Every morning, the members of Paperwork wake up, pull on some business casual, get in their cars and fight Austin, Texas traffic on their way to jobs that serve to guarantee they can continue making records. The records are released on Star Dot Star Records, a label co-founded by singer/guitarists Ross Ingram and Jarrod MacKay, and recorded at Shh! Recording, Ingram's studio. Like so many others, the band spends forty-plus hours a week pushing paper in hopes that they can spare a few savored hours doing what they truly love. They spend their breaks and lunch hours organizing shows and promoting their albums. They hoard their vacation and sick time to put together whirlwind tours. This struggle to balance one's passions with one's checkbook is the central theme to their debut full-length Parts and Labor.Paperwork formed in 2004 when longtime friends MacKay and Ingram decided to write the album they'd always wanted to record, despite not having a band. The latter problem was solved when they recruited friend Steve Spriggs to play drums and found bass player Lucy Jordan through the Austin Chronicle. The sound produced by the group, with a focus on vocal interplay and combining electric and acoustic instrumentation, became what some have described as equal parts Death Cab for Cutie and Simon and Garfunkel. While building what was to become Parts and Labor, they released the EP Angles and Altitudes in 2006, a record separated thematically from Parts and Labor, but united sonically. In fact, when played in succession, the two albums blend into one via a shared outro/intro.With their new record complete, Paperwork plans to continue playing throughout Texas and is planning a second national tour for 2008.
Praise for Parts and Labor:
"[Paperwork's] DIY, never say never attitude is to be commended and so is the music that adorns this debut full-length... Paperwork impress with their proficient instrumental abilities and solid song structures as some tracks teeter between Photo Album-era Death Cab for Cutie, with bright electric guitar leads, mixed-meter snappy drums, and tight rhythms, and the softer Plans-era Death Cab with a more melancholy rock sound... Everything about this album is good. "
-- Delusions of Adequacy (adequacy.net)
"Paperwork's debut full-length, Parts and Labor, plots the band's revolt against the nine-to-five-grind while commiserating in [its] harsh reality... Very calculated, with no loose ends or reckless noise."
-- Space City Rock (spacecityrock.com)
Praise for Angles and Altitudes:
"Its not their fault that their songwriting is crisp and bountiful; nor are they to blame for their innate musical genius."
-- Smother.net (Editor's Pick)
