Looking back at your first round of rehearsals, having spent the last year playing everything from children’s music to bluegrass-inspired rock, are there certain differences you have noticed in each other’s playing?
Brady: Well, I don’t know. I don’t think we do anything so consciously, we really play very intuitively. I’m not going to push any Barney or Raffi on anybody [laughter]. I think you don’t want to color that moment or manipulate that moment so much because you want it to be real and special and you don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s kind of the excitement of it.
Jamie: We’re not rearranging our material for these shows. We spent a good long time getting it to the right arrangement when we worked on it a decade ago.
Todd: And if it comes back to us great, and if it hasn’t, well…
Brady: Some things have taken to a little bit of a different feeling but we’re not consciously trying to do that. I think it’s funny because that direction or that spirit is built into the song so it’s kind of like what Todd was saying about “Wake” when he went back and started playing with that yesterday. If you don’t mess with it, it’s there and you either respond to it or not. The song kind of tells you where to go.
Jamie: One of the strengths about From Good Homes has always been the fact that everyone has their parts. They know their space, and work within that space and it all meshes together nicely.
How much time did you each spend listening back to the band’s old shows and albums?
Jamie: I had to do some listening at home because it’s been a long time.
It’s like homework.
Jamie: Yea, it’s like, “wait a minute, what did I do there?”
Todd: One of the things we’ve been doing just for kicks is going back to the very old demo tapes or some old live shows and just having a laugh and revisiting them. We’re not really listening to see how the song goes, but just to get the spirit again.
Mike: The night before Thanksgiving From Good Homes is playing its first show together in a decade under the name Jefferson Township. That was a name From Good Homes used on occasion to play some smaller rooms. How did you chose that name?
Jamie: Jefferson Township was one of several names we used, actually.
Brady: What were some of the other ones? I can’t remember…
Jamie: Mother Auntie was the first one, right? The way it originated was we started playing Irving Plaza and, contractually, we couldn’t play under the name of From Good Homes within a 25 or 50 mile radius. So when we wanted to do warm up gigs we booked ourselves and a smaller rooms like the Stanhope House in New Jersey and would use a completely different name. We’d just make a few phone calls and let that spread word of mouth.
Todd: And the name Jefferson Township is obviously a, hopefully, comical take on Jefferson Starship. The next town over from where we grew up is Jefferson Township. I don’t think we ever played the Mercury Lounge before, but at one point I think me and Brady counted the different places we played in New York City and came up with 68 different venues.
Brady: It sort of came on the scene right at the end, and we didn’t end up playing there.
Jamie: I remember hearing about the place but I’ve never been there.
Brady: We played everywhere except the Mercury Lounge, that’s why we’re playing there this time. We decided to cover every venue [laughter].
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