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Cut​-​Ups

by Leah Callahan

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1.
Cut-Ups 02:48
I know I’ll get there somehow I know I’ll get there sometime I have to I have to I know I’ll get there somehow. I know I’ll get there sometime I have to I have to I’ll know what to do. This time tomorrow. Look at that sky Look at that sky Waiting so long For that magic moment Time really flies Time really flies You have to believe in something You have to believe in someone You have to believe in something You have to believe in someone I drink all the time But I want to be good. Don’t you wonder sometimes? Don’t you wonder sometimes? I’ll know what to do. This time tomorrow. Look at that sky Look at that sky
2.
Another Day 02:34
I’m the only one who gets the joke I’m the only one face it you’re folk I’m the only one who gets to talk I’m the only one you didn’t stalk I’m the only one I’m the only one I’m the only one who sees right through I’m the only one puts up with you I’m the only one who crossed the line I’m the only one who’s feelin fine I’m the only one I’m the only one Do you have a question Can i answer now? Do you have a problem Solving it is how How how how How how how it’s Another day It’s Another day It’s Another day It’s another day Another day Another day Another day Another day
3.
You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here Was what The bartender said when your ordered that beer we’re having so much fun, we’ve lost track of time and our minds Is there somewhere else open? And would they let us in? I don’t care if its last call I just want to see people and i want to see life. Let’s go dance Let’s go sing Let’s go do anything Let’s go drink Let’s go yell Let’s go raise Holy hell what was it that I said, just the other day? We we should go out less, we should scrimp and save, take it to our grave. Let’s go dance Let’s go sing Let’s go do anything Let’s go drink Let’s go yell Let’s go raise Holy hell night is young we’re so old. Let’s not do what we’re told. Let’s go dance Let’s go sing Let’s go do anything
4.
Diabolique 02:24
I saw the devil I saw the ghost They both said: “Baby You are the most” Devil said lady Come take my hand Ghost said don’t bother She’s got a man I saw the angel She didn’t clap She stood and stared now She stood and laughed ***I saw the future It didn’t last Too many secrets Too much has passed ***I saw the future It didn’t go Too much at stake here Da da da no I saw the devil I saw the ghost They both said: “Baby You are the most” Devil said lady Come take my hand Ghost said don’t bother She’s got a man I saw the creepshow I saw the gang They talked in circles They spoke in slang I’ve hit the bottom I’ve seen the stars I’ve got your future Trapped in a jar.
5.
You’re just an enfant terrible, You tried to not even see her Giving up the ghost, Hostess with the most Poetess Undressed, All set. You’re just an enfant terrible, You tried but you couldn’t see her. Giving up the ghost shhhhhh, Ho Ho Holy host Devil with the blue dress, What a mess Now i’ve missed my train, Summer in the rain All my troubles, down the drain You’re just an enfant terrible, You tried but you couldn’t be her
6.
7.
City Lights 03:17
The city lights were so far away delirious nights determined days The future seemed so far away Fearless nights impulsive days We thought we were Sartre and De Bouvoir But that didn’t get us far Leonor Fini and Dora Maar Underground superstar The city called us By our names Took us into private games Elusive were the lover’s ways Cold and stony was her face We thought we were Sartre and De Bouvoir But that didn’t get us far Fred Frith and Brian Eno What did we know? The darkness she showed was her space Brought you to some other place No tears came from her disgrace While she tortured you to hate We thought we were Sartre and De Bouvoir But that didn’t get us far Leonor Fini and Dora Maar Underground superstar The city lights were so far away
8.
Hoi Polloi 02:38
Corporate art Charity balls for starving children Wartorn office spaces And carbon credits Hobnobbing with the hoi polloi You said the right thing To the right person Nothing - can go wrong 15 million dollar mansion Married - into money Moving in all the right circles Your ted talk went viral Writing a book About hard choices Complex decisions Reviews will be glowing I see your face You’re looking down And You’re really sad You really wish that things were harder You wish that things were more difficult You wish it cost more You want it to be exclusive. Only for you and your kind.
9.
Cordelia 02:57
I was surprised by her suicide She said her life Was a perfect graveyard Of buried hopes. Famous chefs And fashion designers Why do they do it When they have it all? Success I guess Isn’t everything and for some people It’s nothing at all Once upon a time I wished to be called Cordelia. Once upon a time I wished to be called Cordelia. It's such a perfectly elegant name. So now I’ve decided I proclaim I’ve also decided that success isn’t for me I rather prefer anonymity
10.
In the end, Everything can be summed up To edges and lines You thought you knew something But it was all just wasting time In, the end, everything will be fine In the end everything’s edges and lines. Put it on Repeating Type the letters that Make up the words. And you’ll see It’s cheating You’re only replaying what you’ve heard In, the end, everything, will be fine, In the end everything’s edges and lines.

about

"Gorgeous stuff from musical powerhouse Leah Callahan."
Simon Edwards, Loose Cannon


"Leah Callahan is a true chameleon, from one recording to the next, you see different facets to her writing and performance."
Carrol Barrett, CIUT, CFRU, Radiocrown


"A stunning musician"
Audrey Gold


"There is a density to the production of Cut Ups which gives it an occasional slightly off-kilter, other-worldly feel, yet it’s warm and inviting. It engulfs the listener, allowing the individual to lose themselves in Callahan’s rich and sultry vocals. The album consists of 10 tracks, or perhaps rather vignettes is a better word, each lasting around 3 minutes, with tales of people and places through her eyes."

"Although this isn’t the most ‘instant’ of the trilogy of albums that has been released over the last 18 months, I would say after repeated listens it is the most rewarding. Leah is a natural storyteller and is gaining confidence with each album."
Iain Key, LouderThanWar
louderthanwar.com/leah-callahan-cut-ups-album-review/


"Boston indie singer Leah Callahan navigates between pop and art-rock on her new album Cut-Ups… (It’s filled) with lush '80s arrangements, as she takes a scalpel to her love life, making small incisions with deceptively straightforward lyrics."

"As a veteran of the scene - she was a member of Turkish Delight, Betwixt, and The Glass Set - she knows what it takes to make a mark, basking in the spotlight. She can be a self-deprecating Enfant Terrible or go all out with the ode to night life City Lights, when the possibilities seem endless and the hassles of everyday life take a back seat to living in the moment. On the album's sole cover, David Bowie's Look Back in Anger, Callahan sings both lead and backing vocals, just like her hero did... (it’s) a tribute to a man who has been ingrained into her musical DNA as a major touchstone for decades."
Hans Werkman, Here Comes the Flood
www.herecomestheflood.com/2022/11/leah-callahan-cut-ups.html



Leah Callahan made DIY waves in the Boston music scene in the 90s and 00s with never-very-easy-to-categorize music, garnering nominations for 2 Boston Music Awards and a Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll along the way. Multiple acclaimed releases earned her top 5 local albums of the year (Boston Phoenix, Boston Herald) as well as a top 10 jazz & world album nod from the Boston Herald.

Her first recording after a 13 year break from music, “Simple Folk” was released in March 2021 and described by US culture magazine Vanyaland as “a collection of slinky, narrative driven guitar-pop songs built around hooks…(which) feels like an album’s album in an age where albums are not very much in style”. vanyaland.com/2021/03/22/leah-callahan-discovers-her-teenage-dream-on-new-album-simple-folk/

While Louder Than War called it: "a really strong set of well-crafted songs that definitely rewards repeated listening." louderthanwar.com/leah-callahan-simple-folk-album-review-interview/

Callahan quickly followed up with “Short Stories” that October, for which UK blog “For the Rabbits” said: “These Short Stories are musical tales you don’t want to miss”.
fortherabbits.net/2021/10/21/get-to-know-leah-callahan/

That same month, Callahan was on the receiving end of not one but two (Turkish Delight and Betwixt) inclusions in Bandcamp’s much buzzed about feature “90s Boston indie rock list” alongside the venerable Galaxie 500 and Swirlies.
daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report/nineties-indie-rock-boston-list

Both “Simple Folk” and “Short Stories” have received airplay from some of the most respected alternative radio stations in the world including WXRV, WZBC, WMBR, WTSQ, WVUD, CIUT (Canada), UK’s Louderthanwar radio and Radio Lantau in Hong Kong. Leah's most recent album, "Cut-Ups" charted in the top NACC200 US charts, hitting the top 30 on stations KMHD2 in Gresham, OR (#29), KURA in Ouray, CO (#2), KVCU in Boulder, CO (#9), and core stations KSYM in San Antonio, TX (#24), WTCC in Springfield, MA (#16), and WUNH in Durham, NW (#28).


How did this album "Cut-Ups" come about?


"Right after “Short Stories” was done, in late 2021 I knew I wanted to create more music, but nothing happened, I had massive writer’s block. A chance viewing of "David Bowie: The Last Five Years" got me revisiting his late 1970s catalog. I’ve always been a huge fan, but this was very focused on a goal. With my imagination sparked by everything from the art-funk of “Stay” and “Golden Years”, to the dark ambient sounds of “Warszawa”, I poured out these songs. There is no overt stylistic mimicry (other than the obvious, the cover song), but for me it’s clear I couldn’t have written these songs without my recent preoccupation with his work. I borrow everything from Bowie’s plastic soul rhythms (for the BPMs), to his obsession with the esoteric realm (“Diabolique”), and cut-up songwriting method (“Cut-Ups”); to round it all up I did an adulatory, albeit risky take on Bowie’s “Look Back in Anger”.

As a kid my uncle, who was by no means into alternative music, gave me his entire Bowie collection, including the album “Aladdin Sane” which has scribbling on the cover. The albums stood out (it was before "Let’s Dance") among what I considered more mainstream artists of the time such as the Beatles and bands like AC/DC that my uncle also listened to. I thought it interesting that there was this vague period of time where an artist as controversially queer and avant-garde as Ziggy Stardust ruled the airwaves and was a fixture in fairly mainstream people’s homes.

Listening many years later, I have seen so many videos and internet articles that shape how I look at that artist, and listen to the music. Great videos about how Bowie recruited Carlos Alomar, how Alomar taught Earl Slick James Brown chords. Bowie’s attempt to be funk before he created his own brand of what you could call cold art funk as the Thin White Duke. I saw Bowie, (around the same time my uncle gave me his records) a glimpse of him on TV with people I didn’t recognize but found out about later, Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias. I bought his (biggest ever) album in 1983 but still gravitated to his older stuff, the albums “Low”, “Lodger”, “Fame”. I loved his song “Cat People” and my schoolgirl crush had me going to sleep many a night with “Cat People” playing on repeat, it was my favorite song on the “Let’s Dance” cassette, and I didn’t know who Giorgio Moroder was then, but the spooky cinematic music felt at home with the other darkly mysterious bands I was listening to at the time, “Tones on Tail”, “Echo and the Bunnymen”. “Siouxsie and the Banshees” and “The Cure” (Which of course he had so much influence on).

After “Let’s Dance”, once again Bowie was in the mainstream but not really, selling albums and selling out shows, but still out on the fringe somehow. I remember I worked at a nursing home in college, and the girls were all drooling about Steven Tyler who was on an awards show on TV, while I was paying attention to Bowie, they all rolled their eyes at me, saying “Ugh, he’s so pale”. Admiring Bowie in the late 20th century could make you a bit of an outsider, at least in some places in the world.

Like old Hollywood movie stars, there will never be anyone that comes close to his iconicism. When you’re influenced by Bowie, you’re not just influenced by the notes of the songs, or the creativity of his backing bands, you’re influenced by everything he was as a person, his iconic beauty and the way he treated people, at first mocking them and later as an old sage, with advice and an obvious concern for everyone around him."

credits

released December 28, 2022

Leah Callahan - words, melodies, voice;
Alex Brander - drums;
Alex Stern - guitars and piano, arrangements;
Richard Marr - producer/engineer.

Recorded and mastered at Galaxy Park Studios.

Copyright Leah Callahan 2022.
Sparkly Music, ASCAP
Just a Stern Songs, ASCAP.


Look Back in Anger written by David Bowie and Brian Eno
Copyright Tintoretto Music, Screen
Gems-EMI Music Inc, and Universal
Music Mgb Songs o/b/o Eg Music Ltd
Used under license

Album cover photo: N. Oony
© All rights reserved

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about

Leah Callahan

Known for experimental pioneers Turkish Delight US, critics’ darling Betwixt, and shoegazers The Glass Set, singer- songwriter Leah Callahan navigates between pop and art-rock on her 2023 album Cut-Ups, which charted in the top 200 on North American college radio NACC200.

Callahan's next album "Curious Tourist" is set to release April 29, 2024.
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