Albany acid doom, est. 2007 — Magnetic Eye alumni, a CBS sync on 'Two and a Half Men', and a 2025 double-shot revival.
Ironweed takes its name from William Kennedy's Pulitzer-winning Albany novel, and it earns the reference: this is Albany heavy lineage, rooted in the city's streets, trails, and clubs. The band formed in March 2007 from the Great Day For Up core — Mike Vitali (guitar, principal songwriter), Brendan Slater (bass), Jim Feck (drums) — joined by Jeff Andrews, a vocalist AllMusic credited with 'emotionally charged delivery and frankly stupendous range,' and guitarist Ryan Rapp, whose skull logo still marks the band's shirts, decks, and drumheads. 'The Great Destroyer' EP arrived within the year; the band was never a project waiting for permission. 'Indian Ladder' (Small Stone SS-085, October 2008) is named for the escarpment trail above Albany and was cut at Mad Oak Studios in Allston with Benny Grotto behind the glass. It carries two pieces of the label's future inside it: 'Death of Me,' the Vitali-written track that aired on CBS's 'Two and a Half Men' (Season 7, Episode 22, 'This Is Not Gonna End Well'), and 'A Penny for Your Prayers,' the song the PENNY streaming platform is named after. In March 2009 Ironweed played the Small Stone SXSW showcase at Room 710 in Austin — directly across the street from Metallica's surprise show at Stubb's — and shared stages at home with The Sword, Baroness, and Year Long Disaster. 'Your World of Tomorrow' (2011) made the band a cornerstone twice over: its catalog number is MER001, the very first release on Vitali's own Magnetic Eye Records, co-issued with Small Stone on 250 copies of green-and-white swirl 180-gram vinyl. The reels never stopped. 'The Weed' (2021) and the 'Aegis' EP (2024) reopened the channel, and 2025 delivered the double-shot on American Record: the self-titled album on January 13 and 'Phantasmagoric' on February 11 — eighteen new tracks inside a month, from a band eighteen years into the work. Ironweed is where the American Record Company story hardens from local legend into label infrastructure, and it is still writing.
Formed March 2007 from the GDFU core (Vitali, Slater, Feck) plus Jeff Andrews and Ryan Rapp. Named for William Kennedy's Pulitzer-winning Albany novel — a band that wears its city on its sleeve. 'The Great Destroyer' EP arrives the same year: no warm-up period, straight to tape.
SS-085, October 2008 — recorded at Mad Oak Studios in Allston with Benny Grotto engineering, mixing, and co-producing. 'Death of Me' placed on CBS's 'Two and a Half Men' (Season 7, Episode 22, 'This Is Not Gonna End Well'), and 'A Penny for Your Prayers' seeded the name of the label's future streaming platform.
Friday March 20, 2009 — the Small Stone Records SXSW showcase at Room 710, doubling as the Ironweed record release party, directly across the street from Metallica's surprise show at Stubb's. Sixth Street belonged to the heavy bands that week.
The first catalog number on Vitali's own Magnetic Eye Records, co-issued with Small Stone (SS-114) — 250 copies on green-and-white swirl 180-gram vinyl in a deluxe gatefold, Alexander von Wieding's eye-in-hand artwork on the cover. The moment the guitarist became the label.
'The Weed' (2021) and the 'Aegis' EP (2024) reignite the project — the astronaut painting of the Weed era and the Aegis shield mark a band updating its own iconography rather than reliving it.
'Ironweed' (January 13) and 'Phantasmagoric' (February 11) — eighteen tracks in a month on American Record, released at the pace the label now runs on. The acid doom is current, not curated.
The first transmission, 2007. Formed in March, on record before the year was out — the EP that announced a new Albany heavy band built from Great Day For Up's rhythm section and two new weapons: Jeff Andrews' voice and Ryan Rapp's second guitar. The estate masters are being staged for the PENNY vault, where this recording will stream alongside everything that followed it.
Small Stone SS-085, released October 21, 2008 — named for the Indian Ladder trail carved into the escarpment above Albany, a record that climbs the same way: eleven tracks of switchbacks between melody and mass. Cut at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, MA with Benny Grotto engineering, mixing, and co-producing (and contributing mellotron and cowbell); mastered by Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio; Mike Saputo's artwork on the sleeve. AllMusic singled out Jeff Andrews' 'emotionally charged delivery and frankly stupendous range.' Two songs here became label infrastructure. 'Death of Me,' written by Michael Vitali, aired on CBS's 'Two and a Half Men' (Season 7, Episode 22, 'This Is Not Gonna End Well') — a royalty-confirmed sync. And 'A Penny for Your Prayers' is where the PENNY streaming platform takes its name: the song came first, the technology is named in its honor. Timings are from the estate master WAVs.
First pressed via Small Stone Records (SS-085), 2008
The historic one: LP catalog number MER001 — the very first release on Vitali's Magnetic Eye Records, co-issued with Small Stone (SS-114). Limited to 250 on green-and-white swirl 180-gram vinyl in a deluxe gatefold, with Alexander von Wieding's eye-in-hand painting on the cover — the concept sketches survive in the archive and hang in this page's gallery. Produced and recorded by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak, mixed with J. Saliba, mastered by Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio Labs; Dan Dinsmore takes the drum chair. This is the pivot point of the whole American Record Company story: the record where the band's guitarist stopped waiting for other labels' schedules and started his own catalog, with his own band at number one. The Obelisk called it 'heavy rock for heavy rockers.' Every release the network puts out today descends from this pressing.
First pressed via Magnetic Eye Records (MER001) / Small Stone (SS-114), 2011
The 2021 return. A decade after MER001, Ironweed reopened the channel under the astronaut — the painting that fronts this era floats a spaceman over the wreckage, which is about right for a heavy band re-entering the atmosphere. Track data is being staged from the estate masters for the PENNY vault.
The 2024 EP — the shield record. 'Aegis' bridged the return of 'The Weed' and the 2025 double-shot, proof the reactivated band intended to keep a release cadence, not stage a reunion. Track data is being staged from the estate masters for the PENNY vault.
Released January 13, 2025 on American Record (Albany, NY). Eighteen years in, the band finally puts its own name on a record — and fills it with transmissions: 'Rewind the Tape,' 'Transmission Line Lies,' 'Mind Eraser,' 'Tracer.' Nine tracks, none over four and a quarter minutes, acid doom compressed to its signal. The first half of the 2025 double-shot, with 'Phantasmagoric' following twenty-nine days later.
Released February 11, 2025 on American Record (Albany, NY) — the second barrel of the double-shot, four weeks after the self-titled. Where 'Ironweed' ran tight, 'Phantasmagoric' stretches out: the title track and 'Crawl' push past five and six minutes, and the Latin titles ('Paganus,' 'Capere') give the procession its liturgy. Eighteen tracks in a month is not nostalgia; it is a working band on a label built to keep up with it.
“Your World of Tomorrow is heavy rock for heavy rockers.” The Obelisk · 2011 · The Ironweed of Tomorrow, Today! · verified at theobelisk.net
“Singer Jeff Andrews, whose emotionally charged delivery and frankly stupendous range could really help the band stand out from the post-stoner rock pack.” AllMusic (Eduardo Rivadavia) · 2008 · Indian Ladder review · verified at smallstone.bandcamp.com
“Check out 'And The New Slaves' and decide if you'll rally around their revolutionary call.” Lollipop Magazine (Mike Delano) · 2012 · Your World Of Tomorrow review · verified at lollipopmagazine.com
Black-and-white official video — the band in a derelict warehouse under cathedral-scale factory windows, intercut with vertigo shots up through bare trees.
The catalog streams right here — one stream, one penny, straight to the artist vault.
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