Charles Latham

"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 Charles Latham wields an acid tongue and a poison pen, crafting social criticism and brutal self-analysis into three and half minute ramshackle pop songs. His songs are often exercises in duality: he finds humor in horror and horror in humor, the profane in beauty an...

"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 Charles Latham wields an acid tongue and a poison pen, crafting social criticism and brutal self-analysis into three and half minute ramshackle pop songs. His songs are often exercises in duality: he finds humor in horror and horror in humor, the profane in beauty and beauty in the profane. In a live performance, his audience often laughs and smiles, but he rarely does. His lofi home recordings compliment the harsh honesty of his lyrics; his guitar buzzes and rings, and his snarling voice leaps, cracks and cries. 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.