iji
DISCOGRAPHY
iji & ZACH BURBA RELEASES
Zach Burba “Room Window”
Digital 2021
Room Window was an experiment in working in more abstract computer and electronic styles. It’s somewhat ambient but has more of a sense of humor than is usually associated with the genre. Most of the record is anything but relaxing. I made this music alone in the bedroom I lived in during 2020 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California. It has some resonance of the isolation and inner explorations of that year. Not many people have listened. It definitely felt like a side project, or a ‘one-off’ exploration, yet I still really enjoy it and I’m not sure there are many albums out there to compare it to.LISTEN
iji “iji”
LP - Feeding Tube Records 2020
“iji” by iji was recorded in Seattle WA with an engineer/production team of James Krivchenia and Erin Birgy. The record was played by the Seattle iji band that went on many tours and found a shared energy unlike previous line ups. We were way synced. Jake Jones on drums, Will Murdoch on bass, Tyler Martin on synths, Evan Easthope on guitar. This band was deep fun. We had a musical language all our own. I was lucky to hang on to them for some time. The album is self titled because I wanted it to feel like a debut that exists outside of any actual timeline, like you could start here and then gaze backwards. There are some LP’s still available from Feeding Tube Records or at iji shows. BUY LISTEN
Zach Burba “Your Music”
Cassette 2019
I recorded “Your Music” at home shortly after making the iji by iji LP. iji by iji was an incredible experience, but it was so official - so collaborative - and it left me wanting to try to record something far more unhinged and individual. I borrowed Will Murdoch’s 4 track and set off song by song, playing with a bunch of scraps and loose ideas. I invited many collaborators to join in and do pretty much whatever they wanted. It feels like the truest expression yet of my mental world. I was sort of trying to make something “bad” in the spirit of “bad can be best”. I’d highly recommend trying to make art in this way. It delivers.LISTEN
iji “Bubble”
LP, CD, Cassette - Team Love, Lost Sound Tapes 2016
Bubble was our second album to be recorded at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington. It is the most collaborative and live band style record we ever made. The Seattle iji line up had been cooking for a while. We’d pulled off several, numinous, love tours and we recorded and dubbed these 13 songs in just 5 days. Jade Tcimpidis of 129,600 joined the band for this record and friend and hero, Karl Blau came over to sit in on some saxophone. We mixed the album with Unknown engineer Nich Wilbur live on the studio consul. There is a mini documentary Jake Jones put together about the making of the record and some footage from the release show you can watch here.
BUY LISTEN
Zach Burba “Paint it Zach”
Cassette EP 2015
This is a short tape I made in my bedroom in Seattle at the legendary Magic Lanes house in Wallingford (4551 4th AVE NE). I had such a solid iji line up at this time so I decided to use my own name. I still play the song “What We Have and What It’s For” in live situations every once in a while. Also, “Fools Dub” is a jam if I do say.
LISTEN
iji “Whatever Will Happen”
LP, CD, Cassette - Team Love, Lost Sound Tapes 2015
This was the first time we made a record at The Unknown with Nich Wilbur and the first recorded document of the longtime Seattle iji line up featuring Jake Jones, Will Murdoch, Evan Easthope and Curran Foster. We made half of the record as a full band performing live in the Unknown’s massive, haunted cathedral room. The other half I recorded mostly on my own in the studio, one instrument at the time. We then brought the tracks home and overdubbed some orchestral and jazz musicians, and various experimental touches with the help from James Rabbit’s Tyler Martin who would later join the band full time.
BUY LISTEN
iji “Unltd. Cool Drinks”
Cassette, CD 2014
Unltd. Cool Drinks was recorded at my parents house in Chandler, Arizona while I was visiting for a few months. My little sister had just suffered a traumatic brain injury and I came to visit and be with her and my family while she recovered in the hospital. I spent most of my time at her bedside but would go home at night and record songs to put my mind somewhere else. Some of the material was expanded after returning to Seattle, but the majority was from that odd stretch of Arizona hospital time. Tristan Jemsek of Dogbreth, Blue Broderick of Diners and Mitchell Keaney, tracked this original version of the song “Hard 2 Wait” with me. One afternoon Blue and I drove out to Canyon Lake near the Superstition Mountains. We passed a tourist trap offering “Unlimited Cool Drinks” on a hand painted sign. I knew immediately I had found the album title. I took the photo on the cover on a hike in Sedona near a spot called the “Airport Vortex”.
LISTEN
iji “Be Good Sessions”
Cassette EP - Rubber Brother Records 2013
Joe Degeorge is a musical genius I met in 2006 or 7 while touring as an auxiliary member of Math The Band. We played a small, snowy show at Joe’s college in Worcester Mass, and he performed “Come On Eileen” on a keytar. From that day forth we were good friends. I later toured playing drums in Joe’s band Harry and The Potters. Joe is a fantastic, rock and roll saxophone player, and in 2013 we did an extensive east coast, south and Midwest tour as a two piece iji band playing electric guitar and saxophone. Joe opened the show with a performance art piece called in Glove with Bach in which he would play Bach’s Invention #8 several times in a row, each time with slightly heavier gloves on. We skipped the highways and just took county roads whenever possible and had some incredible experiences. One young gas station attendant was excited that a band was stopping by and traded us a tank of gas for a couple CDs. This is a recording of our set that we did with Djim Reynalds who we met through sitting in with the Jason Anderson band. He came out to Providence and recorded us playing live in the living room of the AS220 residency where Joe was living. LISTEN
iji “Soft Approach”
LP - Lost Sound Tapes 2013
This record was recorded at the Crystal Palace house in Santa Cruz, California. The Crystal Palace was the home of the band James Rabbit and they opened it up to many touring bands rolling through. If you played there you’d perform in the chaotic music room which was full of pianos, organs, marimbas, drums and synthesizers. Hippies and punks would pack in together to hear James Rabbit play. I fell in love the first time I saw them - so much energy and improvisation of the highest clown-genius order. I immediately dreamt up a tour together where the Rabbits could be my backing band and I could join them on Saxophone. We wound up touring in this way several times between 2010 and 2013. After a particularly long full country tour of house shows and DIY spaces we recorded this record together. Drew Stoeckel engineered from his desktop computer and everyone from the band joined in to make this thing come alive. It owes a lot to the drumming of Connor Martin, the piano and synth playing of Max Bennett-Parker, and the backing vocal duo known as “Persian Wedding” that consisted of Daisy Jaberi and Michelle Shofet. Many more incredible musicians guested on this one, Nessa Weatley, Alexi Erenkof, Tim Rottenberg, Spencer Owen, The cover photo is by Jamie Burkart and he took this picture in the attic of the Masonic Lodge in Kansas City. It was a flash photo in a completely dark room, which makes it sit extra strange in the context of my painted environment. LISTEN
iji “World of Gecko”
Cassette EP - Holy Page Tapes 2012
World of Gecko was an EP I made at home for Holy Page Tapes. Christian Filardo who I knew from Arizona started this experimental tape label and I wanted to make something that fit in with it’s electronic leaning catalog. Christian made the artwork, its one of only two releases I have ever put out that has artwork by someone else. The first track “Hammock Moments” was a continuation of the Zachary David Jammin’ project I had started a few years earlier. Cesar Ruiz does a great cover of that song. The song “Dream World” has been covered by Mega Bog live on a handful of occasions. LISTEN
iji “Yerself”
LP, Cassette 2012
Yerself was recorded in the basement of our old Seattle house called the Funny Button. It was on 8th Ave NE between 45th and 46th. The house was torn down and there is now a large condo parking lot where it once stood. We had shows in the basement and recorded tons of records down there. We often put on festivals that would start at 1pm and go til 3am and something like 20 bands would play. Yerself was made with Shelby Turner of Sundance Kids / Richard Album, and Erin Birgy from Mega Bog with some help from Jacob Jaffe, my brother Luke Burba, saxophone by Andrew Swanson, and some incredible strings by Jonah Byrne and Laura Seniow. This was the first iji LP to be released on vinyl. I still have a small box of copies if you find yourself looking for one, reach out.
LISTEN
iji “Bird-Man Movement Team”
7” EP - Off Tempo 2011
Bird-Man Movement Team is a short E.P. of songs that I wrote on the bass. Shelby Turner used to call me Bird-man because of the yelps I would make while singing. This one was home recorded at the Funny Button house. I was exploring some different sounds and styles after making the more cohesive, big band album Cool Dream. Erin Birgy and Shelby Turner played and sang on a few songs, but I mostly did this one alone. I stand by this weird E.P. and Off Tempo still has some in stock.BUY LISTEN
Zachary David Jammin Get Free All The Time
“Welcome to my Snack Bar All Free”
Cassette EP 2011
This was a homemade, electronic pop fantasy I had about transforming into a new character named “Zachary David Jammin Get Free All The Time”. I toured the tape playing solo, backed up by a boombox cassette of the backing tracks. I scrubbed the existence of this from the internet for a bit, but I recently put it back up on the Bandcamp. It’s uber-posi and kind of obnoxious in a cartoon, lo-fi pop-star style. A friend named Chris “23” Murphy had made me a mixtape of selections from $1 bin 80s funk records and that was what got me interested in making something like this. All of the music is made on Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine, Casio Tone Bank CA-110 and electric guitar. I got really into using patches on the Casio I would have never dreamed of using in the past, for example “Classical Guitar”.
LISTEN
iji “Cool Dream”
CDR, Cassette, Lathe Cut Laser Disc - Wizards of the Ghost 2010
Many people have told me this is their favorite iji record. I made this with a huge band featuring Chris Mac on Drums, Eli Damm on Bass, Erin Birgy on Percussion and Vocals, Shelby Turner on Guitar, Jordan Michelman on Saxophone and Keyboards, Jon Manning on Keyboards and Melodica, Keenan Dowers on Keyboards, Jeremy Latimer on Trumpet, Kristin Alicia on Trombone, and a bunch of friends singing back ups. We recorded in my bedroom at the Pet Seminary house where a few of us lived around 2009-2010. We had a large music room with windows facing directly out onto i-5. I slept in the corner behind a bedsheet hung from the ceiling. I was always a little worried about the exhaust fumes from the freeway that were certainly pluming through the windows. There are, miraculously, some used CD’s for sale on discogs and on Jigsaw Records’ website.
BUY LISTEN
iji / Watercolor Paintings
Split 7” EP - Lost Sound Tapes 2009
In 2009 the Cool Dream era iji lineup went on a 2.5 month, self booked US tour with our dear friends Watercolor Paintings. They were in their 2 piece, Harp and Ukulele phase and we were at our absolute loudest and fastest, thanks to our tour drummer Taylor Wingett who, up until this point, had mostly played with thrash and hardcore groups. Lost Sound Tapes put out this split 7” with money he made from selling some Fleet Foxes cd-rs on ebay for way too much money. It sold out long ago but sometimes they show up on discogs. Rebecca Redman from WCP hand printed the sleeves.LISTEN
iji “In Celebration”
CDR, Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2009
“In Celebration” was the first record I made after moving to Seattle. It features many of the same people that played on “Cool Dream”. I was touring around with iji and Math The Band and I met a bunch of musicians in Seattle who suggested that if I moved to town they’d play with me. That’s all I really needed to hear. I made this at a house called New Crompton in the U District on 12th AVE NE and 47th. It’s a big blue house and it’s remarkably still there. This album is currently not available on my bandcamp but it’s streamable on Lost Sound Tapes bandcamp as side B of a double-album, cassette reissue with “Cool Dream”. The album art is by my friend Nick Shively.
LISTEN
iji “Soup / Salad”
Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2008
Soup / Salad is a split tape with both sides by iji. The Salad side comes first and it’s made up of minimal pop songs with “crispy” tones. The Soup side, as you can imagine, is a sludgy, experimental, psychedelic mess. I recorded this record in Chandler AZ on a 90’s digital 16 track machine. You had to burn all the individual tracks of each song down to a data cd-r and then transfer to the computer to mix. It took about 1 hr per song just to burn the info to disc. I used this method on most of my early records all the way up through “Cool Dream”.LISTEN
iji / Math The Band “Banana Split”
SPLIT CDR EP 2007
I did several tours with Massachusetts, synth pop extremists Math The Band around this era. I met Kevin from Math on an internet blog about synthesizers. We bonded over writing songs on Fruity Loops, a PC midi music program. Soon we started collaborating and meeting up to play shows together. This was a tour split. I don’t believe the Math The Band side of this split is available online anywhere and I don’t think I even have a copy of the CD but the iji side is on my bandcamp page. LISTEN
iji “Easy Potion”
CDR, Cassette - Now Hereness Records / Wizards of the Ghost 2007
Easy Potion was a turning point musically for iji. It was gentler than anything we’d done earlier and had a lot of experimental tones and different genre ideas. I made this record mostly by myself but it features some contributions from early iji members like Travis Bunn on Drums for a few tracks, and Brit May on some vocals and keyboards. The backing vocals on Pre-Prize and Easy Potion are by some of the members of the band Pangea who we had recently befriended. We went on our first full country tour around this time opening for Drew Danburry who showed us the DIY touring ropes. We ate a lot of hot sauce sandwiches and never once paid for a hotel. LISTEN
iji “The Surf Plays It’s Endless Rhythmic Game”
7” EP - Casey’s House 2007
This was an exciting release for me because it was my first time hearing my music on a vinyl disc. A Tempe, Arizona label called Casey’s House reached out about putting out a 7”. I was collecting K Records and Kill Rock Stars 7” records at the time and was very excited about this format. I recorded these songs alone at home. The first track “Long Branches and Roots” was the main song on our Myspace page for years. I’m not sure how many of these exist. I was told that a huge number of them melted in the label owner’s garage.
iji “We Glee”
CDR 2006
We Glee was my first real full length. I had made “Sunlight Strands” and “Sorry About The Lofi” and I figured that the truest expression of what I wanted iji to be would be somewhere between the two. Still experimental and lo-fi in nature but ambitious with its sounds and song ideas. I took this cd on some of my first tours and made several editions of packaging. My favorite was when I bought a bunch of beach-patterned windshield shades from the dollar store and sewed them together to make CD-R pockets. I couldn’t find a photo of that one so I included this photo of a Japanese CD-R release that a bedroom pop group called Happy Memory is Not Happy put out.
iji “Sorry About the LoFi”/ “Sorry Seashells”
CDR, Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2006
Sorry About the LoFi was the first cassette I made with Lost Sound Tapes. Throughout my whole discography there has been a pattern of making an ambitious, collaborative, more hi-fi pop record with a group of friends and then immediately recoiling and making something reckless, playful and lo-fi by myself. This is where that all began. There’s a bunch of covers and original songs here and I recorded it on Garageband using a laptop’s built in microphone. I have since heard this method referred to as the “4-track” of the early 2000s.
iji “Sunlight Strands”
CD EP - Glamour Trip 2005There were a few other EP’s I made with the first iji line up, consisting of Luke Burba, David Ross, and Brit May, but this feels like the first real release. We were in highschool in Tempe, Arizona and playing lots of local shows at The Trunkspace and a defunct all ages spot called Neckbeards. “Sunlight Strands” is made up of 6 songs played mostly live in the bedroom Luke and I shared at our parents house. It’s energetic, poppy, psychedelic, naive and precious. You can hear how much we wanted to be like the Elephant 6 collective and early 2000’s K records. There are some copies of the CD out there but this definitely qualifies as early music that I have little interest in continuing to circulate. Creating this internet discography is something I have put off for a long time, perhaps for the reason that part of me would like to scrub much of my early work from existence. At this point in my life however, there is another part of me that wants to honor my life’s work and the way it’s evolved. Just not to the point where I make it too easy for you to hear... yet?
Zach Burba “Room Window”
Digital 2021
Room Window was an experiment in working in more abstract computer and electronic styles. It’s somewhat ambient but has more of a sense of humor than is usually associated with the genre. Most of the record is anything but relaxing. I made this music alone in the bedroom I lived in during 2020 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California. It has some resonance of the isolation and inner explorations of that year. Not many people have listened. It definitely felt like a side project, or a ‘one-off’ exploration, yet I still really enjoy it and I’m not sure there are many albums out there to compare it to.LISTEN
iji “iji”
LP - Feeding Tube Records 2020
“iji” by iji was recorded in Seattle WA with an engineer/production team of James Krivchenia and Erin Birgy. The record was played by the Seattle iji band that went on many tours and found a shared energy unlike previous line ups. We were way synced. Jake Jones on drums, Will Murdoch on bass, Tyler Martin on synths, Evan Easthope on guitar. This band was deep fun. We had a musical language all our own. I was lucky to hang on to them for some time. The album is self titled because I wanted it to feel like a debut that exists outside of any actual timeline, like you could start here and then gaze backwards. There are some LP’s still available from Feeding Tube Records or at iji shows. BUY LISTEN
Zach Burba “Your Music”
Cassette 2019
I recorded “Your Music” at home shortly after making the iji by iji LP. iji by iji was an incredible experience, but it was so official - so collaborative - and it left me wanting to try to record something far more unhinged and individual. I borrowed Will Murdoch’s 4 track and set off song by song, playing with a bunch of scraps and loose ideas. I invited many collaborators to join in and do pretty much whatever they wanted. It feels like the truest expression yet of my mental world. I was sort of trying to make something “bad” in the spirit of “bad can be best”. I’d highly recommend trying to make art in this way. It delivers.LISTEN
iji “Bubble”
LP, CD, Cassette - Team Love, Lost Sound Tapes 2016
Bubble was our second album to be recorded at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington. It is the most collaborative and live band style record we ever made. The Seattle iji line up had been cooking for a while. We’d pulled off several, numinous, love tours and we recorded and dubbed these 13 songs in just 5 days. Jade Tcimpidis of 129,600 joined the band for this record and friend and hero, Karl Blau came over to sit in on some saxophone. We mixed the album with Unknown engineer Nich Wilbur live on the studio consul. There is a mini documentary Jake Jones put together about the making of the record and some footage from the release show you can watch here.
BUY LISTEN
Zach Burba “Paint it Zach”
Cassette EP 2015
This is a short tape I made in my bedroom in Seattle at the legendary Magic Lanes house in Wallingford (4551 4th AVE NE). I had such a solid iji line up at this time so I decided to use my own name. I still play the song “What We Have and What It’s For” in live situations every once in a while. Also, “Fools Dub” is a jam if I do say.
LISTEN
iji “Whatever Will Happen”
LP, CD, Cassette - Team Love, Lost Sound Tapes 2015
This was the first time we made a record at The Unknown with Nich Wilbur and the first recorded document of the longtime Seattle iji line up featuring Jake Jones, Will Murdoch, Evan Easthope and Curran Foster. We made half of the record as a full band performing live in the Unknown’s massive, haunted cathedral room. The other half I recorded mostly on my own in the studio, one instrument at the time. We then brought the tracks home and overdubbed some orchestral and jazz musicians, and various experimental touches with the help from James Rabbit’s Tyler Martin who would later join the band full time.
BUY LISTEN
iji “Unltd. Cool Drinks”
Cassette, CD 2014
Unltd. Cool Drinks was recorded at my parents house in Chandler, Arizona while I was visiting for a few months. My little sister had just suffered a traumatic brain injury and I came to visit and be with her and my family while she recovered in the hospital. I spent most of my time at her bedside but would go home at night and record songs to put my mind somewhere else. Some of the material was expanded after returning to Seattle, but the majority was from that odd stretch of Arizona hospital time. Tristan Jemsek of Dogbreth, Blue Broderick of Diners and Mitchell Keaney, tracked this original version of the song “Hard 2 Wait” with me. One afternoon Blue and I drove out to Canyon Lake near the Superstition Mountains. We passed a tourist trap offering “Unlimited Cool Drinks” on a hand painted sign. I knew immediately I had found the album title. I took the photo on the cover on a hike in Sedona near a spot called the “Airport Vortex”.
LISTEN
iji “Be Good Sessions”
Cassette EP - Rubber Brother Records 2013
Joe Degeorge is a musical genius I met in 2006 or 7 while touring as an auxiliary member of Math The Band. We played a small, snowy show at Joe’s college in Worcester Mass, and he performed “Come On Eileen” on a keytar. From that day forth we were good friends. I later toured playing drums in Joe’s band Harry and The Potters. Joe is a fantastic, rock and roll saxophone player, and in 2013 we did an extensive east coast, south and Midwest tour as a two piece iji band playing electric guitar and saxophone. Joe opened the show with a performance art piece called in Glove with Bach in which he would play Bach’s Invention #8 several times in a row, each time with slightly heavier gloves on. We skipped the highways and just took county roads whenever possible and had some incredible experiences. One young gas station attendant was excited that a band was stopping by and traded us a tank of gas for a couple CDs. This is a recording of our set that we did with Djim Reynalds who we met through sitting in with the Jason Anderson band. He came out to Providence and recorded us playing live in the living room of the AS220 residency where Joe was living. LISTEN
iji “Soft Approach”
LP - Lost Sound Tapes 2013
This record was recorded at the Crystal Palace house in Santa Cruz, California. The Crystal Palace was the home of the band James Rabbit and they opened it up to many touring bands rolling through. If you played there you’d perform in the chaotic music room which was full of pianos, organs, marimbas, drums and synthesizers. Hippies and punks would pack in together to hear James Rabbit play. I fell in love the first time I saw them - so much energy and improvisation of the highest clown-genius order. I immediately dreamt up a tour together where the Rabbits could be my backing band and I could join them on Saxophone. We wound up touring in this way several times between 2010 and 2013. After a particularly long full country tour of house shows and DIY spaces we recorded this record together. Drew Stoeckel engineered from his desktop computer and everyone from the band joined in to make this thing come alive. It owes a lot to the drumming of Connor Martin, the piano and synth playing of Max Bennett-Parker, and the backing vocal duo known as “Persian Wedding” that consisted of Daisy Jaberi and Michelle Shofet. Many more incredible musicians guested on this one, Nessa Weatley, Alexi Erenkof, Tim Rottenberg, Spencer Owen, The cover photo is by Jamie Burkart and he took this picture in the attic of the Masonic Lodge in Kansas City. It was a flash photo in a completely dark room, which makes it sit extra strange in the context of my painted environment. LISTEN
iji “World of Gecko”
Cassette EP - Holy Page Tapes 2012
World of Gecko was an EP I made at home for Holy Page Tapes. Christian Filardo who I knew from Arizona started this experimental tape label and I wanted to make something that fit in with it’s electronic leaning catalog. Christian made the artwork, its one of only two releases I have ever put out that has artwork by someone else. The first track “Hammock Moments” was a continuation of the Zachary David Jammin’ project I had started a few years earlier. Cesar Ruiz does a great cover of that song. The song “Dream World” has been covered by Mega Bog live on a handful of occasions. LISTEN
iji “Yerself”
LP, Cassette 2012
Yerself was recorded in the basement of our old Seattle house called the Funny Button. It was on 8th Ave NE between 45th and 46th. The house was torn down and there is now a large condo parking lot where it once stood. We had shows in the basement and recorded tons of records down there. We often put on festivals that would start at 1pm and go til 3am and something like 20 bands would play. Yerself was made with Shelby Turner of Sundance Kids / Richard Album, and Erin Birgy from Mega Bog with some help from Jacob Jaffe, my brother Luke Burba, saxophone by Andrew Swanson, and some incredible strings by Jonah Byrne and Laura Seniow. This was the first iji LP to be released on vinyl. I still have a small box of copies if you find yourself looking for one, reach out.
LISTEN
iji “Bird-Man Movement Team”
7” EP - Off Tempo 2011
Bird-Man Movement Team is a short E.P. of songs that I wrote on the bass. Shelby Turner used to call me Bird-man because of the yelps I would make while singing. This one was home recorded at the Funny Button house. I was exploring some different sounds and styles after making the more cohesive, big band album Cool Dream. Erin Birgy and Shelby Turner played and sang on a few songs, but I mostly did this one alone. I stand by this weird E.P. and Off Tempo still has some in stock.BUY LISTEN
Zachary David Jammin Get Free All The Time
“Welcome to my Snack Bar All Free”
Cassette EP 2011
This was a homemade, electronic pop fantasy I had about transforming into a new character named “Zachary David Jammin Get Free All The Time”. I toured the tape playing solo, backed up by a boombox cassette of the backing tracks. I scrubbed the existence of this from the internet for a bit, but I recently put it back up on the Bandcamp. It’s uber-posi and kind of obnoxious in a cartoon, lo-fi pop-star style. A friend named Chris “23” Murphy had made me a mixtape of selections from $1 bin 80s funk records and that was what got me interested in making something like this. All of the music is made on Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine, Casio Tone Bank CA-110 and electric guitar. I got really into using patches on the Casio I would have never dreamed of using in the past, for example “Classical Guitar”.
LISTEN
iji “Cool Dream”
CDR, Cassette, Lathe Cut Laser Disc - Wizards of the Ghost 2010
Many people have told me this is their favorite iji record. I made this with a huge band featuring Chris Mac on Drums, Eli Damm on Bass, Erin Birgy on Percussion and Vocals, Shelby Turner on Guitar, Jordan Michelman on Saxophone and Keyboards, Jon Manning on Keyboards and Melodica, Keenan Dowers on Keyboards, Jeremy Latimer on Trumpet, Kristin Alicia on Trombone, and a bunch of friends singing back ups. We recorded in my bedroom at the Pet Seminary house where a few of us lived around 2009-2010. We had a large music room with windows facing directly out onto i-5. I slept in the corner behind a bedsheet hung from the ceiling. I was always a little worried about the exhaust fumes from the freeway that were certainly pluming through the windows. There are, miraculously, some used CD’s for sale on discogs and on Jigsaw Records’ website.
BUY LISTEN
iji / Watercolor Paintings
Split 7” EP - Lost Sound Tapes 2009
In 2009 the Cool Dream era iji lineup went on a 2.5 month, self booked US tour with our dear friends Watercolor Paintings. They were in their 2 piece, Harp and Ukulele phase and we were at our absolute loudest and fastest, thanks to our tour drummer Taylor Wingett who, up until this point, had mostly played with thrash and hardcore groups. Lost Sound Tapes put out this split 7” with money he made from selling some Fleet Foxes cd-rs on ebay for way too much money. It sold out long ago but sometimes they show up on discogs. Rebecca Redman from WCP hand printed the sleeves.LISTEN
iji “In Celebration”
CDR, Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2009
“In Celebration” was the first record I made after moving to Seattle. It features many of the same people that played on “Cool Dream”. I was touring around with iji and Math The Band and I met a bunch of musicians in Seattle who suggested that if I moved to town they’d play with me. That’s all I really needed to hear. I made this at a house called New Crompton in the U District on 12th AVE NE and 47th. It’s a big blue house and it’s remarkably still there. This album is currently not available on my bandcamp but it’s streamable on Lost Sound Tapes bandcamp as side B of a double-album, cassette reissue with “Cool Dream”. The album art is by my friend Nick Shively.
LISTEN
iji “Soup / Salad”
Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2008
Soup / Salad is a split tape with both sides by iji. The Salad side comes first and it’s made up of minimal pop songs with “crispy” tones. The Soup side, as you can imagine, is a sludgy, experimental, psychedelic mess. I recorded this record in Chandler AZ on a 90’s digital 16 track machine. You had to burn all the individual tracks of each song down to a data cd-r and then transfer to the computer to mix. It took about 1 hr per song just to burn the info to disc. I used this method on most of my early records all the way up through “Cool Dream”.LISTEN
iji / Math The Band “Banana Split”
SPLIT CDR EP 2007
I did several tours with Massachusetts, synth pop extremists Math The Band around this era. I met Kevin from Math on an internet blog about synthesizers. We bonded over writing songs on Fruity Loops, a PC midi music program. Soon we started collaborating and meeting up to play shows together. This was a tour split. I don’t believe the Math The Band side of this split is available online anywhere and I don’t think I even have a copy of the CD but the iji side is on my bandcamp page. LISTEN
iji “Easy Potion”
CDR, Cassette - Now Hereness Records / Wizards of the Ghost 2007
Easy Potion was a turning point musically for iji. It was gentler than anything we’d done earlier and had a lot of experimental tones and different genre ideas. I made this record mostly by myself but it features some contributions from early iji members like Travis Bunn on Drums for a few tracks, and Brit May on some vocals and keyboards. The backing vocals on Pre-Prize and Easy Potion are by some of the members of the band Pangea who we had recently befriended. We went on our first full country tour around this time opening for Drew Danburry who showed us the DIY touring ropes. We ate a lot of hot sauce sandwiches and never once paid for a hotel. LISTEN
iji “The Surf Plays It’s Endless Rhythmic Game”
7” EP - Casey’s House 2007
This was an exciting release for me because it was my first time hearing my music on a vinyl disc. A Tempe, Arizona label called Casey’s House reached out about putting out a 7”. I was collecting K Records and Kill Rock Stars 7” records at the time and was very excited about this format. I recorded these songs alone at home. The first track “Long Branches and Roots” was the main song on our Myspace page for years. I’m not sure how many of these exist. I was told that a huge number of them melted in the label owner’s garage.
iji “We Glee”
CDR 2006
We Glee was my first real full length. I had made “Sunlight Strands” and “Sorry About The Lofi” and I figured that the truest expression of what I wanted iji to be would be somewhere between the two. Still experimental and lo-fi in nature but ambitious with its sounds and song ideas. I took this cd on some of my first tours and made several editions of packaging. My favorite was when I bought a bunch of beach-patterned windshield shades from the dollar store and sewed them together to make CD-R pockets. I couldn’t find a photo of that one so I included this photo of a Japanese CD-R release that a bedroom pop group called Happy Memory is Not Happy put out.
iji “Sorry About the LoFi”/ “Sorry Seashells”
CDR, Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2006
Sorry About the LoFi was the first cassette I made with Lost Sound Tapes. Throughout my whole discography there has been a pattern of making an ambitious, collaborative, more hi-fi pop record with a group of friends and then immediately recoiling and making something reckless, playful and lo-fi by myself. This is where that all began. There’s a bunch of covers and original songs here and I recorded it on Garageband using a laptop’s built in microphone. I have since heard this method referred to as the “4-track” of the early 2000s.
iji “Sunlight Strands”
CD EP - Glamour Trip 2005There were a few other EP’s I made with the first iji line up, consisting of Luke Burba, David Ross, and Brit May, but this feels like the first real release. We were in highschool in Tempe, Arizona and playing lots of local shows at The Trunkspace and a defunct all ages spot called Neckbeards. “Sunlight Strands” is made up of 6 songs played mostly live in the bedroom Luke and I shared at our parents house. It’s energetic, poppy, psychedelic, naive and precious. You can hear how much we wanted to be like the Elephant 6 collective and early 2000’s K records. There are some copies of the CD out there but this definitely qualifies as early music that I have little interest in continuing to circulate. Creating this internet discography is something I have put off for a long time, perhaps for the reason that part of me would like to scrub much of my early work from existence. At this point in my life however, there is another part of me that wants to honor my life’s work and the way it’s evolved. Just not to the point where I make it too easy for you to hear... yet?
RECORDINGS WITH OTHER ARTISTS
Generifus “Rearrangle”
LP, CD, Cassette - Bud Tapes / Anything Bagel 2023
Spencer Sult asked me to produce this record. I worked with his band and with engineer Vin Christopher to find sounds and arangements for this great collection of tunes.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “End of Everything”
LP, CD - Mexican Summer 2023
Frenetic, Europop Mega Bog catharsis at it’s tip top. I played bass, synth bass and some other touches throughout. Birgy had a lot of disco-octave needs on this ones.
LISTEN
Ancient Forest “Groundling Pluck, Faralong Moat”
Cassette 2023
I played drums live in Ancient Forest for a number of years after songwriter, Kalen Walther moved to Seattle from Missoula. We did some recordings for this record years earlier in the basement of Magic Lanes on a Tascam 388 that Will Murdoch had. Ancient Forest toured with a tape of this material, but I cannot find it online anywhere at the moment.
Bed Bits “Bed Bits”
Cassette - I’m Into Life Records 2023
I played some drums, percussion, saxophone, and a little bass and guitar on Alex Edgeworth’s baroque ponk songs. We recorded at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes.
LISTEN
Aaron Baker & Zach Burba “Candy Hearts”
Youtube 2022
Aaron and I made this album in my bedroom for Valentines Day 2022. We sampled ourselves singing words from Brachs Candy Hearts in differnet pitches to make up 3 octaves of a sampler keyboard. I played Aaron’s voice and he played mine as we “sang” these songs using the same words at our fingertips. I came up with this method of singing with a sampler for the “Your Music” song called Rubber Stamp.
LISTEN
Bill “The Joy of Life”
Digital EP 2022
This record’s by Will Segerstrom who often plays with me in Mega Bog. Part of his concept was to have a different rhythm section for each song. I played drums on the song Boo Hoo with Joe Waine on bass. Very groovy.
LISTEN
Ben Varian “Riddle Rock”
Digital EP 2022
Ben Varian retires from singing every once in a while. I love when he sings, but on Riddle Rock he asked several friends to take the lead voice on songs. I sang the song called Pilgrim’s Recipe.
LISTEN
Craig Salt Peters “Stuck in the Present Tense”
Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2022
This is the second album by the four piece version of Craig Salt Peters band with Craig on Guitar and Vocals, Jacob Jaffe on Guitar, Jon Broback on Bass and me on Drums. We reunited to record these songs at The Unknown after a 7 year hiatus. Craig writes great pop songs and this was such a fun rock and roll band to play with.
LISTEN
Dear Nora “Human Futures”
LP - Orindal Records 2022
Dear Nora has been one of my favorite bands since I was a teenager. To collaborate, perform and write songs together is strait up amazing. I generally play bass but got to do song guitar, drums and synthesizers throughout. The Human Futures band consists of our leader Katy Davidson with Greg Camponile, Nich Krgovich and I. We wrote the music to several of these songs together and Katy decked them out with their American, inner/outer reality observations.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Life and Another”
LP, CD - Paradise of Bachelors 2021
We made this record over several years with one of the biggest Mega Bog ensembles. It’s a sprawling epic with supernatural tones and heavy Bog catharsis. I played some bass and drums and other touches throughout.
LISTEN
Nicholas Krgovich & Friends “Pasadena Afternoon”
Cassette - Moone 2020
Nicholas brought Greg Camponile, Aaron Olsen and I to the Tropico Beauty studio for just one day to record this collection of cover songs by friends. It was effortless, flowing music of the smoothest kind.
LISTEN
Dingbat Superminx “Full Time Muse”
Digital 2020
Erin Birgy produced this Dingbat record at The Unknown with members of the Mega Bog group as the backing band. The session feels legendary in my memory. So much fun to juice these songs out. I played bass, vibraphone and rototoms.
LISTEN
Your Heart Breaks “Drone Butch Blues”
LP, CD - Sofa Burn 2019
I played some keyboards, guitar and other touches on this Your Heart Breaks record. Clyde Peterson wrote these songs based on the writings of historic and contemporary GLBTQI authors. The stories cut right through the mix, the lyrics are incedible. Clyde assembled an incredible band that was so fun to work with Jacob Jaffe, Karl Blau, Kyle Field, Kimya Dawson, Kelley Deal, Dylan Carlson, Wynn Greenwood and more.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Dolphine”
LP, Cd - Paradise of Bachelors 2019
Around the time this record was made Erin Birgy was living in New York City and mostly playing with a different, city-slicker backing band. I didn’t make it to the upstate farm sessions this record came out of but I got to make a few overdubs later. I wish I had been there, it sounded like a heck of a sesh. The recording of Ash Rickli singing his song “Spit in the Eye of the Mountain King” that made it on this record is an absolute treasure.
LISTEN
Dear Nora - Skulls Example
LP - Orindal Records 2018
Skulls Example is the first Dear Nora I got to work on. This line up of the band features Katy Davidson, Greg Camponile, Jessica Jones and I. We recorded most of the album as a 3 piece band on a cassette 4 track. adding overdubs digitaly later. I composed and produced the music to the title track “Skulls Example”, and played bass, keyboards and some guitar throughout.
LISTEN
Remambran - Peace Child Music
Cassette 2017
Peace Child Music is a wonderful, 8-track cassette recorded E.P. by Mallory Watje. I played drums on “Welcome 2 the Music” which is not only a song, but also a rug.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Happy Together”
LP - Nicey Music 2017
Happy Together is Bog in transition. I guess Bog is always in transition, never fully settling, always shifting, but this is a major moment between the DIY home recorded roots of the past and the big sounds to come. We made most of this at the Unknown but dubbed and added home recordings into the mix too. The song “London” is one I’ve always been quite proud of. Erin and I collaborated on the electronics and I added some drums, sax and guitars.
LISTEN
Torrey Pines (Official Soundtrack)
Film & Cassette Soundtrack 2016
Torrey Pines is a wordless, surreal, road trip, animated film by Clyde Peterson of Your Heart Breaks. I got to work as an animation assistant on the film and as a musician and composer on the soundtrack. We toured the film throughout North America and Europe performing a live version of the soundtrack.
LISTEN
Your Heart Breaks “Greatest Hits (Remix)”
Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2016
Clyde Peterson had several musicians gather in his basement to work side by side on re made versions of many of the classic Your Heart Breaks song. We all spent a few days re imaging the songs as electronic dance tracks and then Karl Blau took our tracks and heavily remixed and dubbed them. It’s a wild ride.
LISTEN
The Fools “The Fools”
Cassette 2016
The Fools was a band consisting of Lauren Ashley Moore, Will Murdoch and I. We made this one album in 2016 based around Lauren’s poems and songs. Lauren still performs some of these songs with her new project Dog Sister.
LISTEN
Mandarin Dynasty “Feedback Time”
LP, Cassette - Keeled Scales, L.S.T. 2015
This was the first of a series of otherwise unreleased records I worked on with songwriter Mike Sherk. Mike writes fantastic lyrics and, wow, that voice. This session was deep. We drank sweet wine, and put our all into it. I recorded it in the basement of my house Funny Button in Seattle. It was shortly after finishing iji’s “Yerself”, though this one took a lot longer to finally release. Carly Toyer and Lolli Morlock contributed some golden vocals throughout. We made a few more records of Mikes songs later but they still remain unreleased. Bug him about that if you get the chance.
LISTEN
Your Heart Breaks “America”
CD, Cassette 2015
This was the first Your Heart Breaks album I got to work on. This was a fun quick session working with Karl Blau as producer. We recorded and finished one song at a time in a loft in Ballard, Seattle. I played a Sequential Circuits Six Track synth and some alto saxophone.
LISTEN
Diners “Always Room”
LP, Cassette - Phat n Phunky, Diet Pop, Lost Sound Tapes 2014
I frequently play with the Diners band live but this is the only Diners record I’ve played on. There’s just a few small Saxophone moments I contributed, but the solo at the end of the record is one of my better, recorded Saxophone solos.
LISTEN
Craig Salt Peters “Songs for Hungry Ghosts”
Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2014
Songs for Hungry Ghosts is the first Craig Salt Peters band release. We recorded it ourselves at Jon Broback’s familys house in Gig Harbor, WA. There are some iconic songs on this thing.
LISTEN
Autococoon “Spirulina”
Cassette - Bridgetown 2014
Autococoon was Caitlin Payne Roberts songwriting project. I played bass on Ocean Sprayers, Eastern Beast and maybe one more? We recorded with Karl Blau in a Downtown Anacortes Yoga studio.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Gone Banana”
LP, CD, Cassette - Couple Skate 2014
We recorded this one at home at Magic Lanes house in Seattle Washington. Erin called her bedroom “Deep Space Studios” at the time. I played various touches throughout but mostly synthesizers. I was really into the notch filter on my Korg Poly 800. Great contributions from Jacob Zimmerman on Sax, Nathan Anderson on Drums and Matt Bachman on Bass. Several all time Bog classics here.
LISTEN
Watercolor Paintings “When You Move”
LP, Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2013
This is a later Watercolor Paintings album. From a time when Rebecca Redman started writing heavier and darker music than was going on at the times we had toured together in the past. This was mostly recorded at Magic Lanes house where I was living and I got to sit in on keyboards on a few songs, I remember adding parts to “Birds Wings” and “Showers of Stone”. It’s a beautiful album.
LISTEN
Dragons “Musical Witchcraft”
LP 2013
Flagstaff, Arizona house shows had a golden era around 2010-2015 and Dragons was the band. Equal parts tough and smooth - punk energy with fantastic soft-rock song writing. I got to play a lil saxophone on this record. I remember borrowing a saxophone to record at Austin’s house while iji was passing through on tour. It was in pretty rough shape and I had to really squeek the notes out.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Some UFO”
Cassette EP - Wizards of the Ghost 2012
Some UFO was a short, home recorded E.P. that contains some really great songs. It feels uniquely punk and has some very different sounds than any other Bog records. This was Shelby Turner’s last stint as bass player in the band. I was still playing Drums at this point. Jacob Jaffe played lead guitar. I’ve also always loved this album cover by Aidon Koch.
LISTEN
Younger Shoulder “Younger Shoulder”
Cassette 2012
Younger Shoulder is a songwriting project by Jacob Jaffe who I have collaborated with in many projects, iji , Mega Bog, Your Heart Breaks, Craig Salt Peters, etc. He’s a fantastic guitar player, singer and song writer. Some of these songs are absolute classics. Whenever Jacob would play the song “Slowly” at house shows in Seattle everyone in the room would sing along with gusto. I can still feel it. Erin Birgy and I were a rhythm section on many of these tracks. I played Bass, Erin played drums. Jacob had just moved to Seattle. It was recorded by Jacob on an 8 -track cassette deck at New Crompton house in the U-District, the same house I first moved into when I moved to Seattle.
LISTEN
Sundance Kids “Drippy Lippers”
Cassette 2012
Sundance Kids is a long lived songwriting project of Shelby Turner a.k.a. Richard Album. Drippy Lippers is the more bedroom, sad-song, cousin to “Trippy Rippers” which was made around the same time. It’s mostly a Shelby solo record, but I played some keyboards and bass.
LISTEN
Sundance Kids “Trippy Rippers”
Cassette 2012
Trippy Rippers is Sundance Kids’ post punk sister to Drippy Lippers. It’s very much a full band record with Shelby Turner on guitar and vocals, Craig Canario on bass, Erin Birgy on drums and me on guitar. Many of these songs pop in my head all the time. Its a predecessor to Shelby’s later project Richard Album, but Trippy Ripps is even more frenetic and wild.
LISTEN
Sandy City “Sandy City”
7” EP - Lost Sound Tapes 2011
One of a handful of Sandy City EP’s. We never made another full length after the “Surfin WA” debut. I think this one has some of our best songs.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Freaky Dawn”
Cassette - Wizards of the Ghost 2011
One of my favorite Mega Bog records. We were a heavy, grungy three piece band at this point with Erin on Guitar, Shelby Turner on Bass and me on Drums. Karl Blau produced this one. It was our first time recording at The Unknown, I think it had only just opened. We recorded backing vocals with a bunch of our friends from Seattle in Cranberry Cave in Anacortes. Karl obliged a lot of Erins big ideas and the magic was cast, as far as I’m concerned. There’s some good live videos (&) from this era of Mega Bog that are worth seeing!
LISTEN
Sandy City “Nice Hat”
7” EP - Lost Sound Tapes 2010
This was our follow up to “Surfin WA” some felt it was too hi-fi because we recorded it on my digital recorder instead of Jon’s 4-track, or I getting these mixed up? Hard to say.
LISTEN
World History “You Can’t Stop Trying”
CD/Cassette - Lost Sound Tapes 2010
World History was a great anti-folk band I met when I moved to Seattle. Neil Campoa and Jamie Menzel asked me to play drums and bass on the song “Shine”. This records full of great songs and lovely Olympia era, Evan Hashi production.
LISTEN
Mega Bog “Okay Human”
Cassette - Wizards of the Ghost 2010
The first Mega Bog album! We recorded it at Pet Seminary house in the same upstairs studio bedroom where we made iji’s “Cool Dream”. It’s so different then where Mega Bog is at now but I really love the whole journey of this band. When I hear this record I’m taken back to house shows in Olympia where we’d have almost everyone we were friends with playing some percussion instrument on stage jumping up and down and singing a long.
LISTEN
Sandy City “Surfin’ WA”
Cassette, LP - Lost Sound Tapes, Rok Lok 2009
Sandy City was my early Seattle days punk band with Jon Manning, Chris Mac and Eli Damm. We all played in the iji band at the time but we wanted to start a collaborative band to sound like Husker Du plays the Beach Boys. We all wrote songs and all sang. We made up some lore about being from Westport which is what came up when I did a web search for where to surf in Washington state. A lot of people bought it and when we played shows people would ask us what Westport was like. We had never been there.
LISTEN