Hello from Ludland,

Over the past few years, we’ve been adding the Lud back catalog to our Bandcamp site. For now, you can listen to any of it for free. There are several more items to come, including three full albums from the late 90s.

It’s where we are releasing new material first. Right now it’s the only place where you can listen to our latest release, music for librarians

It’s also where we have released two compilations, Lud Country, a collection of country and folk rock songs; and HemiDemiSemiQuaver, instrumentals through the ages. Further compilations are in the works.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s available roughly sorted by upload date:

• music for librarians — five very Lud songs recorded in 2024 in Carrboro

• *yard — the first single from the *yard series, a new set of mostly improvised recordings. There’s a video that might help explain it.

• Yellow House — Our most recent LP, dedicated to the memory of the Bryon and Mike Beard’s beloved recording studio on Rosemary Street and the place where so many bands practiced and jammed. First side is mostly rock and ends with eulogy to Paul Price in Italiano. Second side is a mood.

• Defenestration Boulevard — Songs of the Great Recession and other bits and pieces. More Americana than most Lud records. Locket is one of the best performances we’ve ever captured in a studio. The digital version includes a dance remix of Strangers in the Sky because that’s Americana, too.

• Lud Country — Country and Folk Rock Favorites 1997-2020. We hand-selected the best of the bunch and loaded up a truckfull for those long hauls to the neon sunrise. Named it Lud Country. Ride the flavor.

• Sparkling Rope — The ground-breaking second record that you heard on the college radio. In the stores the CDs were color Xerox with hand-written spines. It was 1997 and people almost danced to that one song. Scandalous.

V — A weird early 2000s war-weary record we did with Brian Paulson. Hard rockers, lazy day songs and Tribute to German Jam Bands of the Late 1960s and early 1970s, which is possibly the greatest Lud instrumental ever.

HemiDemiSemiQuaver — Instrumental Favorites 1994-2008. Most of this compilation is easy listening some of it is not. It’s got some of the really bent stuff from the beginning, Bryon’s lyrical Fin de Siècle compositions, grooves, surfy rave ups and, yes, Tribute to German Jam Bands of the Late 1960s and Early 1970s, possibly the greatest Lud instrumental ever.

Live in Europe — The title is not meant to imply that we ever played in Europe. And don’t be fooled because one of the songs is named Bremen, that’s just a nod to Keith Jarrett and Henry Cow. Released between our second and third records, the idea of this all-instrumental [ep] was that if we were to live in Europe we could probably play more of these types of songs. Or not. Who knows? Bremen.