Monkey's Wedding (2009)
Troutband
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We rented a truck and drove to Nashville. We grabbed our pads of scribbles and melodies, rehearsed on the way, arranged and wrote and rewrote and played and sang. We spent two days recording in a friend’s studio on a farm in Hendersonville, Tennessee; Dave Roe on bass, Rick Lonow on drums, our friend Marcus Hummon playing dobro and piano. In the weeks that followed we added tracks in the barn back home in Connecticut, in borrowed houses on the beach and in a cramped apartment in Hamburg, Germany. On our drive down to Nashville, playing one of the songs, the sun broke out of thick dark clouds. One of us said, “In South Africa they call that a Monkey’s Wedding,” when the sun is out and its raining. And the lyrics of the song said the same, so that’s the name of the album. This is the Troutband—James Prosek, Joe Dochtermann, Rick Richter, Dennis Hrbek, and anyone else who lent their ear, or their playing, their drum kit, or space to this production.
Anxiety • Peace • Wet (2005)
Poachers
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In the summer of 2003 Troutband members James Prosek and Joe Dochtermann played at a concert in Brattleboro, Vermont (hosted by Jack Rieley) where they met (home-schooled) Vermont natives, Ben Patton and Matthew Peck, playing with their band, The Most. The two duos got along and decided to produce their own fusion effort under the band name Poachers. Mark Conese (of Easton, CT) joined them on drums. The songs are all written by James Prosek and/or Ben Patton and are mostly poppy rocky numbers with some solemn folky stuff mixed in. The band rehearsed and recorded most of the tracks within five days. The songs are meant to sound more fresh than the extremely labored-over obsessive jewels of previous troutband moozeek. It was produced by the venerable Dennis Hrbek (and Joe) of Shelton, CT.
Music
Love for a Dollar (2002)
Troutband
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This second effort by the Troutband features songs written by James Prosek (as with the first album) as well as original songs and vocals by Joe Dochtermann. This album was forged through years of winter retreats to an attic recording space in spooky Gebung Road, Alfred, Maine where Joe's parents moved from Westport, Connecticut. Inspiration was found in icicles and frozen steps to the studio and random paraphernalia left by the previous tenants of the attic (as well as absenta con agua). It is an eclectic group of songs ranging from straight folk to just weird, to happy pop. Breakup songs, together songs, all. Most of the instrumentation was done by Dochtermann and Prosek though other musicians have cameo performances.
All Wet (1998)
Troutband
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The troutband began as a coffee house duet at Yale University. Original members James Prosek and Etay Ziv expanded to include troutband's producer and rocker Joe Dochtermann when the band members were 21 years old. All three were born in May, two on the same day May 23rd. It's a Gemini heavy band. Some years later besides rockers Etay is a doctor, James is a painter/author, and Joe is living as an artist in Hamburg, Germany.