Bob Parins w/ Josh Mease - $6

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Bob Parins of Brooklyn might be most known these days as the bass player of California Folk-Rock band Vetiver, but a little investigation will reveal that he's been involved in a long, trailing cloud of interesting musical projects before he joined up with Andy Cabic and company (and since). Bob has played and recorded with the likes of Rufus Wainwright, the Clientele (with whom he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), Fruit Bats, and members of the Shins, to name a few. He has music in french film "Jusqu'a toi" (Parins/Manchon composition "Nowhere" sung by Sufjan Stevens) and the american "Paper Man" this year. Most impressive though are Bob's own recordings. the sound is eclectic yet familiar borrowing from a wide palate of sounds ranging from Flamenco music to T-Rex. Bob's 2nd solo effort "lucky Little guy" will be released in Wisconsin at Mother Fools on July 24th.

Josh Mease, originally from Houston, Texas, lives in Brooklyn, where he can often be found exploring the abandoned corners of the city, finding peaceful solace in cemeteries, empty swimming pools, and abandoned waterfronts. His debut LP, Wilderness, is the result of these wanderings.-- Each song evokes a scene from an imaginary world. The album takes us from the front porch summer swing sing-along "Days Like This" to the day-glo world of "White Diamonds" and ends with the ambient and beautifully strange "Tall Trees." Mease also shows a talent for love songs. "I See You," a duet featuring Jess Martins (Via Audio), is a lovely campfire stargazer about finding your other half - and "Eleanor" evokes silent movie imagery from the past. The topics of each song are diverse, but the theme remains that world of Mease's mind where the music and listener are safe from the daily hustle.