Big Stir Records proudly announces the upcoming release of the debut album from LA singer-songwriter-rocker GARY CALAMAR. The new collection ODD NUMB3RS AND SLANTED RHYMES covers Calamar's full recording career, from his most recent indie hit singles “Who Are We Gonna Be Today?” featuring Robyn Hitchcock and “I Got An Idea” featuring DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh, back to his first acclaimed EP in 2014. The album sees release on CD and Streaming worldwide on October 23 and is for pre-order/pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/garycalamar-numb3rs

As a long-anticipated debut album, ODD NUMB3RS AND SLANTED RHYMES has been twelve years in the making, as GARY CALAMAR has been steadily releasing well-received indie singles ranging from last year's raucous, culturally-aware “Distractions” to 2023's tenderly empathetic “Rough Patch” ever since his debut EP YOU ARE WHAT YOU LISTEN TO over a decade ago. Calamar's presence on the Los Angeles music scene extends back even further, though: he's been a Grammy-nominated music supervisor for television (Six Feet Under, True Blood, 3 Body Problem and more), a popular and influential radio DJ since the '90s with his show The Open Road (first at KCRW, and currently on KCSN), a band manager (The Balancing Act, Eggplant), author (Record Store Days) and record store manager (Rhino, Licorice Pizza, Moby Disc), and when nobody was looking, he would write and record songs for himself... and they were good.

The overall sound of the fifteen tracks (plus two bonus remixes) on ODD NUMB3RS is hook-heavy guitar pop of a sly, witty variety. Calamar adopts a winning approach that blends the literate storytelling of Lou Reed with the pop hooks of Tom Petty, the power chords of Pete Townshend, and a touch of surreal whimsy reminiscent of modern psych-folk master Robyn Hitchcock, whose harmonies on the single “Who Are We Gonna Be Today?” gel brilliantly with Gary's lead vocal. Likewise, new wave pioneer Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO sounds right at home on the jittery machine-pop landscape of “I Got An Idea,” and the sweet tones of Azure Ray's Maria Taylor light up the colorful neighborhood of “Little Tokyo.” It's safe to say that Calamar has picked up a trick or two from the indie rock luminaries with whom he rubs shoulders in his day jobs as well as his long-standing influences – “I attended the school of lyric writing by listening to greats like Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon, Lou Reed, Tom Waits and Smokey Robinson to mention but a few,” he says today – but the songwriting on display demonstrates that he's forged an identity that is uniquely his own.

“I love songwriting and twisting words over, under, sideways and down,” Calamar continues. “I'm not a great musician. I know a handful of chords and play guitar about as good as I did in high school, but I ROCK those chords... and fortunately I have great players backing me up.” He's also got ace producer John Would (Warren Zevon, Fiona Apple), whom Calamar calls a one-man Wrecking Crew, on hand for all of these tracks, lending a consistent and empathetic touch that makes it feel more like an album than a compilation and helping to bring Calamar's melodic prowess and quirky worldview into focus. Many of the songs are steeped in the texture and geography of his native LA, including the album-opener “The Prince Of Pico Blvd” (about a scrappy, benevolent rock and roller who’s forever rolling down one of L.A.’s signature streets) and the sweet father-daughter excursion “Little Tokyo.” The latter is one of several songs that find Gary exploring the joys and importance of family life throughout good times and bad, also including the pure pop pep talk “Rough Patch,” the infectious and appropriately-titled jangle pop love song “Giddy,” and the swampy blues workout “Minimum Day,” co-written with his daughter, Zoe, who also belts put-upon pre-teen backing vocal.

Elsewhere, Calamar delivers sharp-eyed, Kinks-worthy character studies including the keenly-observed lo-fi outing “Looking For A Job,” on which Calamar essays both sides of soul-crushing work interview looking for a job (“I’ll be a barista, a teamster a captain of industry any chance of a health and retirement plan”), “She's So Mid-Century” (paying homage to a ‘50s fixated femme-fatale who's “got all the Wright angles and all the Wright curves” and “digs the Jazz and Bossa Nova on Blue Note and Verve”), and the heartbreaking but beautiful (and brand new) “A Place To Hang,” on which a pastoral arrangement nearly camouflages the melancholy lament of a striver who’s had a run of bad luck. Add to them the starkly folky but ultimately redemptive “Forgive Yourself” and a picture of Calamar's emotional intuition comes sharply into focus.

Some of the album's humorous, cathartic highlights, come, though, when Calamar trains his rapier wit on the absurdity of the modern world. The cultural references come fast and furious on tracks like “Who Are We Gonna Be Today?” (shouting out JFK, The Fab Four, Mohammed Ali, Sam Cooke, DW Griffith, The Kinks, and a “despicable leader”), “Distractions” (citing Greenland, the Gulf Of Mexico and a “battleground state of mind”) and the ode to the end of the vinyl age “The Last Revolution”: “I was born in '45, turned 33 in ’78 and I subscribe to life and Billboard.”

On the flipside, some of the record's most bracing moments are its most direct, as heard in the unbridled enthusiasm of “I Got An Idea,” the clever automotive-themed cautionary ballad “Severe Tire Damage,” and the closing, crunchy garage rock of “Back Door Man.” As its growly guitars and stabbing organ fills pinball through the coruscated psychedelia, Calamar proposes a sneaky way to get ahead in life. “There's two sides to every story, I suppose sometimes there's even more: You can stand in this line in all your glory while I'm sneaking in the backdoor.” He even name-checks himself on the track.

It’s a freewheeling finish to a very satisfying album, as GARY CALAMAR definitively takes his place alongside many iconic artists he's championed along the way. All of it's here on ODD NUMB3RS AND SLANTED RHYMES, as much a songbook as an album, and ready to be enjoyed in a one sitting at last.

Expected release: October 23, 2026