Category: Chris Brokaw

Coming April 28 : Chris Brokaw – ‘Ghost Ship’

Chris Brokaw (photo by Ben Stas/Noise Floor)

Chris Brokaw – ‘Ghost Ship’
out April 28. 2025

Four years after his rock juggernaut PURITAN, Chris Brokaw delivers GHOST SHIP, a landscape meditation (at sea) for vocals and electric guitars.

I set out to make an 8 song statement like ‘Desert Shore’ or ‘Raw Power’, but it became a 9 song…something else. I’ve described it to friends as ‘Twin Peaks-ish’ but that feels only part right. The songs were written on a 60’s Teisco Del Rey electric guitar, set up by the Belgian luthier Flip Scipio with heavy gauge flat wound strings and an .80 gauge low E string tuned down to a low A, which reframes how you play the instrument. I wrote them all quickly in a kind of fever. – Brokaw

“You need to listen to GHOST SHIP from beginning to end. Stand too close to the speaker holding a plastic cup of seltzer with lime and really crank it up. If you have a purple light bulb, screw that into the ceiling fixture, and it will be like seeing Brokaw play the kind of live Brokaw set that puts you on the bottom of the ocean, standing under a transmission tower with a semicircle of effects pedals at its feet. If I’m making this sound vaporous, consider the conversational chords of ‘8 Or 9 Things’, the sharply descending final notes of ‘Profile’, or the extinction burst of ‘Anything Anymore’. Think of echolocation: sonics defining space and distance, time elapsing, the disappearance of something – maybe drugs or a doomed love, possibly in the same form. ‘I’m a ghost ship on a long trip / and if you come aboard I’ll never run ashore.'” – Mimi Lipson

Chris Brokaw is perhaps best known for his work with the bands Codeine and Come. He has released over two dozen solo albums of instrumental and vocal music since 2002, and played in The New Year, Pullman, Charnel Ground and the Lemonheads. He has scored nine films, most recently ‘Crookedfinger’ by Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund, and written for dance and arts associations, most recently ‘Lowlands’ with Rimi/Imir in Stavangar, Norway. He has recorded and performed as an accompanist to Thurston Moore, Christina Rosenvinge, Rhys Chatham, Jennifer O’Connor, Steve Wynn and GG Allin. Currently he plays in Lupa Citta (with Sarah Black and Jenn Gori), the Martha’s Vineyard Ferries (with Bob Weston and Elisha Wiesner) and the Chris Brokaw Rock Band (with Clint Conley and Luther Gray). He continues to perform periodically with Codeine and Come; and will be touring internationally on GHOST SHIP both solo and in his trio.

Recorded & mixed by Paul Kolderie at Wool\y Mammoth MA and Camp St. NY October and November 2024.

Mastered by Carl Saff

All songs by Chris Brokaw
C&P Calimoxcho Music BMI

Corer photo by CB

Out January 19 : Chris Brokaw – ‘Live At The Decommisioned Power Plant In Florli, Norway’

In 2018 I was invited to join with the arts group Rimi/Imir in Stavangar, Norway, on a multimedia project called ‘Florida Lowlands’, a blend of music, video, dance and sound. The final piece ended up somewhere between a performance and an installation. I spent a lot of time in Stavangar in 20018-2019 working on the piece. It was a lot of process, and pretty different from anything I’d done before. I thought the final outcome, which really only coalesced at the first performances in Oslo, was great, new, exciting. The architects, a couple named Iver Findlay and Marit Sandsmark, were smart, ambitious, elliptical, hard-working.

In 2022 they invited me to participate in a small festival in Florli, about an hour from Stavangar. It’s only accessible by ferry and there’s not much there. Year round population is about ten people, and it’s most famous for its 4444-step wooden staircase up the side of a mountain, big hiker attraction.

The ‘festival’ turned out to be more like an artists’ retreat, combined with the wedding of Iver and Marit. My involvement was kinda last minute but I was very happy to be there. I met some great artists, experienced some cool and unusual performances; and played 2 solo sets, one electric in this giant decommissioned power plant, and one acoustic in the living room of a cabin. Both were thrilling for me; my new friend Jim Dawson recorded the electric one. This tape is that whole performance. As ‘post covid rejuvenation get togethers’ go this one was pretty great; the tape a good memento to an inspiring weekend. – CB, Cambridge 2023

download / purchase cassette

Saturday, January 19 : 12XU XXXMas Stare-At-A-Screen Special With Blank Hellscape, Chris Brokaw, John Sharkey III and Unholy Two

Later today,performances by Blank Hellscape, Chris Brokaw, John Sharkey III and Unholy Two, all filmed at remote locations in only the safest of methods.

twitch.tv/12XUrecs
please consider a donation to Austin’s Casa Marianella.
Replay on Saturday 12/26

Coming January 15 : Chris Brokaw – ‘Puritan’

(photo : Anthony Saffery)

Chris Brokaw is the consummate underground rock musician. In a career spanning thirty-plus years he has been in countless bands (Come, Charnel Ground, Codeine, The Lemonheads, to name a few) has been a sideman with everyone from Thurston Moore to GG Allin, pounded countless stages on nonstop tours, and played on over seventy recordings. ‘Puritan’ is his tenth solo album and it’s a killer.

From the hypnotic repetition on the extended instrumental outro of title-track opener ‘Puritan’, the wounded grace of ‘Depending’, to the fragile beauty of the Velvets-esque duet with Claudia Groom, ‘I’m the Only One for You’, and the ghost of Alex Chilton echoing through ‘The Bragging Rights’, onto the GBV-like firestorm of ‘Periscope Kids’, and ending with the ‘On The Beach’ era Neil Young minimal strum of his cover of Karl Hendricks’ “The Night Has No Eyes”, Brokaw has crafted an understated masterpiece. ‘Puritan’ is an album that is all heartache and rebirth, resignation and joy, the kind of record that is so needed but all too rare these days. A classic from front to back.
– Mark Lanegan 2020

PREORDER :
12XU
Bandcamp

Q&A with Chris Brokaw on ‘Puritan’
 
Q:  How long has it been since your last solo record and what have you been doing in the time between?
 
A : My last solo record “End Of The Night” came out in May 2019. Since then I finished up some Lemonheads touring, toured the west coast with a band playing my new record (Lori Goldston on cello, Greg Kelley on trumpet, Luther Gray on drums, Dave Abramson on drums, me on guitar), toured Japan with Thalia Zedek (solos + duos), toured Europe with my band Charnel Ground (me +Doug McCombs and Kid Millions), toured the west coast again playing guitar in Doug McCombs’ band Brokeback, played a duo gig with Mike IX Williams in Boston…and then the plague hit. I’ve just been teaching guitar + drums on Skype since then, recording a little, laying low in Cambridge.
 
The last album I did of rock songs, with vocals and lyrics, was in 2013, and I guess I’ve been gathering material since then.
 
Q: Can you tell me a little about your songwriting method?
 
CB : Most of them take a long time. Sometimes I’ll have 8 seconds of a song, totally realized, I can hear a whole band doing it in my head as if it’s on a record….and then I just wait, and eventually form the rest of the song around it.
 
I’ve written some songs using mesostics and/or acrostics, tho none on this record.
 
“The Heart of Human Trafficking” took a long time, and I had to take a leap of faith to conclude that it was actually done, that the particular form it took was finished.
 
“Puritan” I wrote about a week before we recorded it. The band totally nailed it in the studio but I was still writing the lyrics at the microphone. I had to make it a crowd of voices, sort of tripping over one another, trying to form a path.
 
In both these songs I was really happy to have the results be surprising. At this point I most happily await things from myself that I don’t totally recognize.
 
“I’m The Only One For You” I wrote originally for a movie, a short ghost story called ‘Mother’s Garden’. The song is kind of a period piece, but then I fell in love with it. Originally it was pretty short but one night I was playing it with my trio in this cavernous brewery in Massachusetts and was like, what happens if we just stretch this out…in this room with this huge high ceiling…
 
“Report To An Academy” was named after a Rudyard Kipling story of the same name. I tried to use some of the ideas in the story, specifically the thoughts of a creature trying to imitate humans, as a jumping off point, but I couldn’t fit a vocal or lyrics into the song, and it stayed an instrumental. I was going through a period where I felt like I was imitating humans….negotiating some changes.
 
“Periscope Kids” I was trying to get something really sand- blasted-sounding. I’m a big fan of Nico and I was thinking of her a lot on this one. The Periscope Kids were a couple I knew in Seattle and they were bad news and that whole song is bad news.
 
My songs aren’t like Johnny Cash songs, most of them only I will probably know what they’re really all about. That’s ok, for better or worse I think that’s how it has to be. Whatever people get out of them, that’s great. Much of what’s in them is literal for me but maybe not for the listener.
 
Q)  How long have these songs been gestating?
 
CB : “Periscope Kids” is oldest, I think around 2014. “Puritan” one week old. Everything else in between.
 
Q)  Can you pick a couple songs that hold particular meaning to you and talk about them?
 
CB:  “Depending” is probably my favorite. So far it seems to be everyone’s favorite. It feels stately, and it’s nice to just step into that.
 
There’s a line in “Depending” where I say:
 
“I never thought, moving my lot alone across a prairie
I’d have the thought to give up my bones unto the birds to carry
whether I drive, whether I park and wait a few,
it won’t depend on you”
 
And I mean that was me literally driving a truck with all my shit across the country from Seattle to Boston in 2017, extremely uncertain about what was ahead after a pretty disasterous period out west…and thinking at one point, in some part of the country where you don’t see any cars or trucks or houses for hours, maybe I should just drive off a cliff and let the vultures pick my bones clean….And whether I do or not… that’s my call! Sort of a declaration of independence.  – Which I thought was grim and insane and funny all at once. It still cracks me up.
 
“I’m The Only One For You”, like I said, went from being a sort of pastiche to this kind of lush romanticism I’ve only dreamed of. My friend Claudia Groom (formerly of the Seattle band Juned) did such an amazing vocal on it…it fucking kills me, the band plays so beautifully…I’m very happy with it.
 
“The Night Has No Eyes” is the one cover, written by a dude from Pittsburgh named Karl Hendricks who passed away in 2017. I did the song originally for a tribute/benefit album, but re-recorded it with Thalia for this. It closes the album with a voice that feels about forgiveness and/or acceptance, and while that voice is essentially an outsider’s it seemed like a conciliatory way to end an album that is working through a bunch of other shit.
 
Q)  Inspiration?
 
CB: I’ve come to love playing and singing, but came sort of late to a lot of it, so I feel like I’m still finding my way in it. It’s one of a few different things I do. Like I said earlier I’m always happy to get surprised by the songs that come out. I wrote “Puritan” right before we recorded and it’s definitely about moving back to New England, a place I’m not from (I grew up in New York) but one I’ve fallen in love with and I think found my place in. I think saying “Chris Brokaw: Puritan” is deliberately funny but maybe I’ll be the only one laughing on that. The album is definitely threaded with ideas about how people judge one another, but….I don’t know, I don’t want to explain shit. Explaining art is terrible.

(photo : Andy Hong) 
 
The Chris Brokaw Rock Band :
Chris Brokaw  guitar, vocals
Dave Carlson – bass guitar
Pete Koeplin – drums

with special guests :
Tricia Adelmann – vocal on “I Can’t Sleep”
Claudia Groom – vocal on “I’m The Only One For You”
Thalia Zedek – vocal, guitar on “The Bragging Rights” and “The Night Has No Eyes”

Recorded and mixed by Andy Hong at Kimchee, Cambridge MA 2019/2020. “Bragging Rights” and “The Night Has No Eyes”, recorded by Britt Robischeaux at Cloudland, Fort Worth, TX, November 2019. Mastered at Chicago Mastering Service by Matthew Barnhart.

All songs written by Chris Brokaw except “The Night Has No Eyes” (written by Karl Hendricks, lyrics used by permission). LP layout and design by James Keeler. Front cover photo by Sasha Syeed.

Coming April 6 – Charnel Ground -s/t LP

CHARNEL GROUND: an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered.

Represents ‘the death of ego’ and the end of:

— attachment to this body and life
— craving for a body and life in the future
— fear of death
— aversion to the decay of ‘impermanence’

CHARNEL GROUND is a meeting of Chris Brokaw (Come/Codeine/The New Year etc). on electric guitar, James McNew (Yo La Tengo, Dump) on bass, and Kid Millions (Oneida/Man Forever/etc) on drums, dedicated to exploring the outer and inner regions of instrumental rock music. ‘Charnel Ground’ was recorded in Brooklyn NY in 2016, and informed and dedicated to pivotal transitions.

purchase from 12XU, Bandcamp or stream via Spotify

Autumn Tourism

Chris Brokaw

October 11 – Neumo’s, Seattle WA (with Overseas)
October 12 – Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR (with Overseas)
October 25 – Le Bourg, Lausanne, Switzerland (with Steve Gunn)
October 27 – Il Moderno, Agliano, Italy
October 28 – Gatto, Milano, Italy
October 29 – Moog, Ravenna, Italy
October 30 – Circusforza, Imola, Italy
October 31 – Groniger Museum, Gronigen NL
November 1 – Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam NL

Burnt Skull

September 30 –  Mohawk, Austin TX (with Cuntz, Spray Paint)

Obnox

Sept 30 Columbus OH – The Summit (w/ Buck Biloxi & The Fucks, White Outs and Dead Girlfriend)
Oct 1 – Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class (w/ Buck Biloxi & The Fucks)

OBN III’s

10/2 Beerland, Austin TX (with Ditch Witch, Captive)
10/10 The Chapel San Francisco, CA with The Blind Shake, Fryborg
10/11 The Chapel San Francisco, CA with The Blind Shake, Old Light
10/12 The Chapel San Francisco, CA with The Blind Shake, Dreamsalon
(all shows below with Thee Oh Sees and The Blind Shake unless noted otherwise)
10/14/2013 Crocodile Seattle WA
10/15/2013 Hawthorne Portland OR
10/16/2013 The Rickshaw Vancouver BC
10/18/2013 Republik Calgary AB
10/19/2013 VFW MIssoula MT
10/21/2013 The Amsterdam Minneapolis MN
10/22/2013 The Empty Bottle Chicago IL
10/23/2013 The Empty Bottle Chicago IL
10/24/2013 The Shelter Detroit MI
10/26/2013 Now That’s Class Cleveland OH w/The Blind Shake (no oh sees)
10/25/2013 Alrosa Columbus OH
10/29/2013 Irving Plaza New York NY
10/30/2013 Underground Arts Philadelphia PA
10/31/2013 Kranky’s Winston-Salem NC
11/01/2013 Moth Light Asheville NC w/The Blind Shake (no oh sees)
11/02/2013 Terminal Atlanta GA
11/03/2013 Will’s Pub Orlando FL w/The Blind Shake (no oh sees)
11/04/2013 The Stage Miami FL
11/05/2013 The Wooly Gainesville FL
11/06/2013 One Eyed Jack New Orleans LA
11/07/2013 Fun Fun Fun Fest Nites Austin TX w/The Blind Shake (no oh sees)
11/10/2013 Launchpad Albuquerque NM
11/12/2013 Bar Pink San Diego CA
11/13/2013 Observatory Santa Ana CA
11/14/2013 Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock Los Angeles CA
11/15/2013 Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock Los Angeles CA

Jonly Bonly

October 4 – Hotel Vegas, Austin TX (Richard Buckner postshow, with Trustees)

Upcoming Shows – February Edition

Chris Brokaw

Feb 18 – Luecma Music Bar, Prague CZ (supporting Dinosaur Jr.)
Feb. 19 – Vatos Taco Truck, Loebckstr. 30-35, Berlin (solo)
Feb. 20 -Aufladetechnische Konferenz, Berlin (with the ATK 5 Orchestra)
Feb 22 – Guestcollege PHL Music (lecture)
Feb. 26 – La Paloma, Nimes, France (w/ Mono)
Feb. 27 – La Fourmi, Limoges, France (w/ Mono)
Feb. 28 – La Lune des Pirates, Amiens, France (w/ Mono)
March 1 – Noumatrouff, Mulhouse, France (w/ Mono)
March 2 – Bad Bonn, Dudingen, Switzerland (w/ Mono)
March 3 – Schuur, Luzern, Switzerland (w/ Mono)
March 4 – PML, Innsbruck, Austria (w/ Mono)
March 5 – K4, Nurnberg Germany (w/ Mono)
March 6 – Kinky Star, Gent, Belgium
March 18 – TT The Bear, Cambridge MA (w/ Thalia Zedek Band)

Burnt Skull

March 3 – Hotel Vegas, Austin TX (afternoon show w/ Pharoahs, Foreign Mothers, Gory Details and more)
March 16 – 12XU night at Trailer Space, Austin T (w/ Obnox, Unholy Two, G.Green, Dino’s Boys, Sweet Talk)
March 17 – 29th St. Ballroom, Austin TX (with Breakout, Recide, Crystal Shit, Pelts and more)

Continue reading Upcoming Shows – February Edition

Upcoming Shows – January 2013 edition

 

Chris Brokaw 
1/16 – Naked Lounge, Sacramento CA (with Jennifer O’Connor)
1/17 – Woodside Grill, Anderson CA (with Jennifer O’Connor)
1/18 – Red Bluff Art Gallery, Red Bluff CA (with Jennifer O’Connor)
1/19 – Sam Bond’s Garage, Eugene OR (with Jennifer O’Connor)
1/20 – Mississippi Studios, Portland OR (with Jennifer O’Connor)
  
Burnt Skull
1/27 – Museum Of Human Achievement, Austin TX (Farewell Books/Las Cruxes Benefit, with Elvis, Kurraka, Hidden Ritual and more)
1/31 – Beerland, Austin TX (w/ Sweet Talk, Flesh Lights, Nazi Gold)
2/7 – Bernadette’s Bar, Austin TX (w/ Breakout, The Vipers)
2/9 – Swan Dive, Austin TX (w/ Eets Feats, Gory Details)
3/16 – Trailer Space, Austin TX (night show w/ Sweet Talk, G.Green, Obnox, Unholy Two)

G.Green
3/8 – Bar 11, San Diego CA
3/13 – Beerland, Austin TX (day show)
3/16 – Trailer Space, Austin TX (w/ Unholy Two, G.Green, Burnt Skull)
3/19 – The Smell, Los Angeles CA (w/ Wet Illustrated)

The Gospel Truth
2/16 – Beerland, Austin TX

OBN III’s
1/25 – Mohawk, Austin TX (w/ Ty Segall, Ex-Cult)
2/21 – Beerland, Austin TX
2/22 – Depot District Bar
2/23 – Train Yard, Las Cruces NM
2/24 – The District, Tucson AZ (with Destruction Unit, Lenguas Largas)
2/25 – Yucca Tap Room, Tempe AZ (with Destruction Unit)
2/26 – Soda Bar, San Diego CA
2/27 – The Smell, Los Angeles CA (with Audacity, Pangea)
2/28 – The Knockout, San Francisco CA (with Fuzz)
3/1 – 1234 Go! Records, Oakland CA (with Fuzz)
3/2 – The Know, Portland OR
3/3 – Comet Tavern, Seattle WA
3/5 – Holland Project, Reno NV
3/6 – Canvas SLC/Richards, Salt Lake City UT
3/7 – Lion’s Lair, Denver CO
3/8 – Replay Lounge, Lawrence KS
3/9 – 35 Denton Festival, Denton TX
    
Obnox
1/14 – Now That’s Class, Cleveland OH
2/1 – The Flat, Brooklyn, NY (w/ Unholy Two)
2/2 – Death By Audio, Brooklyn NY (w/ Family Curst, Live Fast Die)
3/14 – Beerland, Austin TX (day show w/ Protomartyr, Unholy Two, Spray Paint)
3/16 – Trailer Space, Austin TX (night show w/ Sweet Talk, Unholy Two, G.Green, Burnt Skull)


Sweet Talk 
1/30 – End Of An Ear instore, 6pm
1/31 – Beerland, Austin TX (w/ Flesh Lights, Burnt Skull, Nazi Gold)
2/7 – The Blind Pig, Oxford MI (w/ Unwed Teenage Mothers, YouthFlag)
2/9 – 529, Atlanta GA (w/ Resons, Acids Freaks, Rodney Kings)
2/10 – Soundpony, Tulsa OK  (w/ Glow God, Lizard Police, Creepazoids)
3/16 – Trailer Space, Austin TX (w/ Burnt Skull, G.Green, Unholy Two, Obnox)

Unholy Two 
2/1 – The Flat, Brooklyn, NY (w/ Obnox)
3/14 – Beerland, Austin TX (w/ Obnox, Protomartyr, Spray Paint)
3/16 – Trailer Space, Austin TX (w/ Sweet Talk, Burnt Skull, G.Green, Obnox)

Young Governor
1/17 – The Piston, Toronto

Chris Brokaw – January ’13 US West Coast Dates With Jennifer O’Connor

“All shows will be with my good buddy JENNIFER O’CONNOR. This will be a co-headlining tour, and the two of us will be doing some songs together on all the shows as well”

Mon Jan 7 Seattle, WA The Crocodile
Tue Jan 8 Olympia, WA Olympia Timberland Library FREE (also appearing, KIMYA DAWSON)
Thu Jan 10 San Francisco, CA Hotel Utah
Fri Jan 11 Merced, CA Multicultural Arts Center
Sat Jan 12 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Bar EARLY SHOW doors at 7pm
Sun Jan 13 San Diego, CA Soda Bar
Wed Jan 16 Sacramento, CA Naked Coffee
Thu Jan 17 Anderson CA, Woodside Grill
Fri Jan 18 Red Bluff, CA Red Bluff Art Gallery
Sat Jan 19 Eugene, OR Sam Bond’s Garage
Sun Jan 20 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios