Small Black

the winter of 2008 / 2009 found old friends ryan heyner and josh kolenik holed up in the attic of uncle matt's long island home. those cold weekend days saw small black drinking crystal light, watching waterworld, and plugging away on their casios and samplers, while kolenik's uncle shaped surfboards in the basement. after months of thawing out, the band emerged with one of 2009's catchiest debut releases. 'the small black' ep, as it is called, melds strange beats, dreamy synths, tape hiss and laid-back melodies into pop jams. teaming up with longtime collaborators juan pieczanski and jeff curtin, the band then fleshed out their bedroom sound, combining both live and sampled drums, live bass, keyboards and samplers for their live performance. described by pitchfork as 'absurdly addictive' and 'soul-stirring,' the band self released the ep via their own imprint cassclub in october 2009, along with a documentary-style music video for 'despicable dogs,' featuring uncle matt. they quickly followed it up with a uk single for 'despicable dogs' (on transparent) and a split 7-inch with like-minded artist washed out (on lovepump united). now 2010 sees small black teaming up with jagjaguwar for a deluxe re-mastered release of their debut ep with two extra songs added, 'kings of animals' and 'baby bird pt 2.' small black are currently tucked away in a delaware suburb writing and recording their debut full length album, tentatively scheduled for release later this year on jagjaguwar.