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Love Is Simple | Review
Jambase.com
chaos, rock action, tribal bongo-banging and sentimental sing-alongs of their live shows
Love Is Simple is the second full length release from Young God recording artists Akron/Family, their fourth overall including one mini-album and one CD split with Angels of Light. The album was produced by Andrew Weiss (Ween, Rollins Band, Gone), recorded at his Zion House O' Flesh studio in West Central New Jersey. Love Is Simple is being released on Young God September 10.Love Is Simple comes the closest to bridging the gap between the "gangs all here!" chaos, rock action, tribal bongo-banging and sentimental sing-alongs of their live shows and the necessarily more cerebral, or at least worked-over and layered process of recording in the studio where they excel being patient and obsessive techno nerds as well as rampaging apes on demand. There're some beautiful songs and gorgeous harmony singing as well as some wild and weird jams, all in the service of their chosen Deity: Nothingness, or LOVE, or whatever it is they're on about.
The initial conception of Akron/Family took place Fall 2002 when Seth Olinsky and Miles Seaton met while working graveyard shifts at the same coffee shop in Manhattan and started recording together. A lot of great songs came from a series of late night recording sessions and one pissed off roommate! Eventually this pair recruited Dana, a gifted young drummer Seth grew up with in Western Pennsylvania and all three moved into an unfinished loft space in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. They began rehearsing as a power trio at various low-rent studios while continuing to make subdued recordings at home. Their first live show was a house party at Oberlin College where Seth was tentatively planning to attend. At their fourth live performance, another old friend, Ryan Vanderhoof, opened for them. After staying up all night together staring into waterfalls, he accepted their offer to become their fourth member, quit his teaching post and moved to New York City that Summer of 2003 -- and Oberlin was out one tuition.
This fall, Akron/Family will be embarking on yet another tour of this great America collaborating with one of the mightiest of all electro-acoustic drone poets Greg Davis, and a trio of fine (large, hairy, genius!) specimens of manhood from North Carolina called Megafaun.