Posts Tagged ‘Messes’

STEF CHURA – “ Degrees ” (Feat. Will Toledo)

Posted: March 9, 2018 in MUSIC
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Stef Chura

I really enjoyed Stef Chura’s  excellent debut, “Messes”, last year. Actually, I’m still enjoying it this year as well. She’s currently hard at work on its follow-up, That album is still a ways off, but the duo are giving us a taste of their collaboration with a new limited edition 7-inch for Record Store Day. The A-side is “Degrees,” a contemplative song that flares up into an epic classic-rock rave-up when the chorus hits. Car Seat Headrest Will Toledo produces and plays guitar, bass, and organ,  we’re excited to announce the RSD exclusive 7-inch by Stef Chura, Degrees b/w Sour Honey . “Degrees” and “Sour Honey” were both songs cut from Messes , but revived when Stef crossed paths with Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest and a collaboration was born. Stef says:

“I met Will Toledo in 2016 when we did some touring together with Car Seat Headrest. We chatted at the Empty Bottle in Chicago at our first show and he told me that he found my music on Tumblr via an article that compared us to each other. He invited us on a couple of tours that year before Messes was out and before we had a label or booking agent or release plans or any “stuff.” In May of 2017 we ran into each other again at the Empty Bottle. Will was mixing Twin Fantasy and came out to our gig there with the engineer he’d been working with. He invited us to the studio to check out the record the next day. When we stopped by Will had finished mixing early and asked us if we had anything going on recording-wise. I said I have a couple of songs that got cut from Messes I want to record for a 7-inch and he was like “Cool, wanna record them right now? I’ll play bass.”

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“Degrees” b/w “Sour Honey” is out as a limited edition 7-inch (1000 copies) on Record Store Day, 21st April.

STEF CHURA – ” Messes “

Posted: February 5, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Stef Chura’s debut studio album, Messes, is born of her years of experience playing around the Michigan underground clubs, setting up DIY shows in the area, and moving around the state—nearly 20 times. “Right when it starts to feel like home/It’s time to go,” she sings literally on its opening cut, ‘Slow Motion’, a twisty, dim-lit guitar pop song where she curls and stretches every word. There are worlds of emotion in the ways Chura pronounces phrases with twang and grit, alternatingly full of despair, playfulness, and abandon. Chura calls her music “emotional collage,” eschewing start-to-finish storylines in favour of writing intuitively about feelings, drawing from experiences and references related to a certain sentiment.

Originally from Alpena, Michigan, Chura moved to the Ypsilanti area in 2009, where she began playing shows before ultimately then moving to Detroit in 2012. Chura has been home-recording and self-releasing her songs for six years, playing bass in friends’ bands as well. With a trove of demos and 4-track home recordings, some of which she’d released on small runs of cassettes over the years, Chura says she wasn’t sure what to do with her life before heading into the studio. “One of my best friends passed away and I thought, what do I have to do before I die? I have to at least make one record.”

She recorded the entire album with Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me) throughout 2015. Thomas plays bass on most of the record, and a bit of guitar and drums. Drummer Ryan Clancy of Jamaican Queens and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. adds the bulk of the drums. Through intricate guitar work and warm, textured production, Messes finds her trying to make sense of life’s ups and downs. “It’s about emotional mess, not physical mess,” Chura says. “The title track is about knowing that you are going to do something the wrong way, but you’re doing it anyway because you want that experience. I’ve had to do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life.”

STEF CHURA – ” Messes “

Posted: March 11, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Stef Chura’s star is definitely on the rise: The Detroit native recently released her debut, “Messes”, via Urinal Cake Records, Its an 11-song set of warbling guitar-pop anthems that showcase her husky, perpetually down turned vocals. She’s earned coverage across music web sites like on Stereogum, Pitchfork and NPR, and she can count Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me) as a fan; the noted indie-rock vet produced and played bass on her first LP. Reflecting a post-adolescent period of trial and error,

Chura’s debut appears to writhe with growing pains as she quavers to an unwilling crush, “Right when it starts to feel like home / It’s time to go” on album opener “Slow Motion.” The conflicts repeat on the withered follow-up, “You,” where Chura trills like skeptical Dolores O’Riordan: “Sick and tired / Always admired you from afar.”

Chura’s internal debates, which are featured prominently on Messes, can also spill out in person. She admits to sometimes wishing she’d put more effort into music earlier in her 20s, despite her blossoming visibility (she’s about to tour with Washington D.C. punks Priests next). Then, just as suddenly, she changes her mind. “I think a lot of people think there’s these picture-perfect stories of someone getting really successful when they’re young, There’s no right age to be doing anything.”

STEF CHURA – ” You / Spotted Gold “

Posted: January 23, 2017 in MUSIC
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Stef Chura has spent a life moving around, but always within the state of Michigan. Having spent a number of years putting on DIY-shows, Stef is now ready to step out on her own with the release of her debut album “Messes”, which is out this month on Urinal Cake Records.

Stef Chura is one of Michigan’s DIY VIPs. The rocker has been roving across the Great Lakes State for years now, uprooting at least 20 times while coordinating underground concerts and honing her musical vision all the while. Now all that development is ready to be displayed on Messes, Chura’s full-length debut album, due out in January. That’s the cover art above by artist Molly Soda.

After sharing a video for opening track “Slow Motion” earlier , Chura returns for the album announcement today with the gleaming guitar jam “You.” The twilight-shaded alt-rock track is topped off with Chura’s striking vocal presence, each word quivering with power whether whispered, moaned, or fiercely belted out. It’s the sound of a songwriter taking familiar sounds and molding them into her own unmistakable image.

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Stef’s sound is an intriguing one seemingly fusing a number of genres, there’s plenty of grunge, but at times her voice seems to take on an almost country lilt, capable of sweeping emotional minimalism, and roaring energetic anger. Recent single You is a gorgeous slice of angsty college rock, bringing to mind the criminally underrated Jessica Lee Mayfield. Elsewhere on Messes, Thin is a wonderful blur of meandering guitar picking and her distinctive mid-western twang,

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Spotted Gold is a jangling, bright slice of indie-pop, whilst the closing number, Speeding Ticket, is a moment of beautiful clarity, as Stef sings, “is it time to feel a real thing?”. Stef has said of the album’s title that it represents emotional messes, and having to, “do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life”, she might have done a lot of things wrong, but her music career seems to be heading in completely the right direction.

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