podcast by Chance Solem-Pfeifer and Jacob Zlomke
Brad Hoshaw’s best songwriting lives in the space between intellect and emotion.
It’s clever without being confusing, colored without feeling deliberately varied. And when he bites into a song, like the brutal “New Tattoo” or winks at the state of a post-hookup bed in “Bar Stool,” he plays on the cardinal emotions, never needing to spell out whether a narrator is him or a character. Listening to the lyrics on their own, they're not asking you to make that call.
Omaha songwriter Brad Hoshaw released Funeral Guns, his sophomore album with his band The Seven Deadlies, in February at The Waiting Room. On April 19, he and his guitarist Matt Whipkey will split a seven-inch for Record Store Day in Omaha. The seven-inch will see a limited run of 300 copies.
In this installment of On The Record, Hear Nebraska’s album review podcast, Jacob and Chance consider Funeral Guns. They discuss Hoshaw’s lack of on-album fuss over songwriting aura and debate whether it’s a folk or pop record first and foremost.
Listen to the review here:
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is Hear Nebraska’s managing editor and Jacob Zlomke is HN’s staff writer. Reach them at chancesp@hearnebraska.org and jacobz@hearnebraska.org.