Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs announces the surprise release of Seed Cake On Leap Year, out now and marking his return to Domino, alongside last week’s reissues of 2002’s Not The Way EP, 2003’s A, and 2005’s PREfection via 4AD. Seed Cake On Leap Year is a collection of early, previously unreleased music recorded at Jason Quever’s apartment at 924 Fulton in San Francisco while McCombs was living in Berkeley between 1999 and 2000. In tandem with the release, Cass presents videos for “Anchor Child,” “Baby,” and “I’ve Played This Song Before.”

Everything those have come to love about Cass McCombs can be heard on Seed Cake On Leap Year. Already he had mastered the swooning, graceful melodies that seem transplanted from timeless songs across jukeboxes and transistor radios throughout America; same goes for his heady, gnarled way with conversational language that can bend righteous truths into riddles. “Songs are sung every day/So what can I say to find my own way?,” he announces in the opening line of “I’ve Played This Song Before.” And with those words he charts his own path, always rooted in tradition but facing the unknown.

The Bay Area in the late ‘90s housed a special 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 Jason 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, and moving on to the next Mission-style burrito or Lower Haight bar.

Inspired by traditional folk, blues, and gospel, McCombs approached lyrics as the chief concern, and a distinct voice emerged. For example, on “Anchor Child,” a pulsing quasi-anthem, 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 traveled the country, eventually landing in New York City, where he would make the music that would come to reach a wider audience. What’s so remarkable about Seed Cake On Leap Year is how vibrant and raw these songs remain, full of insight and wonder, in conversation with everything yet to come. There is a naked honesty to its youth and, while this might be as much naked honesty as Cass McCombs would ever allow himself on record, these songs only strengthen and deepen the mystery. Released alongside last week’s reissues, Seed Cake On Leap Year doesn’t alter one’s understanding of Cass McCombs’ story, but rather cements it further. 

Seed Cake On Leap Year is streaming everywhere now. It will be available on CD and vinyl LP on November 8th and is available to pre-order now through Domino Mart. To support the release of Seed Cake On Leap Year and the reissues, Cass will embark on the “As Paint on Fur” US tour next week. A full list of dates is included below – tickets and further information is available here.