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Charles Latham

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Hometown	Philadelphia, PA
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About the Artist

"Latham's music is passionate with biting wit."--NPR

"One of the sharpest songwriters to emerge of late on the antifolk sphere...Charles Latham could be your new hero."--The Independent Weekly

"3.5 stars out of 5"--Pitchfork

Originally from Washington, DC, Charles Latham began playing music professionally while living in Brighton, England as a student. The UK's folk-punk or "antifolk" scene adopted him as one of their own: Latham was the only non-British act to perform at the 2004 Winter Antifolk Fest in London. It wasnt long until he was playing frequent gigs in Brighton and London, including a sold-out performance with Scottish indie band Ballboy. In 2005, Latham was voted "Best of Sussex" by a panel of judges at the Sussex Battle of the Bands, winning the grand prize.
After returning to the States, Charles Latham completed his first full-length album, "Pretty Mouth" in the spring of 2006; the album is a collection of home recordings captured on an 8-track in various locations in the UK and at his home near DC. The album was self-released, and has been met with enthusiastic acclaim in both the US and UK (see Press). Several songs from the album, including "Memorabilia" and "My Perfect Church", have received frequent airplay on college radio; "Nice (to me)" is currently a featured song on NPR. "Boot Hill" is listed as one of the top "Songs of the Times" on Neil Young's Living With War site. A non-album track, "The Internet Sexual Predator Talking Blues", a song about the scandal surrounding ex-Congressman Mark Foley, was given 3.5 out of 5 stars by Pitchfork.
Since releasing "Pretty Mouth", Latham has played frequent shows in New York City, along with many shows in the Raleigh-Durham area of NC, where he lived and worked from 2005 to 2007. He was one of the acts chosen to perform at the 2006 Troika Festival with The Mountain Goats and Portastatic, provided support for Merge Record's Oakley Hall, and was a performer at the Midtown Dickens CD release with Kimya Dawson. In late 2006, Latham created Antifolk SouthEast, a loose collective of folk-punk musicians in the Raleigh-Durham area, and co-produced the Antifolk SouthEast Winter Extravaganza 2007, a showcase of musicians in the collective, and the first festival of its kind in the area. The event was sold-out. Latham was a featured performer in the 2007 Fortified Summer Antifolk Festival in New York City.
Recently, Latham relocated to Philadelphia, PA. Before leaving North Carolina, he released a limited edition LP, "Beltline". The well-attended CD release show at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC featured a performance by the critically acclaimed Bowerbirds.
"Legend: The Best of Charles Latham", a collection of songs from his various releases, is currently available as a digital album through iTunes worldwide. Latham continues to write, record and perform.

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Drown In The Tears Of Your 20s

Press Coverage

Charles Latham turns the Triangle to antifolk by The Indepedent Weekly

Track Review: Charles Latham by Pitchfork
Bob Dylan was rarely the hold-hands-and-sing folk writer some imagined: Sure, he wanted the world to be better, but he was a devout individualist, a kid from the Midwest living in the city under a new name, trying to make himself happy. His songs spoke less to Peter, Paul & Mary utopianism than his what’s-going-on utilitarianism. Fast forward four decades, and “Mr. Tambourine Man” might have been called “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.” Durham’s Charles Latham gets this: In this clever, unavoidable rub on Mark Foley, Latham laments everything, from the conservative stance on homosexuality to Washington’s predilection for doling blame. He decries politicians’ reproductive rights, and notes that Monica Lewinsky was old enough to smoke that cigar. Over ramshackle acoustic blues, Latham even recommends sterilizing legislators, as if to say pedophilia is this administration’s least important lost cause. People can't see eye-to-eye on every issue-- Latham's humor admits that much here. But maybe they could stop fucking with each other.

"Pretty Mouth" review--The Independent Weekly by Grayson Currin
Charles Latham writes like a tortured gemologist: Every time he digs just beneath the crust and finds a jewel, he admires it without cleaning it, refusing to polish away the dirt left from the earth that shaped the object of his obsession. Likewise, when self-described antifolk songwriter Latham finds a perfect melody or twist of phrase, he leaves it alone, obstinately refusing to shape it to perfection. His uncertain words remain as is, addled by a world that thinks his losing streak is nifty, and paired to the cracks in his voice and the buzz of his tape machine. It's an absolutely winning effect. Over the nine songs on Pretty Mouth, Latham maintains his sanity by manning up to screwy situations in his own semi-serious way: "Nice (to Me)" confronts a beneficiary who had rather buy Latham dinner than give him a smile. He seems genuinely agitated by what's happening, his guitar strings rattling and his voice cracking, pleading "Why can't you be nice to me?" again and again without flinching. But winks come in spades: "You can be hot for me, buy all my pot for me;" "Wear thongs, write songs or sickly devour me;" "Most of you is a ghost of you that's vanished, my dear." He's resigned to joking about his place for some small personal victory, and the images invoke empathy as much as laughter. Elsewhere, songs about wet dreams as symbols of mounting mundane frustrations ("Nite Man") and praying to a one-man, materialism-friendly god from a toilet seat ("My Perfect Church") pit major problems against a minor crooked smile. Even the protagonist from one of the disc's more stoic moments, "Applications for Employment," dives for grins: His attempts to sell out have been unsuccessful, though his business suit makes him shifty. "Vacationing when it's economical," he's painted in enough hyperbole to make him amusing. Latham is a ramshackle arranger with a sharp pen. That combination gives Pretty Mouth pretty much all the polish, dirt and shimmer it should ever need. --Grayson Currin

NPR's Open Mic: "Nice (to me)" by NPR
Open Mic, May 15, 2007 · Charles Latham is a lo-fi indie folk artist originally from Washington, D.C., now living in Chapel Hill, NC. Citing artists from the Beatles to Prince as influences, Latham's music is passionate with biting wit. In his online bio, Latham says he "blew (his) inheritance on a massive underground bunker, which (he) stocked with low-grade instruments, recording equipment, liquor and ready-meals." Since it was completed he's "released an album a year, most of which have disappeared into obscurity." Latham moved from D.C. to Brighton, England in 2003 to go to school. But he found he was more interested in making music. He won a songwriting contest at the University of Sussex, where he was studying English, and was awarded some free studio time. He used the prize to record his first album. After attending several Open Mic nights in Brighton, fans told them he was making "antifolk" music. Though Latham had never heard the term before, he's since come to identify with its aesthetic: a sound rooted in punk rock that's raw and brash with more traditional folk instrumentation. Latham's latest CD is Pretty Mouth and the featured track is "Nice to Me."

"Beltline" review--Urban Folk Magazine by Urban Folk
Charles Latham ~ Beltline When I saw Charles Latham perform recently at the New York AntiFolk Fest, his unique lyrical perspective as well as his ability to wail some pretty high notes captivated me immediately. If the recording of Beltline is a bit muffled at parts due to its lo-fi aesthetic, Latham more than compensates for this with his acerbic wit and gifted songwriting ability. In fact, I would argue that the unpolished recording suits Latham perfectly: it helps communicate the vulnerability, unpretentiousness, and immediacy of his songs. Latham’s thoughts are so refreshingly insightful and funny, in particular the song “Drown in the Tears of Your 20s” comes to mind. The song illustrates the progression of a bitter 20-year-old into a 30-year-old eating ribs with a bib, to a nostalgic 40-year-old balding and getting fatter, finally becoming a know-it-all 50-year-old with children who hate him. Though this song, like many of the others on the CD has a slightly depressing cynical tone (in the sense that truth can be hard to swallow), listeners who harbor their own cynical views of society will probably end up finding Latham’s observations hilarious. Other standout tracks are “Rich Girls”, in which Latham envisions an alternate life for himself dwarfed by affluence, and the brilliant “Whiskey Morning Song”, in which Latham finds it “apropos” to see his face in a toilet. The songs need to be experienced, to understand their poignancy. Now that Charles Latham has moved from the SouthEast to Philly, one can only hope he’ll be in New York more often to perform. Do whatever you have to do to get your hands on Beltline. (reviewed by Max Vernon) myspace.com/sircharleslatham

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Charles Latham

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