And The Black Feathers Work With Literati Records for New Album
by Tim Wenger
Colorado Music Buzz been good friends with Mark Pruisner from Literati Records for quite a while now. His podcast and live stream are, in fact, one of the most solid sources of quality local music in the Mile High City. When Pruisner reached out to us about covering And The Black Feathers’ new record Pink Black and Bruised, we took a listen and decided it was a no-brainer.
Pruisner felt the same way, apparently. He liked their music so much that he brought them onto his label and released their record as the first official release under the Literati Records moniker, and the album just dropped on June 27. “I really liked what these guys were doing,” Pruisner says. “They had a different sound, and a different feel, and I felt they would be a great first release for Literati.”
The band’s songwriting is heartfelt, often heavily so. Each track on the record serves as some kind of an emotional tattoo, telling a story and leaving its mark. “To me, it’s just emotion,” says front man and guitarist Danny K. “I just try and process an emotion or a desire that I have, and try and turn it into music somehow. I don’t think ‘Oh, I’m going to write a slow ballad,’ and then write a slow ballad. I just start writing something or start thinking something and it evolves.”
“Once we get our hands on a song, even at an early stage, we’ll rip it apart,” says bassist David. “Something that will start really blues-based, in the end it will be unrecognizable from where it started.” The band has been working on the songs since 2011, when they became an official lineup following an open mic at the now-defunct Old Curtis St. Tavern.
The group’s first single off the new release, “Cream,” is a solid representation of the band’s style- blues driven guitar licks with energy of modern garage rock, with the heart of a soul singer in the darkest dive bar. The grittiness of Howlin’ Wolf meets the catchy hooks of The Strokes with a flare of seventies punk rock- the track is solid.
Recorded at Mammoth Cave Studio with producer/engineer Tim Gerak. “We basically laid the raw tracks in two days,” says drummer Tony Corona. “We came in really polished.” Then the finals were cut, and the record was sent into post production.
Everyone had a lot of say in the mixing process, listening carefully to Gerak’s work and fine-tuning it to their hopes and expectations. “We’re all pretty opinionated, so sometimes it gets pulled in different directions,” says David. Pruisner was also a helping hand (and, sometimes, a bit “dictatorial” as he put it) during the recording process.
“They were really polished when they came in,” Pruisner says. “They had the songs down. Eight tracks is what we laid down. For people that may not be familiar with the band, you’re going to get a good mix of their abilities and diversities.”
“We grew in the sense of trusting the engineer more,” says Danny K. “We chose him for a reason.”
Pruisner and Literati Records will also be helping push the album following the June 27th release. The band will be lining up gigs throughout the summer both in town and on the road- check out updates at facbook.com/andtheblackfeathers. “I wanted to capture the energy of their live show, but with a professional-sounding album,” says Pruisner. “One of the biggest things I wanted to get out of them in the studio was, ‘Bring the energy’ and then just get people’s ears on it. They are kind of a jewell in the rough as far as the Denver scene goes. If we can get some more ears on them, it’s going to turn some heads.”
Online: andtheblackfeathers.com
Category: Buzzworthy
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