Putting the Days to Bed started off to be our “big rock” record, but once we hit the studio we couldn’t resist monkeying with broken keyboards and banjos until we were back doing what we know best. Some our friends stopped by–Chris Funk from the Decemberists and Chris Walla from Death Cab both played a handful of instruments on the song Honest, and the great Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks played guitar on the rocked-up Ultimatum–but mostly we holed up with ourselves and let the music guide us. It was a transitional period for the band, and making this album helped us know what kind of a band we were going to be next.
Tracklisting:
1. Pushover
2. Fire Island, AK
3. Teaspoon
4. Hindsight
5. Sky is Open
6. Honest
7. Clouds
8. Rich Wife
9. Ultimatum
10. (It’s a) Departure
11. Seven
Released July 25, 2006
cd: Barsuk Records – BARK54
lp: The Control Group – TCG037
Produced by John Roderick.
Engineered by Floyd Rietsma at Studio Litho.
Mixed by John Goodmanson.
Mastered by Ed Brooks at RFI.
European version of Putting the Days to Bed includes 4 songs previously released on the Ultimatum ep.