A Song For Friday: Or Best Offer
The new single from the duo of Grace Schmidhauser and Brian Culligan heralds their debut album
A few years ago, in an attempt to gain some control of my inbox, I got the bright idea to create a rule shunting all my Bandcamp emails to one folder. The inevitable happened, of course, and I’m now faced with a folder containing nearly 7,000 unread emails. But somehow my radar led me to a recent message from Ba Da Bing Records, a label for which I’ll always have a soft spot for bringing me Aoife Nessa Frances among other artists. And that’s how I stumbled on the info about their latest signing, Or Best Offer - a band led by their former intern. It can work, people!
Calling Brooklyn, Providence, and Chicago home, the duo of Grace Schmidhauser and Brian Culligan have been collaborating since 2018 but seem to have only begun releasing music this year, starting with God Is A Jacket, an EP of charming, gritty collages that are not so much ambient as much as signs of life as heard through the wall of your apartment.
Now, Ba Da Bing has announced Center, Or Best Offer’s debut album, which arrives January 26th, 2024. The first single is Jacket, the final track on the album and a destination that promises quite the journey to get there. Assembling almost at random with some haunting wiry guitar reminiscent of The End by The Doors, the song comes into a sort of focus with a circular, fuzzy guitar riff, loose drumming, and Schmidhauser’s airy vocals, creating a captivating blend of sounds. About two and a half minutes in, the song appears to be drifting apart, quite pleasantly, until a massive, almost bluesy riff starts up, reminiscent of nothing other than my beloved Hi Sheriffs of Blue, before getting progressively noisier and off the rails.
Embedded in the half-legible lyrics is a sort of mission statement for the band:
make you into blanket
ancient cradled precious things
like god is a jacket
listen for softly spoken offerings
By the time Jacket died out in a slow, crepuscular fade, I was completely sold. Maybe you will be, too.
I’ll certainly be listening for more of Or Best Offer’s “softly spoken offerings” - will you? Let me know in the comments.
From the archives and elsewhere:
Is That Enough: Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear at 45 - Rock & Roll Globe
Of Note In 2020: Rock, Folk, Etc.