The first ten seconds of "Fleece," the opening track on Shade Perennial, Bottomless Pit's mesmerizing third long player, sets the tone for the rest of the album. A carefully considered series of notes are picked on baritone guitar, deliberately unfolding the melody, only to be interrupted by a staccato burst. The guitars wrap around one another over a propulsive and elegantly understated rhythm section. Space opens in the music for a voice to emerge. It is enveloping and hypnotic, and you may play it over from the beginning a few times before moving on.

What do we know about Bottomless Pit? Perhaps you're already familiar with Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen from Silkworm, a band that put out nine albums between 1987 and 2005. Maybe you're a fan of Seam, with whom Chris Manfrin drummed, or .22, one of bassist Brian Orchard's other groups.

None of that matters. What matters are these songs. What matters is hearing Midyett phrase the lyrics to "Full of Life." What matters is hearing Cohen's magnificent guitar solo cut into "Null Set" and then disappear. What matters is the way Orchard and Manfrin exercise restraint throughout, allowing the guitars to rise and fall and the arrangements to unfold effortlessly.

By the time the feedback begins and the band fades out on "Felt a Little Left," Shade Perennial's final and possibly most widescreen tune, thirty-two minutes will have passed under Bottomless Pit's spell. This music is an incantation. It's post-punk perspiration and the well-worn warmth of Crazy Horse. It's inspired and assertive and won't make you ashamed to call it the blues.

Shade Perennial was released on October 29, 2013 via Comedy Minus One. It is available on LP with a compact disc included in the packaging for convenience. It is also available on all digital platforms.

Bottomless Pit - "Fleece"

I’ve had a deep appreciation for music that has found its way to New Jersey from Australia for about as long as I’ve known about punk rock, first discovering bands like The Eastern Dark, Exploding White Mice and The Celibate Rifles when I was in grade school. 

Three decades later, contemporary albums by Ooga Boogas, Exhaustion and Native Cats traveled across continents to WPRB and were each highlights of my 2013 radio shows.

Which leads us to TV Colours, a band cut from a similarly tremendous cloth I likely would have never heard were it not for a throwaway comment I made on-line under a friend’s exhaustive “Best of 2013” list about how the year was yet another great one for groups from Oz.

“This is a really good album by TV Colours from Canberra, which is like our Washington DC,” a stranger added plainly.

I pressed play on the link provided and by two songs in I knew I was listening to something special.

“Purple Skies, Toxic River” is a record I would have loved when I first encountered Aussie punk and it is an album that still thrills me now. It is an LP for “the kids” and about “the kids,” capturing the electrifying, agonizing, alienating, turgid miasma of youth. I want to put it in the ears of every kid with tattered jeans and badges on their jackets to reassure them that it will take longer than they like but eventually it all will be fine. 

Made by enigmatic perfectionist Bobby Kill, TV Colours’ debut was six years in the making. It is full of teenage anthems, overdriven guitars, and unrelenting drum machines trying to outrun the sirens.

“Purple Skies, Toxic River” saw previous release in Australia by Dream Damage and was pressed by the French label XVIII, where it received rave reviews, several of which are quoted below.

This issue courtesy Comedy Minus One is the first time it has been available in North America with any ease. 

500 vinyl copies and digital downloads through all popular providers. 

My favorite record of 2013 is now your favorite album of this calendar year.

Let’s hit the freeway.

Jon Solomon
March 2015

TV Colours - "Lost Highway"

“In Season & Ripe” is the first record by Mint Mile.

There are four songs on this 12”.

  Jeff Panall (Songs: Ohia) played the drums.

 Andrew Cohen (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit) played acoustic guitar.

 Howard Draper (Tre Orsi) played slide guitar and organ.

 Matthew Barnhart (Tre Orsi) recorded the drums and did much of the mixing and mastering.
 
Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit) played acoustic and electric baritone guitars, bass guitar, Moog, ARP, piano, and trumpet.  

He also sang and recorded stuff besides the drums.
 
“In Season & Ripe” was made here and there with love to preserve and transmit: thought, feeling, impression, memory.

Mint Mile - "Modern Day"

During the 2016 edition of the 25-Hour Holiday Radio Show on 103.3 fm WPRB, my daughter Maggie joined me on-mic for her annual appearance.

25-Hour Holiday Radio Show

Jon & Maggie on WPRB (2016).

“Unreality” describes the condition in which we all find ourselves, sometimes more apparently than at other moments. Unreality is timeless, but in the current Zeitgeist, it seems more timely than ever. 

“Unreality” is also the title of the debut album by Andrew Cohen & Light Coma. 

Andrew Cohen & Light Coma is the new rock band for Andrew Cohen, guitarist of Silkworm and Bottomless Pit, backed up by Chicago veterans Light Coma. The group is driven by a dual guitar attack, but is not as heavy metal as that description sounds. 

The collaboration highlights Cohen’s skills as a songwriter, with his recognizable touch for balladry, pathos, and the poetry of the mundane. Light Coma call to mind Crazy Horse or the Magnolia Electric Company, matching crisp distortion with the sober cadences of a tall old man on his way to the hardware store again. AC/LC’s arrangements afford the players substantial dynamic range. Cohen can whisper and wail with the best of them; Light Coma match him instrumentally with every turn. 

This record – released June 2, 2017 on Comedy Minus One - was recorded in several sessions over some period of time. It came together easily, unrushed, but urgently. 

Six of the songs are electric. Three are acoustic. 

Limited to 500 LPs + digital download.

Andrew Cohen & Light Coma: 

Andrew Cohen (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit) – guitar, vocals 

Brian Orchard (.22, Bottomless Pit, Light Coma) – guitar, vocals 

Ryan Rezvani (The Missouri Compromise, Light Coma) – bass 

Jim MacGregor (Light Coma, Small Awesome, Century Rocket Building) – drums, vocals 

Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner (Magnolia Electric Company) – lap steel, dobro 

This record was recorded by Mr. Matthew Barnhart and Mr. Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and MINBAL in Chicago. 

The cover art is a diorama by artist William Schaff (Okkervil River, Songs: Ohia).

Unreality

Andrew Cohen & Light Coma - "Repack"

Curious aesthetes! Cursorily interested parties! Whatever the opposite of well-wishers are! You are each are invited to re-examine The Gotobeds’ past that is contained herein. 

These sounds represent the embryonic stages of said band - Five songs are culled from their unfortunately-titled 2012 demo tape “Fucking in the Future,” four are from the Mind Cure 45s “Ipso Facto” and “NY’s Alright,” as well as a recently-recorded cover of “Flowers Avenue,” a song by their dearly-departed friend and Pittsburgh music legend Karl Hendricks. 

From demo to forever-out-of-print 7”s to the cover, “Fucking in the Future +5” spans the earliest recording of the band to the their most-recent (the Karl Hendricks track was recorded in March 2017). 

Boy how they’ve grown! When the band convened on the studio for the first time ever as a unit in those halcyon days of 2012, it was a bleak scene. The drummer forgot his floor tom. The bass speaker had torn recently and was not replaced. The singer was at the mercy of the final stages of mono and the guitarist didn’t show up for live tracking (due to a previous night of gambling at the casino). 

Little has changed however. During the final take of “Flowers Avenue,” drummer Getty Images dropped his stick at a thrilling climax during the solo (check the 4:10 mark) and the band - assuming the take was a throwaway - played harder and took more risks with their improvised parts, lending the song a looser and more exciting feel than previous takes. Happy accidents are what the band trades in. 

The rest is allmusic.com history. The Gotobeds went on from their initial recordings to the WFMU studios, into Gerard Cosloy’s hands for their debut LP on 12XU, the brilliantly titled Poor People Are Revolting, to critical darlings and eventually the cut-out bin at Sub Pop’s airport store. 

From there, who knows? 

“Fucking in the Future +5” (cmo042) will be released through Comedy Minus One on October 13, 2017 with advance copies available through comedyminusone.com and from The Gotobeds themselves on tour in advance of that date. 

SELLING POINTS: 

• This is the first time the entire GTB demo tape has been available on vinyl! 

• Remastered by Mr. Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service (if you know, you know). 

• The two Mind Cure 7”s are out of print FOREVER. These tracks are now only available here (smart ass, it’s a different version of “NY’s Alright” OK???). 

• Includes a brand NEW cover of The Karl Hendricks Trio’s “Flowers Avenue” exclusive to this release. Hazy Lazer cried while singing it. 

• Gorgeous new full color artwork. 

• Limited to 500 copies, with the first 200 pressed on white vinyl. Buy now or scan Discogs later!!! 

• The Gotobeds will be touring and out supporting The Fall, Thee Oh Sees, Royal Headache, The Apples In Stereo, Waxahatchee, Protomartyr and really, anyone else worth seeing in 2017.

Fucking In The Future +5

The Gotobeds - "Flowers Avenue" (Karl Hendricks Trio cover)

Radio Show

Jon & Maggie on WPRB (2017).

"Heartroller" is the third 4-song EP by Mint Mile, following 2015’s “The Bliss Point” and 2016’s “In Season & Ripe.” It is due in late April 2018 on Comedy Minus One.

What began as a fairly loose (for me) arrangement of fellow travelers has coalesced into an actual band.

I like the sustained energy, the capacity for collective growth, the surprises, etc.

Greatly pleased by this development.

Most of this record was recorded by what is by now the core group:

Me (Tim Midyett, formerly of Silkworm and Bottomless Pit) on baritone guitar, almost always 12-string nowadays. Plus some other bits.

Jeff Panall (Songs: Ohia) on the drums, always I hope.

Justin Brown (Palliard) on electric guitar and also, very notably, on pedal steel.

Matthew Barnhart (Tre Orsi and inveterate road dog) on bass guitar. Fun fact: Barney had never played bass until being in this band. Wouldn't have known, right?

We made this record in my basement, as usual. Barney recorded a lot of it. I recorded some overdubs and the vocals, the way I do (haphazardly). Dumped the 'puter stuff to 16-track at Electrical Audio and mixed from the tape.

Had a couple overdubs on Fight It, one on Golden. Nothing extra on Can't Find a Hat.

The last tune, Disappearing Music, is built on a fifteen-year-old (!) demo. I'd always been very fond of it, but I couldn't quite get the tune over the hump.

I did what I have come to do whenever I get stumped on a non-band recording...I sent it to my pal Howard Draper (Shearwater, Tre Orsi) in Portland, OR.

Left a couple minutes of bare drum machine at the end...didn't tell him about it, just left it there to see what happened.

Well, what happened was Howard finished off the track for me, at long last, for which I am grateful.

The record is about longing, I suppose. If I had to boil it down. Which I do, since this is a one-sheet and not me writing a 33 1/3 book about my own record.

I love the cover a lot. Jim Newberry's photos have the vibe. An oblique wistfulness. Young women ride carefully and warily down the street, and the young man is lost in his fingernails, oblivious to their existence--the wiper and side mirror more aware of the world than he is. And padlocks that protect nothing, hanging empty and wide-open on a line.

Heartroller is dedicated to my dear friend Karl Hendricks and his family.

Tim Midyett
Chicago, Illinois

Heartroller

Mint Mile "Can't Find A Hat"

"Authentic yet often ineffable greatness that would define Silkworm’s next 11 years of activity, the reissue of In The West is a grand corrective gesture with no expiration date.”- Andrew Earles

This definitive reissue of Silkworm’s second album In the West marks its first appearance on vinyl.

It has been remixed from the original 2" tape at Electrical Audio in Chicago with Steve Albini, who also engineered the original recording in 1993. 

It was remastered with Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service. 

The revamped cover art is courtesy longtime fellow traveler Mike Hoffman, Jr. Mike repurposed some elements from the original art by Adrian VanEgmond and otherwise operated in the spirit of the original packaging. 

Everything visual was put together as usual by the band and David Babbitt.

Limited to 1,500 copies worldwide.

In addition to the album In The West, supplemental material for this release includes:

-A full-color insert with new liner notes by Silkworm’s Tim Midyett.

-Single-only tracks “Incanduce California” and “In The Bleak Midwinter” plus a live version of The Dream Syndicate’s “Halloween” recorded at Chicago’s Lounge Ax in 1994 join the full album on the package’s enclosed compact disc. 

-Six previously unheard renditions of songs from In The West recorded direct to DAT in 1991 at Avast! Recording Company in Seattle. Download only. 

-Six previously unheard live recordings of songs from In The West provided by Tim Cook. Download only. 

-A full Silkworm quartet set from March 1993, recorded at Lounge Ax and made up almost entirely of songs off In The West. Download only.

In all, that’s over 2.5 hours of music!

Silkworm - "Dremate" (Avast! Recording Co.)

Silkworm - "Garden City Blues"

During the 2018 edition of the 30-Hour Holiday Radio Show on 103.3 fm WPRB, my daughter Maggie joined me on-mic for her annual appearance.

Jon & Maggie on WPRB (2018).

Mint Mile - "Likelihood"

During the 17th hour (or so) of the 2012 edition of the 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on 103.3 fm WPRB, my daughter Maggie joined me on-mic for her annual appearance.

Jon & Maggie on WPRB (2012).

During the 2019 edition of the 25-Hour Holiday Radio Show on 103.3 fm WPRB, my daughter Maggie joined me on-mic for her annual appearance.

Jon & Maggie on WPRB (2019).

In the fall of 1991 Eleventh Dream Day was at the crossroads.

Not the Robert Johnson meet-the-devil crossroads (although they may have been willing to negotiate if they could have found those crossroads), but a juncture where break-it seemed more inevitable than make-it in the dichotomy.

Eleventh Dream Day had a lot going for them. The "Lived To Tell" record had built on the success of their Atlantic Records debut "Beet," making many critical top ten lists including the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. The subsequent touring season found them at a crest, even after Wink O'Bannon replaced original guitarist Baird Figi following the initial East Coast leg. The band alternated headlining spots with Yo La Tengo in Europe during the spring of 1991 with both bands reaching their largest audiences to date.

The air, however, seemed to be escaping from the balloon. Just before the release of "Lived To Tell," the entire "Alternative" branch of Atlantic, including department head Peter Koepke and Bettina Richards (who was responsible for signing them), jumped to London Records. The band was left aboard the sinking ship, no one at the label was interested in forming a search party, and interest for the record from the Phil Collins/Debbie Gibson branch of the label was virtually nil. The band had to make their own video after being told that MTV wasn't going to show videos anymore. They asked the band to remix a single with a producer who had disco hits. The real drag was how things went down in Europe, where they had built an enthusiastic and large audience dating back to their independent years. "Lived To Tell" was released without any thought (or care) on how to market it. Fans at sold out shows complained that none of the independent record shops carried the record, only the big chains. The band wasn't even able to sell the album at shows! After getting back to the States and finishing off their most popular West Coast trip ever, Eleventh Dream Day felt they had done all they could do - ripping it up live, getting great reviews, and doing whatever the label asked. But "Lived to Tell" barely outsold "Beet."

During the early days of the fall of 1991, when things had died down and Eleventh Dream Day was in the first phase of the write/record/release/tour cycle, the band realized that things weren't just quiet, they were dead quiet. Atlantic, still in flux from the departure of Richards and company, had almost no communication with the band, and most importantly had not sent the required letter that legally bound them to release their contracted third record. Management contacted the label to point out that the band no longer was tied to their contract, which the label acknowledged.

Eleventh Dream Day was free.

The material that appears on "New Moodio" was recorded on their own dime, with the intent to find a new label to put it out. Recorded at Idful Studios in Chicago with Brad Wood at the dials (Liz Phair recorded "Exile In Guyville" with Wood there just months later), these songs were being shopped around when Danny Goldberg - who now was running Atlantic - came to Chicago and made his pitch to the group over lunch. The band was impressed by what he had to say, and made the inference that if he went to this effort to get the band back, he and the label must really care. He urged Eleventh Dream Day to start over with a new producer, and the band spent the better part of 1992 working on what would become "El Moodio," their third and final major label record.

It did not work out as planned. Promotion was pulled quickly for "El Moodio" after it failed out of the gates to light up the charts. In regard to the single "Making Like a Rug" featuring lead vocals by Janet Bean, the band heard the explanation, "Women were not big that month."

Eleventh Dream Day eventually returned to the independent ranks where they continue to make records including their most recent album, 2011's superb "Riot Now" on Thrill Jockey.

The songs on "New Moodio" have stayed in the vaults for twenty years, forgotten.

A comment on Facebook sparked the memory that set the gears in motion to dig them up. So what do we have on this LP? Three songs ("Thinking Out Loud," "Where is My Saint," "Everywhere Down Here") have never appeared anywhere previously, one ("Dakota"), found its way onto the compilation "Milk For Pussy," "Sunflower" was re-recorded as an "El Moodio" cd single extra, and the rest were re-recorded in 1992 with Jim Rondinelli in New York for the "El Moodio" cd - never released on vinyl in the U.S.

"New Moodio" is Eleventh Dream Day's "lost record," a parallel world version of "El Moodio." It is also the snapshot of a band at its peak. Recorded and mixed in just a few days, there is an urgency and excitement that courses through these songs played by a band empowered by freedom and possibility.

Comedy Minus One is proud to release "New Moodio" on May 14, 2013. The vinyl pressing is limited to 500 copies, and each includes a digital download containing three additional songs. "New Moodio" will also be available on all digital download platforms.

The first 60 preorders placed each come with a 7"x7" silkscreened print of the crab pictured on the record cover drawn by artist Keith Warren Greiman.

Eleventh Dream Day - "Thinking Out Loud"

"Very few bands make even one great album. Silkworm made several, and this is the first." - Steve Albini

Comedy Minus One announces a long-overdue deluxe reissue of Silkworm's out-of-print 1994 album "<a href="http://comedyminusone.com/019.php" target="_new">Libertine</a>" (cmo019), the third and final full-length record by the band as a quartet. 

This is a double 12" pressing with a supplementary CD including "The Marco Collins Sessions" as well as two additional recordings from the band's time at Pachyderm Studio.

Includes all-new artwork throughout (the revised cover is pictured at the top of this post) plus a full color insert with liner notes by Silkworm's Tim Midyett.

Mastered from the original 1/2" tapes by Bob Weston at <a href="http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com" target="_new">Chicago Mastering Service</a>.

Photographs by Mike Hoffman, Jr.

Layout and design by David Babbitt.

Pressed on 150 gram 45 rpm vinyl at <a href="http://gottagrooverecords.com" target="_new">Gotta Groove Records</a>.

Preorders are <a href="http://www.comedyminusone.com/blog/?p=477" target="_new">available NOW</a> and will be available until June 11. 

In stores Fall 2013.

There are three preorder tiers, the most expansive of which includes nearly two hours of previously unheard SKWM live recordings like the above plus a shirt, bonus 12", photograph and sticker. You can learn more <a href="http://www.comedyminusone.com/blog/?p=477" target="_new">here</a>.

"Grotto of Miracles" recorded by Aadam Jacobs at The Empty Bottle, May 1994.

Silkworm - "Grotto of Miracles" (Live 5.15.94)

"Very few bands make even one great album. Silkworm made several, and this is the first." - Steve Albini

Comedy Minus One announces a long-overdue deluxe reissue of Silkworm's out-of-print 1994 album "<a href="http://comedyminusone.com/019.php" target="_new">Libertine</a>" (cmo019), the third and final full-length record by the band as a quartet. 

This is a double 12" pressing with a supplementary CD including "The Marco Collins Sessions" as well as two additional recordings from the band's time at Pachyderm Studio.

Includes all-new artwork throughout (the revised cover is pictured at the top of this post) plus a full color insert with liner notes by Silkworm's Tim Midyett.

Mastered from the original 1/2" tapes by Bob Weston at <a href="http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com" target="_new">Chicago Mastering Service</a>.

Photographs by Mike Hoffman, Jr.

Layout and design by David Babbitt.

Pressed on 150 gram 45 rpm vinyl at <a href="http://gottagrooverecords.com" target="_new">Gotta Groove Records</a>.

Preorders are <a href="http://www.comedyminusone.com/blog/?p=477" target="_new">available NOW</a> and will be available until June 11. 

There are three preorder tiers, the most expansive of which includes nearly two hours of previously unheard SKWM live recordings plus a shirt, bonus 12", photograph and sticker. You can learn more <a href="http://www.comedyminusone.com/blog/?p=477" target="_new">here</a>.

In stores Fall 2013.

Silkworm - "Couldn't You Wait?"

Comedy Minus One is a record label.

We are located in Mercer County, New Jersey.

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