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We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Abstractions

by Sharkorama

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1.
Priorities 02:00
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2.
Snare & Racket 05:38
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3.
Neon Sign 01:26
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4.
Tinfoil Robot 01:25
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5.
Cold Feet 02:22
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6.
Let Me Be Your Philistine 01:33
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7.
Tourniquet 01:45
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8.
Metaphysical Fire 02:20
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9.
Righteous Indignation 02:40
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10.
Trick Mirror 02:44
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11.
Bliss 02:01
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12.
Nine Times out of Ten 03:36
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13.
Pedestal 02:28
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14.
No Pressure 02:47
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15.
The Words 03:19
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about

Sharkorama began in a basement with an unreasonably cheap laminate guitar named Charlene, a Tascam 4-Track, and a literal handful of microphones stolen from the high school's AV club. Borrowed drums, out-of-tune pianos, dusty Casios, busted basses and Strats, and honest-to-goodness xylophones were gradually mixed into the sonic amalgamation, while heady, equally out-of-tune lyrics played center stage.

A few dozen songs about lost love, angst, and religious disillusionment later, Sharkorama took to Chicago coffee shops with minimalistic instrumentation and a meek but earnest vocal presence. The singer-songwriter act was cool and everything, but no one wanted to dance.

Chicago stages and house-party basements soon became littered with a tangled mess of keyboards, portable bell kits, handmade cocktail drum sets, forgotten beat machines from decades past, and of course, Charlene. Urgent vocals and a second-hand looping pedal strung the awkwardly danceable cacophony together. The spaces between verses were soon recognizable by stage dives, looped layers of improvised scat vocals, feedback-heavy noise solos, and impromptu dance-offs, which were inexplicably often won by bearded men wearing coonskin caps.

Though soundboard operators and young, blindsided bar-dwellers there for the drink specials (a good chunk of the audience many nights) were keen to apply the 'one-man-band' label to the spectacle, this classification was formally eschewed in favor of the billing of 'polyphonic extravaganza.' This either provided an infinitely more accurate representation of the experience or was complete nonsense.

The various Chicagoland basements, studio apartments, and stairwells that admirably filled the role of 'studio' over the years became the venue for melding the divergent styles into what has become Sharkorama.

A collection of three distinct EPs - The Rule or the Exception (2008), Space Junk (2011), and Playthings (2014) - Abstractions is a sampling of Sharkorama's sonic breadth from the angsty, lo-fi coffee-shop folk-rock to the electronic-infused 'polyphonic extravaganza.'

credits

released April 12, 2015

Written, Performed, & Produced by Cody Knauer

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Sharkorama Chicago, Illinois

yo! i'm cody. sharkorama is my indie rock project. you've found earnest rock n roll for slackers, crafted in chicago's finest unfinished basement. good for you.

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