Maximum Ames Records: http://bit.ly/19o7c9Z

7" out October 22, 2013
LP due December 3, 2013

Contact: alyssa at teamclermont dot com

Gloom Balloon is the debut solo project by Patrick Tape Fleming, the founder of the indie rock band The Poison Control Center. That band has played over 1,000 shows, released 3 critically acclaimed records, opened for Jeff Mangum, Pavement, and Of Montreal, toured with Apples In Stereo, and was named 2011 Live Act of the Year by Steven Hyden at the AV Club.

After a 13 month tour the band decided to go into hibernation. This left Tape Fleming alone in a deep depression with no artistic outlet, so he began painting. He called his first piece Gloom Balloon. This 6-foot tall painting is indicative of his emotional and mental state at the time. It was on the cusp of committing suicide that Gloom Balloon learned of the death of his musical hero, Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control. In that moment, Gloom Balloon decided to live.

Translating abstract explorations on canvas into music, Gloom Balloon has created a harrowing set of unflinchingly personal songs. Enlisting co-producer Christopher Ford (Christopher the Conquered) and string arranger H.D. Harmsen,  the music mixes classical instruments with modern electronics.

Gloom Balloon’s debut release, She Was the One That Got Away (7″/DL), sounds like a modern day take on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, with saxes, flutes, and horns floating around a classic hip-hop beat. The single’s b-side features Bob Nastanovich of Pavement and the Silver Jews screaming imaginary horse names. It’s with that free-form style of collaboration and freedom that these home recordings are assembled.

Side A of Gloom Balloon’s  debut LP, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Disaster/Fix The Sunshine Pts. 1-7 (An Ode To Bill Doss) (LP/CD/DL), features songs written on the verge of suicide, elliptically examining emotions in a wonderfully melancholy song cycle. Featuring the Finezza Quartetto, each song shifts through familiar and forgotten sounds into colorful and unpredictable combinations. Side B (Fix The Sunshine) is dedicated entirely to Bill Doss, whose voice you hear on track one. The side is a sonic kaleidoscope of styles exploring experimental soundscapes, electronic beats, and straight up psych-pop. Gloom Balloon is talking directly to Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control when he sings: “All the children in the world are one day going to die, so Will, You, and I.”

Gloom Balloon - "She Was The One That Got Away"

Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Portatstatic) performs songs from his solo album, The Sound of Yourself (Merge), live in the studio for WXPN's Indie Rock Hit Parade.

Produced by Eric Schuman
Photos by Eric Schuman
xpn.org // #IndieRockHitParade

Mac McCaughan - You Know Where to Find Me (Live at XPN)

Mac McCaughan - Sleep Donor (Live at XPN)

Mac McCaughan - I Hear a Radio (Live at XPN)

Mac McCaughan - Dawn Bends (Live at XPN)

Old Smokey is a unique five piece ensemble featuring Jim Willingham on banjo, Jason Trahan on lap steel, John Fernandes on violin/clarinet/bass clarinet, Jacob Morris on cello, and Rob Lomax on drums. Their quixotic and sometimes haunting sound has developed organically; the way the instrumentation of the band blends is both complementary and evocative. This distinctive unit began playing together over two years ago. Old Smokey’s first full-length album, Wester Easter, will be released on Cloud Recordings, April 29, 2014.

Wester Easter covers a wide span of musical influences, but retains a coherent sound, all its own. Some of the songs capture an Ennio Morricone spaghetti-western influence, while others take on an East Indian psychedelic palette not unlike some of the wanderings of Erkin Koray, or a lost Bollywood soundtrack from the seventies. “Dead Man’s Pose,” a chant-y upbeat scorcher, is grounded in something akin to a New Orleans second line structure. There are a few numbers on Wester Easter that seem to be channeling the tumbleweed landscapes of The Sons of Pioneers, or the smoky country of a Roger Miller ballad. There’s even a bit of a rock n’ roll stomp or Velvets’ rattle to numbers such as “All the Way Slow” — but it’s almost as if the band got lost in Appalachia on the way to the sock hop. John Fernandes, Cloud Recordings’ main-man, and Old Smokey’s violin and clarinet player, has approximated sonic references for Old Smokey: “Fans of Bruce Langhorne, Abner Jay, Bollywood steel guitar music, and The Monks will surely dig our hard to describe sound.”

Despite a wide adventurous berth, Wester Easter is not the soundtrack of a flippant genre-jumping band. Throughout the album, their strong, sonorous mark is consistently there, as the instruments blend, swirl, and crescendo, then break down, from time to time, into the spidery banjo, drums, and plucked-cello skeletal substructure. Led by Jim’s reedy lead vocal, spinning narratives or spilling out constellations of imagery, the whole band often joins, in chorus, to create layered harmonies or group chants.
Old Smokey is compiled of veterans of the Athens music scene. Members have played with bands such as The Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, Vic Chesnutt, Ham1, Moths, Madeline, The Good Ship, and The New Sound of Numbers, to name just a few of their past and current projects. Their previous 7 inch and ep can be purchased at gypsyfarm.net

From the press:
“I’m at a loss to name any bands that Old Smokey sounds like. Old Smokey is a dark, gypsy/Middle Eastern, folk collision. It’s a mixture of string and woodwind instruments unlike any I’ve seen.” – Mark Ellers, Athens Banner Herald
“Old Smokey’s instrumental tune, “Leggy,” is a pleasant, wandering thing, a nice little taste of the band’s upcoming full-length, reportedly titled Wester Easter.” – Gabe Vodicka, Flagpole Magazine
“Local weavers of the string dream known as Old Smokey have finished their debut record, titled Wester Easter and may we say, it’s an ear tickling treasure for sure.” – Zeke Sayer, Gypsy Farm

Old Smokey - "Leggy"

Circulatory System "Just In Time To See You All"

The hit song from Episode 202 of Decker: Port of Call Hawaii
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5N-A20O0bQ&feature=youtu.be

"Our Values Are Under Attack"

Back in 2007/8, I was staying with a friend for a couple of months. I spent a lot of time locked in a computer room with an Alesis ION synthesizer and a computer program called Audacity. This is the one I am still kind of proud of.

Sleepybeef - "Joe vs. the Dream Comparison"

"chris tucker's nightmare" by sleepybeef.
from "one of the animals ate my strawberries!"
recorded in a locked office at Lee's house in 2007 

chris tucker's nightmare

Curving The Light

HFTTD is a tape label specializing in limited-run cassette releases covering a wide swath of genre and locations.

Circulatory System "Just In Time To See You All"

hopeforthetapedeck

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