Isthmus

The Formative Years (1995 - 1996)
On February 5, 1995, Harry took his synthesizer to Jason's house and they had a jam session in the new Metal XOR Studio that was still under construction in the basement. Jason played guitar and Harry played his synth for most of the jam. After hearing the tapes from that session, it was decided it could be released as an album. More than a year later, after doing some clean-up work and adding a few tracks (mostly drums), the album was released as Electric Field Donut on July 9, 1996. It took a while to settle on a band name, but the winner was Isthmus.

For months Electric Field Donut was listened to and reviewed. It was not bad for a "live" recording of two people goofing around. Could it happen again? They recorded another session on September 21, 1996. This time they had a drummer, Jimmy. Harry played guitar and Jason played bass. They recorded in Jason's driveway and the album became Lambskin Temple. It was released on November 19, 1996.

Relative Obscurity (1997)
On December 10, 1996, Harry and Jason recorded a jam session of Christmas songs in Harry's chuch. This time they had Tim playing drums. The album was an utter failure, not much good came of this effort. It was called New Mexico Igloo.

On May 6, 1997, a very limited release of the Isthmus EP Ideas was released. This was a collection of tracks recorded during the Electric Field Donut session that did not appear on that album. And there is a good reason for that. These were really B-quality pieces of music.

On July 7, 1997, the band assembled in the church where New Mexico Igloo was recorded. Using the 4-track recorder, Harry recorded the backing track for a song he was going to perform at church. Although the band didn't play as a group that day, they were all present for the recording session.

Redemption (1998)
Realizing they were in a slump, the band hit the reset button and redeemed itself with the world-wide critically acclaimed 1998 Parabolic Dish Festival session. It was recorded on May 22, 1998. Jimmy was back on drums, Harry played guitar, and Jason was on bass. After the traditional cleaning up and addition of musical and sound effect tracks, the first album of the two-album set was released on July 21, 1998. The second album was released on March 23, 1999. This was their most productive jam session to date and the one that all jam sessions have been compared to.

Although the players keep changing, the official Isthmus line-up is Harry, Jason, and Jimmy. And although they have played various parts on their albums, the main instrumentation is Harry on guitar, Jason on bass, and Jimmy on drums. Harry and Jason provide most of the vocals.

After the Band
They have only had one jam session since the 1998 PDF marathon session, but it only lasted a few minutes during Harry's daughter's dedication party on March 9, 2003. The band stole away to the basement to record some new tunes but after only two songs, the camcorder ran out of tape and thus Isthmus came to a close.

An Isthmus reunion is not out of the question. A February 2011 quote from Harry, "...Isthmus is NOT dead and will record again... just don't know how, when, where, why, or how, or why, or when..."

On April 15, 2008, the first Isthmus music video was released. It was for the song "Lost in Detroit (Free II)" from their 1998 album Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1.

On May 8, 2008, their second music video was released. It was for the song "Flathead Midget", also from their 1998 album Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1.

For years, a special edition of Parabolic Dish Festival had been discussed. Finally in 2008 the project was finished. It was released as the 3-disc Parabolic Dish Festival (10th Anniversary Edition) on May 22, exactly ten years to the day that the songs were recorded. Talks have already begun about an Ultimate Edition of the album for a future release.

All three members of the band appeared publicly for the first time to discuss their life and times in the band on the Collective Brain podcast. Part 1 of the interview appeared on the March 15 episodeand part 2 was on the March 22 episode. The discussion on the show led to Metal XOR Fallout Studio releasing a bootleg recording from January 12, 1996, titled Gemini Jay on March 22, 2011. This was the band's eighth album.

Discography

 * Electric Field Donut - July 9, 1996
 * Lambskin Temple - November 19, 1996
 * New Mexico Igloo - December 17, 1996
 * Ideas - May 6, 1997
 * Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1 - July 21, 1998
 * Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 2 - March 23, 1999
 * Parabolic Dish Festival (10th Anniversary Edition) - May 22, 2008
 * Gemini Jay - March 22, 2011