Indian Ledge Records

By John Brodeur and Kirsten Ferguson, Metroland
First published: Thursday, November 1, 2007

The old system is finished. The major record labels are bailing water, trying to save their Titanic industry from sinking like a stone. Too little, too late, some say; thanks to too much loss leading and a blasé, even combative, attitude toward downloading (at least until recently), things are looking bleak at the top. Meanwhile, on a regional level, the label business is booming. Thanks to the work of a group of young, business-minded artists, there are more local record labels active now than at any point in recent memory. The trend is remi- niscent of the Erl /Blue Lunch/Paint Chip heyday of the early 1990s Albany scene, and it is good. The following are a few of the labels that are helping Capital Region musicians get their product to the people. Indian Ledge It’s all about prepara-tion. In fact, the seeds for Indian Ledge Records were planted all the way back in August 2005, according to label head Nick Cosimano. “I had been friends with the Alta Mira guys [known at the time as Milo] for quite a while,” says Cosimano. A recording of the band’s first-ever live performance sealed the deal. “It was like, ‘These guys have got something,’ ” he recalls. “They should be backed by something I should do this!” So Cosimano set about the preparations for starting his new company; two years on, late this summer, Indian Ledge rolled out their first two releases, EPs from acoustic folk-country duo Palatypus (Lazaretto) and anthemic math-rockers Alta Mira (Fables and Fabrications). What took so long? “We’ve kind of taken the last two years to do a crash course and really learn how everything works. . . . It takes a long time to set good groundwork for this kind of thing. It really doesn’t seem like that long if you look at what we’ve accomplished so far.” There’s “a lot of internal preparation. . . . It’s a massive risk to do something like this.” But, he continues, “With all of us, it comes down to the simple fact that we have to do this. So for me, personally, there’s been a lot of adjustment in the way I think about things.” Thankfully, the risk is shared. Indian Ledge is more of a partnership than Cosimano’s CEO label might let on, with the members of both Alta Mira and Palatypus taking on roles in the various aspects of the business. “August [Sagehorn, Alta Mira bassist] is getting into recording. . . . and Mike [Poulopoulos, of Palatypus] is helping me with the booking stuff.” The EPs, Cosimano says, were used primarily as “a testing platform,” to “make sure we could make a record.” He spent several months with Alta Mira recording in “various basements” on his own equipment, trying to feel out how the songs would sound when recorded versus in a live setting a bit of inadvertent preproduction. The results are encouraging thus far, as the discs have been well-received, and each Indian Ledge act has garnered itself a considerable fanbase regionally. Cosimano also has plans to release a recording of his own acoustic-guitar work, under the name Turtle Writing in the near future. Plans are in the work to expand the enterprise. Cosimano says he and his cohorts “plan on taking this beyond our projects,” and that they plan to secure investors, and turn over booking and promotions to a third party, within the next 12 months. “All along this has been the goal with us. We’re gonna take this big.” —J.B.
- John Brodeur and Kirsten Ferguson, Metroland
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By GREG HAYMES, Times Union

First published: Thursday, August 16, 2007

Voorheesville is the unlikely home of the new Capital Region record company, Indian Ledge Records, and the label is launching with a double-barreled CD release party at Red Square in Albany on Friday night. Headed up by Nick Cosimano (who plays acoustic ambient guitar music under the name Turtle Writing), Indian Ledge's mission is "to nurture the creative drive unique to each artist by giving the artist more direction with their projects, so the integrity of the artist's vision is ensured," according to the label's Web site, http://www.indianledgerecords.com. Hinting at the musical range of Indian Ledge, the acoustic duo Palatypus and neo-art rockers Alta Mira will both release their debut discs on Friday, and both are excellent first efforts that bode well not only for the bands, but also for the label. Palatypus features the singing, songwriting and guitar playing talents of Matt Durfee and Mike Poulopulos, all of which shine brightly on their new five-song EP, "Lazaretto." There's a relaxed, back-porch feel to the sparkling country-blues breeze of "Dandelion Wine," the backwoods amble of "Thanksgiving Day Parade" and the folksy shuffle of "All I Own." Clifton Park quartet Alta Mira shares Palatypus' emphasis on vocals, and singer Joe Michon-Huneau is in a class by himself, eschewing the usual rock growl with his powerful yet undeniably melodic vocal approach without sacrificing intensity. But this is by no means a one-man band, and on their new disc "The Fables and Fabrications EP," bassist August Sagehorn, guitarist Hunter Sagehorn and drummer Tommy Krebs pack a considerable wallop, making exquisite use of dynamics and shifting time signatures, as well as a range of style that easily stretches from jazz to classic progressive rock. Included with each admission to the release party will be a copy of both discs, which makes the evening an extra special bargain. And just to put some icing on top of the cake, Durfee and Cosimano will also perform.
- Greg Haymes, Times Union
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Birthed in Clifton Park, New York, barely legal quartet Alta Mira is out to impress with their first CD Fables and Fabrications. This semisweet, self-proclaimed indie group is much more than just your average boy band. Their debut album consists of five surprisingly well-produced songs that often recall a more vociferous Verve Pipe, or subtler Incubus. On “Cloud 8½,” singer Joe Michon-Huneau shows off his powerhouse pipes, while brothers Hunter and August Sagehorn complement each other on guitar and bass, taking you on a complicated daydream, where time just seems to stop. Perhaps their most pungent track, “Apnea,” delivers delicate rock undertones and intoxicatingly intricate guitar riffs over high doses of superb singing. “Sifting Through the Dust” leads with a heavy drum intro by Tommy Krebs that gives way to an elaborate courtship between guitar and vocals as Michon-Huneau pleads, “I’ve never needed codependency / don’t give up on me / exiled, an effigy.” With tracks as assiduous as these, it won’t be long before Alta Mira makes world domination their destination.
- Lindsay Malachowski, Chronogram
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since late last year with a sound that fuses anthemic pop-rock to ornate, expansive arrangements, a la XTC, ‘90s Radiohead, or some of Tool’s early stuff. They’re handy with a time signature shift, they can rock a waltz with the best of ‘em, and singer Joe Michon-Huneau has a serious set of pipes. Watch for their debut EP next month
- Metroland, Best of 2007
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decades of art-rock, fusing together the intricate arrangements and musicianship of the classic '70s progressive rock bands, the herky-jerky new wave rhythms of XTC and the passionate vocals of Jeff Buckley.
- Greg Haymes, Times Union
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fine for Albany-based country-blues duo Palatypus

By Mike Hotter

It isn’t easy to write an engaging song about being happy and contented, at least if you’re aiming for something above the caliber of, say, “I’m a Barbie girl/in a Barbie world.” One of the most striking things about the work of Matt Durfee and Mike Poulopoulos, the two guitarist-singers better known to local-music lovers as Palatypus, is how refreshingly angst-free most of their tunes are. Yes, in accordance with the country and blues traditions from which they draw their inspirations, many of the tunes deal with an absent lady and the occasional overindulgence with the bottle. But these things are delivered as a matter of course rather than a cry of lament—part and parcel of the working musician’s late nights and lonely roads.

The story of Palatypus is a familiar one: Two bright young men fall in love with music at an early age and find that they can best express themselves to the rest of the world through singing about it, because sometimes words themselves just get in the way. Take the origin of the duo’s name, for instance.

“We were at the Lark Tavern for an open-mic night,” Poulopoulos recalls, “and [someone] misheard my name during introduction. It went something like, ‘Mike Poulopoulos, good to meet you.’

‘Mike wha . . . ?’

‘Poulopoulos.’ Screaming electric guitar solo.

‘Palatypus?’

[Later], during a half-drunk stagger outside of Caffé Lena, Matt suggested Palatypus and it stuck.”

Their willingness to act on serendipity, or what can be termed “the happy accident,” is one of the many subtle and unexpected qualities that make these two musicians particularly intriguing: Beneath the low-key demeanor of Durfee and Poulopoulos thrums the sort of ambition that occurs when taste, talent and a bunch of really good songs collide.

Durfee’s fingerpicking guitar- playing technique first germinated when a high-school classmate named Kirk (“an older, hippie-type of kid that I looked up to”) heard the young Durfee picking away outside on the school lawn.

“He had heard me playing and mentioned that he had this mix tape of an artist that he thought I’d like,” Durfee says. The artist in question was Leo Kottke, renowned for his idiosyncratic approach to country-blues fingerpicking. “Hearing Kottke play really opened my eyes to the fact that a song doesn’t have to be easy to get, or radio-friendly, to be incredible. I started to focus my efforts on the quirks of my playing and voice, and tried to turn them into elements of style for my music.”

After a couple of years of schooling in Fredonia and some experience playing bass with “a couple of older guys” in a band named Spun, Durfee returned to the Albany area to lick his wounds and tally up his musical strengths and weaknesses.

“I started to play with my acoustic more and more, and decided to take some lessons,” he says. “I spent about 2 1/2 months studying with Glenn Weiser, and took away some fingerpicking exercises that he’d shown me. I started to experiment with some open tunings, and felt like I’d had some sort of epiphany: I was able to take all the years of playing I had under my belt, and all of the years of songwriting I’d done, and have this whole new technique with which to create music. I wrote a lot of songs, and tried to keep them as honest as possible.”

With a newfound sense of purpose and direction, as well as a fresh batch of songs, Durfee started to make the open mic rounds in late 2005. Spring of 2006 saw him winning the Lark Tavern’s Singer-Songwriter Competition, with the music critics of Metroland crowning him 2006’s Best Male Singer- Songwriter a couple of months later. While the accolades were starting to trickle in for Durfee as a solo act, he surprised some with what occurred next—namely the formation of the duo known as Palatypus.

Poulopoulos, a recent college grad and blues-guitar aficionado, had started to visit area open-mic nights more and more in an effort to hone his singing and performing chops. While he was enjoying a good survey of some of the area’s most talented musicians at Artie’s River Street Stage in Troy, Durfee came in to play the open-mic one night and proceeded to impress Poulopoulos mightily.

“Matt’s fingerpicking and songwriting style amazed everyone in the room,” Poulopoulos says. “I recall the drifting smoke pausing for a listen.”

When Poulopoulos had his turn on the stage, Durfee was likewise affected.

“There was this incredible, honest vibe to the set, and the lyrics to his originals were so great, straight-ahead and memorable,” he recalls. A jam session was soon in the offing.

“We met up at his previous place on Parkwood Avenue, over by School 19,” Poulopoulos remembers. “We sat out on his 2nd-floor porch, and he laid down a golden melody on “Again by Your Window,” spun from alchemy. Too good to let pass, so fucking good.”

Palatypus have been hard at work ever since, branching out from local clubs like Red Square, Valentine’s and Positively 4th Street to a quickly expanding list of venues in Massachusetts and New York City. And soon the other shoe will drop, with the release of a five-song EP titled Lazaretto.

“The hope for the EP is that we’ll be using [it] for getting our [feet] into doors,” Durfee explains. “We’ll be sending them to college and regional radio stations, well-established clubs and listening venues, and generally building some word-of-mouth before we start production on full-length releases later in the coming year.”

An impressive affair, Lazaretto fleshes out the duo’s signature catchy folk-blues tunes with a fuller but never cluttered sound. Percussion and subtle guitar leads frame the two vocalists, Poulopoulos’ sturdy highway songs bringing to mind Stephen Stills and, at times, the group America, while Durfee sets his flexible and soulfully quirksome voice free on the final track, “Horse to Folly.” The songs are delivered with a quiet fortitude and faith in the music they create.

Though Durfee stresses that, even taking the misspelling into account, “Palatypus has nothing to do with the animal,” the man whose misheard surname inspired their moniker has a slightly different take on the matter.

“The only relation to the animal that I’ve been able to rationalize is that our approach to our sound, while intricate, is basic when placed in the spectrum of contemporary music,” Poulopoulos opines. “I think we’re a bit of an oddity. Strange and compelling, a cohesive collection of parts—like the animal.”

Or maybe just one more happy accident.

Palatypus will celebrate the release of the Lazaretto EP on Aug. 17 at Red Square. The event will double as a release party for the debut EP by fellow Indian Ledge Records artists Alta Mira. Tickets are $8 in advance (contact Palatypus or Alta Mira) or $10 at the door; both EPs are free with admission. The all-ages show (there is an additional $5 charge for those under 21) starts at 8 PM. Palatypus will appear on WAMC 90.3 FM’s Performance Place program this Monday at 11:23 AM to discuss the release party and the label, and to play some songs from the upcoming release.
- Metroland, Listen Here
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by playing loud and aggressive, Palatypus chose to explore the softer dynamic possibilities of two acoustic guitars. Matt Durfee's melodic finger-picking is the perfect counterpart to Mike Poulopoulos' Spartan folk strumming, and their two voices blend like gin and tonic on a summer day. Bring a blanket when you catch one of their performances.
- Metroland, Best of 2007
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It's almost a choral arrangement with four-part harmony; between the voices and guitars,