The OaKs Soph
12/09/2007
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(PR) One of the major surprises of CMJ 2007, Orlando band The OaKs is set to release its sophomore album Songs For Waiting on March 3rd, 2008. The profound and stirring album is the follow-up to the band's Our Fathers and The Things They Left Behind which caught the ears and minds of many fans and scribes in 2007 with its unique blend of Graceland's polyrhythms, Steve Earle's politics, Wilco's urgency, and Sufjan Stevens' orchestrations.
The story behind The OaKs' music is just as interesting as the sounds. In late 2003, just two years after 9/11, The OaKs' Ryan Costello sold everything he owned, joined a humanitarian organization and moved to Afghanistan. Costello lived there for two years, working in the Central Afghan Mountains with returned refugees, teaching them creative agricultural techniques and becoming fluent in their native language, Farsi. Late at night, while the dust storms blocked out the stars and rattled the windows, he would sit and work out impressions of what he had seen and heard that day on his acoustic guitar. Costello also documented his time in Afghanistan with a series of moving portraits which can be viewed at ryancostello.com.
After returning to the United States, Costello joined back up with his long-time creative and songwriting partner Matthew Antolick, who was drumming full-time in a Moroccan band. Antolick and Costello began working out Costello's melodic ideas and lyrical concepts, home-recording in Antolick's apartment what eventually became Our Fathers and The Things They Left Behind. Exploring themes of self-sacrifice and introspection over roots-folk and jazzy melodic layers, Our Fathers... was an original breath of fresh air in the independent music scene. 
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