Album Notes

The Smoldering Ashes are legally unable to imitate any one person or band sound at this time. What they can and often do is assemble a collage of melodic fragments to churn behind the vocal.

Jeff Brenneman & Dirk Doucette are alumni of White Glove Test and reside in southern California. They\'re currently also members of the swell Trakwerx band 17 Pygmies.

Tory and Veronica are former members of the beat combo judyjudyjudy. They are currently members of a bizarre Lippy Waiter Intl Music recording band, Animated Mayfly Festival (AMF), and they reside in uptown Oklahoma City.

Jeff and Tory met,at a phrenologist\'s convention and Jeff invited Tory and Veronica to attempt some cross-country music making with Dirk & the rest is cloth-bound, gilt-edged Smoldering Ashes history.

Their debut CD, \"Nervous Constellations\", was released September 30th, 2008 on Trakwerx Records.

\"Nervous Constellations\", is a combination of atmospheric, quirky and haunting songs. Some songs greet you and say hello, as if they know you, until you discover that although you\'re actually strangers, each song is a hail fellow well met.

Every song on \"Nervous Constellations\" has a story and a mood and yet the disc\'s \"bookend\" songs (Barker, & Kite) are connected by lyric and melody to give a \"night at the carnival\" type feel to the lot. It\'s a splatter mosaic of melody and \"what was that\"; a kitchen sink concoction of melodic cacophony.

The dancing/burning mythological phoenix bird on the cover is a fitting symbol of the album\'s creation. Based upon the bird of paradise, the mythical phoenix swirls in the darker imaginings of the mind but always rises into the light. The best part is that the trip is a damn fun one...one you\'ll want to take over and over!