The recording of our new album of heavy, balls-out ballads “Immediate Family” is going so smoothly! On Tuesday we had our second rhythm and vocal session at the UU and we achieved our goal of recording the piano, bass, drums, guitar and vocals for all the remaining songs on the album! Thanks to Bryon and Rachel of The Spacement and Jim Coppoc of the UUFA for making this possible, we are SO excited for this record, it’s coming together beautifully!
The next session is the string section on Saturday night! Last night our guitarist and occasional violinist Kai Tanaka got together with our go-to utility player and cellist Will Pett and they arranged the strings for the album and it sounds unbelievably good, the strings are gonna add a crazy element to this album, it definitely ramps up both the beauty and the psychedelia…you’ll see what I mean…hahahahahaha YES!
Okay, check this out: its not a secret that our label Maximum Ames Records is all about one thing: IOWA! Well, we are honoured to say that an unbelievable supergroup called the Maximum Ames All Stars will be performing at the IOWA STATE FAIR this summer!!! This is an incredible honour and we are so thrilled and humbled to be a part of it.
Also, we have some great shows this summer that we’ll be announcing very soon! Including a live show of all our sing-alongs that will be recorded at Alexander Recording Kompany to be released as a live album this fall along with our new LP! Stay tuned!
Just wanted to take a minute and spread a positive word about our incredibly talented and successful friends in Iowa music! WE ARE SO PROUD! Being surrounded by such wonderful and powerful artists keeps us on our toes and inspires us every day.
Check out this unbelievable list of goodnesses!
- Our friends, label-mates and heroes Christopher the Conquered are recording their second Daytrotter session tomorrow in Rock Island! This comes fresh on the heals of the release of their beautiful new LP. And then, after the sesh, CtC is playing a show in Fairfield at the totally pro Sondheim Center!
- The crazy handsome music teacher and rock star H. Dustin Harmsen has finished recording his new album “Papoose” and it is set for release in October on Maximum Ames Records. Hey, that’s when our album is coming out too! Guess what? We are aware of that and we gonna collaborate. STAY TUNED, beauty-lovers!
- Bryon and Rachel of The Spacement never stop working ever. Bryon just went full-time with his studio and he is literally going FULL TIME! He’s been doing a great job with our album and also recording tons of other projects at the same time. Such a boss.
- Trouble Lights is what everyone is stoked about, especially us! They are recording their new album right now and it is gonna be a game-changer for Iowa for real. Because if music that good and that pro can come out of Iowa than we can do anything. We’re in love!
- Little Ruckus is finishing up his new album “Tank Girl vs. Cape Girl vol 1″ and it is bound to be another fully-illegal and dangerous anthemic pop album that only he could conceive. He is our tourmate, he is our bandmate, he is our hero.
- As long as we’ve been a band we’ve been on a parallel path with our sister band Ladysoal! They are so fucking great, they killed it on Iowa Public Radio for the 80/35 play-in, the video of it blew up and now they are recording a new album. Go, go, go! Win, win, win!
- Our bandmate and inspiration Kate Kennedy just recorded a cover of a Poison Control Center for a split 7″ she’s doing with them! They are gonna cover her song “W(rest)le” for the split. There is just no way we could love this more.
- Volcano Boys is the absolutely PERFECT band from our tourmate and snuggle-buddy Jordan Mayland and they are recording a new album now too? WHAT?! Gonna listen to that until my CD player breaks and then gonna listen to it in my mind for eternity.
- And our animal brothers Longshadowmen are recording a new album too and its gonna be crunchy and heavy as FUCK! Rumor has it that they might be recording a version of a song you’ve heard us play hundreds of times……..
- Our label-mates Derek Lambert and the Prairie Fires and CtC have been announced on the 80/35 lineup! Congrats dudes, THE BEST ROCK MUSIC IN DSM! And our Ames homies The Sun Company were announced on the fest too! Jam band leaders of AMES, love you dudes!
- Bella Soul are heroes, champions, spiritual guides and legends. They just recorded a live album at The Space! Bella, how are you this good? What is music?
Jesus Christ, that’s a lot right? WE KNOW!!! Our friends rule! When good things happen to our friends, that’s good things happening for us!
LOVE
We had a blast last night pulling an all-nighter in service of our new album! We went into the session with the ambitious goal of recording the piano, guitar, bass and vocals for the five most complex tracks of the album…and we did it!
Bryon and Rachel Dudley (who we hereby nominate for Ames Music Couple of the Decade) brought the equipment of The Spacement over the acoustically rich environs of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames. Our friend Jim Coppoc works for the UU and he met us there and let us in and helped us set up and traded funny stories with us and stayed there ALL NIGHT! We loaded in at 8:30 pm and we we loaded out at 6:30 am!
The tracks are really sounding great. The piano and vocals were recorded in the meeting room at the UU, which has an awesome piano and a nice natural room-reverb. The other instruments were isolated in rooms that attached to that main meeting area.
This album is ALL BALLADS! We definitely hope it makes you cry if that’s your thing but it also rocks and is super heavy and we just can’t wait to get it to y’all! More soon!
We are so excited, our first recording session for our new album of ballads “Immediate Family” is this Sunday! It’s the most crucial session of the whole record, we are recording the piano, vocals, drums, bass and rhythm guitar LIVE! We’ll be recording in the amazing meeting space at the Unitarian Universality Fellowship of Ames! Thanks to our good friend Jim Coppoc and the great staff of the UU for allowing us to use their facilities, this rules. Bryon Dudley will be bringing the rig of The Spacement over to the UU for the sesh. I think the right word is AMPED!
Also, real quick, here’s some LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
- We are beyond amped for 80/35 and we are SO MANY SURPRISES coming your way, hahahaha yes!
- Trouble Lights is making an album and we are in love with them.
- Little Ruckus is making a new album and he’s our leader.
- Maximum Ames Records struck an incredible deal with Vinyl Cafe: if you buy a Max Ames record, you get a free cup of coffee. If you buy a turntable, you get a free Max Ames record. This deal is better than life and truer than our ultimate demise! Pick up our record or Christopher the Conquered’s or the PCC’s or Derek Lambert’s and get free coffee!!
- Maximum Ames and the Des Moines Music Coalition partnered up for a FREE Music U event about how to book your own tour! It’s May 18 at the Orange Gentleman and our good friend Luke Belknap is gonna play at it and there’s free food and people are gonna, like, hug!
- Maximum Ames Music Festival is going down Sept 20-23 and it’s gonna be bigger and better than ever, can’t say more about that now but trust us, it’s a game-changer.
Iowa is a person, Mumford’s is a state, people are for dancing, bodies are for ending.
