Static and City were recorded and released separately but are essentially the same album, drawn from the laundry list of songs written in the years since Three. Pop music had grabbed hold of us and we would never write another instrumental. The idea for the Ghostly EP/LP was to surprise ‘em with the former and smash ‘em with the later. In the end, it may have been better to whittle the two down into a single record.

Meanwhile, we licensed a song to a New Balance Super Bowl ad which somehow netted us more money in one day than in the previous five years. We made our first ever video for the title track (below) and Junior Boys did a phenomenal remix of the same. We had a release party in an insane warehouse in Dumbo and took some auspicious press photos (I later married the photographer).

Peter’s conversion van broke down one time too many, which sent us back to the NYC Rental Van dance (shoutout CC Rental and the Midtown East Budget -- proper legends in the touring community). At the same time, our tours grew longer and more professional, as we settled into our role as The Band You Don’t Know opening for Your Favorite Band.

We spent a surreal autumn supporting Matisyahu, whose fans did not warm to our brand of electronic rock: we were pelted with beer bottles by Arizona’s most kind-vibed Hasidic reggae fans. We did a string of shows with the delightful Tom Vek, who fired his drummer two shows in and spent the rest of the tour singing and playing the drum parts himself -- an historic multi-instrumentalist flex.

We played the still-abandoned McCarren Pool with Dead Meadow on a brutal July day, after which I was laid low with something approaching heat stroke (on my 28th birthday no less). We ended the album cycle with a West Coast run opening for the National and our forever bud Baby Dayliner, who joined us in the van for an entire national tour. All told we played over 100 shows behind Static. (Ben)