Extinct Orbits

Our friend Caleb has a new album out under his moniker Happiest Lion. The album is called Mammoth Moon and you can get it for $1 at his website until June. It's really good and was mixed and mastered by our friend Chad Wahlbrink.

MAZES

I am continually confronted with how cluttered our lives become on no account but our own. We're convinced it's right around the corner. Our churches are convinced that if a few more people come through their doors, the kingdom will happen. Our houses are filled with the evidence of believing that one more purchase will finally make it a home. We're really silly creatures when I think about it. What I touch and see and feel is not really real at all to me anymore. It's all outlines, blueprints and shadows. There's so little that is really needed.

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
-Psalm 16:11

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
-Matthew 28:20

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
-John 16:33

leaving me upright

"But the thought I liked most was that I would have a wife. In the spring of my second year of high school, a copper-haired girl named N. (for Nan) O'Callahan and I stepped into the shadow of the spirea bushes by the library and had given each other a kiss that was the strongest thing that had happened to me since Aunt Cordie died and I came to The Good Shepherd. It was as if the world, leaving me upright, had turned itself upside down above my head and poured over me rivers and oceans of warm water. After that, it was clear to me that if I became a preacher I was going to need a wife. And so I imagined a wife with red hair like Nan O'Callahan's. When I began to imagine her, I ceased entirely to imagine the nice town and the church and the congregation and the reading of books. I imagined my wife and me coming home from the grocery store late in the afternoon, our arms loaded with sacks of groceries-for at The Good Shepherd we were always a little hungry. I imagined us sitting at our kitchen table, eating a big supper that always ended with a cherry pie like Aunt Cordie used to make, with sugar glazed on the strips of the top crust...

And Nan O'Callahan? She was gone long before I was. Our kiss in the shadow of the spirea was, in fact, a farewell kiss. She was going away to live with some relatives she didn't know, and she didn't want to leave without a trace. She wanted to think that somebody would miss her. And so that kiss passed between us, that moment of my sudden immersion in her welcoming warmth, living moisture, and good smell."



-Wendell Berry, "Jayber Crow"

We--

We finished recording what will be our third album yesterday, ending with some final overdubs and some tidying up. We had an incredible time and are very pleased with the way everything turned out. Now we wait for mix master TJ to do what he does best, which is mix and master the record. We've worked longer, harder and scrapped more ideas for this record than any other and feel very pleased in the end with the results. I think there was definitely a hand in making this one that was not ours. We're excited for everyone to hear it.

love

LP3

Chestnut Attic EP

Pomegranates & Caleb Groh-Chestnut Attic EP

We recorded this EP on our last tour while we had a day off in Boston with our friend Caleb and his family. We had a really great day including a big breakfast, costume wearing, dogs, kitchen conversations, laundry and coffee. It's kind of sloppy and all over the place but we hope you enjoy it. Many thanks to the Groh family for hosting us and for Caleb for doing all the tracking. Thanks to Chad Wahlbrink for mixing and mastering.