Category: music

Midnight North’s debut album, End of the Night, out June 18th!

Trazmick Recordings is proud to announce the release of Midnight North’s debut album, End of the Night. End of the Night will be available on Bandcamp, iTunes and other online stores and streaming services on June 18th. A limited pressing of 500 digipak CDs will be for sale on Bandcamp and at the band’s shows after June 18th. Plans to release 12″ vinyl are in process as are CD release parties for later this summer.

Midnight North - End of the NightMidnight North’s debut album, End of the Night, sonically picks up where Ryan Adams & the Cardinals left off, heartfelt rock & folk songs decked out in a tidy country rock nudie suit, smartly tailored with intuitively tight vocal harmonies and a steady beat. Produced by Connor and Grahame and recorded amidst the redwood groves at In The Pocket Studios in Forestville, CA, End of the Night peaks with a soaring slow burner that no great rock album would be complete without, Peck’s “All Remains the Same.” Worth a listen: the crisp guitars and memorable melody of opener “Falling,” the band strutting through “Miss M,” the gorgeous playing and singing on “Hold Me Down” and, of course, the closing title track. Lesh put it best when he said, “We’ve got a little bit of country in us, but it’s just rock n’ roll.”

Otto Mobile and The Moaners – Restless Sun

The next Trazmick release is Restless Sun from Otto Mobile and the Moaners. It will be released in the Fall of 2012 on CD digipak and digitally through Bandcamp. Stay tuned for the music, for now here is a lengthy album description from Matt Lundquist.

Restless Sun is the second album by Otto Mobile and the Moaners. On it they blend West Coast whimsy with their Midwestern Roots Rock. Since 2008’s Lost Songs of Otto Mobile the band has tightened up its sprawling lineup. Now, the group has orchestrated a rounder sound with lush simplicity that serves this new batch of songs by Matt Lundquist.

All of Otto’s songs were written either in Oakland, CA or Bloomington, IN or somewhere inbetween. Lundquist is emerging as a confident songwriter and the band’s arrangements reveal a shared vision. The melodies are more enduring and his original phrasing lends potency to the words. The stories were culled at different times of the day to reflect its changing moods. The 1st two songs ‘Don’t Be Alarmed’ and ‘Restless Sun’ sound like sleepy sunday mornings, hung over but thankful to “let the day blow where it may”. Whispering pedal steel, dreamy organ and Elliott’s celestial vocals welcome the listener to another day. ‘Hung Over On You’ is a dizzy morning after with a sledgehammer chorus. Then, sleeping mornings give way to stoned afternoons on ‘Pining for Colorado’, ‘Ol’ Blue’, and ‘One Step’ – Otto’s Highway Trilogy. These midday midtempo ballads are live staples in the Otto Mobile catalog. Halfway through the album, someone steps on the gas as the band burns through ‘Sunny Day Blues’, ‘Guilty As Charged’, and ‘Shady Side of the Street’. As the day gets dusky the stories also get darker. By the time they hit ‘Slow Train’ the frenzy is threatening to derail. The lone late night number, ‘Hold On For Dear Love’ is a sleep deprived lullaby to the world. The dreamy kaleidoscope of sounds are back as the listener is encouraged to lay back and “let the world keep turning.”

Lundquist sings his songs like a father to his kids. He also pieces together a symphony of guitars. The Gibson Jumbo, mother of the songs, is a steady and nurturing presence. His manic depressive Stratocaster fluctuates between sensitive tremolo tones, screaming guitar rock and melodic slide. Somewhere between Heaven and Earth, the pedal steel floats in and out of the words and rhythms. Lundquist can also be heard sucking and blowing on broken harmonicas.

The voice of Elliott Peck elevates and blesses the tracks with feminine charm. She lends angelic harmony (See ‘Restless Sun’) and badass soul power (See ‘Sunny Day Blues’) The original pairing of Matt and Elliott’s vocals shift dynamically between close knit harmony and counter melody. His style is earthy and simple while she is free to embellish with her vocal gymnastics. Elliott’s Wurlitzer and organ round out the band’s sound and provide a colorful chord bed for guitar hooks. Her acoustic piano composition in ‘Pining for Colorado’ is the driving force on this highway ballad.

Connor O’Sullivan is the sonic guru of the band. His bass playing follows the songs’ moods – aggressive Gibson SG on the rock tunes, soft, round Fender P-Bass pulses on the lighter tunes and stand up Kay bass thumping on the folky numbers. He also adds dreamscape organ and rock style wurlitzer on ‘Guilty as Charged’.

Rob Schwartz lays down some tasteful drum tracks for the others to decorate with layers of sound.

This album was recorded over a slow burn at Connor’s studio in the Outer Richmond District of San Francisco. The lone engineer is Connor. Both Connor and Matt produced, arranged, and mixed the record.

Tracklisting:
Don’t Be Alarmed
Restless Sun
Hungover on You
Pinin’ for Colorado
Ol’ Blue
One Step
Sunny Day Blues
Guilty as Charged
Shady Side of the Street
Slow Train
Hold On for Dear Love