Imagine if Lou Reed had spent his time at Big Pink instead of The Factory. You’re getting warm. The Band joins up with Velvet Underground and maybe asks Randy Newman to contribute a few guest tunes. It’s the same vein Dr. Dog was tapping and maybe even a stream from the same Kentucky river that My Morning Jacket dipped before it made its way to Nathaniel Rateliff. The Light Aluminum is DIY all the way. Here’s the recipe… Pile up a bunch of random gear in a room in an industrial park in Austin. Squeeze an upright piano in there while you’re at it and leave room for a big dusty console. Record everything you do. Everything. See if there’s anything that’s any good. If there is, bring it back to the home studio out in the hill country and finish it off. If not? Well, they kind of like stuff on the rough and ready side they’ll let you listen to that too. And you? The listener? You know what you’re getting. There’s no trickery, no studio magic. No gridded out beats and no auto-tune. It’s just five human beings in a room playing instruments made out of wood.
