Lo-fi punk Quarterbacks|Quarterboy return with new track, “Park” and re-issue original four-track recordings via Team Love Records.
Quarterboy was the first “proper” album from Quarterbacks songwriter/vocalist, Dean Engle. It was a lo-fi and bedroom affair with all his music produced on a four-track recorder and was originally released on cassette through Double Double Whammy from Brooklyn, NY.
Fast-forward a few years, and New Paltz label Team Love Records approached Dean to make a record of old Quarterboy tracks and new songs. In 2015, Dean put together together the Quarterbacks three-piece and recorded the brilliant lo-fi, twee-punk Quarterbacks LP for Team Love using a bunch of Quarterboy songs plus some new ones. It’s 19 tracks of potent punk rock wrapped up in a hyper speed time of 22 minutes.
Fast-forward again to 2018 and Dean has decided to re-issue the tape of Quarterboy and make it available for streaming. The really good news is that the Quarterboy release includes a new track, “Park” recorded in 2018. But it comes with a happy heart and a tear in either eye as it is also the last release from Quarterbacks/Quarterboy.
The original “demo” recordings were made between April 2013 to February 2014 on a Tascam MF-P01 four track cassette recorder in Dean’s studio apartment on the backside of 9 North Chestnut in New Paltz, NY.
Dean said of the process, “My apartment did not have internet and I spent most evenings listening to tapes, calling friends on the phone, or playing the same handful of open chords on an unamplified Squier Tele. The songs dramatically romanticize my boring routine. Most of my life had not yet happened and the coming years would offer many humbling counterexamples to my lyrics’ neat statements.”
When Dean came over to Scotland in 2015, Netsounds put on a show with him in Inverness and filmed a live session. The songs he performed then were basically the Quarterboy tracks and original versions from the Quarterbacks debut.
Dean said, “Even though I teach middle school now and play guitar maybe once a month, this album still sort of follows me. The past few Octobers, a student inevitably finds a video of me singing and I spend the next 48 hours confirming that I was definitely not famous and definitely used to wear a leaf on my head every day.”
Quarterboy is now available on cassette and digitally here. Bonus track, “Park” is available as a free download.
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Images below from Dean’s session in Inverness © Al Donnelly.
