Jesse Lortz unveils his Case Studies

Switch to the mobile version of this page.

- Username
- View Profile
- Edit Profile
- Log Out
- Log in
- Create Account

The Chicago Reader

Archives | RSS

« SAIC to host sound-art conference t… | Marc Lazar, autism specialist: "In… »

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Crickets / Music Jesse Lortz unveils his Case Studies

Posted By Miles Raymer on 07.27.11 at 01:47 PM

I don't think I've been as bummed out over any band's dissolution over the past decade or so as I was the Dutchess & the Duke's breakup last fall. Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison had one of the more compelling musical partnerships in recent rock history, recorded a pair of near-perfect albums and with the help of a rotating cast of backup musicians—including a bunch of my friends from the Chicago garage scene—gave shambolic, electrifying live performances that suggested what it might have felt like to see the Replacements in their prime. Their final one at the Empty Bottle last summer culminated in the Ponys' Jered Grummere on the Bottle's rickety house piano at the back of the club and Lortz and Morrison using the bar as a makeshift stage for an unamplified performance of their tearjerker "The River."

Of course someone as doggedly prolific as Lortz isn't going to stay inactive for long. The buzzy Brooklyn label Sacred Bones is set to release The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night, the debut album from his new project, Case Studies. World finds Lortz moving away from the twangy, dark garage pop of mid-60s Stones and more towards the lush, shadowy folk-pop Leonard Cohen was making around the same time, with much of the album given over to the same sparse arrangements—acoustic guitar, voice, and a chorus of female backup singers—that Cohen preferred back then.

The album doesn't come out until August 16, but you can hear some Case Studies now. MTV is streaming the country-infused cut "My Silver Hand," Stereogum has the song "Lies" available as a stream or download, My Old Kentucky Blog is offering the track "The Eagle, or the Serpent" in the same fashion, and you can check out a video for the song "Daggers" here, below the jump:

Case Studies: Daggers from Case Studies on Vimeo.