Photo credit: Aaron Cansler
St. Lenox has unveiled "Your Local Neighborhood Bar", the final single off new album Ten Modern American Work Songs due out this Friday, October 25 via Don Giovanni Records / Anyway Records. This is Korean-American artist Andrew Choi’s fifth album under the musical moniker. Dropping just before the U.S. Presidential election and dedicated to the NYU Law Class of 2014 on its 10th anniversary, the new collection showcases his unique brand of humor (recently toured with Paul F. Tompkins, Matt Besser and others) and political prowess while harnessing his life experience to raise questions about the definition of success and the journey through higher education and the American workforce.
With his singular combination of tight pop melodies, topical and confessional lyrics, and his cathartic vocal howl, Andrew takes the journey full circle with "Your Local Neighborhood Bar" in which the protagonist, now an attorney in New York, recounts his previous after-work musical pursuits, at the open mic at Andyman's Treehouse in Columbus, OH, with the open-mic host, Joe Peppercorn.
Watch / Share: “Your Local Neighborhood Bar” video
Like many Millennials and Gen-Xers, Andrew grew up with the narrative that quality work and education would eventually lead to personal salvation and provide a path to upward mobility. To that end, Andrew became a pillar of achievement: flying to New York City to study violin at Julliard on weekends as a teenager, graduating magna cum laude from Princeton University, earning a PhD in philosophy in his 30s, attending law school at NYU Law and working in Manhattan at a law firm, while simultaneously grappling with the struggles of modern working life: low wages, massive student debt, and burnout. This tremendous amount of experience—and all of the observations therein—is channeled into Ten Modern American Work Songs. “I want the record to be a snapshot of work life in modern times,” he says. “I try my best in these records to provide a kind of realism. I want the listener to come away with a vivid feeling of what it's like to work these days. Because ultimately that kind of realism is motivating to people on an ethical and political level.
Anyone who has ever paused to wonder “What’s this all for?” as they climb the next rung in capitalist America will find solace in these stories, which, taken together, paint an evocative portrait of 21st century work life.
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