Photo: Caroline Hamel

According to legend, Burner Herzog was born under an Oakland new moon while Jasper Patrick Leach (Brasil and several others) was recording “Dark Places,” a song on Burner Herzog’s debut Wonderful American. After recording Brasil’s At Paradise Park (twice), Leach had decided to return to home recording. “I became frustrated with the traditionally linear process of making rock records and realized I needed to rethink my approach,” Leach explained over email. “Once I began to work in this new mode, the things that started coming out did not sound like Brasil songs.”

The work of Burner Herzog explores slightly stranger and more pop-oriented sounds than Brasil, but what remains is Leach’s charming persona that has been present in all the projects he’s fronted since we were first introduced to him five years ago.
Burner Herzog found an all-too-perfect group to release his debut — the DIY pop masters at Death Records. Listen and click through to buy below.

You can catch Burner live a couple times over the next couple of weeks: first Thursday night at El Rio, and then early next month at his big release party at Eli’s in Oakland.

Burner Herzog, Toxic Slime Records, Ziplock
El RioSeptember 21, 2017
9pm, $6 (21+)

Burner Herzog, Shame Waves, Frank Ene, Minerals –
Eli’s Mile High Club
October 6, 2017
8pm, $10 (21+)