Scary Mansion - Every Joke Is Half the Truth CD

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When Leah Hayes accompanies her fragile, cracking voice with the thunderstick, the result is reminiscent of Harry Smith Anthology folk: simple, breaking, and humble. When running it through a distortion pedal, the noisy, feedback-y texture is closer to Royal Trux or Sonic Youth. Leah Hayes's melodies are always beautifully wrought and melancholy, and her voice has the expressiveness and simplicity of Will Oldham or Cat Power. Scary Mansion has toured with Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio, and sings on the critically-acclaimed "Return to Cookie Mountain". Earlier in her career, she was half of the noise-rock duo Satan's Fingers, along with frontman David Ivar of the group Herman Dune. Hayes recently released "Funeral of the Heart", a graphic novel on Fantagraphics, and did the cover art for Ryan Adams and the Cardinals' LP. Every Joke Is Half the Truth (zum023) is Scary Mansion's debut album produced by Kyle Fischer (Rainer Maria).

"Hayes moves her trembling yet strong voice through a variety of dramatic settings: stark piano and drums ('Yer Mom'), guitar and consoling violin ('Scum Inside'), bedroom noise-rock ('Captan') and noirish roots-pop ('Sorry We Took All Your Money'). Scary Mansion’s vibe is sort of goth, and it’s the sort of that’s key: Though Hayes’s songs (and accomplished artwork) show a flair for the dark side, she comes off as more clear-eyed and resolute than downcast." —Mike Wolf, TIME OUT NY

1 Captan
2 Go to Hell
3 Sorry We Took All Yr Money
4 Scum Inside
5 Sharkish Sea
6 New Hampshire
7 Intro
8 Shame
9 Yer Mom
10 Unwise