February 26, 2020 | 0 Comments

MOUNT SHARP – THAT SHADOW is at Top 200 Radio Now!!!

I’ve been pals with one member of this sweet-with-bite rock band from Brooklyn for coming up on a decade now: Bryan and I used to work together at a venue in Brooklyn a lifetime ago, one time sharing an only mildly disastrous hotel room situation with a band he was managing at SXSW, and then also since then he’s stayed in my professional orbit by working with the extremely cool NYC station/website BreakThru Radio. Actually Mount Sharp isn’t even the first Band Mom band that has included a coworker from that same origin-story venue! It’s so nice when old pals pop up in new contexts. That’s what a lot of working in the music industry for any significant length of time turns into. Anyway I’m getting away from the point here. I love Mount Sharp so much and what I was really trying to say was that I’ve been dying to work with them for so long. BrooklynVegan calls them “warm and fuzzy indie rock that’s not afraid to let it rip either” which I think is an apt description.

I’m sorry that this one is download-only, but CD copies of this album do not exist at all. ALSO, an important FYI for you radioheads is that my original download link includes 192 kpbs mp3s, but there is also a link full of wav files for ya if you prefer. Just ask (if you work at a radio station). Also: it’s got a couple FCC-unfriendly tracks BUT those download links also include CLEAN EDITS already wrapped up in ’em (unless you can’t play the word “Goddamn”, in which case track 5 is still not clean. But it definitely removes the F-word it had in it)!

One more FYI is that lead singer Sarah Wood (commonly known as “Swood”) uses they/them pronouns. So this is music with a non-binary vocalist, not a female or femme vocalist. The More You Know! Ok I think that’s about all I have to tell you, now just dive in yourself, and (assuming you’re at a station) make sure to download and spin/chart this glorious thing today!!

MOUNT SHARP

THAT SHADOW

Dadstache Records

Mount Sharp began on a rooftop in Brooklyn, or on a boat in Maine, or perhaps somewhere in between. Either way, the band grew around the bittersweet, poetic songwriting of Swood (Sarah Wood, they/them pronouns) paired with Bryan Bruchman (he/him)’s noisy, chaotic tendencies around 2012. On 2014’s Weird Fears EP (with the rhythm section of Ryan Zumsen and Maia Macdonald), the band exhibited a blast of unbridled energy, excitement, and confusion – a fitting soundtrack to a brief blissful, carefree time before so much changed. The band – now with Sal Garro and Jonathan Pilkington Kahnt (both he/him) firmly holding down the drums and bass – has matured, and the songs are maybe a little more serious, maybe a little more reflective, but no less cutting and catchy. Taking inspiration from the cosmos, sci-fi tv, and the messed up state of the world, Mount Sharp puts all the feels into song.

That Shadow follows you – full of sticky melodies, lyrics that cut, and surging waves of noise, this record will get under your skin. Inspired by years of watching all the assholes we know win, figuring out how to be kinder to ourselves, and all the beautiful and tragic machines in space. It’s about everything that pulls us to look behind ourselves, when we should be looking up and dreaming.

Grounded by vivid, striking (and often deeply nerdy, see: odes to Carl Sagan in “Voyagers I & II”) storytelling & lyrics, the album radiates with anxiety, longing, and battered hope.

All tracks were produced by Brian Sendrowitz (of Beat Radio) at Miracle Flag in Bellmore, NY, mastered by Sarah Register (of Talk Normal, credits include Protomartyr, Caroline Rose, Chastity Belt, Big Thief, Lower Dens, and Big Ups); cover art illustration is by Jenna Breiter.

“Warm and fuzzy indie rock that’s not afraid to let it rip either” – Brooklyn Vegan