Jake writes in with the Upper Hand goings on as of late…We’ve taken a break from live shows this fall to finish up our new full-length with Max Hart producing. (He mixed Daytime Ghost.) Recording in San Francisco, Brooklyn, an abandoned theater in the North Bay… a great cohesion of band takes (with co-engineering by Eric Ruud), experimental overdubs, stripped-down trio, quartet, sextet, pedal steel and B3 organ (Max), string sections (Jen Grady and Carey Lamprecht), trumpet (Aaron Bellamy), radios, noise, power pop, soul, dreamy western… all stuff we’ve been dabbling in with our live sets and last summer’s Valdez EP (http://www.jakemann.org/valdez_ep.zip), now taken a few steps further out on the trajectory. This record is sunny and southern-facing… it’s been a good time working on it. Today we tromped around Bernal Hill shooting a video for the lead single and laughing our heads off. (editing in the works by drummer man Dan Baber) Look out for some first-hit transmissions in January 2010.
Brass Bed with Allison Bohl - One