Last time we got together, when they hired me to document their headlining date at Cain Park, we made a picture they use on their websites, tour poster, and for promotion/press.
We’ve talked about setting up an official portrait session, and the Nelsonville festival grounds provide the perfect backdrop. So as long as schedules, mother nature, and some good old-fashioned good luck can align, we’ll post the results of our adventure here soon.

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booking agent: yours truly

“By far, I think, the most kickass song of the year”— NPR, Robin Hilton, All Songs Considered

“This isn’t bullshit slacker rock. It’s the real fucking McCoy.” — NME

Herzog, led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Nick Tolar, rapidly started gaining attention before the release of the first album, Search (Transparent records). By the time 2012′s new release Cartoon Violence arrived ( Exit Stencil Recordings) they’d already found favor with NME, Pitchfork, a slew of music pubs/blogs, and even NPR [Robin Hilton, on National Public Radio's All Songs Considered, called Silence "The most kickass song of the year."] Rounding out the band are Dave McHenry on lead guitar, Dan Price on drums, and Brian Hill on bass. Lyricist Tony Vorell has been collaborating on songs with Tolar for years, and is Herzog’s offstage fifth member.

“Nick Tolar and his crew have gained a full, big, and confident sound“…“…try your hardest to not get those double guitar riffs stuck in your head. Tolar is already one of the best songwriters in Cleveland, and when you put a regular band behind him, things get really nice”— The Noise Is

“Impressively, as Herzog skip between genres, work in different textures, and vary tempos, they never lose that sense of band — Shredding Herzog and laid back Herzog both sound natural. For these Clevelanders, talent also means never laying down a bad jam.” — I Rock Cleveland

For decades, the building was home to Lakefront Hardware & Glass, and while I was there several customers came in to get keys made; lucky for them the guys still do that.

Six weeks ago, five people got together to play in a band called Voxcaster. We already made our first record. It’s called This Is Ellipsis, and it was engineered by Chris Russo. We plan to do two more this year. The second is already underway.

Voxcaster was founded and is fronted by Van Gogh Round Records producer Eric Schulte. Schulte was the manager, then guitarist, then bassist of The Dreadful Yawns (their new album Picnic features Schulte’s song Figure It Out). He also was an original member of The Village Bicycle, Aluminum Anemone, and Shiny Penny.)

These are the Erics: Schulte and Collins. At live shows, Schulte sings and plays guitar, and Collins switches between bass and drums. Here’s Schulte recording the bassline for the title track, This Is Ellipsis…

And here are the first two tracks of the album, known as “the two-part Louisiana trilogy.”

” It’s not your fault.”

Cleveland, 8.17.11

Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw

I like these guys. I like how dedicated they are to what they do. They work hard. They go after what they want and need, and take the risks and make the investments that keep the band moving forward (with good results). Just looking at their status updates shows how they’re working every day behind the scenes. I can get behind that.

And they’ve been doing it all with a baby at home. Except these days she’s dancing and swaying from the front row in a princess dress and ruby slippers, while Mom & Dad sing songs they wrote because of her.

Tech specs:
Cain Park has a massive inground-pool-ish orchestra pit at the front of the stage, so there was a big gap between the stage and any available photographic vantage point. This was a job for the
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 • manual exposures, shot raw and developed using Camera Raw

“His is a body of work that consistently flouts convention in favor of musical leaps of faith, statements of purpose cloaked in subterfuge, and the joyous refrain of an optimist’s heart cloaked in cynicism.” — Merge Records

When I Rock Cleveland asked me to photograph The Pitchfork Music Festival again, I immediately started looking forward to seeing Destroyer. I’d been loving the new strength in Dan Bejar’s unmistakable voice, and was curious to hear how the mellow set would translate across the 90-degree Chicago air. My favorite moment was chuckling along with the amused inter-band grins and glances during Blue Eyes, when the line “I sent a message in a bottle to the press/ It said, ‘Don’t be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves’” was delivered while a pit of 50+ shooters strained and contorted against all odds in almost-futile efforts to achieve usable images for their publications. That’s funny stuff. Bejar’s lyrics are full of wit and strong visuals, but for now the memory of that moment tops them all.

The first time I saw Bejar live was with The New Pornographers on the second date of their Together tour [Newport Music Hall, Columbus Ohio, 6.13.10]. He’d slip in and out of the wings, waltzing slightly with the neck of his beer bottle balanced lightly in his fingertips, for Myriad Harbour, Testament To Youth In Verse, Silver Jenny Dollar, Jackie. Each of the eight musicians (Carl Newman, Kurt Dahle, John Collins, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, Todd Fancey, Blaine Thurier, and Bejar) is a strong musician/songwriter with other active projects, and if you can keep up with them you get to experience an impressive variety of styles and sounds. Dave Molnar and I drove down for the show, and by the third song we’d decided to play as them for Beachland’s halloween show (a tradition where Cleveland bands put aside their original material for one night and cut loose with some covers).

Tech specs: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw.

Here’s a slideshow of the weekend in chronological order.
EMA, Battles, Thurston Moore, Mary Lattimore, Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Guided By Voices, OFF!, No Age, Destroyer, DJ Shadow, Shabazz Palaces, Kylesa, Yuck, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, Deerhunter, TV On The Radio

Tech specs:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 • 70-200mm f/2.8 • 28-75mm f/2.8
manual exposures, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw