jhobartb:

This seems like as good a place as any to start.

Here’s a caricature I drew of Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus (of the band Department of Eagles) way back in 2005, before they released In Ear Park and became the indie darlings they are now.

Plain old graphite pencil on sketchbook paper.

Friend:”I don’t really like the way that other guy from Grizzly Bear sings, it sounds like church music”

Photo taken by Amelia Bauer, check out more photos from this set, here.

Department of Eagles emerged with their new sound in 2008 and released “In Ear Park”. When that came out it was the best thing that I had heard, Rossen’s voice, guitar work and lush arrangements helped it secure the spot as my favorite album of the year. After listening to the new song ‘Brightest Minds’ last week, I relistened to the album over the weekend and saw how fresh the songs still were in mind. After that I started listening to all the songs that they didn’t release with the album, some of the highlights were their performance of ‘1997’ and ‘You’ll Never Know’ on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic. The one that seemed to stand out most was this versoin of ‘No One Does It Like You’, why would the band take the catchiest song on the entire record and slow it down? The result is the track staying as amazing original but without any of the lush arrangements. You can watch their peformance of the song below. (If you want the song below, you can download it here.