Bartees Strange - Farm To Table (Indie Yellow LP)

Farm to Table, the second album from Washington D.C. resident Bartees Leon Cox Jr. examines Bartees’ constantly shapeshifting relationship with life. Where his 2020 debut record Live Forever introduced the experiences and places that shaped Bartees (Flagey Brussels, Mustang Oklahoma), Farm to Table zeros in on the people – specifically his family – and those closest to him on his journey so far. It also speaks to a deeper lore that says don’t forget where you came from. With his career firmly on the ascent, Bartees is celebrating the past, moving towards the future and fully appreciating the present. An unapologetic and braggadocious indie-trap banger, new single ‘Cosigns’ celebrates Bartees’ peers, collaborators and friends; name-checking the likes of Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett, Lucy Dacus, through a genre-defying outpouring somewhere between swaggering hip hop and euphoric alt rock. The song ends on a poem he wrote in his early twenties, “I don’t know how to be full, it’s the hardest to know, I keep consuming I can’t give it up, It’s never enough.” ‘Cosigns’ is also a moment for Bartees to acknowledge himself, giving himself credence and unashamedly basking in that glow.

Born in Ipswich, England to a military father and opera singer mother Bartees had a peripatetic early childhood before eventually settling in Mustang, Oklahoma. Later, Bartees cut his teeth playing in hardcore bands in Washington D.C. and Brooklyn whilst working in the Barack Obama administration and (eventually) the environmental movement. Since charting a path as a solo artist, Bartees Strange has released two records in quick succession: an EP reimagining songs by The National (Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy, 2020) and his debut album proper Live Forever (2020).

SELLING POINTS
• “ An aura of tender hope...there is a relinquishing--a promise to embrace the possibility that lies beyond debilitating regret.” - NY Times
• “Wildly eclectic... where many artists might try to smooth out or flatten the transitions between their influences, Strange celebrates the whiplash.” -Rolling Stone
• “A testament to Bartees’ ability to build an intricate and expansive song that doesn’t sacrifice its emotional core.” - NPR Music
• “Remarkable in [his] ability to ignore musical orthodoxy. His flows are indebted to rap, but his sound skips from punk and folk to experimental and pop music.” -The New Yorker
• “This is inventive, emotionally intelligent indie-rock of the highest order.” - Billboard
• “Most Anticipated LPs of 2022” -Stereogum
• Spring 2022 US tour dates supporting Car Seat Headrest
• Summer 2022 tour dates supporting The National
• Hanif Abdurraqib curated BAM show with Mdou Moctar
• 2021 tours supporting Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Courtney Barnett

Tracklisting:
1. Heavy Heart
2. Mullholland Dr
3. Wretched
4. Cosigns
5. Tours
6. Hold The Line
7. We Were Only Close For Like Two Weeks
8. Escape This Circus
9. Daily News
10. Black Gold
11. Hennessy
+ Vinyl includes extra track “Daily News”