by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Philadelphia’s Russell Edling has cut himself out a place in the city’s DIY pantheon, first as a member of Kite Party and more recently with his latest band, Golden Apples (fka Cherry). Set to release his third Golden Apples album (the second under the current moniker) today, April 29th, via Lame-O Records (Trace Mountains, US Highball, Slaughter Beach, Dog), Edling continues to turn tension and resolve into artful indie pop on the self-titled record. His project is rooted in the strength of his songwriting, where dissonant guitars and fuzzy distortion set the tone for Golden Apples to explore relatable feelings of displacement, confusion, and depression. In celebration of the record’s release, we’re sharing both the band’s Live at the Bunk session (at the bottom of this post) and a track-by-track guide to the album, courtesy of Edling.
Good Times
I think Mimi [Gallagher] and I were in the kitchen or something and we started singing this song. Sarcasm is the path to true happiness. When we recorded this one, we just had everyone that was there in the same room with a bunch of room mics. It was the first time any of us had been hanging out in a group at all since the pandemic started and I think everyone felt a little funny, putting our freshly minted vaccines to the test. It was Tim [Jordan], Pat [Conaboy], Matt Scheuermann and Matt Schimelfenig, Mimi, Augusta [Koch], and I, and Benny of course. This whole record wouldn’t have been possible at all without everyone involved giving a lot of their energy and time into it, and I am so grateful to have such a strong community of friends who are down to do stuff like this with me. The song sort of builds up and turns a little eerie as a warpy synth drone creeps in, and then suddenly there are very loud MRI sounds for hopefully a little too long. Then it is over and the listener is left kind of suspended in space for a moment.
Grass
This song had a proper intro part but I felt like it would be better if the vocals kind of caught the listener (who we understand to be suspended in space) after the end of “Good Times”. This was one of the first songs we recorded. Shoutout to Pat Conaboy for playing the “wind” synth in the bridge part of this song. A lot of the songs on this record feature a synthesizer I got called a Korg Micropreset. It is a very simple old (1977) monophonic synth that the band Beak> uses a lot. I love it and try to use it whenever possible.
High School
This song had completely different vocal melodies for the verses up until pretty close to when we recorded it. I wrote the lyrics once I solidified the melody. Realizing now how important that is for me as a songwriter - I can’t just write lyrics and then apply them to a melody. I really need the melody to help conjure the imagery or subject. This melody and the chord structure and whatnot naturally made me think a lot about high school and the area where I grew up. The song reminded me of the Pixies and I remember I listened to Doolittle so much in high school. There are a few little Pixies references in this album; the “on a pile of trash from New Jersey” line in “Across the Ocean” is sort of a nod to “got killed by ten million pounds of sludge from New York and New Jersey” from “Money Gone To Heaven”.
Let Me Do My Thing
I wrote this song directly after a spectacular emotional breakdown a few months into isolating from the virus in 2020. Stephen King does this thing where he makes benign things scary. Like cars, clowns, dogs, etc. A red balloon becomes freaky, anyway I wanted to try to do almost the opposite and make my own struggles with depression and suicide less intense by writing the dumbest song possible about them. Because so often the triggers for those feelings are so benign. Spilled milk, etc. This is a thing that varies so much for everyone and I do not in any way mean to minimize the struggles of others. I’ve just found that sometimes if I can observe the absurdity in situations it can help disarm any impending emotional fallout.
Across The Ocean
When I started writing this song I was like “shit I think I am ripping off that ‘take the skinheads bowling’ song,” and I guess I hear it but not in a cease and desist kind of way. That song is cooler than mine anyway, but the spirit of like.. 1992-keys-sticking-throuh-a-hole-in-your-jeans / lingering-gasoline-smell was something I was trying to explore. When we recorded it we used a 12-string acoustic guitar that we borrowed from the Slaughter Beach, Dog guys. All of our songs are tuned to D and it took me like 45 minutes to tune the damn thing down. Of course I tuned it back up before I returned it. I remember the “Please Be Kind, Rewind” stickers on the tapes from 48 Hr video don’t you worry.
Bees
I had the chord progression for this song for a while, maybe a year or so before I started working on it in earnest. Probably from before Shadowland stuff, but anyway I couldn’t really stitch it together and I had no idea what the hell I was going to do lyrically. I wasn’t sure if it was going to sound garage-y or post-punk-y or anything. I did a really fast and sloppy demo that kind of anchored it in the sludge zone. The song always reminded me of the Hives in my head which is why I called it “Bees”. One thing that Matt (Schimelfenig) did that was cool was he recorded me playing acoustic guitar and ran it through an old reel to reel with the preamp cranked. It gave the song a really nice fuzzy drive that sort of permeates through the whole thing.
Beam
This was the first song we recorded, and we did it live in just a few takes. I am pretty sure I overdubbed more guitar stuff and vocals, but the majority of what is going on there was in the live take. We recorded most of the other songs in a more piece-by-piece approach but I think the energy of the live take really comes across in this one. Thematically, this song was an attempt to be a bit more optimistic. There is this Sparklehorse song called “It’s Not So Hard” where they make you wait til the second verse before the bass comes in, and it really hits. I wanted to try to do a similar move in this song. Mark Linkous forever.
Secret Life
I had initially written this song a very long time ago, as part of the first batch of songs that eventually became Cherry’s Gloom 7”. I wanted it to be a very garage-y kind of thing but it never materialized. I thought it would be a fun song to work on with the crew that had assembled for this record, and I think it came out great. We reworked the structure a lot and I rewrote the lyrics entirely. Mimi wrote lead guitar parts that saved the whole song I think. To me, the song describes the value of meditation. Sometimes when I get into meditative states I can actually separate from all the black magnetism of my head for a minute. In those moments I can almost see myself without a bias, and the mantras of “treat yourself like you’d treat a friend” and whatnot almost start to land. Luckily nothing lasts forever.
Cosmic Candybar
I wrote this song a week or two before we started recording it. I’ve been tuning my guitar down to D for the past few years, but when we recorded this one I knocked it down to C. That open C chord in the progression feels so low, almost like a baritone. You can almost drown in it, or at least I like to pretend. Matt Scheuermann played drums on this one. We were just kinda playing through it a bit, Pat Conaboy was playing bass. Matt started recording and after a few passes we had it down. The vocals are still a little pitchy though.
Slime
This is an example of a song that I wrote in a sudden flurry and immediately thought “well that was fun but its definitely a dumb song and it will definitely not be on the record and IF it somehow is I will definitely rewrite the lyrics.” When it came to recording it almost exactly as it was in the demo, Tim really wanted to lean into the sorta cheesy/lovely rock and roll grease of Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, etc. You can hear Tim doing those low vocals at the end, and Matt Scheuermann singing some high harmonies too. I think the reason I didn’t change the lyrics or anything at all is because the more I thought of it, the more it all made sense to me. Similar to High School, this song I think came from my adolescence.. and all the reckoning that happens there. Making weird faces at yourself in the mirror, melting legos with a stolen lighter, sneaking a Mike’s Hard Lemonade from the cooler at your sister’s graduation party and convincing yourself you are drunk, putting your hair in liberty spikes using hair wax that doesn’t wash out for days, etc. All the ways you realize you are a freak, even if you are alone and lonely and howling at the moon. I am 33 and I still feel the exact same way, kiss my ass.
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Thank you if you made it this far and thanks so much to Matt Schimelfenig, Augusta Koch, Benny, Dan Angel, Matt Scheuermann, Mimi Gallagher, Pat Conaboy, Tim Jordan, Justin Fox, Kian Sorouri, Melissa Brain, Lame-O. Happy release day cuzzes.