Album Notes

Despite the name, Wicked Immigrant is neither an evil band of migrant workers nor a right-wing anti-alien group. It is, in fact, just two guys with a fucked up sense of humor and the urge to create melodic, home-recorded music with a tinge of orchestral bombast.

Formed in 2003, John and Chris enlisted the help of friends and significant others to create "Reunion of Cynics," an indie-folk album that has no illusions about its stylistic schizophrenia. Plucked acoustic guitars, cut-rate synthesizers, agile basslines and aging cellos and pianos arrange themselves in a resolutely mid-fi way. Fuzzy vocals compliment lyrics that speak alternately of hope, despair and the drunken dismissal of both.

John (in Denver) and Chris (Dayton, Ohio) mailed Zip discs to each other in order to create the album, layering their contributions over the last half of 2003 to assemble the 14 water-damaged tracks. Never having practiced or played together in the same room, the members created a distanced musical dialog of epileptic proportions. If Lou Barlow woke up from a drunken night of GBV karaoke, he'd put this on to diffuse his hangover.

Chris and John also started the low profile home-recording collective Friendly Psychics Music, based equally in Dayton and Denver. Friendly Psychics Music has released albums like Upstate's soundtrack EP to the independent film "Missing," Bullet Gastino's last two full-lengths, Dishwater Psychics' "The Signal Will Fade," and the Tarantula Dinner Party's "Have a Seat." FPM is currently recording a new Tarantula Dinner Party EP and Upstate LP.

WICKED IMMIGRANT
John - vocals, guitars, synths
Chris - bass, smokes

with:
James Focht - electric guitar on 2, 3, 5, & 9-13
Sarah Arnold - cello on 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 & 13
John Metzger - electric guitar on 5
Buddy Watson - piano on 5