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The Cool Cloud of Okayness

by Tara Jane O'Neil

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140g vinyl LPs with full color labels packaged in extra heavyweight, full color photo jackets with 11x11, 3-color, Risograph-printed lyric sheets. 9 tracks, 37 minutes.

    Cloud vinyl edition: 250 copies

    Vinyl pressed by Smashed Plastic
    Jackets printed by Stoughton Printing
    Insert printed by Issue Press

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Cool Cloud of Okayness via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $22 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140g vinyl LPs with full color labels packaged in extra heavyweight, full color photo jackets with 11x11, 3-color, Risograph-printed lyric sheets. 9 tracks, 37 minutes.

    Classic Black vinyl edition: 250 copies

    Vinyl pressed by Smashed Plastic
    Jackets printed by Stoughton Printing
    Insert printed by Issue Press

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Cool Cloud of Okayness via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

1.
a cool cloud of okayness covered us for a season then a strange wind blew a strange day. not everyone just saw the sun set on the sea so lucky us, how lucky we how strange who gets another day. take one last glance at a world gone past. take the hand of chance, it shook you and shook me and our cool cloud of okayness rained on we may our cool cloud of okayness rain on we.
2.
Seeing Glass 04:04
outside of how story goes- a blue night, clear and slow outside the fold we find which way we go. into the blue there you go relieve the bruise, beautiful. outside the life a peacock journeys home. into the blue there you go across the moon a peacock flew in robes out to the truth- you never were alone.
3.
Two Stones 05:35
amitaba. i saw the ash become the hand absorbed in sun absorbed in sand and here i stand with god in hand another day and here i stand i saw the ash become the hand absorbed in sun absorbed in sand two stones in the ocean, and here i stand and here i stand and here i stand with god in hand no words to sing but we are standing
4.
We Bright 03:13
look upon us now oh lover all the givings we've seen thru where we wear and old tattoo now there was once a bleeding wound where the ocean comes and goes out look again and see this too where we first received the arrow there remains a joyful wound for joy is a form of fight, we bright.
5.
A Dash 00:44
6.
on another day walk up on the hill and back again in that sun we played blinded by the chaffing of the days there, you would believe your eyes a voice without caution, rise. another day ring around the moon and back again dig in again from inside the wheel we spin spun some kind of miracle when the wheel turns, over we go over and again and then we go the love you gave ring around in your peculiar way dig in time love, fall and rise there, you would believe your eyes a voice without caution rise over and again and then we go over and again and then we go
7.
Curling 05:32
in this lonely world what a lovely curl shake out a pearl hold it on your tongue hold it in a curl what was once a girl changes shape again made up again in a southern stream, in an ancient dream what was once a girl curling in between the pearl and a scream changed shape again made it up again one step forward in this lonely world what a lovely curl change shape again make it up again one step more, forward
8.
Fresh End 06:17
9.

about

Tara Jane O’Neil- Bass, Bass VI, Guitar, Keyboard, Percussion, Vocal
with
Sheridan Riley- Drums (except Cool Cloud, A Dash, Kaichan Kitchen)
Walt McClements- Accordion, Keyboards, Trumpet (except Cool Cloud, A Dash, Kaichan Kitchen)
Meg Duffy- Guitar Processor 10 (Seeing Glass, Two Stones)
Marisa Anderson- Guitar ghost notes on Cool Cloud of Okayness
Jody Bleyle and Twylo Landey- vocals on Glass Island
Sonny Koch and Devika Wickremesinghe- vocals on Curling
Jmy Kidd, Teeny, Lena Kassof- Ambient Vibe

Recorded and Produced by TJO at Upper O
Mixed by TJO and Scott Hirsch at Echo Magic Sound
Additional recording on Cool Cloud by John Morgan Askew at Bocce Studios
Mastered by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering

Cover Collage by Sara O’Neil
Clouds and Cosmic Eggs by TJO
Layout by Miles Wintner

Transformation is what happens in the hinge between before and after.

A house burns down and is rebuilt again, persons become spirit, known worlds break apart and fall together again. Tara Jane O’Neil’s new album, The Cool Cloud of Okayness, was written amidst the skirmishes and shuffle of the seven years since her self-titled album (although there has been a fascinating array of collaborations, tributes, rarities, and experiments released in the interim). Recorded by TJO at her home studio in Upper Ojai, California, a studio built on the ashes of the home lost to the Thomas Fire.

Many of The Cool Cloud of Okayness’s nine tracks were developed in the time between the wildfire and the rebuilding, between lockdown and reopening. TJO, her partner (dancer, choreographer and frequent collaborator) Jmy James Kidd and their dog sheltered from the storms in the high desert of Southern California and the deep suburbs of Louisville, KY. In these locales were discovered the improvised bass guitar figures to Kidd’s dance which transformed into songs during pandemic isolation, then brought to the ensemble of drummer/percussionist Sheridan Riley (of Alvvays), multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements, and on a couple, guitarist Meg Duffy (of Hand Habits). They build and gleefully destroy and rebuild again. There is joy in the ensemble’s shared queer identity- an identity that refuses to be agreed upon. This record too challenges any easy genre or definition. This record is sculpture and portrait of times and loved ones gone past. It is spiritual and it is psychedelic. TJO’s deft production and rock-solid bass playing hold the center, and her spectral guitar and singing voice carry the message.

The Cool Cloud of Okayness sings sometimes like a promise, sometimes like a mantra. It says “We are bright, like the fire. Joy too can be a way of fighting.” In the persistent rhythms, every repetition feels like a challenge. How many times around the sun? What changes every time? How much loss can someone take? Grief becomes a feedback loop that drones on and on, yet if we listen closely one can almost hear the hope sprouting up, little seedlings pushing through the mud. The Cool Cloud of Okayness is both a celebration and a requiem, it transforms grief, it carries a torch, and the torch is bright.

“where we first received the arrow
there remains a joyful wound

for joy is a form of fight,
we bright.”

-from “We Bright” by Tara Jane O’Neil

credits

released April 26, 2024

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Tara Jane O'Neil California

TJO is a multi-instrumentalist,composer,producer and visual artist. She creates melodic and experimental music under her own name and in collaboration with other musicians, dancers and filmmakers. As a solo artist she has released 10 full-length albums.A founding member of Rodan and guest player for countless others, TJO has performed around the world at DIY spaces, festivals and the Pompidou. ... more

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