charlottesville began in 2000 when miles fender relocated from london to san francisco, leaving behind the darker days of earth calling angela, but bringing with him his independent label the streetlight farm. with the move to america, miles began to embrace alternative folk, even going so far as to purchase an acoustic guitar. he quickly teamed up with iris lapalme, and it was as this duo that the first album, the shark who pulled a mussel, was released in 2001.
the shark was recorded in an apartment in downtown san francisco, using little more than a handful of cheap guitars, a rode nt2 mic, a second-hand korg trinity keyboard and a roland vs-880 multitrack. recording conditions were not ideal, a fact that is particularly evident on the track anything other than you, where, entirely frustrated with the noise, miles threw open the windows and embraced the street sounds as part of the recording.
thankfully, the songs rose above their recording quality challenges, and the shark received much critical acclaim from the indie press. rather than capitalize on this though, miles retreated until late 2003.
by then, miles and iris had parted company (artistically, anyway), and it was primarily a solo effort that resulted in the second album people are basically okay. never officially released, people was instead sporadically posted and removed as mp3 files, and CD-R copies were sent on demand to anyone who asked. now having a more respectable (and most importantly, sound-proofed) studio, people was a more intricate and accomplished album.
(note that the label is currently considering re-releasing people on vinyl... no promises, and don't tell anyone i told you...)
now, almost six years later, the third charlottesville album is close to completion. much has changed. the studio, riverstone recording, has grown significantly, and the label, the streetlight farm is beginning to adopt new artists (starting with the wonderful emmalee^crane).
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