The album essentially splits the difference between two seminal indie-slowcore works, Sun Kil Moon’s luxurious, miserable masterpiece, 2003’s Ghosts of the Great Highway (JetSet) and Built to Spill’s “mature” 1997 epic, Perfect From Now On (Warner Bros.). If it’s not the anthemic indie/country rock album some of the band’s fans expected, it’s simmering mood pulls you in quickly.
DEA guitarist Mike O’Connor has plenty of good words for Harrity’s production of Hope You’re Good. “He took our greatest strength — our live sound — and managed to capture that on the album, without losing the energy ... he has a unique understanding of spaciousness and simplicity within music. His recording sessions always have a relaxed feeling to them.”
Among the works recorded at New Systems Laundry are Brown Bird’s The Bottom of the Sea, which may prove to be the acclaimed Americana trio’s final album (songwriter David Lamb is embarking on a solo tour this summer, and the rest of the group — Jeremy and Jerusha Robinson — are currently performing as South China), and the first, self-titled, EP by Cougars kill Cobras.
The Cougars EP, while not released under the Peapod label (the band independently paid for studio time), is a particularly auspicious development for Harrity as a producer. The band’s snarling punk ethos is a major departure from Peapod’s typical fare, but he capitalizes on their hazy, high-pitched guitars; Gerald von Stoddard howls defiantly through the squall, and the cumulative sound is similar to a lot of the day’s most interesting punk acts (No Age, Deerhunter).
Harrity also recorded with Fire on Fire’s Chriss Sutherland recently. Like O’Connor, Sutherland notes the benefits of working with such a relaxed producer: “This attitude helps to bring confidence and a certain quiet to the sessions that for someone like me, insecure and nervous, is really helpful.”
Harrity's strong ear — both as a producer and a collaborator — bodes well for the label. He hopes to add more artists and contributors to Peapod’s steadily diversifying roster soon, and to eventually start releasing Peapod albums on vinyl, an ideal format for the natural sound of most of his work.
O’Connor, for one, feels that the label is already meeting some important goals. “Peapod has gone far and above what we’ve asked for, or even expected, as far as setting up the album in different distribution channels, and plugging it through music blogs, magazines, record stores, etc. I feel like DEA is in very capable hands,” he says.
For a label named after a lightweight, one-man lobstering boat, this Peapod is already steering a heavy load gracefully.
Christopher Gray can be reached atcgray@phx.com.
