(*both laugh*) Episode 56: Proper. (the full band!) on their ground-breaking new album, The Great American Novel

Every now and then you come across an album that becomes a benchmark moment for you; like, life existed before that album and then the world shifted and things weren't the same after that.  My own personal list includes the likes of: Vs. Recipe For Hate. Question The Answers. Badmotorfinger. The '59 Sound. The Low End Theory. Stay Positive. 36 Chambers. Caution. 1372 Overton Park. And now, realistically, The Great American Novel.

If you're unfamiliar, Proper. are a three-piece formed in NYC roughly 5/6 years ago (as The Great Wight initially) but hailing really from a variety of locations across the country and bringing with them all of their collective experiences and musical influences and creating something that hasn't really been done before. I remember hearing their last album, I Spent The Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better admittedly a little late and thinking "damn...I've never really heard anything like this before." The new album, The Great American Novel, takes all of the things that were great about the last one and pushes the needles way past 10. It's important music. It's music about alienation and about not fitting in and about being a queer person of color in a land that, despite it being 2022, is at times becoming even less comfortable with people that check those boxes. It's raw and it's powerful and it's somehow still hopeful. Oh, and if fucking shreds. I feel lucky that we were able to catch up not just with Erik Garlington who spearheads the whole thing but with the full band (Natasha Johnson on bass and Elijah Watson on drums and whom you may also know from his "day job" as a journalist for Okay Player). Watch/listen as I outkick my coverage yet again.

Watch the video for "Red, White and Blue" here: https://youtu.be/m4rYi2Naobs

Watch the video for "Milk And Honey" here: https://youtu.be/P5ux_2eMuFk

Check out Elijah's writing for OkayPlayer here: https://www.okayplayer.com/

Pre-order "The Great American Novel" here: https://www.fatherdaughterrecords.com/products/717976-proper-the-great-american-novel

Listen to "I Spent The Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better" here: https://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/album/i-spent-the-winter-writing-songs-about-getting-better

(*both laughs*) theme song is an excerpt from [laughs] track "Hurts To Laugh." © KALI MASI 2021 ℗ Take This To Heart Records 2021