Prison

Prison operates out of New York City as a shifting ensemble known for loose, expansive sessions steeped in psychedelic blues improvisation. Participants have come from Endless Boogie, Silver Jews, Love as Laughter, Liquor Store, and assorted other figures within indie circles. The project functioned almost exclusively as a live concern until the appearance of its first recorded statement, the 2023 album Upstate, and later documented further explorations on the 2025 follow-up Downstate.

The collective began to coalesce in the mid-2010s around a circle of New York musicians and associates who favored unstructured, performance-driven gatherings. Liquor Store’s Sarim Al-Rawi and his acquaintance Matt Lilly initiated the idea without establishing a permanent lineup, regularly inviting Endless Boogie’s Paul Major, the veteran Sam Jayne—who had previously worked in Lync, Love as Laughter, and numerous additional projects until his death in 2020—and Mike Fellows, whose résumé includes tenures with Rites of Spring, Silver Jews, and further endeavors. This particular configuration entered the studio to capture the material that formed the debut release.

Upstate appeared as a lengthy double album containing only five tracks; issued by Drag City in August 2023, it fused the drifting, high-volume space-rock drive associated with Hawkwind, the hallucinatory disarray of the Butthole Surfers, and the abrasive, lo-fi edge of early Royal Trux. The second album, Downstate, followed in January 2025 and featured many of the same contributors while drawing on recordings made before Jayne’s passing.