Gilead Media is stoked to finally present To the Rind, the debut full-length recording from New Orleans project Big Garden. Through a heavy dose of 90's alt & indie inspiration, the band has crafted powerful ear-worms of riffs and reverb, heavy on melody and impassioned songwriting. An album unique in the present day that scratches an itch deep in your music listening soul. Songwriter Mitch Wells started Big Garden during the height of the Covid pandemic as a quarantine outlet, a personal project to focus on during a troublesome time. As the world began to recover Wells brought his long-time bandmate from sludge/doom band Thou, Matthew Thudium, on board to contribute vocals and guitar for the band. Big Garden is now a full 5-piece band with the addition of Greg Manson (bass/synth), Ian Paine-Jesam (drums/percussion), and Craig Oubre (guitar/vocals) to flesh out the lineup. To the Rind is a wonderful love letter to, and evolution from, the great grungy, gazey, riffy, mathy, and spacey sounds of the past carried through a modernized songwriting approach. Wells’ lyrics broach heavy personal topics familiar to so many of us. The ends of relationships, the anxiety of change, and wondering “can I start over? Do I deserve a chance to start over?” And coming to face the fear of failure and the depression that surrounds it all. Big Garden was founded as the channel for these complicated feelings. "Turns out writing songs is a great way to work through some stuff. It doesn’t fix anything, but it sorta lays it all out there." And horror movies of course, you gotta write some tunes about horror movies.
