Cass McCombs has announced the release of “Seed Cake On Leap Year”, which is available digitally now and in physical format on 8th November 2024, marking his return to the Domino label. “Seed Cake On Leap Year” is a collection of early, previously unreleased music recorded at Jason Quever’s apartment at 924 Fulton Street in San Francisco while McCombs was living in Berkeley between 1999 and 2000.
The Bay Area in the late 90s was home to a community of artists including Papercuts, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Chris Cohen’s Curtains, and Mt Egypt. The ethos was for maximum integrity and intimacy, and often music would only be shared with close friends. Graffiti writers, skaters and old timers from the 60s were never far away or far from mind. A live performance at San Francisco State University brought McCombs’ music to the attention of Quever, who went on to become an enduring collaborator, and the two friends quickly got to recording: playing all the instruments themselves, trusting their first takes.
Inspired by traditional folk, blues, and gospel, McCombs approached lyrics as the chief concern, and a distinct voice emerged. For example, on ‘Anchor Child’, his itinerant protagonist “had his pick of parents to abort.” This early attempt at storytelling as allegory touches on two things: a drifter character that mirrors McCombs’ own wanderlust, and an impression of his own psyche, hinting at unpleasant memories or a possible reversal of fortune.
Always following a mindset of moving forward, ever forward, this was a brief but productive phase in McCombs’ career before he hit the road and travelled the country, eventually landing in New York City, where he would make the music that would come to reach a wider audience.
You can pre-order “Seed Cake On Leap Year” here. In tandem with the release, Cass presents videos for ‘Anchor Child’, ’Baby’ and ‘I’ve Played This Song Before’. In the latter’s opening line “Songs are sung every day/So what can I say to find my own way?” he charts his own path, always rooted in tradition but facing the unknown.
