DON GIOVANNI RECORDS
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  • Catalog #: DG-251
  • Release Date: June 24, 2022


"Mikey Erg continues to set the gold standard for hooky punk love songs. Love at Leeds is him at the top of his songwriting game—just one finely tuned ear-worm after another."
-Dan Ozzi

Love At Leeds is the realization of many dreams for Mikey Erg. A lifelong music obsessive, growing up in the early 90’s, there was one sound he’d always hoped to capture on his recordings. The sound of Steve Albini. Steve’s credits include The Pixies, PJ Harvey, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant and of course Nirvana’s third LP In Utero: one of Mikey’s absolute favorite records.

Mikey had never in his twenty-plus year recording career ever gotten to make a fully analog recording. Love At Leeds was the perfect time to rectify all of that. Using the group of musicians that helped him realize his debut solo LP Tentative Decisions (Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute & Lou Hanman), he Headed to Chicago to make this dream a reality.

Recorded and mixed in just five days, Love at Leeds is a swift twenty five minute long grunge-pop tour de force. Once the album was complete, Steve and his trusty razor blade compiled the master mix reels and sent the band on their way. The tapes then made the journey to Hollywood California to the legendary Bernie Grundman Mastering facility to be mastered and cut straight to lacquer disc by Chris Bellman (Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Kenny Dorham, Pearl Jam).

Mikey, who takes his name from the seminal mid-2000s NJ pop-punk band THE ERGS who he was drummer and principal songwriter for, is a decades-long fixture in the DIY punk rock scene, directly influencing the next generation of power pop and punk bands as he concurrently continues his solo songwriting career.

Tracklist:
1. Sick As Your Secrets
2. Caroline Told Me So
3. Almost Like Judee Sill
4. Always Like This
5. Goodnight Vienna
6. Landmines
7. Love At Leeds
8. On A Carousel v 9. Heartbreak #53
10. Brandy & Congratulations

Credits:
Recorded by Steve Albini

Written by Mikey Erg except for “On A Carousel” which was written by Graham Nash, Allan Clarke & Tony Hicks.

Recorded on a Studer A 820 MCH 24 Track to 2” ATR tape at 15 ips on May 7-9 2021
Mixed in Stereo on an Ampex ATR-102 to 1/2” ATR tape at 30 ips on May 10-11 2021
Electrical Audio Studio B, Chicago IL. on the same Neotek Series II that 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was done on.

Mastered and Cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering directly from the original 1/2” Master Tapes on August 12th 2021.
This is an All Analogue Recording.

Mikey Erg - Electric & Acoustic Rhythm Guitars, Lead Vocals, Various Percussion Things & Additional Drums on Landmines

Jeff Rosenstock - 6 & 12 String Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Piano & Backing Vocals
Alex Clute - Bass Guitar & Backing Vocals
Lou Hanman - Drums & Backing Vocals. Piano on “Caroline Told Me So”

Built By John Yates at Stealworks.
Heart by Em Foster. Back Cover Photo by Emily McKern