WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY COMPLETES NEW ALBUM REGARD THE END, ITS FIRST FOR KIMCHEE RECORDS

Relocates from Boston to Californias Mojave Desert, Kristen Hersh, Blake Hazard and Jess Klein are Among Special Guests Named Album of the Month by Uncut Magazine"

LANCASTER, Calif. (PRWEB) November 10, 2003 -- Willard Grant Conspiracy, the band fronted by Robert Fisher with as many as 31 rotating members throughout the world, has completed its fifth full-length album, Regard The End, kicking off its relationship with Kimchee Records (http://www.kimcheerecords.com). The album is slated for a February 17, 2004 release. The band with a truly global following will accompany their album with an extensive U.S. tour.

The album also marks the move of Fisher from Boston, where he spent the past 23 years and established the band, to his boyhood home of the high desert communities just north of Los Angeles. From there Fisher co-ordinates the band members, who reside in disparate locales including Boston, Holland, U.K. and Japan. Fisher devotes nearly all his time to the band, announcing its plans and seeing who raises their hands to participate. Additionally, the band enlisted Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses), Blake Hazard, and Jess Klein, all of whom contribute vocals on the new album.

Regard The End follows 2000s Everythings Fine and previous albums 3 AM Sunday At FortuneAutos (1996), Flying Low (1998) and Mojave (1999), with several key differences. Fishers songwriting has begun its transition into weighty subject matters such as death, hope and faith, as traditional songs meld with new Fisher compositions in such a way that its impossible to discern which is which. River In The Pines" from 1865 sits beside Beyond The Shore," a new composition, and are strangely unified. Additionally, the new album marks the departure of guitarist Paul Austin as a full-time member (although he appears on the disc, giving the album a bigger, more layered sound and more air." It was recorded in Slovenia since that was where the band happened to be at the moment the album wanted to be born.

In a way, the album is a meditation on morality," Fisher says. The theme is a classic in all art -- how you relate to your death is how you define your life. Most of the songs are about grief and loss and coming to terms. Its not a blues record but it has cathartic effects. I write the songs and the band makes them breathe and live. And then the audience brings their own experience to bear in the songs. It doesnt matter whether we play them in Sweden, Germany or Texas -- people seem to find commonality."

Uncut magazine has already named the import version of Regard the End its Album of the Month," adding All done, Regard The End is the first Willard Grant album to truly immerse yourself in. In ditching most of their traditional band ethic, they've tapped into the finest folk gothic traditions of death, suffering, misery and hardship and fashioned a paradoxically uplifting, transformative record of extraordinary power."

Upon completing Regard The End, Fisher moved from his longtime roost of Boston to his early home of Southern California's Antelope Valley -- a setting that was surreal then and remains so today. The area, seldom celebrated in nearby L.A.'s active mythology, sits at the lip of the Mojave Desert. Both Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart whiled portions of their formative years in Lancaster/Palmdale. And today Fisher lives where encroaching exurban sprawl subsides to salute the joshua trees and the rattlesnakes, and where the free-standing '50s Googie-style diners and motel courts were built amidst the region's erstwhile aerospace optimism. Today, the area is a multicultural urban refuge set amidst big spaces and even bigger skies, the sun setting colorfully over Sams Club.

Its like coming home but its changed dramatically," Fisher says. its an agricultural oasis in the middle of the desert -- turkey farms coexisting with aerospace, rural and high-tech, people in trailers in the middle of nowhere. Theres space here and it allows you to do a lot of things."

Regard The End will find some new ways of reaching an audience. The song "Soft Hand" will be heard in the movie Stuck on You, directed by the Farrelly Brothers and starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, and due for release December 12.

The band will perform at SXSW in March, 2004, and an extensive U.S. tour will follow immediately. Those wishing updates (or additional background) may visit the bands web site, http://wgc.hinah.com/

ABOUT KIMCHEE RECORDS

Kimchee Records, an independent label located near Boston, has existed since 1996 to foster and develop singularly inventive rock and pop artists. Included among these artists are Victory at Sea, Paula Kelley, Thalia Zedek, Helms, 27, Suntan, and Blake Hazard. Primary distributor is Nail/Allegro, with recordings through the Revolver and Carrot Top outlets as well.

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For information on Willard Grant Conspiracy, contact The Baker/Northrop media Group:
Cary Baker   (818) 986-5200 x 222 cary@bakernorthrop.com