Demitasse - PowerCouple Vinyl Album

Demitasse is Joe Reyes & Eric Sanden

released September 28, 2018

All instruments played by Demitasse except violin on “SILENT KEY“ by Angie Rogers

credits:
Produced by Joe Reyes
Arranged, Recorded and Mixed by Demitasse at El Jeff Studios, San Antonio, TX
Mastered by Garrett Haines at Treelady, Pittsburgh, PA
Photos by Josh Huskin
Art Direction by Erik Sanden

Vinyl Album:
Collector's grade color 12" vinyl with digital download and lyric sheet.

Deluxe 12" Vinyl copy of "Powercouple". Pressed on collector's grade Purple/Red swirly vinyl in Holland. Includes lyric sheet and a digital download of the album.

Includes unlimited streaming of Powercouple via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Album Notes:
Demitasse (pronounced “DEHmee-toss”) is a two piece acoustic group. It is the side project for Erik Sanden and Joe Reyes of the Texas art rock band Buttercup. Singing at the very limits of their range, the duo gets sherpa high with their vocals, mixing melody, spoken word, and noise. The sound is somewhere between Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, and the Beach Boys on a dark day. Or Elliott Smith on an extremely bright, sunny day. Or John Cale tossing his car keys to Neil Young. Their debut record, Blue Medicine, was released in 2014 to critical acclaim, and NPR picked the band as one of the top acts to see at SXSW.

Joe Reyes is a Grammy award winning guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Erik Sanden composes songs that NPR calls “jangly art rock for the left side of the brain.” Together in Buttercup and now in Demitasse, they sing together like brothers and are charmingly familiar with their audiences.

Demitasse expands their palate greatly on "Powercouple" with thicker instrumentation, more drums, and some driving numbers that almost verge into rock and roll territory. However, this lusher, bigger sound doesn’t seem to drown out the sweet pathos in the songwriting. This collection of songs has an abundant sense of dark humor. “You Must be Lonely” is a absurdist take on unrequited love, complete with kitchen pots and pans for percussion. “Timmy Reed” is a stream of conscious ditty that reflects the weirdness of the dream world as it melds sports and art. In “Timmy Reed” Tim Duncan’s head gets somehow fused with Lou Reed’s body, and their sum is greater than their parts. Try not to smile when Lou/Tim starts giving advice.

Crack of fate gunfire opens “Leave the House,” an agoraphobic treasure trove of neurosis, and it is stunningly vulnerable and beautiful. It is twinned with “Majic” an equally tender prayer for loved ones. Even here, at the nadir of the record, a noble thread of optimism weaves through the its dark corners.

The album is called “Powercouple” as a tongue in cheek acknowledgement of Joe Reyes and Erik Sanden’s 15 years of collaboration. Joe says “I think we should be better by now.” Sanden adds “we are.”

At some point in the midst of the recording Erik said to Joe, “it's like we are alone, together.”