Before City Center got rolling, and even during the time of this blog's beginnings, I was the leader of a long-running pop group from Michigan called Saturday Looks Good To Me. The band started playing shows in 2001 and we toured, recorded and released records extensively until about 2008. Betty Barnes was the lead female vocalist and one of the longest-standing members of the band. On one of our multiple tours of Sweden she decided she liked the country so much she moved there! The band kind of went on an unofficial break up/hiatus following the last tour in 08, but even then I had some ideas for a next step. I always wanted to do a band that kind of focused on Betty's voice. SLGTM was great, but it went too many directions over the years and sometimes confused and annoyed audiences. This was kind of the point, but not a lot of people got it. I imagined a stripped-down musical landscape with lots of different vocal parts coming in and out, an internal sound, open and direct. All my projects usually start out like this and then get layered with every sound I can imagine, sometimes to the point of clutter.Last summer Betty was in town for a week, so we camped out for three days and recorded vocals to 11 songs. I spent the next six months recording all the other parts, mixing and basically filling out what turned into the record I am now so excited to present to the world. "Mighty Cloud" (named after an old Jamaican record label) was the last new song written and performed by SLGTM, and served as a jumping-off point for the new band, so we thought Mighty Clouds was a good band name, too. The record is available now in an edition of 500 on cloud-colored wax, and you can stream/download/whatever the songs on our bandcamp page as well. The record (and a sweet tape!) will also be available via the Life Like and there will be shows in both Michigan (November) and a European tour (March/April) upcoming!! It's really exciting to work with Betty again, and also to present a set of songs that I think accomplished what they set out to. I really hope you all like it as much as I do!
