ALG’s new album is the sound of the band “working together.” That’s according to multi-instrumentalist Austin Gardea (Squeezebox Bandits). Oh, K is the instrumental prog rockers’ fourth studio album since forming in 2018, and, as with the group’s discography, other local musicians have added to the team effort, Gardea said. Along with two permanent members, drummer Tim Cowdin (Sally Majestic) and guitarist Alex Hunter, Gardea was joined by a bunch of friends, he said, including Pete Alvidrez on synths and Squeezebox Bandits frontman Abel Casillas on squeezebox.
After a year and a half of on-again/off-again recording due to the pandemic, the 11-song recording hit digital airwaves last week. Visit ALGband.com for more.
Oh, K starts off with heavy riffage paced by Cowdin’s funky percussion. The rest is mostly jam band-y but fun, alternating between extended groove-oriented passages and short bursts of solos. The title track is almost romantic sounding.
Recorded at The Cove in Arlington, the tracks were engineered by Gardea with help from Billy Herzig (Zig Productions) and mastered by Chris Raspante.
“A lot of friends have checked out [Oh, K] and said they enjoyed it,” Gardea said. “When I put out the previous releases, they’re weren’t getting a lot of listeners, but we did a better job at hyping up [Oh, K], and people are enjoying it.”
To “hype up” the release, Gardea tried to record as much of the tracking process as possible for social media and sent demos out to friends and fans throughout recording. Along with Oh, K, ALG’s 2019 live album, The Cove Session, is also available digitally.
Gardea talked about the album art of a house on floating land.
“The album cover and album kind of represent feeling safe in our own little bubble, but if we don’t take a step back and look at the big picture, we could be in some trouble,” he said, “hence the house providing shelter, but the land is floating away.”
Gardea is excited to be able to play live again soon after gigging regularly at spots like Doc’s Records & Vintage, Deep Ellum Art Co., and the briefly reopened Moon Bar. The group plans to perform more livestreams until things get back to normal.
COVID delayed the recording process and therefore delayed the release date, but the band is proud to be able to finish and release the album before the year ended.
ALG is “sticking to the goal of at least one album per year,” Gardea said. “We had a few shows canceled. Right now, we’ve started working on the next project and definitely looking forward to playing live again because it’s great jamming and improvising over our songs.”
