| New Old Friends | ||||
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| Studio album by Dolour | ||||
| Released | November 2, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | May 2002 - Oct 2003 | |||
| Genre | Indie pop | |||
| Label | Made In Mexico Records | |||
| Producer | Shane Tutmarc | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
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| Dolour chronology | ||||
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New Old Friends is the third album by the indie rock band Dolour. It was written, arranged, and produced by Shane Tutmarc. Mixed by Jason Holstrom and Shane Tutmarc.
Contents |
This album was originally started as demos that Shane made for Suburbiac's producer Aaron Sprinkle to comment on, with the goal of them two completing the record together, like they had Suburbiac. But this was not to be, Fugitive Records (after only three releases) closed their doors indefinitely and left Shane to his own devices. Disappointed with all the false promises of Fugitive, he started using his songwriting as a tool to combat the evils of the industry, penning the industry bashing, "I Smell A Lawsuit" and "Cheep Up Baby" the paranoia of "My Paranoid Mind" and "What If", and the soul-searching of "Behind the Melody" (sung by baritone voiced, Jason Holstrom). With this new fire under him, he took New Old Friends into a much more personal direction than Suburbiac. While the music was still melodic and catchy, instead of focusing on relationships (like Suburbiac) it focused more on Shane's emotional state at the time.
As he was busy preparing the record, he fired his lawyer, his publicist, acquired new management and got his brother involved with his website and album artwork. Now he was ready to take things on with more control and focus. But he still needed a helping hand to finish the album to his degree of perfection. It was in Jason Holstrom, of his beloved Wonderful and former band-mate in USE, that he found the collaboration needed to help make this dream come true. Through a series of emails Jason helped show Shane that he could turn his "demos" into the masterpieces he saw in them. Jason initially did a few mixes without Shane, but once Shane heard the results he was overjoyed at the sound, and was more than happy to join in the fun. By September 2003, the team had mixed over 15 songs, and wanted to share some of the results, so the CPR EP was released. Featuring "CPR", "You Can't Make New Old Friends", and "(Why Don't You) Come Around" (available on the Japanese, A Matter of Time collection).
New Old Friends was initially released independently in February 2004, with a different cover (see below), showing Shane and a few of the contributing musicians. The album was eventually picked up by Seattle indie label, Made In Mexico Records and released in November with a new layout and artwork by Shane's brother, Brandon Tutmarc.. The album garnered rave reviews from local media like The Seattle Times, The Stranger and KEXP, as well as national praise from Allmusic.com and many end-of-the-year polls (including #3 on the Three Imaginary Girls Top 100 of 2004).
Tutmarc gathered some musicians, including future Fleet Foxes leader Robin Pecknold, and hit the road for his first full US tour with label-mates The Catch in Spring 2005. Despite the great press and the US tour, the album never received substantial radio play or sales. It was after this tour that Shane quietly disbanded Dolour, and didn't play shows or release any more music til he formed Shane Tutmarc & the Traveling Mercies and Dolour's swan song The Years in the Wilderness in 2007.
New Old Friends was originally self-released on February 17, 2004 with different album artwork by Brandon Tutmarc.