from the forthcoming FR015 - Brown in a Dog
http://www.friendsrecordsbaltimore.com/releases/fr015

Baltimore’s Witch Hat is currently embodied by Chris Day, Noel Freibert, and Conor Stechschulte, all three are graduates of MICA and members of Closed Caption Comics. The band began with now departed member Lane Milburn in 2006 and has released close to ten CDRs and tapes before Day’s arrival in 2008. Witch Hat has cultivated a blunt and crippled style, burnt with stupidity, and now stands ready to present their first full length LP.
Witch Hat recorded Brown in a Dog with veteran Baltimore engineer Craig Bowen above a body shop paint booth in the “psychedelic” heat of summer 2010. It is a stark document of performance and sweat brought to visceral life by Bowen’s attention to detail and dedication to sonic realism: strings detune in the heat, a chain rasps against metal, fumes are inhaled.

Brown in a Dog portrays the body as both prison and conduit. Vulgarity, sexuality, and dark humor thread through the lyrical themes of the record. In “Blood People,” friends and lovers seek to form physical bonds against the despair and isolation of day to day life. “Your Dog Ate Rat Poison,” with a nod to Phillip K. Dick, offers grief and awareness of one’s own demise as another avenue out of isolation.

Witch Hat’s “no frills operation” stresses the importance of doing a lot with a little, blending punk, psych, doom, and metal into a music intended to be felt rather than heard. Their hard-nosed tomfoolery references Lungfish, Shellac, Swans, and This Heat and it belies a fascination with the grotesque. The music feels like something bad is happening – so why do you want to laugh?

Brown in a Dog will be released by Friends Records on cassette and limited LP with CD included. It was mastered by Grammy Award winner Charlie Pilzer at Airshow Mastering. The austere packaging features artwork by Lane Milburn and Noel Freibert.