Click here to download new hi-res photos of Kendra Morris (credit: Rosie Cohe)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kendra Morris Embraces Imperfections On I Am What I’m Waiting For (Out now on Karma Chief / Colemine Records)
Kendra Morris’ new album I Am What I’m Waiting For (Karma Chief / Colemine Records) is out now. Produced by Torbitt Schwartz aka Little Shalimar (Run The Jewels), I Am What I’m Waiting For is not only a sophisticated and joyful reinvention, but an unfiltered expression of Morris’s worldview that luxuriates in the little details. Featuring Morris’ towering voice over 11 shimmering songs bursting with dusty funk, R&B and touches of indie rock, it’s a rare record that doubles as self-portrait, unvarnished yet thrilling because of its imperfections.
I Am What I’m Waiting For has been featured on KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune, Flood Magazine, Brooklyn Reader, support overseas from BBC and Jazz.FM, and Morris will be featured on WNYC’s Soundcheck program next month. In a rave review, MOJO deems the album “joyous,” calling out the “jazz-tinged no wave,” “bubblegum pop” “Amy Winehouse style funk” and “nod to David Axelrod’s The Edge” heard throughout.
Today she has also released a new music video, for “Dominoes.” A delightfully sardonic and hilarious skewering of the conflicts of domesticity and cohabitation, Morris sings: “On Tuesday, you want to cook a meal, and all your dishes are piled up like a hill to hell / And if I climb that hill, I’m gonna do something bad.” The video for “Dominoes” was created by Morris and Julia Haltigan, filmed in her Brooklyn home with VHS tape and features her husband and pasta-loving dog, Jerry. The video features stop motion animation created by Morris as well.
Watch the “Dominoes” video here
Morris will tour through the summer and fall across the US and internationally, including a hometown release show at Union Pool in Brooklyn on September 23rd. See below for the full itinerary, with the tour launching September 6th.
While celebrating a recent birthday, Morris was shaken by the realization that old habits were holding her back. Something needed to change, and fast. She began writing new songs and rethinking some of her old ones. Less-than-perfect takes were tolerated. She put a moratorium on love songs. As Morris put it: “I needed to scare myself into growth.” Most of all, she dove into the details. Leading up to the release, Morris has shared “What Are You Waiting For,” a swaggering groove that champions realness and self-reliance, and “When I Go To Space.”
I Am What I’m Waiting For is the result of a life dedicated to the pursuit of creativity. Before she truly found her groove, Morris spent every waking hour either flirting with the famous as a bartender at the Lower East Side dive The Library — which thrust Morris directly into the heart of Manhattan’s fertile post-Strokes creative scene — recording 8-track demos, or performing solo shows set to a backdrop of her own cassette tapes of stacked vocal harmonies. DIY since the beginning, she’s also an accomplished stop motion animation artist that has made many of her own music videos in addition to projects for Skinshape, Czarface, MF Doom, Kangol and more.
Interview Magazine has called Morris a “modern day Janis Joplin,” NPR praised her “lush, moody mix of neo-soul” and she’s worked with a wide array of collaborators, including DJ Premier, MF Doom, Ghostface Killah, and David Sitek. She burst onto the scene with her debut album nearly a decade ago and signed with Wax Poetics’ record label. She has recently locked into a revived, prolific groove: she signed to Colemine’s Karma Chief Records and released Nine Lives last year, deemed “beautifully sung” by MOJO. She reissued her 2016 album Babble earlier this year.
Kendra Morris’ new studio album I Am What I’m Waiting For is out now on vinyl, CD and digital/streaming platforms via Colemine / Karma Chief Records. Click here to order / stream.
KENDRA MORRIS 2023 TOUR DATES:
10/3/13 – Het Depot – Leuven, BE
10/4/23 – Le Pop Up – Paris, FR
10/5/23 – Jazz Sur Son 31 – Toulouse, FR
10/6/23 – Gorila – Zaragoza, ES
10/7/23 – Loco Club – Valencia, ES
10/8/23 – Intruso – Madrid, ES
10/9/23 – Sala Upload – Barcelona, ES
10/10/23 – Iboat – Bordeaux, FR
10/12/23 – La Sirene – La Rochelle, FR
10/13/23 – Paul B – Massy, FR
10/14/23 – Le Forum – Charleville Meziere, FR
10/17/23 – Le Poche – Bethune, FR
10/18/23 – Blues Kitchen – Manchester, UK
10/19/23 – The Forge – London, UK
10/22/23 – De Oostepoort – Groningen, NL*
11/3/23 – 7th St. Entry – Minneapolis, MN
11/4/23 – xBk Live – Des Moines, IA
11/5/23 – Hideout – Chicago, IL
11/6/23 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
12/8/23 – Tellus 360 – Lancaster, PA
12/10/23 – DC9 – Washington, DC
12/14/23 – Motr – Cincinnati, OH
12/15/23 – Square Cat Vinyl – Indianapolis, IN
*supporting Lee Fields
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE INFO ON KENDRA MORRIS:
Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Bandcamp | Colemine Records
FOR RADIO AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS:
Tony Bonyata
Pavement PR
p: 262.903.7775
e: Tony[AT]pavementpr.com
http://pavementpr.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2021 ANNOUNCEMENT FOR KENDRA MORRIS’ NINE LIVES ALBUM
Kendra Morris’ new LP Nine Lives marks not only the culmination of the decade since the release of her first LP Banshee, but also a turning point in Kendra’s life professionally and personally. This album heralds the beginning of a new chapter; a new label, and an evolution to the next level of adulthood. Nine Lives is a collection of her original songs encapsulating moments from what could be nine lifetimes lived over a chronological time period, or nine lives lived simultaneously in parallel and convergent realities. Kendra, while very much a New Yorker and veteran of almost two decades on the NYC music scene, hails from Florida and aesthetically embodies the broader sense of American culture, bringing to her contemporary sound a myriad of influences found in music and cinema dating back to the mid 20th century.
Kendra, though she hates to fly, will never refrain from boarding a plane to get where she is going. Her music, however, conjures imagery evocative of endless road trips to weird and wonderful places. Concurrently a visual artist, filmmaker and animator, Kendra harnesses the feline nine lives metaphor again and again. In the context of the chapters of her musical trajectory alone, we see at least nine lives. Discovering the joys of multi-tracking and harmonizing with herself on a karaoke machine in the closet of her childhood home, to playing in cover bands in Florida, moving to NYC with the band she was leading to perform her original music in 2004, dealing with the breakup of that band by creating music alone on an 8 track, once again in her closet, meeting longtime producer Jeremy Page and signing to Wax Poetics for the release of her 2012 debut LP Banshee, self-releasing her 2016 EP Babble and going on to collaborate with artists such as DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, MF Doom, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey, and David Sitek, to name a few.
Truthfully, the life of this multi-disciplinarian artist contains multitudes of units of time and story lines through which we can all relate to universal themes of love, loss and overcoming one’s fears, and be inspired by Kendra never ceasing to heed her spiritual calling to continue creating music and art, no matter what.
With no plans of slowing down but a belief in only evolving, the question lies in what will be her next nine lives?
Kendra Morris’ new Nine Lives album is out now on vinyl, CD and digital/streaming formats via Karma Chief Records. Purchase / stream here.
HUGE THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING RADIO STATIONS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN SPINNING KENDRA’S NEW ALBUM NINE LIVES!
BOMBSHELL RADIO, CHLY (Nanaimo, BC) CKOL (Campbellford, ON) THE FACE RADIO (Brooklyn, NY) KCBX (San Luis Obispo, CA) KDHX (St. Louis, MO) KDNK (Glenwood Springs, CO) KDUR (Durango, CA) KFFR (Winter Park, CO) KGNU (Denver, CO) KHOL (Jackson Hole, WY) KKFI (Kansas City, MO) KNSJ (San Diego, CA) KOTO (Telluride, CO) KSJD (Cortez CO) KTUH (Honolulu, Hawaii) KUPR (Pacitas, NM) KVMR (Nevada City, CA) KVNF (Paonia, CO) KVSC (St. Cloud, MN) KXCI (Tucson, AZ) NPR (National Public Radio) RADIO AGORA 105.5 (Austria) RADIO BOISE (Boise, ID) RADIO PHOENIX (Phoenix AZ) WBOI (Fort Wayne, IN) WCNI (New London, CT) WFHB (Bloomington, IN) WFMU (Jersey City, NJ) WMCO (New Concord, OH) WMFO (Medford, MA) WMPG (Portland, ME) WMSE (Milwaukee, WI) WNMC (Traverse City, MI) WOHM (Charleston, SC) WRUW (Cleveland OH) WQSV (Staunton, VA) WSUM (Madison, WI) WXNA (Nashville TN) WYCE (Grand Rapids, MI)
MORE INFO ON KENDRA MORRIS:
https://www.kendramorrismusic.com
FOR MEDIA AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS:
Tony Bonyata
Pavement PR
p: 262.903.7775
e: tony@pavementpr.com
https://pavementpr.com