First Listen: Rosegarden Funeral Party’s Dreamily Dark Debut LP MARTYR!

Texas goth group Rosegarden Funeral Party (interviewed previously at post-punk.com here) have provided an exclusive streaming version of their debut LP, Martyr, below.

Martyr has been in the works for a couple of years now, and singer Leah Lane — whose meticulously crafted lyrics and moody, Siouxsie-like vocals provide the band’s gravitas — recently remarked to a Texas media outlet:

“We’ve hit roadblock after roadblock trying to get Martyr out to everyone, and now we’re literally just setting all of the roadblocks on fire.”

Rosegarden Funeral Party’s 8-song debut LP Martyr can be ordered here and streamed at the end of this article.

The current single for Martyr is the album’s second track, “Mirror Image,” whose video is below. (The video was filmed, edited, and directed by Erin S. DeVany of All Hallow’s Productions at Rosegarden Funeral Home, the shared home of the band that has recently hosted the Obituary series of goth events in the Dallas, Texas area.)

After shopping around for labels, Rosegarden decided upon Moon Sounds for the LP’s release, citing the label’s release of their previous EP, The Chopping Block. (Note: Moon Sounds is the Texas shoegaze/postpunkfounded in 2012 by Jacques Urioste; the label’s roster also includes the likes of Ceremony, Dead Leaf Echo, and The Foreign Resort. ) “I like the dichotomy of beauty and pain,” singer Leah Lane mentions. “Siouxsie and the Banshees are definitely a huge influence on us, of course.  But we’re also big fans of Pink Turns Blue, Flowers for Agatha, Human Tetris, 45 Grave, Skeletal Family, Soft Kill, Boy Harsher, the Birthday Party. There’s so much more that influences us… I could go on forever.”

The dual rhythm section of Wil Farrier on bass and Dylan Stamas on drums provides the propulsive power of Martyr‘s pensive take on Juju-era 80s goth pop; throughout the 8 songs of the new LP’s approximately 40 minute playing time, Leah’s voice guides the listener through delicately woven tales of loss, catastrophe, trauma — and the at-times uncertain and ambiguous reconciliation with a past that can not be changed. Martyr is streaming below.

ROSEGARDEN FUNERAL PARTY – MARTYR LP (2019 – Moon Sounds Records)

TRACK 1: “Fade to Black”:

TRACK 2: “Mirror Image”:

TRACK 3: “AMC”:

Track 4: “MARTYR”:

Track 5: “Never Coming Home”:

Track 6: “Pills”:

Track 7: “Gaslighting”:

Track 8: “Streetlights”:

Martyr can be ordered here.

Rosegarden Funeral Party have a Bandcamp page here, and a Facebook page here.

Rosegarden Funeral Party will be celebrating the release of Martyr on Sunday, November 24th in Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas at Three Links in a show with Lorelei K, Sub-Sahara, and Oakland’s Vio\ator. The Facebook event page for the show, with further details, is here.