ALBUM PREMIERE: The Schramms Stick to Creative Rock Sound With Cinescopic LP ‘Omnidirectional’

Dave Schramm is perhaps best known as an original member and lead guitarist for Yo La Tengo, but over the years has worked with a wide assortment of notable artists from the Replacements to Richard Buckner and all points in between. In recent years, he created the Radio Free Song Club with singer / songwriter Kate Jacobs and disc jockey Nicholas Hill, a successful radio show / podcast showcasing a group of songwriting heavyweights that’s included Victoria Williams, Peter Holsapple, Freedy Johnston, Laura Cantrell, Robin Holcomb, Howe Gelb, Peter Blegvad, Jody Harris, Don Piper, Amy Allison, Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric.

Schramm and Ron Metz had been playing with cult faves Akron, OH’s The Human Switchboard before Dave fell in with guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley, joining Yo La Tengo for their debut album, Ride The Tiger, and the recordings that preceded it. He would re-unite with the band along with Greller on their much-beloved 1990 release Fakebook as well as its 2015 sequel Stuff Like That There.

After the release of Ride The Tiger, and a subsequent tour, Schramm struck out on his own, reuniting with Metz who’d recently arrived in New York. At their first gig, they billed themselves “The Schramms” as a joke, but the name stuck! There were several early line-ups, some including other Yo La Tengo alumni, with personnel shifting even as work started on their first album, Walk to Delphi. The Tall Lonesome Pines’ Al Greller joined as bassist and has been with the band ever since.

Omnidirectional is the seventh album from The Schramms, a beautiful work of art that was ten long years in the making. Frontman / guitarist / writer Dave Schramm has painstakingly assembled an expansive, cinescopic work that will delight long-time fans and new listeners alike. The album features drummer Ron Metz and bassist Al Greller who’ve played together with Dave in The Schramms since the 1980s, with JD Foster (Lucinda Williams, Richard Buckner, Calexico, Marc Ribot) producing. Omnidirectional is being released by the venerable independent Bar/None label on June 21st.

Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive early listen to Omnidirectional. Though the album wound up being recorded in sporadic bursts over the course of a decade, the end results reveal a labor of love for all involved and well worth the wait. Beginning with the eerie, moody opener “Honestly Now”, the album is an expansive work of the kind of creative musical sounds that have strangely become a signature for a handful of indie rock bands from New Jersey. Bringing to mind Radiohead, Yo La Tengo, and darkly emotional college rock of the early 90s, the album takes listeners on a complex journey. There are layers of sound and plenty of experimentation, and yet for all its artsiness each song is beautifully melodic. Throughout listening, it’s clear that The Schramms engage in an intensely creative process when putting together songs, and even after so many years they still are excited to create music that sounds genuinely different than anything else out there.  

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Photo credit: Ellie Kitman