The Instruments

Based in Athens, GA, the Instruments are not so much a group as an informal gathering of musicians assembled for performing and recording purposes by singer/guitarist/cellist Heather McIntosh, also a member of Japancakes and Circulatory System. To record the band's debut album, Billions of Phonographs, for Orange Twin Records, McIntosh recruited Katie Bierman (bassoon), Chris Bishop (bass guitar, vocals), Laura Carter (clarinet, accordion, vocals; from Elf Power), John Dazzo (vocals), Pete Erchick (keyboards, vocals; from the Olivia Tremor Control), John Fernandes (clarinet, vocals; from the Olivia Tremor Control), Andy Gonzales (guitar), Eric Harris (theremin, bells; from the Olivia Tremor Control), Will Cullen Hart (drums, vocals; from the Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System), Julian Koster (singing saw; from the Music Tapes), Jeff Mangum (vocals; from Neutral Milk Hotel), Susan McCarrell (flute), and Scott Spillane (mellophonium). The album was released on October 1, 2002. Derek Almstead (electric guitar), Erchick, Fernandes, Harris, Hart, Hannah Jones (percussion, vocals), Sallie Lupis (double bass), Mangum, Doug Owens (oboe), and Spillane appeared with McIntosh on the Instruments' second album, Cast a Half Shadow, released May 9, 2006. By the time of the third album, Dark Smaland, released May 13, 2008, McIntosh had organized two different lineups of the Instruments, one based in Athens, the other in Brooklyn, NY. Players on the album included Almstead, Erchick, Fernandes, Harris, Hart, and Mangum.