The Kicker, the second of the two Hybrasil albums, came out twenty years ago in March, 2002. Long out of print, it is available online for the very first time, right here on Bandcamp.

So much had changed since the release of "Friendly Destroyer" in the spring of 1999. The Boston music scene had been devastated by the loss of Mark Sandman of Morphine that summer. By the time we started recording "The Kicker" in the Autumn of 2000, I had been touring and playing regularly with Orchestra Morphine. That experience forever changed me, both personally and musically. My songwriting was evolving because I was beginning to hear music in a different way, and as a result I was singing better.

All the recording sessions for this album felt magical. Tracks 1, 2, 4, and 10 were recorded in Seattle at the legendary Jon & Stu's in November, 2000. Produced by my very good friend, Steve Fisk, and engineered by Bruce MacFarlane. We recorded the remainder in Somerville, MA with Chris Rival. Additional recording was done at Q Division and Fort Apache. Matthew Ellard was at the helm for those sessions and eventually mixed the entire album at Fort Apache in Cambridge, MA.

We worked so hard on this collection of songs over the year or so it took to make the album. Jeff Berlin, Jeremy Dryden and I, were joined by Duke Levine on guitar, and Morphine's Dana Colley on saxophones. My Orchestra Morphine bandmate, Tom Halter, played trumpet on the title track, which is one of my personal favourites. That song took me a year to finish writing, having first come up with the melody on Mark Sandman's grand piano at his home studio, Hi-N-Dry.

We hope you enjoy this collection of songs by a Boston band that had found its sound. Personally, it is one of my most complete albums, and I'm so happy to finally share it with you, right here.

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