The E.P is done. Long live the E.P.

We are officially releasing our debut E.P into the world. We hope you all like it as much as we liked making it. You can download copies @ backyardstill.com or on Band Camp. We would like to thank everyone at Blast House Studios. Specificly Landon Arkens who worked his magic and made us sound much better then we really are. Also a shout out to Steve Ellestad @ Innervoice Music for additional tracking.  

A Farewell To Jason Foht

B.Y.S is sad to announce the departure of Jason Foht as our Bassist. Jason is one of the original members of B.Y.S. He has been instrumental in helping to develop the sound of the Backyard Still. It has been a true joy to work with him over the last year or so. Jason is moving on to other musical projects and we wish him well in all he does.

We however are proud to announce the addition of Mike Olig to our line up. Mike is another Trumpet Player turned bassist. We are looking forward to corrupting him into the world of the Backyard Still. Mike is going to be a great fit for us.

A Great Week

Last week was a fantastic week for The Backyard Still.

On Tuesday we went to Blast House Studios to lay down tracks for the E.P. It really couldn't have gone better. Head Engineer Landan Arkens did a fantastic job of bringing out our best. Spud's vocals were fantastic and Landan was able to capture his smooth raspy voice in one take. The band played with that sense of urgency and energy that you feel at a live BYS show. So whats next with the E.P. We still need to go back into the studio and clean a few things up, then we turn it over to Landan to do his magic in the mixing room. Then the final step is to master it so it sounds uniform. Then we release it into the wild. Again thanks to Mike and Landan at Blast House for such a great experience.

The root of BYS has always been about song writing. The band started as a collaboration project between Jason “Spud” Glomp and Wolfgang Lochner. In this vein on Wednesday night Wolfgang headed over to the Alchemy to compete in the Madison Song Writers Guild Song of the Year contest. The song of the year is all the winners of the song of the month contest ( Wolfie won the August edition). Nine fantastic Local song smiths showcased their songs. The caliber of talent was fantastic. In the end Wolfgang's song MC Hammer took 1^st place. A special thanks to Jim Schwall for hosting and judging all year long.

Free Wheel community Bike Shop

And then came Saturday when BYS played a benefit for Freewheel Cycle, in December, in an unheated warehouse, in a blizzard. What is more Wisconsin roots rock that ? The night was great. The warehouse was filled with old bike parts, music equipment and the bravest of the brave. And / or live took the stage around 8:30 and played a great one man band set of zany fun music. Then BYS played for a little over an hour warming people up with our whiskey fed sounds. And last but not least Medusa's Beard entertained us with snippets of their folk metal rock opera. Thanks again to the 40 or so people who braved the weather to come support a great cause.

Be sure to check out the website backyardstill.com/media to see all the great pics

And / Or live

Medusa's Beard

So now we take a brief break for the holidays as our members disperse across the world. We'll see you all in January. Have a safe holiday season.

Hey thanks for checking out the world of The Backyard Still.

Next week is an extremely busy and exciting week for us.

On Tuesday we go into Blast House Studios to lay down tracks for our first EP.

This is the culmination of almost a year of writing songs, arranging songs,and playing songs over and over again. So far the most difficult task has been to decided which 4 or 5 of the 15 or so originals to showcase. We are excited to be working with Head engineer Landan Arkens.

On Wednesday Wolfgang goes to the Alchemy to compete for The Madison Songwriters Guild song of the year Final. His song “ Mc Hammer” was the winner of Augusts song of the month.

On Saturday BYS is proud to lend it's time to play a Benefit For Freewheel Community Bike Shop Follow the link for details.