Album Notes

Architectural Rock

On a relaxing sunny day, bassist Jon Sulkow struggles to find the right words to describe Tugboat Annie's music. "You guys play architectural rock," says a friend, pointing up at the buildings that surround them. "All the parts have a purpose." (see fig 1a.)

On Tugboat Annie's latest album, The Space Around You, the band proves this theory through ten songs filled with musical joints, girders, halls, and elevators - each part enabling the next and holding the others up. Jay Celeste's shimmering guitar links to a rhythm change, a melodic bass line or a perfectly placed snare, stepping up into a chorus where singer Michael Bethmann lets go and sends the ceilings higher.

Tugboat Annie's music is about energy and tension, desperation and hope. You can hear the Replacements, Husker Du, and The Pixies, yet you also detect hints of Oasis, The Verve, and Blur. Theirs is a big sound with big emotion behind it-- a sonic mirror for your life and mine...

A Brief History

Jon Sulkow (bass) and Mike Bethmann (vocals, guitar) got together at the U of Buffalo dorms and started writing songs. At first there was a lot of banging on walls and cans of beer, acoustic guitars and practice amps. Later they made it electric, adding a drummer and a guitarist, charging onto the Buffalo music scene.

After playing shows throughout the northeast, they released their first full length, Superfriends, on Sonic Bubblegum/Cargo Records in 1995. Their fan base grew in the US and even overseas, where their music was played on John Peel's famous BBC show in London.

The band moved to Boston, and now Jason Celeste played guitar and Mike and Jon got shivers (the good kind) up their spines. They signed with Big Top Records in 1997 and released Wake Up and Disappear, which earned them "Best Rock Band" from Boston Magazine and "One of the Best Up and Coming Rock Acts of '97" by the Boston Phoenix. Their appearance on HBO's "Reverb" and "Best of Reverb" gave the band further recognition.

They toured the country, and, feeling all alone, wrote Separation Songs, a 6-song EP that illustrated the band's evolution in songwriting. It showcases their ability to craft catchy pop songs with the keen sense of restraint, while marked by shimmering layers of guitars and Mike Bethmann's emotional rasp.
The Space Around You is the bands newest album, recorded by Matthew Ellard primarily at Ft Apache Studios in Cambridge, MA. It is undoubtedly the band's best recording effort to date, adding slick production to their signature sound of indelible pop hooks and heartfelt lyrics. This album is their first to include drummer Joshua Dalsimer, who previously played in The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Island/Def-Jam) and Enormous (A&M).

Their irresistibly catchy single "The Wishing Song" is sure to turn heads when it's introduced to the radio world this fall.