As some of you know, we used to run a little record label in Chicago called LLR Recordings. The label is dead and gone but some branches of our family tree are still alive and well.

In 2002, we were obsessed with a band called Gatsbys American Dream from Seattle, Washington. The record we stumbled upon was “Ribbons & Sugar”. We were huge fans. To this day, I still refer to it as the best record you haven’t heard. Do yourself a huge favor and find it.

In our eyes, this was a huge band. We probably thought they were huge because we loved it so much and thought “how could people not love this?”. We were looking to book a few shows for The Academy (before the Is…) and struck up a conversation with Bobby Darling, guitar player of Gatsbys American Dream, on AOL instant messenger. I believe we talked for about 5-6 hours the first conversation because we had so much in common about music and thoughts on how record labels should treat bands, etc. Within a few days of talking, we decided that we should work together.

We put out their EP entitled “In The Land Of Lost Monsters” in July of the following year. Click here to download “In The Land Of Lost Monsters” for FREE! It was our final release as a label. I am so proud to say I have had anything to do with their legacy and that they had a big part of our legacy. The band disbanded after 2 more great records unfortunately. Maybe we can convince them to do another record at some point. Keep your fingers crossed tight.

Anyways, the whole back story is about how amazing the people in this band were. They gave us little guys a real shot to work with something because we were truly passionate about their band and music. Ever since, Bobby Darling has been an amazing friend of ours. He has a new project on deck and it’s called Places and Numbers. Click the album cover with his big head on it below to download his EP for free. Also, check out his myspace to check out his tour dates. Please go support his project and at the very least have a great conversation about music.