NURSER by CAMERON KEIBER
- Habsburg Jaw -
- Beach Party Iran 1970 -
- Black Bear -
- A Newer Year -
- Sons and Daughters -
- Forever 25-
- Jane Fonda With a Bow -
- Landmine Teen -
- Never Let Me Go -
- Deadloop -
- Release -
STREAM
CD - $12.00
MP3 - $8.00
MDRF042 | MARCH 2025 | 53:58 | CD, MP3
NURSER is the first proper solo album by Cameron Keiber in his 30 plus year career.
Keiber was born in Raleigh North Carolina. Almost immediately after birth he underwent life saving surgery that left him with deep scars across his body, scars he was horribly self conscious of and contributed to a feeling of being an outsider that followed him through adulthood. When he was a child his family moved to New Jersey and then New York, under an hour from NYC. He grew up taking the bus into the city in the ‘80s and ‘90s where he was exposed to the NYC art, music and theater scene of the era. He played in bands in high school and after high school he attended The University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he started his first club band, opening for the likes of Helium, Polvo, Kustomized, J Mascis, The Unband and a bevy of Western Massachusetts luminaries at places like The Bay State Cabaret and Pearl Street. Upon graduating college Keiber fled to Boston and soon started noise pop heroes, The Beatings. That band was heralded by everyone from the Village Voice, Mojo, LA Weekly, The NYT, Magnet, The Washington Post (who’s editors picked the bands debut album, “Italiano” as there 5th best release that year), the Boston Globe, A/V Club and on and on. The Beatings did 7 national tours playing with acts as varied as The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, The Hold Steady, the National, Wesley Willis, Harmar Superstar, Black Helicopter (a show Thurston Moore had on his end of the year list as a fav) and so many others. The Band appeared as a talking head in the Mission of Burma documentary “Not a Photograph” along side the likes of Moby and Moore. The Beatings played there final show in May 2019 at beloved Boston institution, Great Scott.
In the years that The Beatings were waining Keiber began recording and playing out under the Eldridge Rodriguez moniker. What began as a solo effort with personnel coming in and out eventually to a permanent form with the release of The Castrati Menace album, making brothers David and Dennis Grabowski and Clayton Keiber and later Bridget Nault members. Eldridge Rodriguez has released 9 albums and Eps and multiple singles. They have become fixtures in the New England music scene and been praised by outlets like Stereogum, CoS, Under the Radar, The Big Takeover, Earmilk, Various Small Flames and more. They released their latest full length, Atrophy, in 2023 and have been headlining shows since to promote it.
NURSER is a slight departure for Keiber. Not only because it dabbles in loops and beats but it may be his most focused and direct lyrically. There are themes he’s explored in the past like religion (“Release”) and depression and death (“Forever 25”) but extremely personal journeys as well like calling out the tragic and possibly preventable death of his father, writer/artist Robert John Keiber (“Black Bear”) or telling conservatives to fuck off in defense of the LGBTQ+ community (“Sons and Daughters”).
Some people write songs that are left up to listeners interpretation, but that isn’t the case here. There are explicit points, thoughts and points of view across NURSER. Such as the treatment of women in the U.S. (“Beach Party Iran 1970”) or Conservative radicalization (“Deadloop”). The instrumentation plays with aspects of folk, rock, trap and noise. Its equal parts Neil Young and LCD Soundsystem. It has the playfulness of the Violent Femmes and word play of David Berman. Its got bits of The Fall as well as Sebadoh (Keiber opened for Lou Barlow a few years ago). The intention was to create an album that you put on late at night after being out. “After the Gold Rush” or John Cale’s “Fear”. Pleasant enough, but thoughtful. Emotional but not overwrought and unpalatable.
Cameron Keiber has been operating Midriff Records with his brother Clayton out of Boston and Brooklyn for decades.
Midriff Records, est. 2000
Cameron Keiber- vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica, bow, theremin, keyboards, piano, percussion, noise, programming
Additional programming and guitar by David Grabowski at Bluestone Studio
Additional piano by Mel Lederman on “A Newer Year” and “Jane Fonda with a Bow”
Recorded by David Grabowski at Bluetone Studio in Somerville MA and by Cameron Keiber at his home in Boston MA
Engineered by David Grabowski.
Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Costanza Tinti at Peerless Mastering, Newton MA
Produced by David Grabowski and Cameron Keiber
Album Artwork by Cameron Keiber.
Design by Riley Howland
Special thanks to Clayton Keiber
OTHER RELEASES BY CAMERON KEIBER
REVIEWS
”Just Perfect - Boston songwriter Cameron Keiber (Midriff Records) this week shares a new 11-song album, Nurser (March 14) a collection of beautiful melancholia you should get your hands on. These songs of relatable criticism and personal truths drop in a time of turmoil and this album could be the perfect escape.
Nurser is a nature progression for the artist - a continuation of Keiber’s prior catalog. The songs dish whimsically on the memories of childhood, the disillusionment with establishment and religion and disappointment in icons and traditions. Keiber's jarring narration is an instrument upon itself - a trademark he has carried throughout his career.
As a founding member of Northeast live stage legends The Beatings, a punchy, noise pop band celebrated internationally, sharing stages over the years with The National, The Hold Steady, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among many others. That dark sound emblematic of The Beatings was made more personal on Keiber's solo efforts. And until this record, those records were released under the dark pseudonym Eldridge Rodriguez – a stage name Keiber has stepped away from for this first release baring his own name.
Cameron Keiber has been operating Midriff Records with his brother Clayton out of Boston and Brooklyn for the last 25 years. The label acting, through that time, as a springboard for the musical careers of many.
Nurser features Keiber in nearly every capacity; vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica, bow, theremin, keyboards, piano, percussion, noise, and programming. Additional guitar and programming were provided by Beatings bandmate David Grabowski at Bluestone Studio with additional piano by Mel Lederman. Lederman, a fellow Midriff artist, has appeared on Keiber's prior albums as well. Produced and recorded by Keiber and Grabowski, Nurser was mastered by Jeff Lipton and Costanza Tinti at Peerless in Newton. This is inspired stuff I will never tire of.“
— Ryan’s Smashing Life
”Cameron Keiber is back with second single, ‘Sons and Daughters’, and the track is no less defiant in its message. Written over a decade ago but more thematically salient than ever, the song faces up to the attacks faced by the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups, and looks to dismantle the conservative logic which gives such opinions footing in the world. Built upon a glitchy electronic foundation, the arrangement builds gradually along with Keiber’s vocals, as though his delivery whips up the sound to add weight to the convictions being voiced. And make no mistake, this weight is considerable by the close. There’s no hesitance or lily-livered attempts at peace here, just a clear fuck you to all those who try to impose their own will upon innocent others.”
— VARIOUS SMALL FLAMES
”The bright and energetic second single by Cameron Keiber, “Sons and Daughters,” brings a fresh burst of emotions and relevant themes to the indie rock world. Written more than ten years ago, this song finally finds its place in the contemporary music scene. It carries a powerful message against conservative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups. Inspired by the desire to defend the rights and freedoms of those who are often pushed to the margins of society, the song becomes a manifesto for the fight for equality and inclusivity. — VOXWAVE MAGAZINE
”The rustic fire branded Americana politico rock of "Sons and Daughters" by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, creative, renaissance man Cameron Keiber (The Beatings, Eldridge Rodriguez), feels at once intimate and cavernous, the kind of song for community resistance and buried time capsules to exist forever. Keiber possesses a vocal countenance full of fist fights (figurative or not), splinters from protest signs, winces at government oversteps and derisive hope. I love the guitar sound, part Springsteen / part Kevin Shields and the beat poetry of his lyrics that have, at their core, the passion and drama of busker punk. There is also something, almost imperceptible that feels like Celtic folk bubbling through, not sure if I am only imagining it (I do that sometime) but suffice it to say that I would bet that Keiber has one acoustic guitar hung on the wall with an Orkney tuning (CGDGCD).
The seeds of the song, the political statement are no more relevant than now, now that we have somehow elected Donald President (R.R.G*) as an American President for the second time. It is still hard for me to fathom. Maybe our phones have reprogrammed our brains or infested us all with a brain eating worm like RFK Jr, a worm that eats the grey matter that is responsible for reasoning and empathy”. — AMERICAN PANCAKE
”Having won acclaim as part of noise pop outfit The Beatings, Cameron Keiber went on to start the project Eldridge Rodriguez, releasing albums like Slightest of Treason and Atrophy which explored a plethora of contemporary issues with equal parts passion and disillusionment. Now recording under his own name, Keiber is returning next spring with new full-length Nurser, a record which continues this examination of the current state of things with a newly immediate, personal edge. The addition of loops and beats offers a new dimension too, though as single and opener ‘Habsburg Jaw’ shows, it is Keiber’s distinctive vocals and lyricism which represents the sound’s core. A track about depression and the insidious impact of those who belittle its dimensions, Keiber’s delivery slightly weary and a little bit wry as it challenges those who believe all it takes is a bit of bootstrap pulling and positive thinking. But above all else it’s empathetic in its picture of someone straining within such a hostile world.” — VARIOUS SMALL FLAMES
”A soft pace halfway between folk and slacker, with this keyboard that intersects with the guitar and a sparse rhythm. The cut is lo-fi, but we assure you that it goes straight to the head with its simplicity and its radiophony. In reality there is also Cameron's way of singing that captures us, between the singing and the declamatory he finds a deadly melodic line and it sticks there and we follow with absolute joy and pleasure. The lyrics to “Habsburg Jaw” begin as a song about depression. But then the song shifts, citing people who go through life without the burden of empathy or self-reflection and how they move blithely from one disaster to the next with the mantra “Calm down. Everything will be fine” or “live life to the fullest””. — INDIE FOR BUNNIES
”A song for the late PM alright, charm, soul and a crooner at the helm making the sort of adult sounding pop that might not be my thing but it sounds like it could add something to the ambience of a classy evening all the same. Cameron Keiber ensure things move at a contained pace and Habsburg Jaw makes like company that is involving to the point of waltz if the company is right. — MP3
HUGGER
“Cameron Keiber is an indie rock artist who often addresses themes of social justice, equality, and the fight for human rights. Throughout his career, Keiber has been recognized for his ability to capture the essence of contemporary challenges, becoming a voice for those fighting for inclusion and freedom. His musical style fuses elements of alternative rock with emotional nuances. — OLEADA
”Super cool and Classic.” — AMERICAN PANCAKE
”Really Thoughtful Ideas” — CLOUT
”Elegant, Powerful Lyrics” —Ratings Game Music
”Nostalgic touch, Bowie-esque” — HIGHCLOUDS
“Habsburg Jaw was cool” - HOT LUNCH MUSIC