Album Notes

Idaho releases latest, You Were a Dick. Press Release below:

Idaho has been parting the sonic fog to put a finger on the sun since the early 90s, pioneering the slo-core movement along with the Red House Painters and Codeine. Since the very beginning Idaho has stuck to its musical guns, crafting slow, seductive, rawly emoted songs on trademarked de-tuned 4 string guitars without giving two shits whether anyone was listening or not. As such, this is pure, unpretentious, unaffected rock that Idaho loyalists have been inhaling for nearly 2 decades.

You Were a Dick, is Idaho as Jeff Martin and Jeff Martin as Idaho, one in the same and once again solo for this latest outing, the first after a five year hiatus. Recorded at Martin’s home, high up in the wild refuge of LA enclave Laurel Canyon, it includes songs as accessible as Idaho has delivered to date.

There’s something for everyone here, from the newly indoctrinated to diehard Idaho devotees. Included are songs which appear in recent films Jeff has scored including Sundance feature documentary Art & Copy and his own, making the festival rounds short, The Serpent and the Shadow.

Notable tracks: Up the Hill, the end title for Art & Copy and Weigh it Down with special appearance by Eleni Mandell.

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(Doug) Pray has gone out of his way to make sure Art & Copy is more than just a talking heads movie though, combining the interviews with beautifully shot esoteric images--the counterpoint footage of a worker posting billboards on the highway goes a long way to show the last steps in the ad process--and a gorgeous ambient score by Jeff Martin that pulls the whole thing together. - Comingsoon.net

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Art & Copy with original score by Jeff Martin to Premiere at Sundance.

Composer Jeff Martin's original score is showcased throughout ART & COPY the new documentary directed by Doug Pray (Hype!, Surfwise) which makes its world premiere this week as one of the 16 selected films in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

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It was during rare moments of sunlight that Jeff Martin (Idaho) was able to create his last release The Lone Gunman (2005) amidst a trial by fire initiation into the corporate world of television scoring. Halfway into completion of the next, as yet untitled, Idaho release, he sees fit to re-release the long out of print Forbidden EP & Alas '97/'98 in a single, remastered 10 year anniversary special edition package (2 disc set). These records represented an unexpected turn from Idaho's beautifully bombastic rocker 3 Sheets To The Wind '96. Pared down from a full size band to a duo, these two albums illustrate a study in economy and subtlety that still sound fresh today. The final track The Sun Is All There Is foreshadows what would follow a few months later with the turn of the millennium release of Hearts Of Palm, voted one of the top five releases of the year by French paper Libération along with Radiohead’s Kid A and Johnny Cash’s Solitary Man.

Idaho has out-lasted practically all of its peers and has been slowly and steadily achieving no less than a cult following. With these two albums Martin achieves a timeless austere beauty that overturns convention in his own unique way.

In addition to Jeff Martin 4 string guitars, vocals and all other instruments, the album also features Dan Seta, 4 string guitars, Melissa Auf Der Maur, backing vocals (bv) on Alas, Malone Koenig bv on Bass Crawl, Christy Schnabel bv on The Sun Is All There Is, Ron Jannelli oboe on Only In The Desert, Claudia Parducci viola on Jump Up, Joey Waronker drums on Alas and John Goldman bass on Goldenseal.

He has enlisted his long time engineer Bill Sanke (bass) and on and off Idaho drummer Bryan Kertenian to hit the road again after a long hiatus to bring Idaho's plangent soliloquies down to earth for a visit.

*NOTE EXPLICIT LYRICS: Disc 2 contains music Jeff recorded circa 1997/’98, including cues from the film How To Make The Cruelest Month and 5 songs written and recorded with John Voscamp of Peglegasus. These Martin/Voscamp songs can only be described as - more fun than a pilgrim gun on a Batman hunt.

**NOTE re: Forbidden EP ~ Alas: Special Edition's 20 page Booklet: Only the US release (Halfpipe Records) sold here (CD Baby), through Halfpipe or Idaho Music contains the booklet. The Euro (Talitres) release does NOT contain the booklet.