Keller set up shop in a practice room over New Year’s and tracked for about 5 days straight. Niles Krieger, Justin Tosti and Matt Brady all stopped by for moral support and to help lay down some sick-nasty tracks.
As you can see, we’re making good progress on our sophomore album and hope to have some downloads ready around June. Thanks for all your support and be sure to stop in and see us at the Iron Frog on February 10 in Simbsbury, CT.
It’s been a long time coming, but we are finally taking a break to work on our second album! After a busy summer gigging schedule, we are going to kick back and take a month or two to track and mix.
The new record will feature a few live standards that fans have come to love including Stammer and Northern town, as well as some brand-new Keller Glass originals and a few songs that didn’t make the first effort, Clean Slate.
We’d like to take this opportunity to take stock and thank a few people who’ve helped us tremendously over the past year and who, by and large, haven’t been thanked nearly enough for all they’ve done to keep this thing going: Dan Mattchet for his tireless work on the first album; Dave Stillman for his getting us started and his continued influence on the band’s sonic pallet; Niles Krieger for continually bailing us out of tight situations and adding his virtuosic musical talents to those few, delightful shows that he can make; Will Violette for his ever-so-tasteful contributions to our early work; Cristofer Osden for his engineering work on our first album; Dan Anthony for helping fill out the sound and then moving to California by way of Poland, which makes sense I guess; Charlotte Greene, Ryan Leggett, Scott Tingley, & Coco Tremaine for their generous photography work; John Groo for giving us a home; Dru Sanders and David Slitzky for their thankless technical support; Hartford bands Little Ugly, Heirlooms, String Theorie & Sunspots for making the Hartford music scene the wonderful, supportive place that it is; Mike Hamad for filling in for Frank and for his critical eyes & ears; and, most importantly, to our wives for putting up with the late-night gigs and rehearsal sessions.
As you can see, making fine roots-rock Americana is labor intensive and is not the kind of thing that five guys can do on their own. A lot of people have helped us out along the way and we didn’t want to wait for an album cover to thank each and every one of you. It means a lot to us. Thank you.
We’ll touch base again when we’re narrowing in on a release date and we’ll surely post some pictures of the recording process along the way. Stay in touch and wish us luck on our recording endeavors!
Cordially,
Mobjack
Rob Ashley, Keller Glass, Scott Hiestand, Steve Phillips, Frank Quinn
By ERIC R. DANTON
9:20 p.m. EDT, July 7, 2011
The band formed in 2009 when singer Kevin Scott recruited musicians (by knocking on lesson-room doors in the local music store where he worked) to play in what started as a country-folk act in the style of M. Ward or Dr. Dog. Sunspots has since veered in a poppier direction undercut with subtle experimentation, as documented on the band’s new self-titled debut.
Scott sings in a smooth, polished voice that’s occasionally too refined for rock ’n’ roll (opener “New Century” would benefit from a touch of vocal grit), but he never lacks for expressive tone and he’s a natural at locking into close harmonies with Sargent and bassist Alfredo Grado. Charlie Dye rounds out the lineup with low-key versatility on the drums.
Together, they’re off to a promising start on “Sunspots,” a welcome addition to what’s beginning to look like a long-overdue rock resurgence in Hartford.
Sunspots plays a CD-release show with Little Ugly Saturday at Sully’s Pub, 2071 Park St., Hartford. Doors open at 8 p.m.; there’s a $5 cover. Information: 860-231-8881.
Eric R. Danton
SOUNDCHECK: Music News & Views
1:39 AM EDT, May 13, 2011
New Haven has traditionally had the strongest local rock scene in Connecticut, but evidence that Hartford is on the rise came Thursday night when capital-area bands Mobjack, Sunspots and String Theorie set up at Bridge Street Live in the Collinsville section of Canton.
Headliner Mobjack played a set of grainy alt-country songs adorned with fiddle and pedal steel guitar. The band, fronted by Windsor resident Keller Glass, got off to a tentative start, but seemed to gain in confidence after a nervy cover of “16 Days” by the ’90s alt-country band Whiskeytown.
Whiskeytown’s plaintive Americana was a clear touchstone, though Glass sang tunefully in flat Midwestern tones familiar to fans of the singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston.
Mobjack performed a mix of songs from the band’s first album, last year’s “Clean Slate,” and a new album the group hopes to release in August. The band ended the show on a particularly strong note with the one-two combination of “Northern Town,” a lilting tune with gleaming interplay between fiddle and steel guitar, and “Stammer,” a dusty, sunny song with a sturdy backbeat and sweet high harmonies on the chorus from bassist Robert Ashley.
Sunspots, the middle band on the bill, played a set of rootsy rock songs with soulful pop hooks. Singer and keyboard player Kevin Scott has a clear, clean voice, and he gave a strong performance on opener “Wrecking Ball,” an uptempo rocker. Scott sang with earnest feeling on “Rainy Days” and harmonized with guitarist Matt Sargent over a swift, steady drum pattern on “New Century.” The group plans to release its debut in July.
Instrumental trio String Theorie opened the show with a set of eclectic world-music songs that drew on a wealth of musical sounds and styles. The group (which played a Courant-sponsored event last fall) plays textured songs that are highly rhythmic.
Guitarist Joel Weik plucked out fast, complicated patterns on acoustic guitar and sometimes slapped at the strings, while Karl Messerschmidt underpinned Weik’s parts with vibrant, sometimes busy parts on bass. Percussionist Jordan Critchley rounded out String Theorie’s songs with an unusual assortment of hand drums, including a djembe and a pair of gourd-shaped udo, Nigerian drums that produced a resonant, watery sound when struck. The band’s set included songs from a self-titled EP released last year.
Copyright © 2011, The Hartford Courant
