Brooklyn’s Butane Variations have a name for their brainstorms and the subsequent nights or the night’s sequential sparkings. It sounds like more of a phrase about something you do – the imagined noise that comes rushing to the blind eye’s windshield is one of a pressurized release, a deep-throated reverse suction that goes from the gut into the high ceilings with some spillage and splashing striking clean shoes below. Homespun with moonshine and melancholia, the songs that emerge from these focused sessions of experimenting and work seem to be branded with the shroud of ambivalence. They go out there and spout about the taste of George Washington’s wooden teeth and kind of call him out as a punk. The next minute they’re secular and then it’s a swing over to the modestly spiritual carousel, with paupers and believers poofing into the center of their stories with their hands out and their jaws on the floor, just to pass this way or that in the next miracle minute. The creative period they like to call “popping tonic” and the secret potion that they’re summoning in these presumably late ass evening séances is one of romantic country music getting into a social mixer with a miscellaneous array of renegade vibrations that jiggle the sound and give it different colorings to go along with its constantly shifting parameter. The idea is never to be too sweet or to be too difficult, it’s just to get to the knot and work it out with a two-handed massage. The group’s self-titled debut on Achord Records doesn’t spell out any particular definition or direction, just that the band is going to take it upon itself to relieve tension. It is going to go out of its way to mellow the fires, to douse the blaze with cold compresses and cool words that move like dusty tumbleweeds across a sandy panoramic skyline, beneath a fading orange blush. They’ve earned their coveted sainthood in their searching woes and desperate readings into the readings of palms. There’s a lot of shivering before heat and then huddling with heads gently resting upon another, comforting whatever scary thoughts are rampaging upstairs.

First song
Goliath (Butane Variations) [4.69MB] [1562 downloads]


– unreleased
Was written for a friend of ours that passed away suddenly. I sat down and improvised the lyrics and basic song structure into a digital four-track at the top of a monster apartment building in midtown Manhattan, cabs blonking and tires screeching, Celine Dion in the background. I sent it to Philip who edited my poor grammar and/or redundancy. Phil and I first recorded it as a one night recording experiment called popping tonic, with Dana from Akron/Family on drums. We love to play it together and think about what our friend might have encountered traveling to the next place.

Second song
Jackie (Butane Variations) [5.37MB] [1246 downloads]


– unreleased
Is Phil and myself trying to write a song together. He had a nice demo and I had some fashion magazines that my girlfriend left on the coffee table. We wrote the lyrics together and I changed some chords. We never spill the coffee and Mike the drummer thinks the song is about sex. We’ve been trying to write songs about sex ever since. P.S. The song is really about music lessons. P.P.S. And Sex.

Third song
Left Right Left (Butane Variations) [6.20MB] [1199 downloads]


– unreleased
Is basically an ode to Billy Joel, one of Phil’s favorite cornballs/superheroes. I think he read somewhere that Mr. Joel said “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” was just three songs smashed together. Sometimes Phil thinks he has that same artistic license. This is also a new one which we hope to record real soon. It’s about dying, sex, and the army.

Fourth song
Mix Tape Honey (Butane Variations) [3.29MB] [1308 downloads]


– original version appears on Love Five Songs
Was an old song I had in a notebook. When Phil and I sat down for the popping tonic sessions, this one got pulled out. It’s a straight ahead song about straight ahead things. The version on our record is actually salvaged from that early one night session. This is what it sounds like with the drums!

Butane Variations Tour Dates
Dec. 8 Union Hall Brooklyn, New York
Dec 9 The Fire Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jan 3 The Khyber Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jan 4 Lo-Fi Social Club Balitmore, Maryland
Jan 10 Calendonia Athens, Georgia
Jan 12 The Map Room Charleston, South Carolina
Jan 14 The 5 Spot Nashville, Tennessee
Jan 16 Marvell Event Center Durham, North Carolina
Jan 29 Preservation Pub Knoxville, Tennessee

Butane Variations
Achord Records