Name: Zorked
Brand: Julia Shapiro

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SSQ186LPC1

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Colour

Clear

Colour details

Coke Bottle Green

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

1750

Release date

2021-10-15

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0803238018614

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / clear

SSQ186CD

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0803238018621

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Julia Shapiro

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Suicide Squeeze

Founded in 1996 by David Dickenson, Suicide Squeeze is a Seattle-based music label that has made its mark on the industry. With a focus on indie rock and alternative music, the label has consistently released high-quality albums from both established and emerging artists. Known for their commitment to supporting unique and innovative sounds, Suicide Squeeze continues to be a driving force in the music scene.
Over the years, Suicide Squeeze has built a reputation for discovering and nurturing talented musicians. Their roster includes notable acts such as Modest Mouse, The Black Keys, and Elliott Smith. With an impressive catalog of releases spanning various genres, the label prides itself on offering diverse musical experiences to its listeners.
As an e-commerce website dedicated to showcasing the best of Suicide Squeeze's discography, we are proud to bring you an extensive collection of albums from this influential label. Whether you're a fan of indie rock or looking to discover new sounds, our platform offers easy access to some of the most exciting music being produced today. Explore our selection and immerse yourself in the world of Suicide Squeeze.

Zorked (adj.) - what happens when you end up thunderbaked, as in extremely stoned or in any situation where you feel not sober. You can feel so tired you’re zorked. In fact, any state, so long as you’re a little out of it, quali­fies. And Julia Shapiro, of Chastity Belt, Childbirth, and Who Is She? much like everyone on this earth with a pulse was zorked on more than one occasion in 2020. In March, she packed up her things and traded Seattle’s late-winter gloom for the perennial sunshine and seemingly endless opportunity of Los Angeles only to be forced into near-total isolation. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, she began working on her second solo album, Zorked. On the resulting batch of songs, we’re given Julia’s vision of Los Angeles: a wasteland melting in slow-motion, a place to commune with ghosts and warped legacies.

Living within earshot of a man who spent his entire 2020 singing karaoke for over 10 hours a day, Julia could write, record, and play an album’s worth of instruments without fear of noise complaints. Her roommate Melina Duterte (Jay Som) transformed their house into a viable home studio, making it easy to fully realize the sound in her head, even at the height of a global lockdown. Taking things a step further, Melina agreed to co-produce the record, pushing Julia to make these new songs sound less like Perfect Version, her ­rst solo album, or like the songs she performs in Chastity Belt. At the peak of her uncertainty and discomfort, she jumped into the deep end in search of something new and found power in heavy sounds.

This is evident in the fi­rst few seconds of album opener “Death (XIII).” Taking newfound inspiration from the namesake Tarot card, drone metal, and shoegaze, Julia layers walls of guitars, bass chords, and programmed drums. “Come With Me,” the album’s lead single, takes inspiration from a mushroom trip gone bad. “Take me to awful places now,” she sings, envisioning heat death as her own eyes stare directly into the sun. On “Wrong Time,” shimmering guitars smolder and levitate, yet she fi­nds herself “stuck inside this hole I’ve dug.” That said, these songs aren’t unbearably sad, nor has Julia become any less of a merciless observer of human behavior. By album closer “Hall of Mirrors,” she’s come full circle. Over ­fingerpicked guitar, the sense of lost identity becomes all-encompassing.

It’s the sound of a life lived in servitude to digital screens and the psychic damage invisibly done along the way. Though Julia Shapiro found herself in a near hermit-like existence, writing and recording almost all of the album’s instruments herself and struggling to navigate her place in a city and world rendered nearly comatose, she maintains a sense of humor about all of it. At the very least, “It’s funny to force people to have to say Zorked out loud. Any other title sounded pretentious.”

Zorked

Music GB

Buy Julia Shapiro - Zorked (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.