Mary Jane Dunphe (of Vexx, CCFX, CC Dust, Pinocchio, and other bands) released her first solo album, Stage Of Love, last week (8/25) via Pop Wig Records. According to her latest bio, the album is “sequenced as a long walk alone that starts at midnight and ends at 5:00 am with the birds chirping,” and it includes a cover of Roland S. Howard’s “I Know A Girl Called Johnny,” alongside nine original experimental pop songs, with themes ranging from an emergency dental surgery to desire to solitude.
It was made with musical and production from contributions Todd Berndt (The Berries) and Ben Greenberg (Uniform), and Mary says, “I think it’s kind of antiquated to try and make an album like I did–to spend all my money trying to write in the studio, to take years to do so, to slow cook it. We live in a very anti-masterpiece culture today–I’m not saying that this is a masterpiece at all, it’s more a document of me getting to know myself on a creative level, but it’s an attempt at it, there’s an ambition in it stemming from my adoration for the heroes of music’s days of yore.”
Mary has made us a list of the music (and some other things) that influenced the album, including Björk, Robert Wyatt, Section 25, Tones On Tail, Broken Water, and more. Read on for her list, with commentary on each pick…
Jacque Lacan
The album and title track are named after a quote by Jacque Lacan that “To love is to give something you don’t have to someone who doesn’t want it.” I have been reading a book of his lectures on Anxiety for years now. I just pick it up and read a page or two and snack on it for weeks. Anxiety really always seems to have something to do with desire. That, and longing. I don’t always get what he’s saying but it always seems to stir me around and makes me restless with ideas I might be mis/reading.
Section 25 – From the Hip
This album is so bombastic! All the beats are so melodic and everything is kind of happening at once yet the album on a whole has all these ebbs and flows. Beautifully paced, sincere, danceable, ’80s pop made by weirdos and without sounding particularly commercial. My friend David Jacque put them on a tape for me when we started CC Dust and it never really left the inspiration rotation. Also the bass! I love writing bass-first and their bass lines are so inspiring.
Robert Wyatt
I bought his first album Rock Bottom from Rainy Day Records in Olympia without really knowing him and first track “Sea Song” moved me to tears with the first listen. As a musician, his career and output is everything I wanna be. Fluid, always feeling around for what he wants to make, to do, and doing it. I love his cover of “At Last I’m Free” and I listened to it a lot while I was making the record. I would gladly make anyone I know a Wyatt mix if they asked for it.
Björk – “Show Me Forgiveness”
Haunting—Björk lays things out so plain that its confrontational quality becomes other worldly. She always inspires me to feel around inside my voice, to think texturally and spatially, that layering vocals can mean so many things.
Tones on Tail – “The Rain”
Maybe my favorite song period. Best use of reverse reverb ever. The song is perfect, I love an extremely long intro like “Sound and Vision” by David Bowie. I like a song that creeps up in you, and, like a proper enchantment, by the time you’re in a wash it’s already drifted away.
Broken Water – “Heal”
Also one of my favorite songs of all time. Broken Water has a big place in my heart. I love the bass everything (tone, melody) in this song and how it somehow feels like its forcing you to slow down while you listen while never actually slowing its own pace. I moved to NYC from Olympia going on seven years ago and whenever I feel home sick, not so much for the town but a feeling, I can listen to them and its like a little compass rose for my life.
Poetry Project / St Marks Church
Taking classes and going to readings at Poetry Project always relights my fire. It’s such a sick space full of people who love poetry and understand usefulness of a day dream. I’ll go through notes I’ve taken while sitting in on events there years after and its always super helpful for me when beginning to frame a song in my mind.
Casual Bicycling
The way I think when riding a bike is so specific. I also love listening to music on a bike (headphones in—I know extremely irresponsible), falling in and out of being myself and just integrating fully with the city traffic, feeling like I don’t matter but in a positive way. In quarantine I would ride in the rain late at night and sing sometimes dancing with my hands and wrote a lot of songs that way,
Rowland S Howard
Such a thick mood. Vindictive melancholy. Over the top poetic lyrics that only he could get away with. Sparkling guitars and all the bass lines (especially on Pop Crimes) are insanely grooving. I love him and when I was going through it while making this album Rowland S. Howard was there like a steward of loneliness.
Late night / early mornings alone
When all you can hear are the birds. And everyone seeing the sun rising feels like they’re the only ones looking. It’s a time I’ve only been awake for on the very best or the very worst nights. When I can’t stop the thoughts so I go walk until I can’t. Or I wake up and realize its that perfect pre-dawn event-time so I stay up and bask in the silence. It’s never a time I write music but it’s a time that I can think sort of ecstatic stuff to myself and the air just smells better.
—
Mary also has shows coming up, including a run supporting Spirit of the Beehive that hits Kingston, NY’s Tubbys on 9/12 and Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on 9/15; a run supporting her Pop Wig label heads Angel Du$t (whose upcoming album she sings on); and the Fiddlehead show at NYC’s Webster Hall on September 23 with Never Ending Game and Praise. All dates:
Mary Jane Dunphe — 2023 Tour Dates
09/08 Philadelphia PA @ Johnny Brenda’s ^
09/09 Arden DE @ Arden Gild Hall ^
09/10 Baltimore MD @ Current Space ^
09/12 Kingston NY @ Tubbys ^
09/13 Montreal QC @ The Diving Bell Social Club +
09/14 Brattleboro VT @ The Stone Church ^
09/15 Brooklyn NY @ Babys All Right ^
09/23 New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
11/13 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre !
11/14 Salt Lake City, UT @ Beehive !
11/15 Boise, ID @ Shrine Ballroom !
11/16 Seattle, WA @ Neumos !
11/17 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre !
11/19 Reno, NV @ Holland Project !
11/20 Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone !
11/21 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex !
11/22 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction !
^ with Spirit of the Beehive
! w/ Angel Du$t, Candy
* w/ Fiddlehead, Never Ending Game, Praise
+ w/ Automelodi
