East River Pipe 'Mel'
Secretly Society
This year marks the 30th anniversary of 'Mel.' The beloved and long out-of-print East River Pipe album — F.M. Cornog’s second on Merge Records — was announced late last year as Merge’s first entry in Secretly Distribution’s Secretly Society Record Club, the first time 'Mel' would be made available on the format since its original issue in 1996. The reissue, which features new liner notes by Barbara Powers and serves as the definitive edition of 'Mel,' uniting the album with songs that were once exclusive to US and UK versions of the CD, sold out immediately. Today, that edition of...
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Songs: Ohia 'Didn't It Rain'
Secretly Society
Every writer has a story about the assignment that got away; for music journalist Stephen Deusner, the story was that of Jason Molina and Songs: Ohia's 2002 record 'Didn't It Rain.' In 2014, on the wings of Secretly Canadian reissuing 'Didn’t It Rain,' Deusner pitched an ambitious oral history featuring some of the people who knew Jason best and might be able to lend some humanity to an artist who had always been mythologized — often by himself. Sadly, the piece was not published at the time, but nearly a decade to the day after its inception, the oral history was issued via...
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90 Day Men Pt. 3
Secretly Society
Back in the mid-nineties, a group emerged from St. Louis, later moving to Chicago, where they'd go on to make some of the most beguiling and unique music of the time. They were 90 Day Men. Over four albums and a few EPs, the band's sound developed into elaborate, experimental, baroque songs, influenced by the world around them and delving back into prog, sixties art rock, and beyond. Later this month Numero Group will release a new deluxe 25th anniversary edition of 90 Day Men's '(It Is It) Critical Band' LP, including a previously-unreleased album tracked at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio...
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90 Day Men Pt. 2
Secretly Society
Back in the mid-nineties, a group emerged from St. Louis, later moving to Chicago, where they'd go on to make some of the most beguiling and unique music of the time. They were 90 Day Men. Over four albums and a few EPs, the band's sound developed into elaborate, experimental, baroque songs, influenced by the world around them and delving back into prog, sixties art rock, and beyond. In part two of this three-part series from the Secretly Society Podcast, Tim Kinsella, a fellow Chicagoan and friend of the band, guides us through conversations about 90 Day Men's early singles, working with...
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90 Day Men Pt. 1
Secretly Society
Back in the mid-nineties, a group emerged from St. Louis, later moving to Chicago, where they'd go on to make some of the most beguiling and unique music of the time. They were 90 Day Men. In this three-part series from the Secretly Society Podcast, Tim Kinsella, a fellow Chicagoan and friend of the band, guides us through conversations with the members and other folks who were involved in the scenes and movements that they operated in. Over four albums and a few EPs, the band's sound developed into elaborate, experimental, baroque songs, influenced by the world around them and delving back...
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Secretly Frequencies - Hatchie
Secretly Society
G'day! Today on the Secretly Society podcast we welcome one of our label family's rare Australian artists, Harriette Pilbeam, who you will know much better as Hatchie. Starting out playing in bands as a teenager in Brisbane, Hatchie put her first single out under her own name in 2017 and quickly picked up interest in both her home country and internationally. She signed with Secretly Canadian in 2021, released her much-acclaimed follow up album 'Giving the World Away' in 2022 and just dropped her latest, the sweet and salty 'Liquorice,' last week. Chatting with her fellow countryman Max...
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Secretly Frequencies - Lonnie Holley
Secretly Society
Today’s guest is the inimitable Lonnie Holley, and to say that he has a rich and long history is an understatement. While Lonnie is a relatively recent addition to Jagjaguwar since 2018, he’s been creating for decades as a sculptor, painter, musician, and poet; his visual art work is included in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his musical collaborators include Bon Iver, Richard Swift, and Alabaster Deplume. There’s no story quite like Lonnie’s, and co-hosts Tom Davies and longtime Jagjaguwar A&R Eric Deines make it down just the tip of the iceberg in...
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Secretly Frequencies - Jensen McRae
Secretly Society
You may have heard her on your TikTok feed, opening for MUNA, or on the silver screen; Jensen McRae is a polymath and a manifestor. She released her second album ‘I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!’ on Dead Oceans this past spring, and it’s already landed on several critics’ best-of-2025-so-far lists. Self-described as "one house down from the girl next door," Jensen joins co-hosts Catalog Project Manager Coco Segaller and A&R Samantha Urbani for a game of name that tune. Jensen covers the power of moving on, meeting your heroes, and lyrically swinging between crying and...
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Secretly Frequencies – Porridge Radio
Secretly Society
Tune into Secretly Frequencies with Dana Margolin of Porridge Radio. Dana started Porridge Radio while still a university student, and met natural collaborators Georgia Stott (keyboards), Sam Yardley (drums), and Maddie Ryall, and later, Dan Hutchins (bass). The “sometimes twisted, often transcendent, always incendiary” band came to an end earlier this year, and today's chat with co-hosts Tom Davies and A&R Director Adam Nealon serves as a chance for Dana to look back over a decade spent making music under the Porridge Radio moniker. Dana reflects on visual and sonic art connections...
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Secretly Frequencies - drink sum wtr
Secretly Society
Today’s guest is Nigil Mack, head honcho of All Flowers Group label drink sum wtr. With roots in hip hop, R&B, and alternative, the emerging record label looks beyond trends to invest in a new cultural legacy, releasing music from Annahstasia, THEY., Gareth Donkin, Aja Monet, and more. Prior to co-founding drink sum wtr, Nigil served as an A&R at Motown and Republic Records, where his signings include Kid Cudi and focused on artist development on numerous projects; an A&R consultant for Atlantic Records, and as a manger of artists such as DRAM. Now lending his ear to the...
info_outlineThis year marks the 30th anniversary of 'Mel.' The beloved and long out-of-print East River Pipe album — F.M. Cornog’s second on Merge Records — was announced late last year as Merge’s first entry in Secretly Distribution’s Secretly Society Record Club, the first time 'Mel' would be made available on the format since its original issue in 1996. The reissue, which features new liner notes by Barbara Powers and serves as the definitive edition of 'Mel,' uniting the album with songs that were once exclusive to US and UK versions of the CD, sold out immediately. Today, that edition of the album is available for digital purchase via the Merge Records webstore and East River Pipe’s Bandcamp page. To further celebrate the occasion, Secretly Group has released a new episode of their Secretly Society podcast, featuring Powers’ reminiscence of the time during which 'Mel' was recorded and released.
Like all of East River Pipe’s output, 'Mel' was written, performed, recorded, and mixed by F.M. Cornog on a Tascam 388 mini-studio at his home, which was then a small apartment in Astoria, Queens. Within that space, he conjures nothing less than the fullness of life beyond it, the characters and moods of New York, the way a city can feel limitless and isolating all at once. It’s a daunting accomplishment, one which led The New York Times to call him “the Brian Wilson of home recording.” 'Mel' is an intricately-textured indie pop tour de force, its layers of keyboard and reverb-drenched guitars giving flight to Cornog’s voice, which observes the doomed figures of the city with the intimacy of a documentarian and the egolessness of someone who has been through despair and survived.
'Mel' is an offering like few others, its 14 peerless gems a direct channel from F.M. Cornog’s heart to yours. Shelter from the storm, you might call it. Uplift for the downtrodden. A masterpiece, even among Cornog’s considerable catalog, this edition of 'Mel' is perfect for both kinds of East River Pipe fans: those who’ve been around for years, and those who didn’t know they needed these songs in their life until now.
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