Michael Columbia started as an instrumental duo of saxophonist David McDonnell and drummer Dylan Ryan. The ease of performing as a duo allowed them to take the act on the road, loading into Ryan’s gold Volvo 240 and playing as much as possible, along the way sharing bills and befriending like minded bands such as Need New Body, Zombi, Make Believe, Espers, and Olivia Tremor Control.
In 2005, fellow Shape Shoppe Studios veteran Chris Kalis, co-founder of Chandeliers, joined on synthesizers and guitar and the trio began work on a new recording. Live shows were bountiful during this time, including Pitchfork Fest in Chicago, and studio time was often pushed to the side in favor of performance and the record never fully materialized. In 2020, after a decade-long hiatus, those sessions were revisited and the trio reassessed the unfinished material with fresh ears. Finally in 2022, they performed at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago and cracked open the vaults, looking at the shelved album.
Exhilarated by the exuberance of playing live again, Michael Columbia dove in headfirst to finishing the record, recording, re-recording, and overdubbing at home and at Jamdek in Chicago. “We were never a band that did things the straightforward way, so this is fairly in line with our methods,” Ryan says. “When we started, we didn’t know what we were doing, and maybe we still don’t, but we do know what a Michael Columbia record should sound like.”
TRAYSH
Where the noise basement has a basement. And that basement has a basement. And that basement embraces jam band peaks and disasters. It also is a bunker for research chemicals and dollar ECM CD’s with disc rot. Falling somewhere between Phish, Sun Ra, Black Dice, Medeski/Martin/Wood, and “Bitches Brew” era Miles, this Chicago supergroup has legends from every side of the underground.
Drummer and synth player, Ben Baker Billington (Tiger Hatchery/Quicksails) produces pocket grooves that skip along the beat of a burners bong cough and fluctuating heartbeat. Mondo bass man, Andrew Scott Young (Tiger Hatchery/Circuit Des Yeux/Whisker) takes the chromatic scale to a 6 foot 2 deep fryer and cranks out musical funnel cakes and places them in a rainbow boat. And the glue man, keys player from way out, Daniel Van Duerm (AAVD Trio/KVL) burns notes so hot and lets the wax drip all over a yard sale coffee table covered in stealies.
A jam band turned inside out, revealing the guts and bones of a backwards day wook. Jazz put in a half full blue gatorade bottle and mixed up. Total goofin’ in sunshine and good times. Find your favorite shady place in the lawn, make it your favorite. This is wook summer.
