This album was released a couple months ago to sadly minimal fanfare...

It's the debut album from the Audio Learning Center, titled "Friendships Often Fade Away", and it's an amazing piece of work. The main man behind the band is Chris Brady, former bassist/singer for the vastly underappreciated, and immensely talented band Pond.

Chris is an excellent songwriter, a truly innovative bass player, and it's a damn good thing he kept writing and recording after Pond broke up. Songs of heartbreak, medication, growing older, and broken robots. Go to Vagrant Records for a free mp3 ('Favorite'... the poppiest song on the record, not entirely indicative of the more somber and introspective tone of the rest of the record).

The band is on tour, hitting Boston on Tuesday the 21st at the Middle East. Pond was a stellar live band, and I expect no less from ALC. (and yes, you can still catch the Buffy season finale and make it to their set ;) ).