Ryan Davis thread: State Champion, Roadhouse Band, the Sophomore Lounge label, etc.

Kind of off topic, but is Ryan Davis on anyone's radar? The album this song is from came out last year but I'd never heard of him (or his previous band, State Champion) until the Quietus reviewed the album a couple weeks ago. I have to assume Berman is a major influence, but Davis + bandmates actually put that influence to good use and take it interesting places. And Berman even said "he's the best lyricist who's not a rapper going," back in 2018, apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyHctZs5n8s

Maybe should have started a dedicated Ryan Davis thread but posting here for now since my point is basically that Joos fans should check this guy out if they haven't already.

― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 11 July 2024 21:01 (yesterday) link

Yes, liking this album a lot. Doing dates with MJ Lenderman, which will be a great bill.

His label Sophomore Lounge puts out some good stuff including the new Ned Collette, Lou Turner, Styrofoam Winos, and a bit oddly, Bill Direen/Bilders.

― bulb after bulb, Thursday, 11 July 2024 21:09 (yesterday) link

yeah, i love his label more than this record, but obviously lots of people love the record ... it has gotten great reviews and ppl seem to still be discovering it.

― alpine static, Friday, 12 July 2024 00:14 (thirteen hours ago) link

State Champion ruled. Fantasy Error is prob my favorite album of the century.

― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Friday, 12 July 2024 02:47 (eleven hours ago) link

somebody should make a ryan davis / sophomore lounge thread and post all their favs

― budo jeru, Friday, 12 July 2024 03:41 (ten hours ago) link

^

― calstars, Friday, 12 July 2024 10:45 (three hours ago) link

love this guy — "flashes of orange" from his last one is unreal, an amazing song.

Here's my year-end review of Fantasy Error from, guh, nine years ago already.

Still holding out hope the State Champion Louisville Cardinal shirt makes a comeback.

love this record!

also v stoked to be playing with him next friday in indianapolis:

Everything, Now! with Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band & Fantastic Shams

This guy created and ran the greatest music fest there ever was...his own music doesn't really appeal to me though.

https://www.jambase.com/article/ryan-davis-roadhouse-band-new-album-new-threats-from-the-soul

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band will release a new album, New Threats From The Soul, on July 25 via Sophomore Lounge/Tough Love. The band shared the sprawling, nine-minute title track lead single featuring Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin on backing vocals.

The band led by Louisville-based visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Ryan Davis released their debut album, Dancing On The Edge, in 2023. The new album sees Davis supported by his bandmates, Will Lawrence (drums/piano/vocals), Elisabeth Fuchsia (viola/violin), Seth Manchester (percussion/sub bass/software programming), Jim Marlowe (bass/saxophone/dood/ebow), Christopher May (pedal steel/resonator) and Aaron Rosenblum (violin/sampling keyboard/tape loops).

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band recorded New Threats From The Soul with Seth Manchester in late 2024 and early 2025 at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Along with Irwin, the album features backing vocals by Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy), Lou Turner, Jenny Rose and Myriam Gendron, along with instrumental contributions from Turner (flute) and several others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H693oWpeM4E

no offense, but two chords and a tuneless drawl...just sounds like junior varsity David berman to me. what am I missing

Well if you only heard two chords, I'd say you missed a fair bit of the song and listening again would probably be the best way to see what you're missing. But I'll add that even if he does sound like a "junior varsity David Berman" (not necessarily saying I agree), that's still pretty good, right? I don't know of any other newer artists I'd even think to compare with DCB, while Davis has some lyrics I can genuinely imagine Berman having written, plus some good lyrics that DON'T sound like Berman lyrics. And these songs have winding structures and a slightly wider palette of sounds than what we heard on any of Berman's albums, so it's not like he's just trying to replicate the Silver Jews experience wholesale.

Also "Trains Across the Sea" only has two chords and a lot of people would say DCB had a tuneless drawl, so I wouldn't think those things would be inherently disqualifying!

The silver jews stuff is about the lyrics. The music is just a delivery vehicle. Whereas this guy has flutes, pedal steel, and guitar licks that I’ve heard a thousand times,

New release coming up. A couple of songs already streaming.

Nathan Salsburg in the liners for this release captures my experience w/ State Champion nicely:
“The songs are all earwigs; the arrangements genuinely thrilling, enlivening efforts by the crackerjacks that comprise the sprawling Roadhouse Band. Each trip through the record reveals more of the depth and breadth and tangle of its tapestry.”

I totally get calstars’ take. All I can say is multiple listens are rewarded and expect the same here.

Amanda Petrusich in a New Yorker article loves his new one while acknowledging the David Berman comparison. She also thinks his lyrics remind her of southern novelist Larry Brown.

She doesn’t seem to mind how long his songs can be.

wasn't sure if I liked the new one *quite* as much as Dancing On The Edge, but it's creeping up on me. cool that he's getting some real attention!
this one on Ryan's label is fantastic: https://sophomorelounge.bandcamp.com/album/grace-rogers-mad-dogs

loving the new album. he throws it all in there on the “mutilation springs” arrangement. and it’s gonna take a lot of listens to pick up everything in “the simple joy”. so many details. can’t wait to get to know this one as well as I did Fantasy Error.

the WSJ, and Pitchfork like the new one also

this is ok but i think the textures are more interesting than the songs and i don't really get why the songs are so long. like it manages to get away with having such long songs but none of them really feel like it was necessary, they just drift along

kinda agree with ufo

Thing is, I had the same response to State Champion. But something kept me going back and the more I listened the more I loved it. Fantasy Error is my favorite album of the last ten years and even still there's bits that feel like a surprise. May not work for everyone, which I get. It never clicked for a friend of mine who I thought would come to love it.

kinda agree with UFO also

it's not a bad album but it's pretty quickly had diminishing returns for me

i like this album a lot, and am enjoying the way the songs meander. there's a lot to pick up on. i think only the "mutilation" songs drag. i love the moment where "monte carlo" brings in an amen break out of nowhere

good record, but the obvious shift from "a couple places wrote about the last album" to "every major publication is doing a feature ahead of this album" is a little gross/sad ... just in that i wish the folks who had access to write those pieces were telling me about the *next* Ryan Davis now, not all getting in line at the same time. oh well ...

yeah, it's like the few music writers left with big readerships are all working from the same checklist, and none of them seem the slightest bit interested in trying to "break" a new artist that hasn't already been vetted. I know the assigning editors are probably the ones to blame for this, but still: so boring

fwiw I like this record

I mean, I just have a hard time believing there are editors at Uproxx, The New Yorker and NPR telling Hyden, Petrusich and Powers that they want a Ryan Davis feature

And if you pay attention to Hyden at all, Ryan Davis is basically pure Hyden bait.

Yes, a feature by him was the slam dunk of the year.

Just to be totally clear, I'm not complaining about the attention for Davis. I like the record fine and he deserves whatever shine he can get for all he's done.

i wish the folks who had access to write those pieces were telling me about the *next* Ryan Davis now, not all getting in line at the same time. oh well ...

Yes! Still mad I didn't hear about Dancing on the Edge until a year after it came out. No way I would've missed it if it'd gotten even half the coverage the new one is getting. Though I do think New Threats from the Soul is a step forward for RD+TRB, and I'm not surprised it's getting more attention. After several listens I was feeling like the level of quality was about the same as DotE, but then I went back and listened to DotE and was surprised to find it seemed a little limp in comparison. Great songs, for sure, but now it comes off as more of a solo album, while NTftS really takes advantage of the band and their abilities.

I love the album as a whole, but it's kind of too bad "Mutilation Springs" is the song that gets revisited, because it's the weakest one performance- and arrangement-wise, and inviting us to contrast it with "Mutilation Falls" doesn't help. Also disorienting to have a verse or two of the lyrics carried over while most of them are different. I like the repeated goofy keyboard intro though...it's like the interstitial music that plays when we cut to a scene from Mutilation Springs/Falls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp50RFjfylc

I saw him and his band last night, and they were great. Sound was fantastic too, kudos to the sound person.

Nice video! That's great to hear. Hoping to see them in December. Saw Davis solo earlier this year opening for Bill Callahan and enjoyed it, but I really want to get the full band experience.