On Fillmore

In 2000 the seeds of On Fillmore took root when Jim O'Rourke, onetime Gastr del Sol member then touring with Sonic Youth, recruited bassist Darin Gray and drummer Glenn Kotche as his rhythm section for a set at London's Melt Down Festival. Once the show ended, O'Rourke rejoined Sonic Youth on the road, while Gray and Kotche, sharing a transatlantic flight home, struck up a lasting rapport and hatched plans for an experimental standup-bass-and-percussion duo. Drawing on their combined fluency in post-rock and jazz, the pair captured an initial improvised session that remained largely unreleased, yet it set the stage for a more organized debut issued by Quakebasket in 2001. Immediately afterward the musicians parted company, Gray returning to St. Louis to play bass with Grand Ulena and Kotche relocating to Chicago, where he joined Wilco just before the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They reconvened in 2004 for the ambient Sleeps with Fishes, a collection that featured field recordings and prompted a statewide tour. Although other commitments thereafter restricted their joint appearances to occasional performances, the next five years saw them score two films by J.T. Petty and complete their fourth album, Extended Vacation, released in 2009. Both Kotche and Gray contributed to William Tyler's widely praised 2016 album Modern Country. On Fillmore resurfaced in 2017 with Happiness of Living, recorded in Rio de Janeiro and released by Northern Spy.