When You Were Young - Courtesy Tier

Courtesy Tier is always a surprise, sometimes even to themselves. Layton (drums) and Omer (guitar) have been playing together for the last seven years, but they weren’t always a duo. As members came and went, they perpetually conceptualized themselves as a four and sometimes six piece band. Then, during their second winter in New York, the boys had run out of other band members. Regrouping in a closet size practice space under the Smith Street overpass, they finally had enough room to rehearse, and they liked the sound. By the following summer they were ready to record, but a New York budget requires some finagling. With three mic’s in a 7x7 room, “The Resolution” was born.

Courtesy Tier is a two man cadre. Whether invoking the Meat Puppets, Morphine, Ataxia, J Dilla, Don Caballero, or Chris Whitley they synthesize the soul of rock with melodic blues. While a forerunner of the DIY movement in Brooklyn, they aren’t your usual Brooklyn sound. The album name exemplifies their process: go with what you’ve got and you’ll find your way there. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.