Brick Layer Cake starts and ends with Todd Trainer, drummer of famed (and crushing) rock-and-roll bands Shellac, Rifle Sport and Breaking Circus. After relocating from Minneapolis to Chicago in 2001, Todd recorded at Electrical Audio Engineering with Steve Albini.
Over the seven-and-a-half-Years since Tragedy Tragedy was released, Brick Layer Cake has moved from Todd fooling around with his four-track to a fully realized rock-and-roll-band (with Todd Trainer playing all the instruments and making every sound you hear). The massive sounds are slower and to-the-bone. Simple structures give way to dense layers. And through it all is THAT VOICE; singing / talking / imploring / DEMANDING retribution for such things as rock stars, your wedding, and what's her face, among other sordid activities.
Picture T. Rex on a few too many percodan. But Albini said it best, "Think of Nick Drake on downers fronting Black Sabbath, if Black Sabbath played only the good parts of their songs."