Old Primative

When I got to NYC last summer, the second night I was here my best friend Ethan's band Carclutch played a show in Williamsburg at some loft spot. Being new to town meant I was without a place to stay, disoriented, too hot and generally not in the best headspace. That night one of the bands playing was High Places, two really friendly kids I ended up talking with for a while. Over the course of the conversation, we realized that Mary and I had played a show together in Kalamazoo back in 2005, Rob had dated a friend of mine years back, and we all had lots of friends in common. They were so nice and had lots of helpful things to say in regard to my new weird times and surroundings. I don't think I stuck around to see them play that night, but soon enough I was at another of their shows, jaw dropped to the floor by how amazing a sound these two rulers were putting out. They quickly became not just my favorite band in Brooklyn, but two of my favorite people. In the fall we did a super short tour together along with the Blow. I think this is the only existing evidence, a weird snapshot from Columbus, Ohio.

When the Saturday record on K came out in October, I asked a bunch of friends to do remixes for a kind of bonus beats 12" or something. Everyone involved was highly stoked, but time started slipping away for all parties involved and High Places were the only ones to come through by the first proposed deadline. Coming up on six months and a bunch of pushed back deadlines later, the idea is a little dead to me, but the HP remix ruled so much, I really wanted it to see the light of day somewhere. Rather than sell an mp3 or do a weird one-sided single or some such nonsense, I asked them if they'd be cool with me just posting their remix here, and they said no prob. I have reped these guys' music here before, as have a lot of other music media resources. Over the last year they've toured endlessly, put out some of the more exciting jams in all histories and hooked up with Thrill Jockey to release their first official full-length this fall. There's only more in store, and I'm really stoked to see what transpires and where it takes them creatively.

This is a remix of "Whitey Hands", the last song on Fill Up The Room. IT IS SO SICK! Mary trained classically on bassoon, and replaces the sample that I built the song around with a treated bassoon riff (!!!!) and there's more deep-bass/stereophonix percussion stuff going on than the original could have ever conceived. This was probably already the most re-mixed sounding song on the record, so to have a full-blown insanely tripped actual remix is super special. I hope you all like it as much as I do, and thank you friends to the High Places for eternal sweetness, talent and joy.

Saturday Looks Good To Me "Whitey Hands" (High Places Remix)