Mike Angus - Hymns

Mike Angus has been my pal for a long time. At one point we lived together in my old Centre Street house, comparing notes on the Rheostatics. At another we started the original Collapse with Ken and Pat after a particularly inspiring Weakerthans show. Mike had come up playing drums in the Edmonton band Hyperpsyche with his best friend Chris, even flirting with a record deal in the days before the big labels merged and culled their rosters. More recently he's the co-frontman for the Wheat Pool and, even more recently, playing and recording as a solo artist.

Mike asked if I would contribue a little pedal steel to the recordings and I joined him at Bryan Reichert's Rhythm Egg studio in January the day after our Forest Tate gig at Edmonton's Wunderbar. If memory serves I played on the songs Patricia Hotel, Cold Cold Ground and my personal favourite, What Does It Mean. Although the record isn't out until July 19, it's already starting to get some online press.