Teddy Presberg and his psychedelic soul collaborative have been kicking up dust for almost two years in preparation for the release of pigWar's first full-length record. Eight tracks bursting with Portland players (like David Coniglio of 1939 Ensemble; Arietta "Mz. Etta" Ward, the eldest child of the late Janice Scroggins; and Tony Ozier, leader of the Doo Doo Funk All-Stars and the monthly Dookie Jam showcase at Dante's) allow Presberg and Co. to deftly roam from funky, organ- and horn-filled territories to head-banging hard R&B, all of it body movin' in the best way, on this self-titled debut.
While several of the record's cuts capably jam their way to the six-minute mark, the record's first single, "El Fin," may be the longest, slowest burner as it, appropriately, closes out pigWar. "It's actually a remake [listen to the original below] of the first time I collaborated with the singer, Garett Brennan, on my productions," explains Presberg, pigWar's principal songwriter. "I had made the track for a conceptual studio album several years ago that was never meant to be played live. I sent this music to Garett and he just one-taked a bunch of nonsense on a cheap mic and sent it back to me. But man, it had such a vibe that I worked forever to make that crappy recording sound decent! The track has been placed in some TV shows over the years and is one of my more popular tunes. All of the music in pigWar is all new and specifically written for the project, but we thought it would be cool to try and pull off 'El Fin' live. It actually got pulled off pretty good and we encore with the song every time we play."
pigWar's self-titled debut is due out on December 1 via Outright MusicThus, the re-envisioned version and first single now has a video "made entirely of carefully handpicked and manipulated public domain archival footage in conjunction with a pair of singing lips constructed solely for this project by the Portland-based musician and artist Joshua Rivera from his video production company, Rollstars," Presberg says.
As for the record as a whole, Presberg spent time in the Bay Area at Transistor Sound, "the home base for the soul band Monophonics," he says. "We thought it would be cool to have our weird soul music tempered a bit by their gear and ears! Ian McDonald and Kelly Finnigan of the Monophonics recorded and mixed the album for us. We cut everything live to tape down there and then did some editing and overdubs at my studio, Outright Music, which is based in Portland."
