Terry Gross, the trio of drummer Phil Becker, bassist Donny Newenhouse, and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am) announce their exhilarating sophomore album with the typically self-deprecating title of Huge Improvement. Coming September 20th, the album was written and recorded at El Studio, the band’s studio where artists such as Moon Duo, Big Business and Wooden Shjips have worked. Huge Improvement captures the trio’s psychedelic excursions with granular precision.
We are pleased to share bracing new single “Sheepskin City” – a gallivanting ode to impermanence that runs at full-tilt, classic riffing pushed to sonic extremes and invoking prog-rock drum and guitar heroics. Named for the San Francisco business (also featured on the album’s cover art), “Sheepskin City” exemplifies the band’s balance between absurdist humor and a genuine concern for preservation.
“Sheepskin City was always a perplexing oddball place on a busy corner in San Francisco’s Mission district,” notes Becker. “They hung the same weathered ragged sheepskins out front daily. Was it a front for something else? Something about it just made you smile when you drove by it. If Sheepskin City is still there, things are alright. Then, one day, after decades of being there, it’s gone!” Newenhouse adds: “For us it became sort of an analog for the future and how technological advancements will most likely result in some sort of ultimate letdown.” Manley continues: “These are places in the neighborhood where we have our recording studio, El Studio, which is where we write, rehearse and record. It’s our home base. We were capturing a moment in time. Everything is temporary.”
The four mammoth slabs that make up Huge Improvement are driving rock adventures, taking on a rollicking joy ride. The record welcomes cathartic release peppered with humor, delivering their observations on the changes on community and specifically their Bay Area community with considerable humor. Terry Gross’s Huge Improvement is a welcome release in this time of change and uncertainty and yes, a subtle attempt to get to speak to a journalist they admire, Terry Gross.
