Pepi Ginsberg

NPR.org, May 14, 2008 - Pepi Ginsberg has a distinctively mournful voice with a remarkable range. On her latest CD, Red she croons with a weathered and passionate warble about her inner demons (real or imagined), sleeping with strangers, getting high, and starting anew. She's a kind of troubadour for the 21st century, gracefully channeling '60s psychedelic pop and folk and retooling it to fit her own imaginative stylings.

Red is full of off-kilter rhythms and unexpected instrumentation. Spare violins dance woozily with bleating trumpet lines and shuffling rhythms. Fuzzy guitars take a walk with reedy organs. The mood is melancholy one moment, joyous and celebratory the next. The mix is sonically ambitious without overwhelming the heart of the songs, due in no small part to producer Scott McMicken, frontman for the Philadelphia-based psych-rock group Dr. Dog.

When Ginsburg arrived home from a tour last Summer she found a note in a bottle on her doorstep from McMicken, asking if she'd like to record a song together. What initially started as a one-off recording turned into an entire album. "The Waterline" was the first track they did together.

"It was just a composite of things that were brewing in my head as I walked around the city," says Ginsberg. "It's a really city-centric song, feeling an affinity for St. Mark's church, I'd walk by there and some girl (was) tripping on some kind of acid jaunt outside there with her hands held up. She was on a whole other level and I don't know what she was doing. It's a little bit of an adventure story. It's not necessarily about water but the idea that things could be overwhelming, but you're going to feel the pull of it whether you're drowning or staying afloat."

Red is Ginsberg's third release. Her debut, in 2005, was the self-produced and recorded Orange Juice:Stephanie/Stephanie. She followed with Sometime Momma/Sometime Babe in 2006, an album she recorded in the bathroom of her Brooklyn, NY apartment.

Ginsberg has been writing feverishly since completing Red and is currently touring in support of the album.

Download this song in the Second Stage podcast.

By Robin Hilton

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90449506 - NPR Music

NPR.org, May 14, 2008 - Pepi Ginsberg has a distinctively mournful voice with a remarkable range. On her latest CD, Red she croons with a weathered and passionate warble about her inner demons (real or imagined), sleeping with strangers, getting high, and starting anew. She's a kind of troubadour for the 21st century, gracefully channeling '60s psychedelic pop and folk and retooling it to fit her own imaginative stylings.

Red is full of off-kilter rhythms and unexpected instrumentation. Spare violins dance woozily with bleating trumpet lines and shuffling rhythms. Fuzzy guitars take a walk with reedy organs. The mood is melancholy one moment, joyous and celebratory the next. The mix is sonically ambitious without overwhelming the heart of the songs, due in no small part to producer Scott McMicken, frontman for the Philadelphia-based psych-rock group Dr. Dog.

When Ginsburg arrived home from a tour last Summer she found a note in a bottle on her doorstep from McMicken, asking if she'd like to record a song together. What initially started as a one-off recording turned into an entire album. "The Waterline" was the first track they did together.

"It was just a composite of things that were brewing in my head as I walked around the city," says Ginsberg. "It's a really city-centric song, feeling an affinity for St. Mark's church, I'd walk by there and some girl (was) tripping on some kind of acid jaunt outside there with her hands held up. She was on a whole other level and I don't know what she was doing. It's a little bit of an adventure story. It's not necessarily about water but the idea that things could be overwhelming, but you're going to feel the pull of it whether you're drowning or staying afloat."

Red is Ginsberg's third release. Her debut, in 2005, was the self-produced and recorded Orange Juice:Stephanie/Stephanie. She followed with Sometime Momma/Sometime Babe in 2006, an album she recorded in the bathroom of her Brooklyn, NY apartment.

Ginsberg has been writing feverishly since completing Red and is currently touring in support of the album.

Download this song in the Second Stage podcast.

By Robin Hilton

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90449506 - NPR Music

Pepi Ginsberg comes on like a memory you can't quite place. Her voice is familiar yet new. Her lyrics are timeless, and if you told me she awoke from a 50 year slumber having not aged a day, I wouldn't bat an eye.

Her emotive and story-telling qualities are evident from the opening track, "Son", when she sings:

Last night
I had to make it with a man
Just to get high
Tonight
I don't try to understand
What I do to get by

In an album of wonderful songs, this one will require repeated listens, but so does "Nothing More" and the most danceable track, "White White White," which has a Velvet Underground feel. The single, "Waterline," is simply gorgeous and is the best example of the album's handiwork.

Produced by Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken, Red (Park The Van) is uncompromisingly alive and captures both the sounds and essence of this labor of love. Ginsberg is a voice we can believe and her observations ring with the weight of the Everywoman. She takes delight in language and melody, and her vocal performance is passionate and sincere. And the cameos McMicken makes throughout the album enrich an already wonderful experience.

2008 has brought several interesting and good albums from actress/indie rock albums such as Zooey DeChanel and M. Ward's She and Him, Volume 1 and Scarlett Johansson's Tom Waits cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head (which was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio), but neither sounds as authentic as Pepi Ginsberg for the simple reason that they aren't.

Be careful when you put this album on, because it will bring you to another place and you will yearn to walk down a Brooklyn street, thoughts racing through your mind as the seasons change and time unwinds.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/14206/Pepi-Ginsberg-Red - Jambase

Pepi Ginsberg comes on like a memory you can't quite place. Her voice is familiar yet new. Her lyrics are timeless, and if you told me she awoke from a 50 year slumber having not aged a day, I wouldn't bat an eye.

Her emotive and story-telling qualities are evident from the opening track, "Son", when she sings:

Last night
I had to make it with a man
Just to get high
Tonight
I don't try to understand
What I do to get by

In an album of wonderful songs, this one will require repeated listens, but so does "Nothing More" and the most danceable track, "White White White," which has a Velvet Underground feel. The single, "Waterline," is simply gorgeous and is the best example of the album's handiwork.

Produced by Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken, Red (Park The Van) is uncompromisingly alive and captures both the sounds and essence of this labor of love. Ginsberg is a voice we can believe and her observations ring with the weight of the Everywoman. She takes delight in language and melody, and her vocal performance is passionate and sincere. And the cameos McMicken makes throughout the album enrich an already wonderful experience.

2008 has brought several interesting and good albums from actress/indie rock albums such as Zooey DeChanel and M. Ward's She and Him, Volume 1 and Scarlett Johansson's Tom Waits cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head (which was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio), but neither sounds as authentic as Pepi Ginsberg for the simple reason that they aren't.

Be careful when you put this album on, because it will bring you to another place and you will yearn to walk down a Brooklyn street, thoughts racing through your mind as the seasons change and time unwinds.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/14206/Pepi-Ginsberg-Red - Jambase

When Pepi Ginsberg opens her mouth to sing, countercultural throwback signifiers come spiraling out: rose-tinted glasses, patchouli clouds, gypsy skirts, lungfuls of dope smoke, Janis Joplin. This 25-year-old Brooklyn singer/songwriter's beanbag tunes exude a refreshing sense of freedom and possibility, even if she comes across as extraordinarily leathery: Natalie Merchant-husky vocally, sub-Dylan lyrically. She tackles the 12 tracks on Red with a breezy confidence beyond her years. On "The Contortionist," all flashing-siren organs and fuzz-bass pow, Ginsberg transforms an emotional and financial swindle into a bouncy garage-rock party. "Nothing More," a campfire folk number suffused with chirping-cricket samples, explores political dissatisfaction, head-in-the-sand ignorance and unrequited love for a best friend: a downer trifecta. But it's "Ghosts of Perdition" that encapsulates Ginsberg's carpe diem appeal. As pianos whump like dancing feet, she sings, "There used to be a year, you say, when people didn't write/They showed up on friend's doorsteps late in the middle of the night/Said, 'Let's go to the West Side, catch a movie, maybe we get ourselves high." Just live life already, Ginsberg seems to insist, while you're still able. Like her beat/hippie psychic ancestors, maybe she's onto something. [Park the van, www.parkthevan.com]
-Raymond Cumings - Magnet

When Pepi Ginsberg opens her mouth to sing, countercultural throwback signifiers come spiraling out: rose-tinted glasses, patchouli clouds, gypsy skirts, lungfuls of dope smoke, Janis Joplin. This 25-year-old Brooklyn singer/songwriter's beanbag tunes exude a refreshing sense of freedom and possibility, even if she comes across as extraordinarily leathery: Natalie Merchant-husky vocally, sub-Dylan lyrically. She tackles the 12 tracks on Red with a breezy confidence beyond her years. On "The Contortionist," all flashing-siren organs and fuzz-bass pow, Ginsberg transforms an emotional and financial swindle into a bouncy garage-rock party. "Nothing More," a campfire folk number suffused with chirping-cricket samples, explores political dissatisfaction, head-in-the-sand ignorance and unrequited love for a best friend: a downer trifecta. But it's "Ghosts of Perdition" that encapsulates Ginsberg's carpe diem appeal. As pianos whump like dancing feet, she sings, "There used to be a year, you say, when people didn't write/They showed up on friend's doorsteps late in the middle of the night/Said, 'Let's go to the West Side, catch a movie, maybe we get ourselves high." Just live life already, Ginsberg seems to insist, while you're still able. Like her beat/hippie psychic ancestors, maybe she's onto something. [Park the van, www.parkthevan.com]
-Raymond Cumings - Magnet

Pepi Ginsberg
Busy Streets Make Crowded Minds, The Sweetest Thing You'll Ever Know, Drifter

21 April 2008
tell your friends... tell your friends...

Words by Sean Moeller // Illustration by Johnnie Cluney // Sound Engineering by Patrick Stolley

Recently, a hotel shower in Seattle gave some new insight into the refreshing effects of an outside source – something as flimsy and minimum – on the beginning of one’s day. There had been little sleep taken and early morning wakeups while there in the city, so the roll out of bed showers in a place with Nirvana ties were the splashes of awareness and awakening that needed to be had, preludes to strong coffee, helping hands. An unsuspecting scalp was treated to the complimentary hair conditioner of some odd mint variety that it sent a cooling chill into the hair follicles and down into the eyebrows, loosening a stern and hardened squint. It almost watered the eyes with its stiff mint elixir and suddenly the bright daylight was welcomed closer and the body and mind were charging, glad that we’d done this together. ... [Story Continues Below]

First song
Son (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

This song was written under a tree in People’s Park in Berkley, CA and also outside on the fire escape of my friend Matt’s apt on Telegraph, and oh wait, in a hotel room in LA as well. I think the line about seasons going round and round, etc. was written walking home to my place in Brooklyn. The song is about feeling like a child, a son, or a daughter, or about the relationship you have with someone with whom you feel you need to be free from. This song is about freedom, personal freedoms, for me freedom from my own patterns or the things I hold on to. And it’s about growing up and resisting growing up. I think the song is a negation of the responsibility for things we hold ourselves responsible for (such as losing someone you love) ‘cause I think sometimes, it’s just life acting on us, not anyone’s fault, just our job to deal with it. In a sense, the song is saying, ‘let me the hell go, let me be free,’ at some point, I think ya just say ‘I’m done’ – and that’s usually a great feeling — this song is about getting to, and wanting to get to that point.

Second song
The Waterline (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

Oh this song is about how magical and inspiring it is to walk along the streets of New York in that certain golden light hour of the day and feel a sense of possibility much greater than yourself. There are some funny characters the narrator comes across on this outing that serve as unlikely teachers who promote the idea of not going under completely, they say ‘keep your head up kid, ‘cause you’re probably going to feel the steady waves whether you’re sinking from them or trying to stay afloat.‘ Alice in the park, man I did see that girl tripping outside St. Mark’s church, she was a curious lady.

Third song
Wind Or Degree (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

I don’t know why I think of this as a spaghetti western jam, we rearranged it as a band, my band mates are terrific geniuses and I thank them for it. But ya this is another adventure story. It’s a song about someone who is always running from something, looking for something. It goes from city streets of Philly to Cali to some old dilapidated place, I imagine it as some old man’s home, old letters stacked around that never got sent, everything’s stale, and the person singing just has the sense that she’s got to get the hell out and move along. This song was written over a course of time, the story didn’t come clear until I went on a road trip and tour in California last summer. My friend Dani (who plays as Rio en Medio — she’s wonderful!) and I stayed in this totally insane lady’s house in Santa Barbara, with a crazy dog that wailed and ran around our room in circles at four in the morning. Anyway, this lady lived on a hill and you could see the whole city, I guess that’s where I saw some point of no return and kept moving.

Fourth song
In My Bones (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

This one was written last summer. It’s about a lot of things I think, about relationships, falling in love, about wanting to fall in love, but it’s more than that — at least for me, at least now. This one is really about moving on to a new place, and not looking back. It’s about being on a train that only knows how to travel in one direction. The song says ‘I’m not going home’ so figuratively speaking ‘home’ is pretty much every location you get off of the train to visit and then leave. There’ s always a new place to go, you’re always going to find another “home,” you’ll just never go back to the one you knew.

(Story continued)...
This was just a hair conditioner, nothing to get too excited about, but within seconds, each time it happened, the prospectus of all that laid ahead was altered, turned into potential merrim - Daytrotter.com

Pepi Ginsberg
Busy Streets Make Crowded Minds, The Sweetest Thing You'll Ever Know, Drifter

21 April 2008
tell your friends... tell your friends...

Words by Sean Moeller // Illustration by Johnnie Cluney // Sound Engineering by Patrick Stolley

Recently, a hotel shower in Seattle gave some new insight into the refreshing effects of an outside source – something as flimsy and minimum – on the beginning of one’s day. There had been little sleep taken and early morning wakeups while there in the city, so the roll out of bed showers in a place with Nirvana ties were the splashes of awareness and awakening that needed to be had, preludes to strong coffee, helping hands. An unsuspecting scalp was treated to the complimentary hair conditioner of some odd mint variety that it sent a cooling chill into the hair follicles and down into the eyebrows, loosening a stern and hardened squint. It almost watered the eyes with its stiff mint elixir and suddenly the bright daylight was welcomed closer and the body and mind were charging, glad that we’d done this together. ... [Story Continues Below]

First song
Son (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

This song was written under a tree in People’s Park in Berkley, CA and also outside on the fire escape of my friend Matt’s apt on Telegraph, and oh wait, in a hotel room in LA as well. I think the line about seasons going round and round, etc. was written walking home to my place in Brooklyn. The song is about feeling like a child, a son, or a daughter, or about the relationship you have with someone with whom you feel you need to be free from. This song is about freedom, personal freedoms, for me freedom from my own patterns or the things I hold on to. And it’s about growing up and resisting growing up. I think the song is a negation of the responsibility for things we hold ourselves responsible for (such as losing someone you love) ‘cause I think sometimes, it’s just life acting on us, not anyone’s fault, just our job to deal with it. In a sense, the song is saying, ‘let me the hell go, let me be free,’ at some point, I think ya just say ‘I’m done’ – and that’s usually a great feeling — this song is about getting to, and wanting to get to that point.

Second song
The Waterline (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

Oh this song is about how magical and inspiring it is to walk along the streets of New York in that certain golden light hour of the day and feel a sense of possibility much greater than yourself. There are some funny characters the narrator comes across on this outing that serve as unlikely teachers who promote the idea of not going under completely, they say ‘keep your head up kid, ‘cause you’re probably going to feel the steady waves whether you’re sinking from them or trying to stay afloat.‘ Alice in the park, man I did see that girl tripping outside St. Mark’s church, she was a curious lady.

Third song
Wind Or Degree (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

I don’t know why I think of this as a spaghetti western jam, we rearranged it as a band, my band mates are terrific geniuses and I thank them for it. But ya this is another adventure story. It’s a song about someone who is always running from something, looking for something. It goes from city streets of Philly to Cali to some old dilapidated place, I imagine it as some old man’s home, old letters stacked around that never got sent, everything’s stale, and the person singing just has the sense that she’s got to get the hell out and move along. This song was written over a course of time, the story didn’t come clear until I went on a road trip and tour in California last summer. My friend Dani (who plays as Rio en Medio — she’s wonderful!) and I stayed in this totally insane lady’s house in Santa Barbara, with a crazy dog that wailed and ran around our room in circles at four in the morning. Anyway, this lady lived on a hill and you could see the whole city, I guess that’s where I saw some point of no return and kept moving.

Fourth song
In My Bones (Pepi Ginsberg)
– original version appears on Red

This one was written last summer. It’s about a lot of things I think, about relationships, falling in love, about wanting to fall in love, but it’s more than that — at least for me, at least now. This one is really about moving on to a new place, and not looking back. It’s about being on a train that only knows how to travel in one direction. The song says ‘I’m not going home’ so figuratively speaking ‘home’ is pretty much every location you get off of the train to visit and then leave. There’ s always a new place to go, you’re always going to find another “home,” you’ll just never go back to the one you knew.

(Story continued)...
This was just a hair conditioner, nothing to get too excited about, but within seconds, each time it happened, the prospectus of all that laid ahead was altered, turned into potential merrim - Daytrotter.com

The 24-year-old Brooklyn (via Philadelphia) singer-songwriter Pepi Ginsberg released her third album Red the end of last month. The collection, produced by her Park The Van labelmate Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog, has a vintage, analog-drenched feel, but with more than enough tweaks and twitters to keep it expansive and interesting. The Albert Birney-directed video for bona fide standout "The Waterline" finds Ginsberg ambling through a shifting, color-coding NYC landscape (St. Marks, Alice tripping in the park). She smiles, looks concerned, loses her head, is frozen in space and smeared with paint, and there are creepy encounters with people in masks, etc., but the real star of the whole thing is her gorgeous voice. It hits with some sorta Edie Brickell warmth, but in a much jazzier Jolie Holland or, better yet, Spector realm. Also, listen closely to her words: "Tell them life is poetry, you can't ... read twice."

Nice the way the song swells in the middle and then just keeps on driving. You should take it with you:

Pepi Ginsberg - "The Waterline" (MP3)

Red is out on Park The Van. Hear more at her MySpace, or check out her Daytrotter session, or, ya know, leave the house:

05/15 - New York @ Joe's Pub
05/17 - Washington, DC @ The Velvet Lounge
05/27 - Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar*
05/28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johhny Brenda's*
06/12 - Philadelphia PA @ The Khyber*
06/13 - New York @ The Knitting Factory

*with The Spinto Band

Posted at 1:24 PM in MP3, Tour Dates, Video
Tags: Pepi Ginsberg

http://stereogum.com/archives/video/new-pepi-ginsberg-video-the-waterline_009626.html - Stereogum.com

The 24-year-old Brooklyn (via Philadelphia) singer-songwriter Pepi Ginsberg released her third album Red the end of last month. The collection, produced by her Park The Van labelmate Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog, has a vintage, analog-drenched feel, but with more than enough tweaks and twitters to keep it expansive and interesting. The Albert Birney-directed video for bona fide standout "The Waterline" finds Ginsberg ambling through a shifting, color-coding NYC landscape (St. Marks, Alice tripping in the park). She smiles, looks concerned, loses her head, is frozen in space and smeared with paint, and there are creepy encounters with people in masks, etc., but the real star of the whole thing is her gorgeous voice. It hits with some sorta Edie Brickell warmth, but in a much jazzier Jolie Holland or, better yet, Spector realm. Also, listen closely to her words: "Tell them life is poetry, you can't ... read twice."

Nice the way the song swells in the middle and then just keeps on driving. You should take it with you:

Pepi Ginsberg - "The Waterline" (MP3)

Red is out on Park The Van. Hear more at her MySpace, or check out her Daytrotter session, or, ya know, leave the house:

05/15 - New York @ Joe's Pub
05/17 - Washington, DC @ The Velvet Lounge
05/27 - Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar*
05/28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johhny Brenda's*
06/12 - Philadelphia PA @ The Khyber*
06/13 - New York @ The Knitting Factory

*with The Spinto Band

Posted at 1:24 PM in MP3, Tour Dates, Video
Tags: Pepi Ginsberg

http://stereogum.com/archives/video/new-pepi-ginsberg-video-the-waterline_009626.html - Stereogum.com

Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken was so taken with Pepi Ginsberg that he not only collaborated with the New York singer/songwriter on her third album, Red, but he also got her signed to Philly label Park the Van. It's easy to see the musical attraction. On "The Waterline" Ginsberg sounds thoroughly self-possessed both lyrically and vocally, fitting a breezy, folky arrangement to dark lyrics about trying to keep your head above water. Although it is specifically city-set, the song doesn't sound necessarily urban, but neither does it sound like the freaky folk music emanating from Philadelphia lately. There are jazzier elements pushing the song along: In the high range, a choir of Pepis sing a wordless warble-- the song's most distinctive feature. In the low range, a piano plays the left-hand part of an old boogie rhythm, filling in for a bass guitar and giving the song its ambling lope. In the middle is Pepi herself, singing about how "life is poetry you can't read twice."

MP3:> Pepi Ginsberg: "The Waterline"
[from Red; out now on Park the Van]

Bonus! The song now has a video.

Posted by Stephen M. Deusner on Thu, May 8, 2008 at 8:00am
Pitchfork.tv
Forkcast Playlist
© 2008 Pitchfork Media, Inc. - Pitchfork Forkcast

Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken was so taken with Pepi Ginsberg that he not only collaborated with the New York singer/songwriter on her third album, Red, but he also got her signed to Philly label Park the Van. It's easy to see the musical attraction. On "The Waterline" Ginsberg sounds thoroughly self-possessed both lyrically and vocally, fitting a breezy, folky arrangement to dark lyrics about trying to keep your head above water. Although it is specifically city-set, the song doesn't sound necessarily urban, but neither does it sound like the freaky folk music emanating from Philadelphia lately. There are jazzier elements pushing the song along: In the high range, a choir of Pepis sing a wordless warble-- the song's most distinctive feature. In the low range, a piano plays the left-hand part of an old boogie rhythm, filling in for a bass guitar and giving the song its ambling lope. In the middle is Pepi herself, singing about how "life is poetry you can't read twice."

MP3:> Pepi Ginsberg: "The Waterline"
[from Red; out now on Park the Van]

Bonus! The song now has a video.

Posted by Stephen M. Deusner on Thu, May 8, 2008 at 8:00am
Pitchfork.tv
Forkcast Playlist
© 2008 Pitchfork Media, Inc. - Pitchfork Forkcast

One of the shows I was most excited for coming into SXSW was brash folk singer-songwriter Pepi Ginsberg. Sincerity is hard to come by at a music livestock show, but she joyfully kicked her legs and showed that her voice—the most evocative and unique that I’ve heard since Joanna Newsom—is genuine and even more stunning in a live setting. I will never tire of hearing “In My Bones,” and hopefully she can teach her backing band to sing the delicious harmonies found on Red (featuring plenty of assists from Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken), out in May.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/festivus/2008/03/sxsw-315-you-only-get-two-sets-of-ears.html - Paste.com

One of the shows I was most excited for coming into SXSW was brash folk singer-songwriter Pepi Ginsberg. Sincerity is hard to come by at a music livestock show, but she joyfully kicked her legs and showed that her voice—the most evocative and unique that I’ve heard since Joanna Newsom—is genuine and even more stunning in a live setting. I will never tire of hearing “In My Bones,” and hopefully she can teach her backing band to sing the delicious harmonies found on Red (featuring plenty of assists from Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken), out in May.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/festivus/2008/03/sxsw-315-you-only-get-two-sets-of-ears.html - Paste.com

F is for Find of the Festival
Several bands that I saw and loved were already on my radar prior to attending SXSW, so my one true find of this festival was Pepi Ginsberg. Attending on the advice of a friend, her combination of Patti Smith vocals and Bob Dylan’s lyrical cadence catapulted her to the front of what was a pretty crowded field.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/56257/an-abecedarium/ - Popmatters

F is for Find of the Festival
Several bands that I saw and loved were already on my radar prior to attending SXSW, so my one true find of this festival was Pepi Ginsberg. Attending on the advice of a friend, her combination of Patti Smith vocals and Bob Dylan’s lyrical cadence catapulted her to the front of what was a pretty crowded field.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/56257/an-abecedarium/ - Popmatters

Listening Party

Pepi Ginsberg
Red (Park The Van)
Released: April 22, 2008
Recorded: Meth Beach Studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Leaman farmhouse in York, Pennsylvania
story by Reed Fischer

"I don't consider myself a singer, there's just a necessity of communication," says 24-year-old folk-rock tunesmith Pepi Ginsberg. "These are my words, and this is the only voice I have." True to her smile-filled onstage persona, Ginsberg is forthcoming, specific and swift in discussing the process behind the roots-garage-country hybrid Red, her third album, at the back of Ozzie's, a coffee shop near the ex-Philadelphian's Brooklyn home.

Her songs are constructed from a similar type of necessity. Album opener "Son" was hatched under a tree in People's Park in Berkeley, California. "I just started playing a little, that [singing] 'da-da-da-dan-nan-uh' riff," she explains. "I was thinking, I wish I had a record. If this song were playing I would listen to it." Alongside Ginsberg's need to let the music out of her head is an obsessive streak to find the perfect narrative. Her heightened awareness for her words brings out sharp descriptive images ("honey-brown summer grasses") and the ability to parse intangibles ("it must be my thought talking too loud"). "The reason that I ever wrote a song in the first place is because of my infatuation with words," she says. "Just spending time trying to make sure that they sit next to each other in an appropriate way or watching how other people make their words sit next to each other."

Labelmate and Dr. Dog principal Scott McMicken, was planning to record one song with Ginsberg for the project, but was so taken by her material that his role expanded to Red's producer, engineer and mixer. Although the compositions are all Ginsberg's, several moments show the fingerprints of a happy conspirator—from McMicken's soaring backup vocals to the crickets recorded at bandmate Toby Leaman's grandparents' farm. "I want to make another record with her, and I know she's probably written three albums since we finished Red," McMicken says. "She's still at that point where she's just come out of the gates, she's so in depth and thorough. On one hand it can seem unfathomable, but on the other hand it's happening and it's awesome."


1. "Son" (6:18)
This song is one of several with a strong Dylan influence.
Ginsberg: I'm obsessed. It's so funny. I love him so much. I can't escape him. It's like a sick disease or something.

McMicken: She just embraces the man whole hog and she's not afraid of what he's doing in the way that I guess I could be. That was a pretty significant thing just in terms of her influence on me in songwriting, just trying to open things up as wide as possible. She's very strongly independent and individualistic in her words. So is Dylan, obviously. That kind of threw a monkey wrench into things for me. It's one of the ways that she's inspired me more than anyone I've ever known.

What are you getting at when you sing "I'm not your man"?
Ginsberg: The meaning of it always changes. I guess different voices would say "I'm not your man" depending on the relationship that I was thinking about. Whether it's a parent or a boyfriend or a friend. Then that person is saying it and flipping it back to me. I felt like I didn't want to be attached to any kind of gender in writing. Whoever the narrator is isn't necessarily gendered.


2. "The Waterline" (5:03)
How does it feel to omit a lot of the harmonies and nuances of this song in a live setting?
Ginsberg: I think when you're in the studio, it's like, "Let's just do whatever we can and have as much fun as we can. Go for it." We have all of these things at our disposal, why not? Scott's like this harmony master. If I had everything at my disposal live, I would recreate that world of what's on the record. The inside of the sound. It really feels big when I listen.


3. "The Contortionist (3:38)
Ginsberg: I don't know why I even called it that. I think it was about bending to somebody else's whim or something. The words are "My back did bend, trying to work it out and join with you again." It's about making all of these bendable back moves to try and make something fit that shouldn't necessarily fit. Maybe I just read The Hunger Artist or something


4. "In My Bones" (5:34)
McMicken: When she first came down, we didn't have the plan to make an album. We were just doing one song and it came out great. We were like, "Let's do another." So before she left to go back to New York for a few days, we made a quick CD of just her singing through all of the other songs she might want to record. I went up to York, starting on this painting job, and that song was what really began it for me. I was already super impressed with her. [But] it went into overdrive when I got that song. I heard it and there was this overwhelming impression for me that this is something incredible for me to be able to hear this.

- Paper Thin Walls

Listening Party

Pepi Ginsberg
Red (Park The Van)
Released: April 22, 2008
Recorded: Meth Beach Studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Leaman farmhouse in York, Pennsylvania
story by Reed Fischer

"I don't consider myself a singer, there's just a necessity of communication," says 24-year-old folk-rock tunesmith Pepi Ginsberg. "These are my words, and this is the only voice I have." True to her smile-filled onstage persona, Ginsberg is forthcoming, specific and swift in discussing the process behind the roots-garage-country hybrid Red, her third album, at the back of Ozzie's, a coffee shop near the ex-Philadelphian's Brooklyn home.

Her songs are constructed from a similar type of necessity. Album opener "Son" was hatched under a tree in People's Park in Berkeley, California. "I just started playing a little, that [singing] 'da-da-da-dan-nan-uh' riff," she explains. "I was thinking, I wish I had a record. If this song were playing I would listen to it." Alongside Ginsberg's need to let the music out of her head is an obsessive streak to find the perfect narrative. Her heightened awareness for her words brings out sharp descriptive images ("honey-brown summer grasses") and the ability to parse intangibles ("it must be my thought talking too loud"). "The reason that I ever wrote a song in the first place is because of my infatuation with words," she says. "Just spending time trying to make sure that they sit next to each other in an appropriate way or watching how other people make their words sit next to each other."

Labelmate and Dr. Dog principal Scott McMicken, was planning to record one song with Ginsberg for the project, but was so taken by her material that his role expanded to Red's producer, engineer and mixer. Although the compositions are all Ginsberg's, several moments show the fingerprints of a happy conspirator—from McMicken's soaring backup vocals to the crickets recorded at bandmate Toby Leaman's grandparents' farm. "I want to make another record with her, and I know she's probably written three albums since we finished Red," McMicken says. "She's still at that point where she's just come out of the gates, she's so in depth and thorough. On one hand it can seem unfathomable, but on the other hand it's happening and it's awesome."


1. "Son" (6:18)
This song is one of several with a strong Dylan influence.
Ginsberg: I'm obsessed. It's so funny. I love him so much. I can't escape him. It's like a sick disease or something.

McMicken: She just embraces the man whole hog and she's not afraid of what he's doing in the way that I guess I could be. That was a pretty significant thing just in terms of her influence on me in songwriting, just trying to open things up as wide as possible. She's very strongly independent and individualistic in her words. So is Dylan, obviously. That kind of threw a monkey wrench into things for me. It's one of the ways that she's inspired me more than anyone I've ever known.

What are you getting at when you sing "I'm not your man"?
Ginsberg: The meaning of it always changes. I guess different voices would say "I'm not your man" depending on the relationship that I was thinking about. Whether it's a parent or a boyfriend or a friend. Then that person is saying it and flipping it back to me. I felt like I didn't want to be attached to any kind of gender in writing. Whoever the narrator is isn't necessarily gendered.


2. "The Waterline" (5:03)
How does it feel to omit a lot of the harmonies and nuances of this song in a live setting?
Ginsberg: I think when you're in the studio, it's like, "Let's just do whatever we can and have as much fun as we can. Go for it." We have all of these things at our disposal, why not? Scott's like this harmony master. If I had everything at my disposal live, I would recreate that world of what's on the record. The inside of the sound. It really feels big when I listen.


3. "The Contortionist (3:38)
Ginsberg: I don't know why I even called it that. I think it was about bending to somebody else's whim or something. The words are "My back did bend, trying to work it out and join with you again." It's about making all of these bendable back moves to try and make something fit that shouldn't necessarily fit. Maybe I just read The Hunger Artist or something


4. "In My Bones" (5:34)
McMicken: When she first came down, we didn't have the plan to make an album. We were just doing one song and it came out great. We were like, "Let's do another." So before she left to go back to New York for a few days, we made a quick CD of just her singing through all of the other songs she might want to record. I went up to York, starting on this painting job, and that song was what really began it for me. I was already super impressed with her. [But] it went into overdrive when I got that song. I heard it and there was this overwhelming impression for me that this is something incredible for me to be able to hear this.

- Paper Thin Walls

Pepi Ginsberg
Red (Park the Van)

Rating: Excellent, like John Oates’ mustache.

One-time Philly resident Pepi Ginsberg has gracefully slipped into the all-male roster of local label Park the Van for her third album, recorded by Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken. Her conversational rasp and folky sprawl will recall Patti Smith for many, and the bouncy piano and drums bear Dr. Dog’s paw prints, but Red marks a big step from the self-released albums preceding it. Steeped in vintage ’60s and ’70s vibes, Ginsberg’s songs are fascinating oddities that pull us in with that ruffled, world-weary voice. (Doug Wallen)

https://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/16935/music--on-the-record - Philadelphia Weekly

Pepi Ginsberg
Red (Park the Van)

Rating: Excellent, like John Oates’ mustache.

One-time Philly resident Pepi Ginsberg has gracefully slipped into the all-male roster of local label Park the Van for her third album, recorded by Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken. Her conversational rasp and folky sprawl will recall Patti Smith for many, and the bouncy piano and drums bear Dr. Dog’s paw prints, but Red marks a big step from the self-released albums preceding it. Steeped in vintage ’60s and ’70s vibes, Ginsberg’s songs are fascinating oddities that pull us in with that ruffled, world-weary voice. (Doug Wallen)

https://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/16935/music--on-the-record - Philadelphia Weekly