EPK

Electronic press kit for Glenarvon’s August 28 release, Idle Thrashing.

Bio

Glenavon is led by New York City-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Derek Brown. Adopted at birth, he grew up knowing little about his biological family, except that his birth-father was a singer and guitarist, and Brown himself was Irish and Cherokee (except, none of this was true).

Idle Thrashing is the album Brown wanted to make at 14. But the project only began when he enrolled in the Creative Writing and Literary Translation program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts. Upon graduating, his partner was accepted into a master’s program at Oxford University, so they spent a year in England, where Idle Thrashing was completed.

New York City musician Glenarvon in Cowley, Oxford.

Full Press Release

Glenarvon’s sophomore album, Idle Thrashing, is set for release August 28, 2022. The New York City-based outfit is recently returned from Oxford, England, where the album was completed.

“I’m so affected and performative—an inelegant Zelig with xennial airs.” This self-flagellating lyric, from the single “Traveling Man (Oh, No, It’s Me Again),” belies the earnestness of Idle Thrashing. But it acknowledges the fact that it’s a celebration of other artists and another period in music—the 90s—much like its predecessor, Smashing Idols, which owes a great debt to the 60s and 70s.

Glenavon is led by New York City-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Derek Brown. Not long ago, his professional ambitions were thwarted by an illness that left him frequently bedridden and without a voice. It was then he focused on school and writing fiction. When he recovered, he released his debut, Smashing Idols with his latest outfit, Glenarvon. Progress on Glenarvon’s current album, Idle Thrashing, was halted when Brown’s partner entered a master’s program at Oxford University. But after settling into the town that birthed Radiohead and Lord of the Rings, production resumed. There, Brown regularly busked and performed at the eminent music venue New Theatre Oxford.

Idle Thrashing is the album Brown wanted to make at 14. Several songs date to that period, with revised lyrics that reflect the literary tradition that has since informed his writing. “Ephemera,” for instance, borrows from Shelley and has since become a funeral lament––the proceeds of which will go to charity. With Idle Thrashing, 90s alt-rock darlings become not-so-strange bedfellows with the Elizabethan- and Romantic-Period’s most celebrated icons.

Music

Five songs from Idle Thrashing

Press

Leading with seductive bass and equally alluring, breathy vocals, “Don’t Ask For Too Much, Dear” is quick to connect, utilising contrast to a masterful degree – between moments of melody and weight, between the lyrical intimacy and the broader immersive qualities, and indeed between the somewhat vulnerable identity of the voice and the otherwise vast reach of the soundscape.

–Stereo Stickman

Glenarvon gives a more contemporary soundscape to grunge, making it more radio friendly…But the crux of “Don’t Ask For Too Much, Dear” is that it merges the very best of all the right sounds and songs…

–Music Authentic

…an album of amazing production value. Cohesive, expansive and accurate are the words I found again and again in my head as I listened…The writing, too, is top-notch.