Brooks Strause

Cartouche Records

Brooks Strause’s new LP, The Chymical Wedding of Brooks Strause, out 10/09/2015 on Cartouche Records.

Born in Muscatine, Iowa, Brooks Strause has been playing and singing since the age of 13.  After many years, and playing with multiple bands, he moved to Iowa City and put together his regular backing band, The Gory Details.

The Chymical Wedding of Brooks Strause was recorded with Pat Stolley (The Multiple Cat) at Futureappletree Too studio in Davenport, IA, in 2013. Strause approached Stolley to make the album, with Strause laying down vocals and guitar. Pat Stolley played bass, and called in fellow musicians, Phil Pracht (drums), John Gamino (keyboard), and Jeff Jackson (guitar), to round out the record.

The Chymical Wedding of Brooks Strause was written in the early months of 2012 after Strause went through a break-up and responded by getting heavily into mysticism, including tarot, magick, and rituals.

He first envisioned the record to have a fifties-era rhythm and blues sound, later deciding it would benefit from a greater level of personal detachment. This is the first of Strause’s seven solo albums not to be produced or co-produced by himself. In his words, “Pat did an excellent job and it turned out to be one of my favorite records.”

Strause has opened for such varied acts as Dawes, William Elliott Whitmore, Simon Joyner, The Daredevil Christopher Wright, Kurt Vile, Greg Brown, Poison Control Center, Dax Riggs, Mac DeMarco, and Murder by Death.

Strause’s bands include Septic, Marvin’s Hour of Power, The Heart Attacks (with fellow songwriter Ben Driscoll), and The Old Scratch Revival Singers. He has played Daytrotter’s Barnstormer 2 tour, and continues to play with critical acclaim around the Midwest.

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“Considered by a cult following both locally and nationally to be one of our generation’s most prolific, prescient, and prophetic songwriters, Brooks’ lyrics tell us about our own world in ways that make us questions everything.  With each release and new song, he digs deeper, but never offers answers.  That’s up to you.”

   – Chris Ford, Maximum Ames Records