a.m. Sunday

a.m. Sunday’s first full-length recording, “Ladies and Gentlemen” captures the young group’s melding of soul, garage rock, drum & bass, and pop in full dynamic color. Setting the bar as only overachievers can, the band began work in the summer of 2004 to make a record that was in essence, a Louisville basement band’s “Songs In The Key Of Life”. The result is an 11-song program that combines the band’s visceral impact with a narrative sensibility that insists on repeated playbacks.
“With a recording you’re cementing a certain interpretation,” said guitarist Darrick Wood in a 2004 interview. “We’re having to make some hard decisions about what’s the best way to put these things together.”
“We took some risks because we could,” says drummer Ray Rizzo, who along with Wood and the rest of a.m. Sunday produced the album. “Compared to the time of our initial tracking there are less upbeat and disco-funky songs on the record, which I think is a good thing, and a result of Suki’s discomfort with party songs that can turn her role of singer into babysitter. We want to tell stories.”
Nonetheless, four delicious offenders remain: “Bodhissatva Brown”, “All The People”, “Soft-Spoken Man” and “Sophisticated Man”, with its churning outro that has Miss Suki putting her soulful stamp on everything good and funky about classic guitar-riffing rock.
“I would have quit the band if we didn’t have Bus Driver on the record,” says Suki Anderson. “Bus Driver” is one of four sides that the band originally recorded for their “Taste” EP. This time out, a more ambient read of the song lets Anderson fill the room.
Basic tracks were recorded with David Barrick at Barrick Recording in Glasgow, KY and with Nathan Robinson at DSL Studios in Louisville. Additional recording and mixing was done with Robinson in Louisville before final mixing in Chicago at Soma Studios with Tim Iseler.