Good Grief

Singles

In 2022, Alex Bingham (aka Magic Al) was blindsided by the deaths of his best friend, his aunt, and his college roommate within the span of a few months. As death has a habit of doing, these losses set his heart to questioning many things that had formerly felt concrete. He realized it had become harder to find the passion for music-making he’d once considered intrinsic. Searching for a new orientation, he turned to his inner child and began the recording experiments that would become Good Grief: An ode to endurance by way of joy-making; to dancing as a target and a cure.

To create his 9-track cathartic dance party, Bingham enlisted an all-star roster of songwriter and vocalist pals, including Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, Caamp’s Taylor Meier, Mountain Man’s Molly Sarlé, Rosali, and Mipso’s Joseph Terrell among several others. These collaborative tracks join a handful of solo instrumentals to create a kind of producer’s mixtape.

Over the last decade, Bingham has cemented himself as one of the most beloved side musicians–primarily as a bass player–and producers in the world of folk and indie rock (especially emanating out of the Triangle of North Carolina). You might have seen him with Hiss Golden Messenger, Beth Orton, or Watchhouse, or heard his studio piloting of records by Libby Rodenbough and Lou Hazel. Now as Magic Al, Bingham has found the perfect pseudonym for his solo work.

Many of the tracks sprouted from the sense of a memory of his best friend, John, or his Aunt Angie which Bingham would then try to blow up to the scale of a song. He recalled John’s love of strumming along to CCR or Neil Young songs and found moments to lay breezy acoustic guitar over his stoner-ABBA beats. In this way the record-making served as a personal process of memorial, and beyond that a way to bring his living musical compatriots into a kind of togetherness with his lost loved ones. Throughout Good Grief, you can feel Bingham’s yearning to bridge the divides between dead and living, between profundity and lightness, between mourning and dancing.

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Performance Credits

• Alex Bingham - Vocals, Bass, Mpc, Juno, DX7, Mellotron, Minilogue, Moog, Acetone, tr-8, Rubber bridge guitar,   Wurli, Lap Steel pad, Organ, Highstrung Guitar 

• Whit Wright - Lap Steel, Pedal Steel

• Brevan Hampden - Congas, Shaker, Tambourine, Percussion

• Matt McCaughan - Drums, Modular Synthesizer

• Alexandra Sauser-Monnig - Background Vocals

• Vivian Leva - Vocals

• Riley Calcagno - Guitar

• Taylor Meier - Vocals

• Erin Rae - Background Vocals

• George Sluppick - Tambourine, Percussion

• Chris Frisina - Vocals, acoustic guitar

• Ariel Pocock - Wurlitzer, Minilogue 

• Chris Boerner - Electric Guitar

• Chris Gelb - Drums Percussion

• Amelia Meath - Vocals, Background Vocals

• Molly Sarle - Vocals

• Saman Khoujinian - High strung Guitar 

• Sam Fribush - Wurlitzer, Organ,  Juno

• Ben Sloan - Percussion

• Joseph Terrell - Vocals, High Strung Guitar

• Chessa Rich - Background Vocals

• Libby Rodenbough - Vocals, Background Vocals, Rhodes, Highstrung Guitar, 

• Sam Owens - Guitar

• Rosali Middleman - Vocals, Background Vocals

Production Credits

• Produced by Alex Bingham

• Recorded at Bedtown Studios Lakehouse

• Engineered by Alex Bingham

• Mixed by Sam Owens

• Mastered by Chris Boerner

• Cover Art by Nathaniel Russel

• Photos by Jason Blyskal and Chris Frisina 

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