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JAGGED LEAVES DEBUT ALBUM
NIGHTMARE AFTERNOON OUT TODAY VIA
YELLOW K RECORDS
“I remember hearing Dan play when I began going to the Sidewalk Cafe open mic. He had interesting lyrics and passionate delivery and always stood out as one of the unique voices in that scene.”
“Affecting poetic songs about frustration and depression, with a voice that shreds beautifully. It always feels genuine.”
Jagged Leaves have their debut record Nightmare Afternoon today via Yellow K Records.
Dan Penta doesn’t have fans. He has disciples. An outcast of the D.C. suburbs, he arrived in New York City in 1999, quickly becoming a staple of the antifolk scene. But while friends like Regina Spektor, the Moldy Peaches, and Langhorne Slim went on to earn acclaim, Dan remained unknown. Creating in obscurity, he handmade CDRs for the consecrated few who, through the years, came to form a tiny congregation.
Serendipity brought Kenny Tompkins into this circle. Touring with his band New God, Kenny had a chance encounter at the Flicker Theatre in Athens, GA. “After the show, I was loading out my gear. This guy with bloody cotton balls in his nose came bounding into the stage room with a guitar and sang one of the best pop songs I’ve ever heard. When I asked him what it was he replied, ‘It’s Danny. You don’t know Danny?’ I didn’t but I was determined to find out.”
Unearthing a shadowy live clip, Kenny introduced the song he’d heard at Flicker to Josh Grapes, founder of Maryland based upstart Yellow K Records, home to New God. Enthralled, Josh scoured the internet for months, following a trail of unreleased recordings and random bits of online press, until finally he discovered Dan Penta, living in Queens, performing under the moniker Jagged Leaves with his wife Erin Regan and multi-instrumentalist Bryan Copeland.
Jagged Leaves soon signed with the indie rock powerhouse Yellow K Records, and set out to record a retrospective culled from twenty years of songwriting. Brooklyn based producer Vincent Cacchione was enlisted to bring the band’s vision into focus. They retreated upstate to a cabin in the wintery mountains above Woodstock, transforming it into a ramshackle studio, during a week of heavy snow that kept them secluded and undistracted.
The resulting album, Nightmare Afternoon, is out today from Yellow K Records on LP, CD, cassette, and digital download.
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