Eclectic singer-songwriter Don McCloskey released his confession, ethereal and gentle, “Unbecoming,” the third single off of his upcoming LP, The Chaos and The Beauty due out March 11th on Lemon Hill Records. In celebration of the new album, McCloskey will perform at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC on February 10th and with a weekly residency at Fergie’s Pub in Philadelphia beginning on February 21st.
“I only had two verses and the chorus written when I recorded the demo for ‘Unbecoming,’ says Don. “Devin, Chuck and I got together to record drums bass and rhythm guitar as a live track to tape. We did a few takes but nothing was sounding or feeling that great.”
“We took a break to listen back and sitting in the control room at the Honey Jar in Brooklyn is this weird old plastic keyboard called the Optigan. It’s from the seventies and looks like a home organ but you feed it these big floppy translucent discs in the front of the console and it samples whatever sounds are on the disc. I started playing the chords to ‘Unbecoming’ on it and this warbly, ethereal, dreamy sound emerged. And then suddenly it was like a bolt of lightning struck all of us. Chuck picked up the brushes, Devin picked up the bass and we laid down in one take this really long trance inducing track. Devin overdubbed the kalimba tracks and combined it all had a very hypnotic effect.”
Listen to “Unbecoming” here and here.
“I took that session home with me and walked around Manhattan and Brooklyn for days under the spell of the music writing verse after verse. The song gave me a feeling of weightlessness and reminded me of dreams I had when I was young where I wasn’t flying, I was just hovering a few inches above the ground and moving through space and time with no effort. A feeling of weightlessness came over me. Then all these memories and feelings and dreams and thoughts all came to me at once and hung in the air all around me. I picked all the best bits and wrote them all down and sang them.”
The first single from The Chaos and The Beauty, “First in Flight,” was prominently featured in the season two finale of Mythic Quest, handpicked by series creator and Don’s longtime collaborator, Rob McElhenney. It has been streamed over 500k times and counting. The second single, Don’s reimagining of the holiday classic, “O Holy Night,” “reimagines the carol as a bold soul-R&B rave up with an eight-piece band with horns and a backup chorale,” cheers The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Don McCloskey infuses the traditional folk idiom with elements of psychedelic rock, electronica, hip-hop, and 80s pop. His idiosyncratic writing style and independently produced albums have appeared in the Oscar Award-winning film, Bowling for Columbine, FX’s television series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Apple TV’s Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, commercials and have garnered 1 million+ streams on Spotify alone. His live performances have developed a cult following that has consistently sold-out concerts in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Boston. In addition to headlining venues across the country the songwriter has played in support of Raekwon, Amos Lee, Schooly D, The White Buffalo, G. Love and Special Sauce, and the cast of It’s Always Sunny with their critically acclaimed live tour of The Nightman Cometh.
Don’t Miss Don McCloskey Live!
What: Full Band Performance in celebration of The Chaos and The Beauty
Where: Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2
When: February, 10th at 7:00 PM
Tickets: $10 in adv. and can be purchased here.
What: Weekly Residency in celebration of The Chaos and The Beauty
Where: Fergie’s Pub
When: Monday February 21, March 7 & 21, April 4 from 6:30-8:30 PM
Tickets: https://www.fergies.com/
