{"id":21056,"date":"2021-05-28T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T09:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21056"},"modified":"2021-05-28T08:20:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T12:20:07","slug":"the-reds-pinks-and-purples-listener-friendly-depresso-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/28\/the-reds-pinks-and-purples-listener-friendly-depresso-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reds, Pinks and Purples\u2019 Listener-friendly Depresso Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Glenn Donaldson is prolific. Maybe not quite Robert Pollard or R. Stevie Moore prolific, but the man records and releases a lot of music. The Skygreen Leopards, his psych-folk collaboration with fellow multi-instrumentalist Donovan Quinn, put out seven albums in eight years, plus another in 2014. Another duo, The Art Museums, featured Donaldson working with The Skygreen Leopards\u2019 Josh Alper; that project released an album and three EPs in the space of just over a year. Donaldson has also appeared on records by Woods, Thuja, The Fresh & Onlys and at least a dozen others.<\/p>\n

But along the way, the Bay Area musician and composer has found the time to launch and sustain a solo project as well: the \u201cDIY kitchen pop\u201d of The Reds, Pinks and Purples. Between September 2019 and now, he has created three full-length albums and an EP under that name. Released in April, Uncommon Weather<\/i> is the latest from The Red, Pinks and Purples. And there\u2019s plenty more where that came from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI record more than I release,\u201d Donaldson admits with a chuckle. \u201cI’m kind of pulling stuff from far in the past [along with] brand new stuff. I’ll tend to revisit old ideas and say, \u2018Can I do something with this?\u2019\u201d Quite often the answer is a resounding yes<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A highlight of the new album, \u201cDon\u2019t Ever Pray in the Church on My Street\u201d was written and demoed in 2015. At that time, Donaldson was briefly between bands, so he shelved the song. \u201cBut I felt like it was special,\u201d he says. \u201cI wrote it when I had a fever. There\u2019s that legend about Neil Young writing \u2018Cinnamon Girl\u2019 when he<\/i> had a fever, so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But The Reds, Pinks and purples don\u2019t display a great deal of the fuzzed-out proto-grunge of Crazy Horse. Instead, Donaldson\u2019s solo work under that moniker feels more connected to the jangling sounds of \u201880s college rock, particularly the \u201cpaisley underground\u201d vibe of bands like Green on Red, The Rain Parade and the Dream Syndicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in the \u201880s in Southern California,\u201d Donaldson says. \u201cSo I was aware of the paisley underground. Some of my favorite music was The Three O\u2019Clock and The Rain Parade.\u201d He recalls seeing an MTV special on R.E.M., one that featured Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) and John Sebastian (The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful). \u201cFrom a very early age, I caught onto that \u2018\u201860s meets new wave\u2019 sound,\u201d he says. But later bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Guided by Voices influenced his own songwriting to a similar degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a student of songwriting,\u201d Donaldson says. And with The Reds, Pinks and Purples, he seeks to make music that is accessible. \u201cI was really thoughtful about making the songs relatable,\u201d he says, \u201cso that maybe instead of just being called \u2018indie pop,\u2019 they could actually be pop music.\u201d In his world, pop is not an epithet. \u201cI\u2019ve done my time in the sub-underground,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t mind being on the radio. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson says that despite his best efforts \u2013 The Reds, Pinks and Purples recordings sport a uniformly high production quality \u2013 his solo releases still get described by radio deejays as lo-fi. \u201cWhich is fine,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s meant for a broad audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic sidelined the live version of the project. \u201cWe played about ten shows, and we were about to go play in Spain,\u201d Donaldson says. But he isn\u2019t feeling sorry for himself. \u201cMany other people had much worse outcomes from the pandemic.\u201d Still, he looks forward to gigging in support of Uncommon Weather<\/i>. \u201cI have a wonderful band here, and they get to interpret the songs how they want,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s different from the recordings, but that makes it fun for me.\u201d He\u2019s thinking about heading to Spain toward the end of this year. \u201cHopefully, I’ll kind of put the microphone down for a little while and just enjoy playing some of the songs with my friends,\u201d Donaldson says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, Donaldson continues to pursue The Reds, Pinks and Purples as a studio endeavor. \u201cFor this project, I really focus on the songwriting,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I’m pretty versed in using the studio as an instrument.\u201d He describes his method of recording in his kitchen as \u201ca search for the sound along with the song. The hard part is getting the song written. Then, the fun part is just splashing colors on when I record.\u201d And he emphasizes the listener-friendly nature of the music. \u201cI wanted to make it a little more accessible and listenable for people who didn’t have a taste for the esoteric music that I come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson says that like The Reds, Pinks and Purples\u2019 other albums, Uncommon Weather<\/i> is \u201can elusive portrait of San Francisco.\u201d But what does that mean? \u201cIt’s about me and my time here, forming bands and just living my life,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere are specific references to the neighborhood and locations throughout the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time that Donaldson plays up the tuneful nature of his solo project, he labels it \u201cdepresso pop.\u201d He laughs when the term is brought up. \u201cThat\u2019s sort of tongue-in-cheek,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone gave me that tag in a review, and I thought it was funny.\u201d In fact, though some of his song titles might suggest a kind of mopey, navel-gazing character (\u201cI Hope I Never Fall in Love,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m Sorry About Your Life\u201d), for The Reds, Pinks and Purples, humor is often a part of the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cA song like \u2018A Kick in the Face (That\u2019s Life),\u2019 I mean, that\u2019s ridiculous!\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s completely over the top.\u201d But at the same time, he says, \u201csometimes life is<\/i> a kick in the face, and all you want to do is go home and drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or record another album\u2019s worth of songs. \u201cThe follow-up album is already at the pressing plant,\u201d Donaldson reveals. \u201cThat\u2019s coming out in the fall \u2026 and it\u2019ll be a double album.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Donaldson is prolific. Maybe not quite Robert Pollard or R. Stevie Moore prolific, but the man records and releases a lot of music. The Skygreen Leopards, his psych-folk collaboration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,49,62],"tags":[4536,4537],"class_list":["post-21056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-glenn-donaldson","tag-the-reds-pinks-and-purples","cat-39-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21059,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21056\/revisions\/21059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}