Pitchfork: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Touring, Recording

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Touring, Recording

Let's get this out of the way: this news story is about Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. We know, we know--it's a funny name. But we're not going to joke about it. There. Now, on to the news...

Owen Ashworth, the one-man lo-fi pop project known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, has been a very busy boy lately. First on the agenda is his fourth full-length album, Etiquette, which will be released on Tomlab Records in February 2006. Ashworth's previous material, like 2003's Twinkle Echo, gave meaning to the phrase "indie dance grunge," with blown-out amps and half-broken keyboards. But Ashworth claims that he's moved onto greener pastures with his latest material, eschewing "the confines of lo-fi minimalism for an expanded production palette." More Casios, maybe?

Etiquette will be proceeded by the single for "Young Shields", which Ashworth is selling on his current tour. It will be in stores in January. He describs the song as "a driving, menacing anthem for liars, gossips, hipsters, and anyone else who ever cashed a rent check from their parents." Well, good to know he hasn't become annoyingly happy or born again or something.

The B-side is a cover of Prince's "When You Were Mine", with guest vocals from Xiu Xiu's Caralee McElroy. We'll see how it stacks up against the Cyndi Lauper, Cristina, Dump, and Ida versions. The CD single will also include reworkings of two previous CFTPA tracks, "Roberta C", and "Subway Home", as well as avant-garde filmmaker David Eno's video for "Subway Home."

To further reacquaint yourself with the history of CFTPA, Tomlab will release The First Two Albums on One CD in November. It's exactly what it sounds like: Ashworth's freshman and sophomore efforts, 2001's Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Subway Cars and 2002's Answering Machine Music, together forever on compact disc.

Ashworth explained his reasoning for rehashing the past: "Neither of my first two albums were ever mastered properly because at the time that they were made, I was a dumb, depressed kid who didn't really understand the point of mastering. I thought integrity meant making terrible sounding albums. Since then I've had more experience with professional mastering engineers and I've realized how delightful they are to party with. I really started to regret that I didn't spend more time fancying up the sloppy recording and mixing I had done the first few times around. So, Tomlab paid a dude named Josef Suchy to remaster everything and I think the albums sound better now and I'm happy about that."

Two for the price of one? What a bargain!

CFTPA also contributed a new song to the recent States Rights Records' compilation Bro Zone, which includes previously unreleased tracks from Dirty Projectors, Kallikak Family, Lucky Dragons, [[[[VVRSSNN]]]], Thanksgiving, YACHT and other likeminded tinkerers. The CFTPA song, "Hot Boyz", is a collaboration with current touring partner Dear Nora. Ooh I hope it's about the Cash Money Millionaires!

Ashworth also recently recorded a split 7" with Fox Pause that is available now on Stationary (Heart) Records. That tracklisting:

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone:
01 Holly Hobby
02 Lonesome New Mexican Nights
03 The Only Way to Cry

Fox Pause:
01 Jennifer Karpen
02 Crutch
03 Johnny Paws
04 You Don't Even Know

And, last but not least, those aforementioned tour dates, of course! CFTPA and Dear Nora begin a lengthy American journey together tonight that will bring to such colorful locations as Beerland, Super Happy Fun Land, Ducks in a Stack House, and Ted & Wally's Ice Cream Shoppe. If you go, bring a friend, because you don't want to be... painfully alone. Sorry! Couldn't resist!

Pocket symphonies for lonely news writers:

10-13 San Francisco, CA - Hotel Utah *
10-14 Long Beach, CA - Koo's *
10-15 Los Angeles, CA - A House *
10-16 Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space *
10-18 Santa Fe, NM - Backroads Pizza *
10-19 Oklahoma City, OK - The Conservatory *
10-20 Denton, TX - Mable Peabody's *
10-21 Austin, TX - Beerland *
10-22 Houston, TX - Super Happy Fun Land *
10-25 Atlanta, GA - Eyedrum *
10-26 Nashville, TN - La Casa Obscura *
10-27 Greenville, NC - Willy M's *
10-28 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse *
10-29 Charlottesville, VA - Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar *
10-30 Philadelphia, PA - Kensington South Community Development Corp. *
11-01 Bronxville, NY - Sarah Lawrence College *
11-02 Brooklyn, NY - Glasshouse Gallery *#
11-03 New York, NY - Cake Shop *#
11-04 New York, NY - Barnard College *
11-05 Northampton, MA - Hampshire College *$
11-06 Boston, MA - Great Scott *
11-07 Portsmouth, NH - Red Door *
11-08 Burlington, VT - Club Metronome *
11-09 Providence, RI - Grow Room *%
11-10 Syracuse, NY - Spark Gallery *
11-11 Rochester, NY - Bugjar *
11-12 Oberlin, OH - Oberlin College *
11-13 Grand Rapids, MI - DAAC *
11-15 Bloomington, IN - Ducks in a Stack House *&
11-16 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen *
11-17 Iowa City, IA - Hall Mall *
11-18 Omaha, NE - Ted & Wally's Ice Cream Shoppe *@
11-19 Denver, CO - Hi-Dive *
11-20 Provo, UT - Starry Night *

* with Dear Nora
# with Dirty Projectors
$ with Sara Jaffe, Caution Curves, Hand-Fed Babies
% with Lucky Dragons, Amil Is Personal
& with Japanther, Madeline, Ghost Mice, Erin Tobey
@ with Simon Joyner