Lots of updates! New Mint Mile! OUT split single! Gotobeds & Andy Cohen LPs! Shows!

Mint Mile “Heartroller” 12″ (cmo043)

“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.

Pre-orders are now available here and for a limited time you can order all three Mint Mile records at a discounted price here.

Hear the song “Can’t Find A Hat” here.

Read on for more on the above, plus Tim Midyett’s thoughts on this EP.

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

OUT / Stomatopod split 7″ (cmo043.5)

While you wait for their second album, OUT have two new songs on a split single with Chicago trio Stomatopod. Order a copy here. In stock physically, out digitally on March 16.

It probably began with Roseanne.

John Huston and Ike Turner (who hadn’t known each other that long) shared a room together at a music festival they were both playing, and instead of doing knife-hits or going ice fishing, they hung out and watched a lot of Roseanne.

It was a bonding thing, like the bond Jackie has with Roseanne in some ways.

Over the past three years, their respective groups (Chicago trio Stomatopod and OUT of Kalamazoo, Michigan) have grown close, playing shows together whenever they can, and even sharing common bandmates (John and Chafe from OUT play in the outstanding Mars Hill), so this split release just feels right.

It’s “Ziggy”-level appealing, really.

The songs here are somewhat darker affairs for each band, possibly a product of the turbulent last year, possibly some weird Jungian connection, or maybe just coincidence. Whatever the case, these four songs – split across two sides – hang together nicely.

Think of this release as the first Becky, back when she had some fire in her guts.

300 copies. 150 for each band. Whoever sells out first lives.

A joint release between Pirate Alley and Comedy Minus One.

The Gotobeds “Fucking in the Future +5” Lp (cmo042)

The future is NOW! The Gotobeds demo + singles collection “Fucking in the Future +5” is out!

Physical records of both colors can be ordered direct from Comedy Minus One right here, or you can purchase in the Sub Pop MegaMart.

Digital files can be downloaded / streamed from the following locations, among other services:

iTunes : Bandcamp : Amazon : Google Play

If you would like your favorite North American record store to stock “FITF +5,”  please request they order from Revolver.

For TV / Film licensing, please contact Lyle Hysen at Bank Robber Music – [email protected].

Curious aesthetes! Cursorily interested parties! Whatever the opposite of well-wishers are! You are each 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) was released through Comedy Minus One on October 13, 2017.

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!!!

Side A
New Dress (Debutante)
Blank Stairs
New York Swagger
LUST-AHHHH!!!!!
(I Wasn’t Made) For These Times
 
Side B 
Ipso Facto (It’s All Happening)
Television Addict
New York’s Alright (If You Like Sex & Phones)
Prisoners of Love
Flowers Avenue

Andrew Cohen & Light Coma “Unreality” Lp (cmo041)

“Unreality,” the eagerly anticipated debut LP from Andrew Cohen & Light Coma, is in stores presently.

Physical records can be ordered direct from Comedy Minus One here.

Digital files can be downloaded / streamed from the following locations, among other services:

iTunes : Bandcamp : Amazon : Google Play

If you would like your favorite North American record store to carry “Unreality,”  kindly ask them to order from Revolver.

For TV / Film licensing, please contact Lyle Hysen at Bank Robber Music – i[email protected]

“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.

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).

Limited to 500 LPs + digital download.

Side A
Repack
Sugar Puffs
The Usual
Your Biography
Midwest DTs

Side B
City and River
Blue Dragon
Unhinged Melody
Midwest Delirium

Stores and distributors are welcome to contact us about stocking these titles. Comedy Minus One is distributed directly in North America through Revolver. European customers can contact Day After for our wares.

Canadian, UK and Australian distribution sought.

Thank you.

Jon Solomon
Comedy Minus One
comedyminusone.com