Mike Gordon & Leo Kottke Announce New Album ‘Noon’ & Share Singles

Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke will release Noon, their first collaborative studio album in 15 years, via Megaplum/ATO Records on August 28. The Phish bassist and acclaimed fingerpicking guitarist previewed the 11-track LP by sharing “Ants” and “I Am Random” from the album.

The long-awaited follow-up to 2005’s Sixty Six Steps contains songs from Mike’s catalog of originals as well as some Leo originals and covers of The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and Prince’s “Alphabet St.” Gordon’s Phish band mate, drummer Jon Fishman contributed to Noon, which was produced by Jared Slomoff.

“Mike likes to write a lot of stuff and then throw out the shit that doesn’t hold up the next day,” Kottke told American Songwriter about the pair’s disparate writing styles. “He works that way. I can’t do that. I’m always just farting around and eventually stumbling over something. It rings your bell, you play it into the ground and that will make something else happen. We’re an odd couple. ‘Cause he’s a Pachinko machine and I’m paint drying. And it seems to meet somewhere in the middle.” Leo, for whom Noon marks his first studio album of any sort in since Sixty Six Steps, penned “Ants.”

Gordon wrote “I Am Random” with longtime collaborator Scott Murawski and debuted the song live during a solo show on March 19, 2019. “I am Mr. Random all the time,” Mike explained in the interview with American Songwriter. “I used to be Mr. Awkward. Now I’ve graduated to Mr. Random. I’m the one at the party who won’t say anything for a long time and then suddenly I’ll say something like, ‘Oh, well your swimming pool can’t get Xeroxed.’ And everybody will say, ‘What? I don’t know what that guy is talking about.’ My family has learned that as well, that I’m the one to come up with a non-sequitur. I have about five of them that I like to use at home. I like to say, ‘The moral of the story is’ and I cap it off at that. I was just thinking about being this random person, who always is either the black sheep or the life of the party, but is never quite understood.” Noon tracks “How Many People Are You” and “Peel” have also seen action on-stage from Gordon’s projects in the past.

Noon is the pair’s third collaborative LP following Sixty Six Steps and 2002’s Clone. Listen to “Ants” and “I Am Random” from Noon below:

Ants

I Am Random

Noon Tracklist

1. Flat Top
2. Eight Miles High
3. I Am Random
4. Noon To Noon
5. From The Cradle To The Grave
6. How Many People Are You
7. Ants
8. Sheets
9. Alphabet St.
10. Peel
11. The Only One