Album Notes

Since September 2005 Brian Hall has been writing and fronting TJU. After Hall's Rhythm section moved away in June 2006 Hall and guitar player Josiah Henley began again from the ground. This time the intention was to make TJU a more transparent collaboration. One in which Hall could become only a catalyst, relying heavily upon his band mates to complete his ideas. In August Henley and Hall finally settled on bassist and drummer, Hannah Sledge and Adam Beam. Halls songs are esoteric at their core. Delving into dense topics such as modernism, family, and spirituality. These concepts are at the core of what shapes their part shoe-gazer, part straightforward, and undeniably dense arrangements. "It is important to be communicate intentionally through every part of the music. The instruments, the lyrics, the way you move on stage" says Hall. "It's all part of allowing the music to take the listener to another place." TJU has struggled along the way. This conflicted path has led them to some unlikely conclusions. Namely, that their purpose is not to fulfill the boredom-plagued desires of the pretentious hipster. It is not to shape their music around the sharp and confining demands of pop-culture. It is rather do everything within their power to stand beside themselves and honestly document these strange days, that their listeners might continue to find solstice in such empathy.