1. Long Walk Home
2. Who Here?
3. Anna Marie
4. Better Angels
5. Westernside
6. Democracity
7. Make It Up
8. Marionette
9. Do Me A Favor
10. Sunray
11. Fading Away
produced by David Feeny
recorded at the Tempermill, Ferndale, MI
mastered by Sir Dewey Stern
Story
The initial sessions for Western Sides began in early 2004 after the last No City Fun shows and our appearance at South by Southwest in March of 2003. During the summer of 2003 we parted ways with drummer Mike Popovich and the three of us spent the rest of the year kind of doing our own thing. David’s band Blanche put out their first record If We Can’t Trust the Doctors, Garth got his stomp-blues outfit Bull Halsey up and running and I started writing many of the songs that would make it on to the album.
As with Late and No City Fun, David took the helm for the Western Sides sessions at the Tempermill. We recruited Detroit drummer Charlie Koltak after finding out that his band, Judah Johnson, who we had played with on a number of occasions, was on hiatus and that he might be available. We had always loved Charlie’s playing and thought he would be great for what we were trying to do. As it turns out, Charlie was up for recording and we were psyched when he agreed to play with us live. Our first show with Charlie was at the 2004 Labor Day Festival in Hamtramck, Michigan and it was there that we played the first batch of songs that are at the core of Western Sides: “Long Walk Home,” “Who Here,” “Fading Away,” and “Westernside.”
We continued to play and record throughout 2004 and a 2005 release for the record seemed like a realizable goal. In March of 2005, however, Garth delivered the news that he had been diagnosed with cancer and with that all AM business came to a halt. Garth had successful surgery that April and began radiation and chemo later that spring and during that time David and I put Team Mars together as a way of supporting Garth and his family. In reality, Team Mars was really just a way for us to keep friends and fans who were close to the band up to date on Garth’s progress but it also gave us the idea for a team-relay fundraiser in Detroit’s annual marathon.
Garth was given a clean bill of health in early 2006 and we started playing and recording again throughout that spring and summer. In early Fall, we convened at the Tempermill to record the album’s final tracks, “Better Angels” and “Make It Up” and then left David to pull together the final mixes. The record was mastered in January of 2007 by Sir Dewey Stern in Lancashire, England.
Western Sides was released on January 15, 2008 on Gangplank Records.