David Vassalotti

David Vassalotti, who co-founded the post-punk revival band Merchandise and serves as its guitarist, pursues a wider range of styles in his solo work, moving between abrasive noise explorations and introspective singer/songwriter material. Following the unsettled 2016 release Broken Rope, his third solo album, he turned toward melancholic compositions carrying partial echoes of the Smiths for the 2019 album Guitar Dream.

A multi-instrumentalist with particular strength on guitar, Vassalotti launched Merchandise in Tampa, Florida, during 2008 alongside vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Carson Cox plus bassist Patrick Brady. The group’s debut, the fuzz-laden (Strange Songs) in the Dark, appeared in 2010. Vassalotti issued his own first solo effort the next year, the angst-driven Book of Ghosts, which came out on Vinyl Rites under the shortened credit D. Vassalotti. Merchandise followed with its second album, Children of Desire, in 2012, after which Vassalotti returned to solo work the subsequent year when Night-People Records put out the Live in Infinity EP. The band released After the End in 2014, and Vassalotti readied the fully D.I.Y. Broken Rope for early 2016 release on Hidden Eye and Wharf Cat Records; that set wove electronic noise, melodic guitar pop, a dog, and references to European poetry and history into its broad lo-fi framework. On Guitar Dream he emphasized tighter song structures while retaining his characteristic atmospheric distortion.