Eight songs setting to music the last statements (verbatim) of executed offenders put to death by the state of Texas.

This 18-minute EP was released as a free download on May 1st, 2011, as part of a New York Times profile of Corey.

The EP is being arranged (by Corey) for the amplified chamber ensemble Newspeak who will premiere the arrangements in the fall of 2012.  The amazing soprano Mellissa Hughes will be the singer.

Also, the ensemble Le Train Bleu has commissioned a sequel, called, appropriately enough, More Last Words from Texas, which they will premiere on April 20th, 2012, at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY.  It is scored for chamber orchestra, with Corey singing.

Direct Download Link (zip)

Last Words from Texas

Listen to all tracks

Corey Dargel does words, music, vocals, all instruments, and production
©2011 Automatic Heartbreak (ASCAP)

1. Date of Execution May 13 2010
2. Date of Execution May 04 2006
3. Date of Execution December 15 1993
4. Date of Execution February 11 2004
5. Date of Execution July 11 2006
6. Date of Execution October 28 1997
7. Date of Execution May 19 2010
8. Date of Execution June 26 2007

Download all three songs in one zip file (MP3 files @320 kbps)

“a set of spare, earnest and—dare we say it—charming songs about depression” -Time Out New York

“Corey Dargel’s… involved, delicately refined instrumental writing…is offset by his arch, cabaret-tinged vocal style and the quirkiness of his texts…and, typically, he ma[kes] the grisly seem oddly charming.” -New York Times

“Dargel’s fierce ruminations on death are accompanied by the ecstatic violin loops of Cornelius Dufallo, a truly wonderful eight minutes of music. It’s Kafka Fragments for the SoHo crowd.” -Seated Ovation

“a bite-sized work of art that will get lodged in your brain for the next year” -Daniel Stephen Johnson

Corey Dargel’s Every Day Is the Same Day — scored for voice, violin, and digital looping, and performed by Dargel and Cornelius Dufallo — presents worst-case scenarios as possible solutions for boredom and loneliness. This free EP represents the beginning of what will eventually be an evening-length song cycle about clinical depression (yay! & cue drum machines!).

01. On This Date Every Year (3’16″)
02. You Can Say a Prayer (2’53″)
03. The Opposite of Love (3’01″)

Here’s a stream of “The Opposite of Love:”

Download all three songs in one zip file (MP3 files @320 kbps)

Fingers from REMOVABLE PARTS

featuring Corey Dargel and Kathleen Supové
directed by Emma Griffin
video by Kamala Sankaram

available on Corey Dargel’s album Someone Will Take Care of Me

The song is from Corey’s album, Other People’s Love Songs.

Keep Repeating Those Words

from the mag:

“Keep Repeating Those Words” by Corey Dargel
“When I was 19, I met this boy who stood outside the grocery store and rang the collection bell for the Salvation Army. He wouldn’t give me his phone number, but he gave me his elf hat and a balloon. I never saw him again, but I still have the hat. I often wear it during the holidays when I’m feeling depressed. It cheers me up. Holiday songs are usually about the things that make people feel good, but what makes me feel good is feeling bad.”

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