[MARKED DOWN - some seam splitting]
Full Spectrum & Debacle are pleased to announce the return of close friend, Real Life Rock & Roll aesthete and longtime purveyor of the Infinite Future, Blaine Todd. Todd breaks his silence with the expansive Every Road Is A Good Road, his third proper solo release and first to be pressed to vinyl.
Taking its title from a personal mantra that Blaine has relied upon through the years to mark his high points and weather the lows, Every Road Is A Good Road was written in a manic burst of creative energy over the course of a single week. It took him some time to finalize these songs in the form you see presented here, however.
In order to mold this collection of raw sketches into a cohesive statement, Blaine needed to sit with them and contextualize what it was that he was actually doing. Having grown accustomed to performing in a number of bands throughout the Bay Area, he suddenly found himself operating truly alone following a brief decampment to NYC. The album became something of a salve for this dearth of creative outlets in an unfamiliar city, as he sought to burn off the sway of external influences and refine his own inimitable voice.
While parts of the record were recorded alone at home in both Manhattan and Alameda, California – or with friends and Full Spectrum compatriots in both Tivoli, NY and Littlefield, TX – Every Road Is A Good Road is perhaps defined by Blaine’s insistence on making this his first release largely produced in a ‘professional’ recording studio. Somehow, Todd managed to capture basic tracking for the entire album in just 24 hours. Afterwards, he felt fucked. Walking home from the subway at 8am the following morning, Blaine expected to experience some sense of accomplishment. Instead, he met the Brooklyn dawn in a fried and anxious state. You can feel this energy coming across in the loose, dragged vibe that carries through the album’s duration, drawing you deeper into Blaine’s dogged pursuit of raw self expression and ecstatic self discovery.
In the end – Every Road Is A Good Road embodies a ragged, tired psalms for the exhausted cowboy that lives within each of us.
Taking its title from a personal mantra that Blaine has relied upon through the years to mark his high points and weather the lows, Every Road Is A Good Road was written in a manic burst of creative energy over the course of a single week. It took him some time to finalize these songs in the form you see presented here, however.
In order to mold this collection of raw sketches into a cohesive statement, Blaine needed to sit with them and contextualize what it was that he was actually doing. Having grown accustomed to performing in a number of bands throughout the Bay Area, he suddenly found himself operating truly alone following a brief decampment to NYC. The album became something of a salve for this dearth of creative outlets in an unfamiliar city, as he sought to burn off the sway of external influences and refine his own inimitable voice.
While parts of the record were recorded alone at home in both Manhattan and Alameda, California – or with friends and Full Spectrum compatriots in both Tivoli, NY and Littlefield, TX – Every Road Is A Good Road is perhaps defined by Blaine’s insistence on making this his first release largely produced in a ‘professional’ recording studio. Somehow, Todd managed to capture basic tracking for the entire album in just 24 hours. Afterwards, he felt fucked. Walking home from the subway at 8am the following morning, Blaine expected to experience some sense of accomplishment. Instead, he met the Brooklyn dawn in a fried and anxious state. You can feel this energy coming across in the loose, dragged vibe that carries through the album’s duration, drawing you deeper into Blaine’s dogged pursuit of raw self expression and ecstatic self discovery.
In the end – Every Road Is A Good Road embodies a ragged, tired psalms for the exhausted cowboy that lives within each of us.