Long-time midwesterner Thomas Comerford started Kaspar Hauser while living in Iowa City in 1999. Though he’d played guitar, written songs and played in bands since the age of ten, with influences ranging from the Beatles to Will Oldham to the mid-80s SST Records roster, his only releases were hand-held tape recordings handed out to friends. Upon moving to Chicago in 1999, he began to assemble various lineups to do sporadic shows and recordings. Kaspar Hauser was still a part-time activity, however, as Comerford (who teaches film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) was producing 16mm films and touring the country with them.
While working on the Quixotic/Taxidermy record between 2004-6, Comerford began to devote more time to songwriting, recording and performing music. In making the record, he drew on a number of friends and previous contributors, including Stephen “the kid” Howard (Pinebender, Ambulette), Johnathan Crawford (Head of Femur, William Elliot Whitmore) and Kent Lambert (Roommate), among others. Kris Poulin, a Chicago engineer (Pinback, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Love Story in Blood Red) who has recorded and played with Comerford over the years, recorded and mixed the bulk of the record, which came out in February 2007 on Backwardmasking Records to excellent reviews and airplay on college radio stations.
Shortly after the release of 2007’s Quixotic/Taxidermy, Comerford set about writing songs for a follow up. Using the more bluesy, rock-oriented material on Q/T as a starting point, Comerford crafted a song cycle that explores old mythologies, Americana and some new yarns regarding family and ancestry/progeny. Themes of obligation, rift, isolation and sometimes hope recur across a set of narrators who would be at home in a Flannery O’Connor novel. The recordings feature the rhythm section Comerford played with over a number of shows in 2007: Steve Kiraly (Reagan National Crash Diet) on drums and Matt Seifert (Stanley Ross, Cool Devices) on bass. In order to up the rock ante, he recruited Stephen “the Kid” Howard to play a large portion of the lead guitar. A number of spot guest appearances also highlight the record, including Tatsu Aoki (Miyumi Project) on upright bass, Kent Lambert on keyboards and Laura Watral (Coupleskate) on keyboards, to name a few. Comerford again called on longtime friend and collaborator, Kris Poulin to produce the record. Spacesuit Records issued The Sons in February 2009. The band has been supporting the record with shows around the midwest throughout 2009.
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