in that genre... I think, although some disagree, that the reviewers that wrote for some cool indie-net things "got it" pretty hard... just looking at the names the names and the references they were comparing it to were very heartening to us!... We thought it was enough to have warranted some more nurture... and it did receive some... alas, I think (if it was there at all) it was too little too late... You can buy a record you can't find and the thing never went in stores, Telegraph Company the distributor, crashing while or shortly after the record was released... that's a tough break... Apparently I'm considered not "commercially viable" by both "friends" and "enemies." Still, I'm still a believer that Perfumed Letter is the best record we ever made in that college-pop-rock genre that I loved as a kid.

    Jun 24, 2005: They [Paste Records] eventually said that 1. the upstart label's inexperience and 2. a series of bad breaks with bankrupt distributors were the primary reasons for the record (my first solo record really) languishing... plus I was and still am very proud of it's ambitious nature and it's more "pop" accessibility. You only get one chance to make a good first impression... and that was my first swing with a solo project officially of national proportions... all well and good... stuff happens as they say!

    Nov 11, 2006: Summershine and Perfumed Letter seem to me now to be conscious attempts to "pep talk" myself out of life despair... as most of you know I feel they were the most ambitious records I've ever done... attempts to embrace love and light... we expected great things for them.

    Nov 11, 2006: Perfumed Letter got amazing reviews... keep in mind this: it was my FIRST official solo release...; very important to remember that... you only get one chance to make a good first impression... but no real money was spent to market it... it was literally abandoned as was Summershine by the label due to distribution issues and lack of experience...

    Sep 2, 2007: The label kindly gave me 1000 to sell on the road... They sold about 900 through retail, another 100 went to mags, reviewers, etc... SO: when any new label "looks" me up via Soundscan, I look as if PL was a total wash-out, selling 900 copies...

    Quotes from Other Folks

    Nick Purdy: What was done: Pull off the weakest tracks and the ones that were more a part of the rootsy sonic milieu of Vigilantes of Love and replace them with newly recorded songs more rooted in the lusher pop milieu that is characterizing Bill Mallonee the solo artist.

    Paste Records Press Release: A perfect movie is hard to come by - but usually contains three things: great script, great acting, great directing/cinematography. Films that stand the test of time display all of these. The same goes with rock. How rarely these days do we hear an album with all three: great hooks, meaningful lyrics, and inventive, interesting music?

    Bill Mallonee delivers on all three counts with Perfume Letter. And it's a joy to behold.

    The national solo debut for the former Vigilantes of Love frontman, Perfume Letter was produced by Mallonee, Tom Lewis (John Prine, Junior Brown, Love Tractor), and Paul Wilkinson, releasing 8/5/2003 on Paste Records. Diverging from his roots-oriented past, Mallonee adds a fresh wash of keyboards - vintage Mellotrons, Clavinovas and Moog synthesizers, no less - to contribute to a sound that is at times symphonic in its scope and ambition. "Shirts and Skins," which recalls Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees," soars to a stunning climax on a bed of synthesizers and overlaid guitars. "Life On Other Planets" recalls the Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, and features a buoyant chorus that will embed itself in your brain upon first hearing. "Crescent Moon," as fine a love song as Mallonee has ever penned, features some typically self-deprecating Mallonee humor: "Stumbling when I come/Tripping over my dumb tongue/For God's sake, don't these momma's boys ever grow up?" "She So Liquid," the album's outstanding leadoff track, mines the swirling psychedelia of the late period Beatles to great affect, while "Wintergreen" features what may be the best George Harrison guitar solo not performed by George Harrison.

    Mallonee's resume is impressive. Part of the fertile Athens, GA scene that produced R.E.M. and The B52s, Mallonee and his Vigilantes released 3 albums before signing with Capricorn in 1994 and breaking through with the critically acclaimed album Welcome to Struggleville, which garnered a Top 10 AAA hit with the title track, followed by Blister Soul, featuring the Modern Rock hit "Real Downtown."

    An incendiary live show only added to the buzz, but it was the songs - Mallonee's ability to crawl inside the skin of some creepy, conflicted characters - that left the biggest impression. Rolling Stone observed, "Bill Mallonee...[has] remained fascinated with the shadowy emotional toils and struggles inherent in the American experience...exploring the grey thin line between hope and hopelessness with songs that alternate from careening scorchers to more plaintive, folkish material.... compelling, insightful." With a lyrical honesty, vulnerability, and bluntness not seen since Marianne Faithful's Broken English or Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Mallonee portrayed himself as a redeemed criminal, a weary saint who was only too aware of his own faults and shortcomings.

    Full of witty wordplay and humor, Perfume Letter's songs nevertheless speak powerfully to the contradictions that inevitably come with big grown-up themes - loving, but not as well as we should, wanting to give of ourselves selflessly, but obsessing on our own foibles and imperfections, trusting in something bigger than ourselves, yet caught up in petty jealousies and self doubt. Bill Mallonee captures those little wars of the heart better than any songwriter going, and in the process creates believable, eminently listenable soundscapes. The perfume is sweet, but it can't mask the desperation. And that's when Bill Mallonee is at his best.

    Credits

    Bill Mallonee: electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, bgv's, percussion

    Jake Bradley: electric basses, bgv's, 12-string solo on "your bright future"

    Kevin Heuer: drums

    Billy Holmes: keyboards, keyboard bass, string arrangements, electric guitar solo on "wintergreen"

    Cason Cooley: keyboards, atmospherics

    Paul Wilkinson: keyboards, basses, electric guitar, bgv's on "silver transparent"

    Tom Lewis: bgv's

    Produced by Tom Lewis and Bill Mallonee. "Silver Transparent" and "Perfumed Letter" were made in the UK by Paul Wilkinson and Bill Mallonee. Photography: John Mark Johnson. Package Design: Piksl Design.

    Liner Notes

    thanks and gratitude to: Tom Lewis, Mark Cooper Smith, Paul Wilkinson, Whispering Bob Harris, Jason Horst, Vigilantes of Love, Buddy and Julie Miller, Mom and Dad, Michael Steele, Neil and Pat Priest, Jason Slatton, Flagpole magazine, Fr. Jack McDowell, Michelle Roche, all the kind folks who have nurtured me and helped make this possible... and of course, the good souls at Paste Records!

    nearest, dearest, and blessed inspiration: Brenda, Joshua, and Joseph

    Come and visit! All are welcomed at billmallonee.com

     

     

     

     

     

    site by piksl design