Afternoon Delight:
Clockwise from top
left, band members
of Manishevitz, the
Elected, Owen, and
Casper. All have re-
corded at Daytrotter.
Midday at
the Oasis
An offbeat (and online)
recording studio strikes a
chord with indie musicians.
by Katie Knorovsky
Illustrations Johnnie Cluney
Inside a dingy former radio station
off of Interstate 80 in western Illinois,
Magnolia—the 2-year-old daughter
of the indie rockers behind Mates of
State—makes her recording debut in the
final seconds of a song you’ll never hear
on one of the husband-and-wife duo’s
albums. The family is just passing
through, and Sean Moeller loves every
minute of the warm-and-fuzzy session.
Moeller, who writes about music, was
fed up with the limited exposure granted
to bands not signed to major labels. So
last year, along with Patrick Stolley, a
friend and veteran recording engineer,
Moeller founded Daytrotter, a rootsy we-
bzine and studio based in Rock Island.
The place has become a pit stop for
bands as they hopscotch across the
country on tour. Guests have included
Sunset Rubdown, Of Montreal, Cold War
Kids, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Moeller
invites all comers to record four songs at
no expense and posts a new session at
daytrotter.com every Monday and Thurs-
day, free for download. The site also fea-
tures articles, interviews, and reviews
(many penned by Moeller), comics, and
whimsical illustrations.
The studio is filled with vintage and
repurposed equipment that Stolley res-
cued from pawnshops, dumpsters, and
friends’ basements—like his scavenged
Spectra Sonics preamps and Otari tape
recorder. He records the songs straight
to analog tape that he buys used and
bulk-erased from a guy in Los Angeles.
“It feels like you’re right in the room
with that band or person, you know,
like they’re two inches from your ear,”
Moeller says.
The site quickly won industry acco-
lades and now garners a million monthly
page views. But beyond the more obvious
measures of Moeller and Stolley’s suc-
cess, their greatest achievement may
be the unapologetically feel-good vibe
of Daytrotter’s tracks. It’s almost as if
you’re hanging out with a band on the
tour bus. Listen closely, and you just
might hear clinking beer bottles.
46 ReadyMade
