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Members of Lexington pop landmarks The High Water Marks and Ideal Free Distribution have joined forces to become The Open Letters. The lineup – Hilarie Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Tony Miller, Samantha Herald Miller (both husband and wife teams) - began playing as a unit in late 2009.   (Kenny Johnson joined shortly thereafter.) Tony Miller wrote Optical Atlas in December, “We’ve been practicing for a short time but already have 6 solid tunes…and I mean solid.  Right now, even in their rough form the songs feel excitingly good. We’re going to whip out a recording of a couple and put one on our upcoming Color Wheel Records comp due out this spring. Sound-wise everything is very poppy with big guitars occasionally bordering on shoegaze.”  You can hear for yourself with the sample track below.  Personally, I love it.  (There’s another track, with Per singing, posted on their MySpace page.)

Note that neither The High Water Marks nor IFD are defunct, though for now it’s the Open Letters effort that’s pushing forward in earnest.  They’re playing live at Cosmic Charlie’s in Lexington with Fire Zuave on March 1st. 

The Open Letters – Stupid But Strong