I decided to leave Des Moines this past weekend, where it was sunny and 60 degrees, for my brothers house in
Minneapolis, where there is still 2 feet of snow. So I was happy when I got back into town on Monday, and our weird
nice Iowa weather remained. Everybody was in high spirits and not wearing coats when we met at Sonic Factory
studios to record our guest, Finn Miles.
One of the best parts of Mars Café is the location. With guitar shops on both sides, and a studio behind, there are a
lot of days when the café is sort of a hub of Iowa musicians. Paul Gratton, the man behind Finn Miles, has been one
of our most loyal customers at Mars for quite some time. So I’ve been receiving near daily updates on his work with
writing, recording, and releasing his debut album “Branches”. And we've been talking about doing this show for
over a year.
He released the album last year with some help from his brother Scott, who recorded and mixed the whole record.
And like any good man, Paul isn’t completely alone; his wife and better half (haha), Laura helps out by playing
trumpet, or anything else Paul requires. We talk all about the album, the next 2 albums and more during the
interview…
Of course before that, we had some killer records to play. Paul and Scott raided their parents collection, which
proved to be excellent. There was a lot of Dylan on this night, since we are all big fans, and the parents Gratton are
in a Bob Dylan cover band! I also had some new album that I bought at Cheapo Records in Minneapolis, so we had
a bunch to choose from.
Here is what we played…
Devendra Banhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain
Neil Young – Harvest
William Elliott Whitmore – Latitudes
Bob Dylan – Slow Train
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Bob Dylan – Desire
Radiohead – Kid A
Silver Jews – The Natural Bridge
U2 – The Joshua Tree
Beatles – Let It Be
Best of the James Gang
Broken Social Scene Presents: Brandon Canning
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Bob Dylan/The Band – Wake of the Flood
Minneapolis, where there is still 2 feet of snow. So I was happy when I got back into town on Monday, and our weird
nice Iowa weather remained. Everybody was in high spirits and not wearing coats when we met at Sonic Factory
studios to record our guest, Finn Miles.
One of the best parts of Mars Café is the location. With guitar shops on both sides, and a studio behind, there are a
lot of days when the café is sort of a hub of Iowa musicians. Paul Gratton, the man behind Finn Miles, has been one
of our most loyal customers at Mars for quite some time. So I’ve been receiving near daily updates on his work with
writing, recording, and releasing his debut album “Branches”. And we've been talking about doing this show for
over a year.
He released the album last year with some help from his brother Scott, who recorded and mixed the whole record.
And like any good man, Paul isn’t completely alone; his wife and better half (haha), Laura helps out by playing
trumpet, or anything else Paul requires. We talk all about the album, the next 2 albums and more during the
interview…
Of course before that, we had some killer records to play. Paul and Scott raided their parents collection, which
proved to be excellent. There was a lot of Dylan on this night, since we are all big fans, and the parents Gratton are
in a Bob Dylan cover band! I also had some new album that I bought at Cheapo Records in Minneapolis, so we had
a bunch to choose from.
Here is what we played…
Devendra Banhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain
Neil Young – Harvest
William Elliott Whitmore – Latitudes
Bob Dylan – Slow Train
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Bob Dylan – Desire
Radiohead – Kid A
Silver Jews – The Natural Bridge
U2 – The Joshua Tree
Beatles – Let It Be
Best of the James Gang
Broken Social Scene Presents: Brandon Canning
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Bob Dylan/The Band – Wake of the Flood
| February 9th, 2009 |
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| Just Right Click and Save As to open the files |
| Finn Miles |
