(Various members of the group reside in Atlanta and Athens.) The group was formed by Bo Orr on guitar and vocals, Ryan Evers on bass, and Ben Salie on drums, three friends who had been playing together since they were in high school. Orr and Salie launched an eclectic minimalist punk band called Mosaic, which would later include guitarist Brain Atoms. Orr parted ways with Mosaic when he moved to New England for a spell, and he teamed up with a grindcore band called Dead in the Dirt. But Orr stayed in touch with his former bandmates, and they collaborated on new songs by swapping song files online. In 2012, Atoms got an idea for a new project, a rock band influenced by the writings of Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. Orr, Evers, and Salie were on board with the idea, and the band started playing out under the name Pinecones. Over the next two years, Pinecones accumulated enough material for an album, and they cut all the basic tracks for their debut LP, Sings for You Now, on April 1, 2014. Overdubs were completed on the following Good Friday, and the album came out in early 2015. Sings for You Now earned enthusiastic press, but it wasn't long before Pinecones changed their name to Arbor Labor Union. The name change didn't slow their momentum, and in November 2015 the group signed a recording contract with the well-known indie label Sub Pop Records. The band's Sub Pop debut (and first album as Arbor Labor Union), I Hear You, was released in May 2016. ~ Mark Deming