One Year Anniversary of PEOPLE

The first single from Gary came out a year ago on October 4th. It was the first step to releasing that album, and it’s still exciting to think about even a year later. We hope you’ve enjoyed this song as much as we enjoyed writing it, recording it, and playing it live. Because of COVID-19, we haven’t had a chance to perform any of our songs in front of a live audience since February, and we will not likely get a chance to do so for the remainder of 2020. It’s sad to think that we won’t be able to perform in front of an audience around the one year anniversary of Gary, but we hope to create content that fills that void ever so slightly.

In case you don’t follow us on Instagram (go follow us on Instagram HERE), Andrew uploaded a video of him performing People in his basement on the anniversary date. You can watch that IGTV video HERE. Thanks everyone, and stay safe out there.

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UPDATES, LIVESTREAMS, ETC.

Hey everyone, how’s it going? Hopefully this finds you as well as can be. We just wanted to pop on and give a few updates on the band, so here it goes:

All of our live shows that were booked for the later half of 2020 have been cancelled. We do intend to reschedule those concerts for sometime next year, but nothing has been set. Once dates become a real thing, we’ll update everyone.

Through the course of quarantine, Andrew has done several livestreams via Facebook or Instagram by himself. Those were fun, but yesterday was the first Facebook Live he’s done where he was joined by several other MTNS. We didn’t plan much for it, or practice, which is why it was just a surprise thing. If you missed it and want to watch it, check it out HERE. We had a lot of fun, and it was the first time any of us had played our songs together since our last show in February. We will be planning to get everyone together sometime soon, and do another livestream as a band. Be on the look out for those details coming soon.

We’ve got a few new songs in the works being passed around from each member of the band adding their recorded parts, so hopefully we’ll have some new quarantine jams coming to wherever you find our music.. We’re excited to release music that way, so we’ll see how it goes.

Most of these updates are inconsequential, but it gave us a reason to update the website. As stated before, we hope to have some new fun things coming up digitally, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Thanks for all the support, friends. We miss you all.

-The Mtns.

NAKED GARY Out Now!

After releasing Velvet Raccoon in 2012, we realized we had these stripped down acoustic versions of each song that were recorded as part of pre-production for the album. We decided to take that collection of acoustic recordings, with the addition of a few poems that folks privy to our live shows would recognize, and released them as whole entity we called Naked Raccoon. It was significant at the time because all the songs from Velvet Raccoon were written with just an acoustic guitar. Naked Raccoon was a glimpse of what the songs were in their infancy. It was simple, and gave insight into how those songs then blossomed into how they appeared on Velvet Raccoon.

Unlike Velvet Raccoon, Gary was not solely written on an acoustic guitar. The songs of Gary were written in a practice space with every member of the band present. These songs were more collaborative from the beginning, and developed with time. This was a true BAND record.

Today, we release Naked Gary, an album reimagined to a simpler form. Each song was recorded with one microphone in one full take. There are lyric flops. There are buzzy guitar strings. It’s imperfect and quiet. Similar to Naked Raccoon, there are poems between songs that Sam had written for our reunion show in 2015, and our Weinberg Center show in 2016. Two voicemails from a late night/early morning in mid October 2011 bookend the collection, and you got Naked Gary. The songs were recorded during quarantine from March 2020 to May 2020 in Andrew’s basement.

Naked Gary will only be available on Bandcamp, and is pay-what-you-want. Feel free to download it for nothing or for as much money as you think it’s worth. All money earned from the sale of Naked Gary will be donated to Black Lives Matter DC. Click the album art below to be linked directly to the new record.

Thanks for the support!

The MTNS

Album art by Goodloe Byron

Album art by Goodloe Byron

BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER

As a band of all white dudes, we do not truly and fully know, have known, or will know the experiences, traumas, and systemic injustices that face POC everyday. We have not had to fear for our lives when we’ve encountered the police. We live lives of privilege, and we know it.

Several years ago, we ended a southern tour playing a show at the Rock N Roll Hotel in DC. We were heading home for the first time in almost two weeks in our old school bus, and we were excited. That tour was hard, and it was over, and we couldn’t wait to get home. We were trying to navigate ourselves out of the alleyways of the H Street corridor singing the Family Matters theme song loudly when we saw the lights of a police car behind us. The officer walked up and asked what we were doing, and we explained where we had just left from, and what direction we were trying go to get home. Apparently, we were going the wrong way down a one way alley. The officer gave us directions on how to get to the highway, and we were off - no ticket, no questions about drinking, just a few “turn there and turn there’s.” We live lives of privilege, and we know it.

It is an absolute injustice to think that someone else could be in that same situation, and walk away with such a different experience, or not walk away at all.

We are artists, and despite thinking our platform is small potatoes, it’s still a platform. We have a responsibility to speak out in solidarity with our black sisters and brothers. We have a responsibility to speak out against racism. We have a responsibility to seek to become better advocates for change and justice. We see you. We hear you. We are with you.

As a band, we are donating all money that we currently have from the distribution of our music on streaming platforms to Black Lives Matter DC. Any money from purchases of our music from Bandcamp will be donated to Black Lives Matter DC. Any money from purchases of t-shirts, vinyl, or CDs from our website will be donated to Black Lives Matter DC.

If you have already purchased our music, t-shirts, or whatever, and have the means, please consider donating to an organization(s)/memorial fund(s)/bail fund(s) that seek to end racism and police brutality. We love you all.

BLACK LIVES MATTER