Generationals

Generationals 2
Songwriters

Grant Widmer
Ted Joyner

Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer struck up a friendship as high school freshmen in New Orleans, La. While attending Louisiana State in Baton Rouge, the two formed The Eames Era with three classmates in 2003. The dissolution of that group in 2007 led to a return to New Orleans where Joyner and Widmer started writing songs as Generationals.

Baton Rouge-native and Eames Era producer Daniel Black (The Oranges Band) invited them to record their debut Con Law at his Washington, D.C. studio Bent Black in 2008, where incessant coverage of the presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain, and the issues dividing the candidates’ viewpoints, gave rise to the band’s name.

New Orleans-based label Park The Van (Dr. Dog, The Spinto Band) released Con Law in 2009. Its retro vibe clearly bore the infuence of Phil Spector’s mid-century pop, but Generationals’ influences always ran the gamut, with pieces of britpop, dance and electronic poking through the trumpet stabs and Abbey Road compression on their analog 24-track recordings.

The band maintained their obsession with tape recording on 2010’s Trust EP, produced in Austin, Tx. by freak-folk mastermind Bill Baird (Sunset, Sound Team). Trust saw the band drift away from the Brill Building origins of Con Law in favor of a new wave sound that owed more to The Sugarcubes and The Stone Roses than the Ronettes.

2011’s sophomore LP Actor-Caster revealed a band zeroing in on their strong suit: efficient pop songwriting. All ten of its taut, bright songs found their way into the band’s setlists as they hit their stride with a live confidence earned by relentless touring.

In 2012 a renewed and refreshed Generationals completed work on Heza, their debut LP for Polyvinyl Records, in their hometown of New Orleans. On Heza, Generationals aren’t so much shedding their old skin as growing more comfortable in the one they’ve always inhabited.

Releases

Generationals Heatherhead

Walking Moment
Dirt Diamond
Strangers
Death Chasm
Eutropius (Give Me Less)
Radar Man
Elena (ft. Sarah Jaffe)
Faster Than a Fever
Hard Times for Heatherhead
Dizzyland
Mitsubishi

Generationals Reader as Detective

I've Been Wrong Before
I Turned My Back on the Written Word
Breaking Your Silence
A List of the Virtues
Gatekeeper
Xeno Bobby
Society of Winners
Deadbeat Shiver
Save This for Never
Dream Box

Generationals State Dogs: Singles 2017-17

Keep it Low
It May Get Bad When You're Lonely and Cold
Catahoula Man
Silent Ocean
Mythical
Avery
Beggars in the House of Plenty
Days Alone
Kid
Turning the Screw

Generationals Alix

Black Lemon
Gold Silver Diamond
Reviver
It Took a Minute
Reading Signs
Charlemagne
Welcome to the Fire
Heart in Two
Now Look At Me
Would You Want Me

Generationals Heza

Spinoza
Extra Free Year
Say When
You Got Me
Put a Light On
I Never Know
Awake
Kemal
I Used to Let You Get to Me
Durga II

Generationals Lucky Numbers

Lucky Numbers
Hazel House
Sale City

Generationals Actor-Castor

Ten Twenty Ten
I Promise
Yours Forever
You Say it Too
Goose & Gander
Dirty Mister Dirty
Black & White
Tell Me Now
Greenleaf
Please Be It

Generationals Trust EP

Say for Certain
Carrying the Torch
Victim of Trap
Trust

Generationals Con Law

Nobody Could Change Your Mind
Angry Charlie
Faces in the Dark
When They Fight, They Fight
Our Time (2 Shine)
Wildlife Sculpture
Bobby Beale
Exterior-Street-Day
It Keeps You Up
These Habits