released June 19, 2020

Production, Assorted Consumer Products - Jeff France (Fej)
Vocals on Smooth Vintage - Uno Lady (Christa Ebert)
Guitar on Blaakened Flaag - Taka Tozawa
Vocals on Satie Knolls & The Sickness - Jac Nelson
Vocals on Distraction - Floco Torres
Vocals on Can I Do Just One More Mic Check? and Guitar on The Mind of a Mindless Minion - Tucker Theodore Haendler
Bass and Shred Guitar on Lights, Caamera, Actioné - Cory Juba
Vocals on Lights, Caamera, Actioné - Joshua Weiss
MC909 on While Erin Plays Mario in the Next Room & Is it Trumpets or Seals? - Joshua Maxon Novak
Vocals on Long Weekend - Suzanne Bonifacio
Vocals on 6 Disks - Erin Carracher

Everyone that played on this record that I do not live with recorded their own parts because we are supposed to keep it distant.

So, some notes on the people playing and singing on this:

Christa, who goes by Uno Lady, is pretty fucking sweet. We met when she recorded a video for the place I work. She proceeded to perform the same song (perfectly) 4ish times and each time she said she wanted to do it better. I could not tell the difference between the takes because they were all so tight, but she could. When asked if she wanted to record another one, she said sure, sang "The Loneliest Whale" all hunched over like a creep and it was so amazing to witness. Anyway, I was nervous to ask her to play on the record because I don't really know her that well and she's pretty tight and I was worried she was thinking... "Who the fuck is this guy?" So I waited, and waited, and then gave her a real short deadline after I got up the nerve to ask. She turned in her stuff in one day and told me that she "...was down to work on stuff in the future, but to give (her) a reasonable amount of time from now on." This was a totally understandable request. Thanks for everything Christa!

You can check out Christa's stuff here:
unolady.bandcamp.com

Taka is the fuckin' sweetheart of all sweethearts! We met though our mutual friend Juan when they were playing in a band together. I can't say how impressed I was with Taka's horde of musical crap because I don't know how to put a collection like that into words. He also happens to be one of my favorite people to hang with period. He is a frequent houseguest and will be eternally welcome until my end of days. Not to mention, he is an amazing guitarist and has an impressively refined appreciation for The Cardigans. Taka is also good at the quick turn around. Just an FYI for you guys out there.

You can listen to more stuff Taka has played on here:
music.apple.com/us/album/thegoodnews/1156915044

Jac is one of my deepest friends, and definitely my one of my biggest musical bonds. When we first met at work in Olympia WA I thought Jac was mean, or at least didn't like me that much. Then one day Jac asked me if I wanted to jam, so I was totally wrong there. Of course I said yes and we promptly spent an hour making smooth acid jazz. After that, Jac told me maybe we should slow it down and started playing me these songs that were infinitely crushing. I have told myself multiple times since moving back to Ohio, "If I could just find a way to back up Jac again, I would be musically fullfilled." Such an amazing lyricist and song writer.

I had trouble finding Jac's music on the interwebs, but you can listen to this track here:
msvalerieparkdistro.bandcamp.com/track/wall-of-sound-in-g-major
This one is too painful for me to listen to, but it's really amazing.
msvalerieparkdistro.bandcamp.com/track/song-for-jeff

Floco is the first person I asked to do something on this record. I met him through my friend and (multiple) band mate Brad Thorla. I love his solo work and his current duo project Free Black!. They are probably my current favorite thing in Akron right now. He had noted he had liked the track he's on a while ago, so I thought, well I bet he'll do it. When I asked, he responded a few hours later and sent me the track back a couple hours after that. I was like, well damn, now I gotta get more vocals on this record because this sounds soooo much better!

You can Check out Floco and his band here:
flocotorres7.bandcamp.com/music

Tucker and I have been working on stuff together for a while now. We met when he started working at the same bakery where I met Jac. I gotta admit...I was annoyed by him at first. Tucker is a very talkative buddy and we worked real early in the morning. I am also a slow warm up and "hard to get to know." Anyway, he joined my band with Jac when they started dating and I was like, "...really? This guy? Aren't you guys dating?" Then he showed up to practice, and played the most beautiful accompaniment to what we had written, and I was like "oh I get it now." So, anyway, we're real close now and I was a real asshole and I talk more with him than I talk with anyone really. I would refer to him as my closest long distance friend. He's also a musical and low fidelity genius. I have had the pleasure of helping with mastering and mixing on some of his records and he uses the merger of good recording and low quality recording better than anyone I can think of. He is currently working on a similar style mail based record as this one and it is awesome.

You can hear him here:
inanambulancerecordings.bandcamp.com/music

Cory Juba is a "younger chap" that I work with. I will note that it is obvious that he is real good at guitar. He has been teasing me for being old and behind the times for years now. I have been teasing him for having things like quilted maple topped guitars, too many strings, and using new strings for about the same amount of time. Well anyway, he's real good at stuff and doesn't work in enough projects. This was an attempt to get more Cory Juba out in the world. I am 99% sure he used a 5 string fan fret bass and a direct guitar with modeling and impulse responses to record this.

You can check out Mr. Juba ripping more here:
www.youtube.com/user/coryjuba/videos

Josh Weiss is an enigma around the Akron parts for me. I have been skateboarding at the same spots and going to the same shows as this guy for decades and somehow we never knew each other existed. Then one day he comes over to record with a friend's band. My friend, we'll call him Justin to protect the innocent, had been complaining about how loud he was in the band and that he kept hitting the kick drum on every beat. Well, that is exactly what should have been happening, and he totally blew my mind with how he handled composition and vocal phrasing. We both skate so we started hanging out and he has continued to impress me. especially with the power and amazing classic rock/metal sounds he can command with his voice. I am happy he decided to play on the record. I was worried there for a minute that he wasn't going to do it. His pop band Stems is incredible. His folk band he plays in with his dad, Good Moan'n String Band is also the shit. I hear he is working on a classic metal project up in the Clevelands as well.

You can check out Josh's band, Stems, here:
stems-akron.bandcamp.com/music

You can find his old time group, Good Moan'n String Band, Here:
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/The-Good-Moann-String-Band-246388075510884/

Josh Novak is a guy I work with. He likes some real fringe stuff, but he also plays in the most powerful and amazing instrumental progressive post metal band I have ever seen. I can hear things he's listening to on his earbuds sometimes rooms away at work. It always seems like he's listening to metal rubbing together or broken television sets and such. I have had the pleasure of getting to work on his projects with him a couple times and he is really fun and easy to work with. I know that he is way into tape noise and found materials so I asked him to contribute to a couple songs that I thought were up his alley. He did all of his stuff on "the one groovebox to rule them all," the Roland MC909. One of his tracks forced me to ask the question: Is it trumpets or is it seals I am hearing?

You can check out Josh's band here:
actualform.bandcamp.com/releases
and his solo stuff here:
softpedestal.bandcamp.com/album/petroleum-jealous

Suzanne Bonifacio is another person I don't know that well, but she has blown me away so much that I just had to ask. We met when my friend Sam (of who the song "Really Just for Sam" is titled) was telling me I "just have to go to this show right now." I was like, "I got no reason not to!" Well anyway, her band Space Cubs were playing, and holy shit! That band is so crushing. I would say that they have played almost all of the best shows I have seen in my adult life. I once went to go see them in an extremely small and ancient cellar with maybe five foot ceilings somewhere in Pittsburgh. She kept apologizing for the location because we had driven so far to go see them. I was like..."This fucking kicks ass!" and..."They are fucking kicking ass right now!" So the distance was no problem for me. Also Pittsburgh is pretty close.

You can find Suzanne's stuff here:
spacecubs.bandcamp.com/music

Erin Carracher is very close to me. We met who knows when, but we really started hanging out when she started playing in my roommate's pop band. I was like..."This lady's got it! I wonder if I can get her to play in an avant metal band?" She did and we were better for a time because of it. She has been my best friend for many years and now we're married and she's still my best friend. I struggle to get her to work on music with me because I like hearing her sing, and well, if she's not doing it, then she's not really singing I guess. I say struggle because she doesn't really want to do it I think.

You can find more of Erin here:
directionsforplaying.bandcamp.com