{"title":"East River Pipe","description":"\u003cp\u003eF.M. Cornog is an odd one. He is an anomaly in this well-fed world of information—a diamond so deep in the dirt he’s likely to be glimpsed only by a keen-eyed few. Under his pen name \u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe\u003c\/strong\u003e, he has recorded extraordinary albums, all recorded and mixed entirely on a cheap multi-track mini-studio, with a bare minimum of outboard gear.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-mel","title":"East River Pipe - Mel","description":"\u003cp\u003eMel, the second East River Pipe album released by Merge Records, will be reissued on vinyl this January as the label’s first entry in the Secretly Society. Going beyond bringing a long out-of-print classic back to wax, the reissue represents the first time Mel has been available in full on any physical format, as “Spotlight,” exclusive to Merge’s 1996 LP and CD, is joined here by “The Way They Murdered Me” and “Miracleland,” which were exclusive to the Shinkansen CD issued outside of North America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike all of East River Pipe’s output, Mel was written, performed, recorded, and mixed by F.M. Cornog on a Tascam 388 mini-studio at his home, which was then a small apartment in Astoria, Queens. Within that space, he conjures nothing less than the fullness of life beyond it, the characters and moods of New York, the way a city can feel limitless and isolating all at once. It’s a daunting accomplishment, one which led The New York Times to call him “the Brian Wilson of home recording.” Mel is an intricately-textured indie pop tour de force, its layers of keyboard and reverb-drenched guitars giving flight to Cornog’s voice, which observes the doomed figures of the city with the intimacy of a documentarian and the egolessness of someone who has been through despair and survived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMel is an offering like few others, its 14 peerless gems a direct channel from F.M. Cornog’s heart to yours. Shelter from the storm, you might call it. Uplift for the downtrodden. A masterpiece, even among Cornog’s considerable catalog, this edition of Mel is perfect for both kinds of East River Pipe fans: those who’ve been around for years, and those who didn’t know they needed these songs in their life until now. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"LP (Black)","offer_id":52739156541751,"sku":"MRG111LP","price":24.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739156508983,"sku":"MRG111digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/c22247b472038470fa396f72c0fcdfa24fa7b19b_405247744eb18f9358281d275c8a0894d85d01ff_medium_jpg_942b40d4-6fe2-4426-9d09-f8785f366fcf.jpg?v=1789600263"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-poor-fricky","title":"East River Pipe - Poor Fricky","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first proper full-length from the band that makes dejection beautiful, written and recorded in F.M. Cornog's Queens apartment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739163685175,"sku":"MRG081digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/fa258b06599366e09613de89375195213befa185_aa542f7e5c40523a2393892d61851b1313dfba98_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380190"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-kill-the-action","title":"East River Pipe - Kill The Action","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe single from \"Mel\" plus two fine B-sides.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739164045623,"sku":"MRG110digital","price":2.97,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/82bc53265c78468cb452b7556d9283e8b9cdfcad_683db034b6614ab2c931359f47a8776142e118bf_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380203"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-we-live-in-rented-rooms","title":"East River Pipe - We Live in Rented Rooms","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUnder the pen name, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe,\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e F.M. Cornog has recorded six extraordinary albums, all recorded and mixed entirely on a cheap multi-track mini-studio, with a bare minimum of outboard gear. These biting, ruminative micro-masterpieces have won Cornog much critical praise, but never fame and fortune. He has painted his America as a neon-lit wasteland filled with deluded losers, cheats, junkies, ultra-capitalist businessmen, freeway-roaming dreamers and the tragically fated. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe’s\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e seventh album, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWe Live in Rented Rooms,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e continues Cornog’s journey into America’s darklands. The fatalistic clock-puncher in the opener “Backroom Deals” can only repeat to himself in mantra-like numbness, “…I better get used to it, I better get used to it.” The “Conman” is haunted by a past he will never escape. The “Summer Boy” yearns for a girl who has long since moved on, or, perhaps, never was. The would-be filmmaker of “Tommy Made a Movie” locks his creations inside his mind for no one to see, preferring to watch internet porn instead. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe’s\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e music has been described by the New York Times as “gentle, smart, and unspeakably sad.” Rolling Stone characterized him as “one of our generation’s great eccentric songwriters.” Sometimes harrowing, occasionally scathing, and often heartbreakingly beautiful, his songs have been covered by artists as diverse as David Byrne, Lambchop, the Mountain Goats, and Okkervil River.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739165258039,"sku":"MRG342digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/d14f1650d4a9f7d82c236dee138f9ad3b022c2cd_4883e6333d173421747564c130c4a24d8929e9b9_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380237"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-shining-hours-in-a-can","title":"East River Pipe - Shining Hours In a Can","description":"\u003cp\u003eA compelling reissue of F.M. Cornog's debut full length release; compiling a series of 7\" singles, EPs, cassette-only releases, and new material, the album was originally released via Ajax Records in the U.S. in 1994. Cornog wrote, performed and recorded all of the material on Shining Hours In A Can directly to a Tascam mini-388 studio which he set up in a corner of his apartment in Astoria, NY. His gift for melody and emotional lyricisim are readily apparent from the get-go; and these pop-gems quickly established him as the crown-prince of lo-fi home-recorded indie-pop. As an extra special bonus, we have included 3 tracks on this reissue - Woody's Car, Hide My Life Away From You, and Miracleland - that were not available on the original album.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739173646647,"sku":"MRG203digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/94d384ffca8e718cfd17486d881141c5e8000178_81e1b945d8c953178378c313008f4b56194fec3c_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380536"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-what-are-you-on","title":"East River Pipe - What Are You On?","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis sixth release (and first new \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/east-river-pipe\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e record since 2003's \u003ca href=\"\/products\/east-river-pipe-garbageheads-on-endless-stun\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGarbageheads On Endless Stun\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e) is another magical, intimate album, one that continues to justify \u003cstrong\u003eRolling Stone's\u003c\/strong\u003e claim that \u003cstrong\u003eF.M. Cornog\u003c\/strong\u003e is \u003ci\u003e\"one of our generation's great eccentric songwriters.\"\u003c\/i\u003e Fans of Smog, Mercury Rev, and My Morning Jacket should take notice of Cornog's mastery.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739173712183,"sku":"MRG271digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/38fef179f6fcdb5fcf07d1f3497e9aef8183ba7e_abbf3b86a92d2f8a5d73944c2f11b10ea260fd4e_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380538"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-garbageheads-on-endless-stun","title":"East River Pipe - Garbageheads on Endless Stun","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn \u003ci\u003eGarbageheads on Endless Stun\u003c\/i\u003e F.M. Cornog emerges yet again as the poet laureate for a quieter America, and the often overlooked people who populate it. This is a collection of elegant pop-gems that celebrate the underdogs, the drifters, the misfits and those who might fall through the cracks of society. \u003ci\u003eGarbageheads on Endless Stun\u003c\/i\u003e continues in the East River Pipe Tradition of presenting songs full of the joy and the melancholy, the love and the loss, the hope and the despair that surround us and make up the fabric of our everyday lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739173744951,"sku":"MRG234digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/3ddac6e011334d542f42830ac9dab0f034f2e2ba_a15daccaddbd7818acd30c545ecc4ca839aee01b_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380542"},{"product_id":"east-river-pipe-the-gasoline-age","title":"East River Pipe - The Gasoline Age","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe celebrate our long relationship with \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/east-river-pipe\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEast River Pipe\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e by releasing their critically acclaimed fourth album \u003ci\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Gasoline Age\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e on vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSaluted by \u003ci\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/i\u003e as “the most gifted of the new loners,” F.M. Cornog, aka East River Pipe, originally released \u003ci\u003eThe Gasoline Age\u003c\/i\u003e in 1999. Named Album of the Year by both \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003eand England’s\u003ci\u003e The Independent, The Gasoline Age\u003c\/i\u003e was inspired in large part by nighttime drives on New Jersey’s seedy Route 22. Automobile imagery appears throughout the album: cybercars, stolen cars, pimpmobiles. The cars all seem to carry with them a romanticism that emphasizes even further Cornog’s gift of creating a lyrical mood without tying his flights of fancy down to specifics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Gasoline Age\u003c\/i\u003e explores the suburban landscape and turnpike stretches outside Cornog’s door and calmly runs down bleak facts over the gentle pulse and chorused strums Cornog has been perfecting since his early singles. Some of the songs are built on merely six concise lines of clear-eyed warning, though sometimes (“Hell Is an Open Door”) he sounds like he might actually be looking forward to the darkness on the horizon. On other tracks, like the ironically titled “Party Drive,” it sounds as though Cornog is barely going to make it to the curb. But for the character in the song, going on that drive is the only thing that makes it seem like “we’re gonna be OK.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe disconnect between the unsettling dead ends Cornog sings about and the peaceful swells of the keyboards and the glimmering guitars is what brings emotional weight to the entire album. One doesn’t get the sense that a whole lot has changed in the last 15 years for the characters inhabiting this world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMerge came to know East River Pipe through his string of memorable and mysterious singles on Hell Gate and Sarah Records. Merge co-founder Mac McCaughan writes, “We had friends who were early fans of those records, including Jim Wilbur of Superchunk, and it seemed that no one took East River Pipe fandom lightly—once you were in on the secret, you were all in. After Ajax Records compiled the sparkling early sides, we started working with Fred\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand his wife and partner Barbara Powers and have been looking forward to the next batch of periodic broadcasts from his bedroom studio ever since.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1999, Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner (whose band has covered five of Cornog’s songs) beautifully described the essence of F.M. Cornog’s work:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I listen to East River Pipe I not only hear beautiful melodies and words, but I also hear the personification of pure, unfettered musical thought, brought about by a commitment to concentrate solely on his craft and his art. This is the sound of a man completely focused on the task at hand, not sidetracked or swayed by any outside forces, be they record labels or any other aspect of the music industry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the sound of a man whose only musical relationship is that of sound to tape recorder. Because he chooses not to perform live, he further reinforces the significance of this relationship between a man’s ideas and the form in which we are able to perceive these ideas. He knows that when he makes a record that “THIS IS IT, this is all there is.” Pure. Simple. Perfect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003eBonus tracks:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. How’s It Feel to Piss It All Away?\u003cbr\u003e2. Here Comes the Hurricane\u003cbr\u003e3. The Handsome Cruel-Eyed Men\u003cbr\u003e4. Here Come the Pill Armies\u003cbr\u003e5. Let’s Kill the Matador\u003cbr\u003e6. Golden Hate\u003cbr\u003e7. Flyin’, Lyin’, Dyin’\u003cbr\u003e8. WTC\u003cbr\u003e9. Easy to Forget\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"merge records","offers":[{"title":"Download","offer_id":52739189506359,"sku":"MRG164digital","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/3935\/3143\/files\/adb724f5e9a9322dc3a409abac043ac92aeeb290_504ccba51a0bc42fccd9987fbd8d6230a737270c_medium_jpg.jpg?v=1785380987"}],"url":"https:\/\/mergerecords.com\/collections\/east-river-pipe.oembed","provider":"Merge Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}