Department of Eagles

What began as a recording endeavor under the name Whitey on the Moon UK gradually developed into Department of Eagles, a duo whose ambitious yet intimate sound drew influence from Van Dyke Parks and Paul McCartney. Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen first crossed paths in 2000 as assigned roommates during their freshman year at New York University. By the following spring semester they had started combining samples, recording software, and guitars to create pieces that blended the atmospheric scope of symphonic and electronic pop with the closeness of folk traditions. At the outset Rossen and Nicolaus envisioned the music solely for a circle of friends, yet Isota Records issued their debut EP Mo' Tussin in 2002 and followed it the next year with The Noam Chomsky Spring Break EP. Those two releases, together with additional studio recordings, were assembled into The Whitey on the Moon UK LP, which Isota also put out in 2003. After learning of a San Francisco group already using the name the Whitey on the Moon, Rossen and Nicolaus adopted the new project title Department of Eagles; the album itself was retitled The Cold Nose and appeared in the U.K. via Melodic in 2005 before American Dust reissued it domestically in 2007 with four bonus tracks added. In 2004 Rossen became a member of Grizzly Bear in time to appear on their breakthrough release Yellow House, issued in 2006; that same year Department of Eagles released the odds-and-ends EP A Johnny Glaze Christmas: Classical Snatches and Samples a Go-Go. Rossen and Nicolaus kept developing material throughout this period and had assembled enough songs for a full-length by the end of 2007. Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear, along with bassist Nat Baldwin, participated in the sessions that wrapped up in spring 2008, yielding In Ear Park—an album shaped by Rossen’s memories of his late father—which 4AD released that fall. The odds-and-ends collection Archive 2003-2006, containing songs from an unfinished second album as well as material later incorporated by Grizzly Bear, surfaced in 2010.