Brooklyn Demos (2002)

This indie tape cassette album showcases a bulk of material cultivated in New York City, though it was recorded in Boston late 2001. Lacking proper funds to go into a studio, Rob picked up a couple of Radio Shack microphones and a tape recorder to lay down the songs while they were fresh in his experience. After debating how best to share the songs, he bought a dual tape deck to duplicate 150 cassettes for initial distribution. Friends eventually helped digitize and master the album to put online. The set includes covers of three songs by artists Rob met in New York: Jeffrey Lewis, Joie Blaney and Mike iLL. The inclusion represented a thematic consistency with the album, both in content and context. Rob also toured for a week with Mike iLL, then a solo performer and author of the Antifolk Road Manual. Mike would later tell Rob, “You Getzschmans are keeping the Sarah Sahonie album alive,” referring both to Rob’s covers and his brother Jonathan’s extensive hip-hop sampling of Mike’s solo debut, The Seduction of Sarah Sahonie.

Track listing