The Desperate Ones, Nic Garcia’s third full-length album (and his first on Yer Bird), is a dark, swirling road trip - all wet gravel, breathless engines and bleary predawn. The album is a markedly different affair from his previous releases (2003’s Blue Howl and 2004’s Sheep & Wolf) in that it wraps Garcia’s bleak, meditative prose in lush keyboard textures, drawing on modern composers like John Zorn and Ennio Morricone.
The songs relay an obscured North Dakotan narrative - unfolding through hints and suggestions like a strung-out reading of Springsteen's Nebraska. The world created by Garcia is one both mythic and tangible - showcased most strikingly on the apocalypic fever-dream of ‘Crosses’ - and is created almost solely with his haunting voice, skeletal guitar work and rich, varied keyboard playing. Also contributing to the album is Secretly Canadian’s inimitable June Panic.
Yer Bird is very proud to release Nic Garcia’s The Desperate Ones - it is an album of both rare beauty and lurking danger from one of the Midwest’s great, largely-undiscovered voices. We are certain that the album will find favor with those who like Leonard Cohen when he’s menacing, Songs: Ohia when Molina is at his most gripping, Neutral Milk Hotel at their most lyrical, or even Sufjan Stevens when he strikes that perfect balance between naked language and brilliant ornamentation.
1. Song One
2. In the Time of the Wolf
3. NE.
4. The Black Turn Pink (mp3)
5. Triumph (mp3)
6. The Wasp
7. Their Crimes
8. The Desperate Ones
9. Kiss the Highway
10. Crosses
11. Safe
12. The Ones Who Waste the Day
13. Onward
"We probably shouldn't have read the press release while spinning this album...because as a result we couldn't get the idea out of our heads that Nic Garcia sounds something like a cross between Leonard Cohen and Sufjan Stevens. However we got the idea, any comparisons to these two artists are most certainly complimentary. Nic Garcia's nice, understated personal tunes feature sparse arrangements and wonderfully breathy, subdued vocals. This young man writes tunes that seem to come straight from his soul...and his delivery is top-notch. Classy tracks include "In the Time of the Wolf," "Their Crimes," "Kiss the Highway," and "Onward." Cool stuff. (Rating: 4++++)" - Babysue.com
"For his third LP, Garcia wants the atmosphere of an empty afternoon church when he pares organ with spare guitar, yet foreboding shatters the North Dakotan peace on 'Their Crimes.' Otherwise, this is a hushed, Library-worthy piano 'n' even slighter guitar affair augmented by Garcia'swhisper-singing little a hesitant Eric Matthews. This makes for a solitude-by-a-cold-rocky-shore feeling - again offset by darker intimations, as on 'The Black Turn Pink' and the title track. All in all, Desperate is gently unsettling and meditatively, quietly creepy". - Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover
"Evocative of empty skies and long car journeys, Garcia takes you somewhere very special. The 'why' and 'how' of it is almost inexplicable – could it me the tremolo of his guitar, the whisper of his voice, the strange ambience of the record, the vacancy of his lyrics that transports you? I don't know, but what ever he does, he does it and he does it well. I challenge you to listen to 'Crosses' and not have someone physically shake you afterwards in order to bring you back." 4/5 - Music-News
"Finally... Local musical genius, Nic Garcia, now in Minneapolis has a label putting out his records. Yer Bird Records in Charlottesville, Va put his newest album, The Desperate Ones. A subdued masterpiece, that has that sort of Red Red Meat/Caliphone staring into space quality. It features contributions from local yokels Joe Bailey and June Panic. We in Grand Forks always knew how good Nic is and it's nice to see someone agreed with us!"
- BigAngryNate.com
"Garcia still delivers in a whisper somewhere between Elliott Smith and Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), he's now just discovered a way to put it to better use. Production might have something to do with it, but it's easy to see that his confidence as a vocalist has grown leaps and bounds. Whether he's letting it sit comfortably between his strumming or float above the grander accompaniment, Garcia's voice has found a new, fresh place. We'd be wise to follow." - The High Plains Reader
"Opening with the atmospheric "Song One," Nic Garcia's The Desperate Ones builds like a slow burn. Twenty-first century folk tales of the slo-core variety, Garcia walks in stride with Conor Oberst in his folkier moments, bar Oberst's acquired-taste vocal stylings.The album immediately strikes a balance between stark, minimalist, singer-songwriter fare and the more upbeat and produced songs that give the listener a touchstone to contrast the latter. This contrast plays off one another creating the perfect Winter palette... When Garcia sings "it's cold and it shows," you believe every word."
- Aquarium Drunkard
"On Nic Garcia’s newest, The Desperate Ones, or more specifically, the mp3s below, he reminds me of a one man Picastro or Low. His songs are sweetly mellow and sparse which add to the winter-esque feel (and timely release of his album)... Definitely a must if you like singer songwriter types like Elliott Smith, Nick Drake but with an atmosphere of slowcore bands like Low."
-Mystery & Misery
