Recording a debut album while holding a full-time job is no easy feat, unless you’re GW-bred band Bottles/Cans.
Photo courtesy of Bottles/Cans
“We were surprised at how quickly we tracked the songs,” said drummer Brendan Polmer, who works for CNN and wrote for The Hatchet, in an interview. “The whole album took about two weeks to make.”
Bottles/Cans has been playing together since college, and both Polmer and bassist Zach Pentel said that recording an album had been the group’s eventual goal; it was just a matter of finding the place, and the money, to do it. Funding largely came from the band’s biggest gig to date: opening for N.E.R.D. at Emory University. The Bastille, part of the Inner Ear Studio in Arlington, proved to be the ideal spot to record.
Pentel, a graduate student, said that making the album was completely worth the hectic schedule.
“We’d been waiting for this for so long, we didn’t mind the personal sacrifices,” he said.
The album, “Only, Please”, is a mix of freshly written songs and old band favorites. Pentel said that the group aimed to capture the essence of their live shows, rather than make just another slickly produced album.
“We wanted it to sound live, like you put a mic in the middle of the room,” he said.
Tracks like “Dodge” and “Tabitha” embody the band’s loose-and-rowdy rock sound. Singer/guitarist Kevin Eskowitz (not present at the interview) tears into the vocals with refreshing intensity, and Pentel and Polmer provide a solid backing track for both songs. Pentel’s nimble bass line on “Tabitha” is particularly good.
For now, Bottles/Cans is focused on “conquering D.C.” and promoting “Only, Please.” The group is hosting an album release party on Aug. 6 at the Rock and Roll Hotel; they’ll be playing with Kill Lincoln, a “high energy” ska-punk band.
Still, the band isn’t planning a grand bid for stardom; they have jobs, after all.
“We have to hedge our bets a little,” Pentel said. “We’re trying to live in the now, but we’re starting new things and we all have lives. We have no aspirations to tour for Fall Out Boy or anything.”
“Only, Please” will be available on iTunes Aug. 10, but here are some sample tracks:
