We graduated from college and moved into a beautiful old house in downtown Amherst, MA. The rent was something like $1600, split 6 ways. The house was far too nice to be destroyed by this many 21 year olds, and the owner sold it a year later.

We set up shop in the finished attic, learning in fits and starts how to record ourselves on an early version of Cubase and wondering how to be a Real Band. Previously, our only goal had been to play keg parties at off-campus housing, where our particular blend of jammy rock, imitation free jazz and DJ Shadow-ish electronic noodling was an accepted if often inappropriate soundtrack.

At the beginning of this daunting, post-college world, Sonic Youth’s cardboard-sleeved SYR albums inspired us to release a flurry of short, handmade EPs. (Our perfectionism got the best of us and we ended up making three EPs over two years.) Most of this first EP was culled from long, stoney jams in our attic “studio” -- naive sessions after which we’d realize that the kick drum mic hadn’t been recording, or there was an insectoid buzz coming from the bass DI.

Listening now, One sounds both endearingly free from constraint and a total mess. It’s all over the place, just as we were. We were interested in jungle, free improvisation, cut and paste. In the absence of many vocals or traditional structures, the “found sound” and snippets of radio were an interesting if overused gambit. The packaging was handmade: a complicated process involving cardstock, typewriters, glue and ink stamps. We probably made a hundred of these, and don’t seem to have a single copy left in our possession. 

It’s hard not to look back on this era fondly. We were learning, striving, discovering, imitating, and open to just about everything. There were fewer rules than at any future point in our musical lives. (Ben)