The Royal Concept
Welcome to a rare, on-location Songs of the Revolution filmed and recorded with The Royal Concept at Brighton Music Hall in Brighton MA. So eager were we to have these guys be a part of our series that we packed up the laptop, a pair of mics and stands, and of course our mobile videographic unit (the camera) and made our way to the club, where the band was preparing to soundcheck. The search for a proper location to shoot turned up no secret, well lit, acoustically-tuned rooms tucked away in the club, so we set up by the pool tables. The band put together a makeshift set up, complete with mini-keyboard (the enduring classic, Casio SK-1) and trash bin percussion. Crunched for time, we still managed to get two great, fairly impromptu songs from The Royal Concept, who really couldn’t have been cooler or more accommodating. Enjoy these videos and free downloads.
Little Barrie
The shag-haired, leather-clad men of Little Barrie - Lewis Wharton, Virgil Howe, and the eponymous Barrie Cadogan – are exactly what you expect. When they stopped into our studio for the final Songs Of The Revolution session of 2012, they were a vision of no-frills rock and roll. Polite, of course, but these guys were there to work. After a chat about the set up – no isolation, everything in the room, don’t care if it sounds dirty, "we don’t really play stripped-down" – the guys jumped into three songs ranging from propellant riffage to groove-based mood rock. Barrie himself is known for his session and touring guitar work with acts like Spritualized, Edwyn Collins (who has produced the band), Morrissey, The Chemical Brothers, and more. This range of quality music, along with his stellar guitar playing, is on display in this exclusive session for OurStage. Watch the streaming videos and download the mp3s for free. See you in 2013.
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Chamberlin
Chamberlin is a band of road-tested performers from Vermont, who play rootsy and roomy songs about the unavoidable twists of interpersonal relationships and the self-torture of jealousy. The heavy subject matter is belied by the affable nature of the band members, who strolled into the studio one afternoon in late September and pulled together three songs, changing up their usual instrumentation and decorating the sound with accordion and banjo. Their recorded stuff is and seems to be moving even more toward lush, moody Floyd-esque rock, with modern touches. Great people, great music, and currently (November 2012) on tour again. See dates here: http://chamberlinband.com/
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The Spring Standards
While tuning my UHF dial and fiddling with my foil-covered coat-hanger antenna, I came across the Conan show, which was featuring a pretty dazzling young band. Ok, it was on YouTube. Turns out this entrancing three-piece is called The Spring Standards. Dazzling three-part harmonies, top songs, spacious, textured arrangements made the transition from the national talk-show circuit to our very own studio in Somerville, Massachusetts, where the trio lined up on some stools, broke out the melodica and guitars, and put on a display that…well, you'll just have to watch it to get it. We are thrilled to offer these videos to watch and songs to download for our latest Songs Of The Revolution session.
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Nemes
Nemes joined us during a June afternoon, on their way from their hometown of Worcester, MA to their show that evening at Church, a club in the Fenway area of Boston.
Named one of Alternative Press' Top 5 Unsigned Bands of 2010, this unique rock outfit boasts really solid songwriting, elevated by stellar harmonies and versatile violin playing…as evidenced on the stripped-down performances here. Nemes is a band of natural performers, who blend with each other so well that we ended up just using a couple of microphones, capturing the ambiance of each song as it was in the room.
Watch the videos and download the songs at the low, low price of no dollars.
Named one of Alternative Press' Top 5 Unsigned Bands of 2010, this unique rock outfit boasts really solid songwriting, elevated by stellar harmonies and versatile violin playing…as evidenced on the stripped-down performances here. Nemes is a band of natural performers, who blend with each other so well that we ended up just using a couple of microphones, capturing the ambiance of each song as it was in the room.
Watch the videos and download the songs at the low, low price of no dollars.
Shonen Knife
For this week's Songs of the Revolution, we were honored to play host to Shonen Knife, the all-female Japanese pop punk band that influenced a generation of American rockers before ever stepping onto U.S. soil.
The band has just released Pop Tune, their 18th studio album since their debut in 1982. Despite a few lineup changes over the years (singer Naoko Yamano is the remaining original member), the band is currently as strong as ever, as evidenced on this session. We naively requested a stripped-down set, in keeping with the vibe of the SOTR sessions. When the band arrived at the studio, we set up and suggested maybe just a hi-hat for cymbals. Sure, they nodded and agreed. Drummer Emi Morimoto asked for another cymbal stand.Okay, maybe just a ride cymbal, we hinted. Soon enough, she was wailing on the kit with a nice, high crash invading all the mics. We had to respect that. And, in the end, we're glad we're not the ones who got Shonen Knife to water it down.
Enjoy these streaming video performances and free downloads, and try not to let "Banana Chips" drive you mental with its insistent catchiness. Atomic-level earworm.
The band has just released Pop Tune, their 18th studio album since their debut in 1982. Despite a few lineup changes over the years (singer Naoko Yamano is the remaining original member), the band is currently as strong as ever, as evidenced on this session. We naively requested a stripped-down set, in keeping with the vibe of the SOTR sessions. When the band arrived at the studio, we set up and suggested maybe just a hi-hat for cymbals. Sure, they nodded and agreed. Drummer Emi Morimoto asked for another cymbal stand.Okay, maybe just a ride cymbal, we hinted. Soon enough, she was wailing on the kit with a nice, high crash invading all the mics. We had to respect that. And, in the end, we're glad we're not the ones who got Shonen Knife to water it down.
Enjoy these streaming video performances and free downloads, and try not to let "Banana Chips" drive you mental with its insistent catchiness. Atomic-level earworm.
Will Dailey
This week's Songs of the Revolution artist is Will Dailey. Will's newest record, made with his regular band, The Rivals, and released by Universal/Republic, has landed the singer-songwriter on a new level. In addition to being a regular on the Farm Aid tour, and having won multiple Boston Music Awards, Will's songs have recently been heard all over television and radio. After a recent gig, he and longtime drummer Dave Brophy stopped in at Moontower Studio to record versions of an older song, a newer song, and a new spin on a classic cover. Please enjoy the streaming video and download the tracks for free.
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O'Brother
Atlanta's O'Brother has only released one full-length album so far – 2011's Garden Window – but they are already road-tested pros with a loyal and rapidly growing fan base. Having toured with the likes of Manchester Orchestra and The Features, the band was crossing the country on their first major co-headlining tour (with Junius) when we caught up with them. Singer Tanner Merritt borrowed someone's old guitar and banged out three affecting performances in the studio while the rest of the band decompressed in the parking lot after a long drive. Merritt's extra-laid-back and unassuming demeanor belied the tense atmospheric shift that occurred in the room as soon as he starting singing. Check it out for yourself.
Mieka Pauley
If you've been following OurStage lately, you know that we're big fans of New York-based artist Mieka Pauley. So much so that we just invited her to perform at our showcase for this year's New Music Seminar and to join our newly-established Artist Advisory Board. And just to show that we can't get enough Mieka, we grabbed her recently on her way to Cambridge's Lizard Lounge, where she was having a release party for her new record, The Science Of Making Choices, and asked her to perform a few songs for us. Two of those songs, "Marked Man" and "Wreck," are from the new record, while "We're All Gonna Die" is a favorite from a 2009 EP. Check out these fantastic exclusive performances to see what all the buzz is about.
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The Dear Hunter
Casey Crescenzo is the man at the heart of The Dear Hunter and he joined us just before the Boston date of a tour with Anthony Green. Casey comes from a background in hardcore, having been a member of The Receiving End Of Sirens, but the music of The Dear Hunter is often delicate and always eclectic. As such, we were prepared for any kind of production he might want to throw at us for his SOTR session. We were pleasantly surprised when he strolled in with just a guitar, chatted a bit about music, touring, and the pros and cons of tour busses, then tried out a few bars of a few songs and just sang the hell out of them.
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Never Shout Never
OurStage has been on the Never Shout Never train for lo these many years, harkening all the way back to this behind the scenes footage of main man Cristofer Drew shooting the video for "BigCityDreams." Since then Cris and co. have continued to grow, earning a rabid fanbase and major label deal, all while retaining his DIY ethos. When we caught up to the band at the House Of Blues in Boston, just after soundcheck, he and the band proved to be excellent people and utterly natural performers. Despite our fretting about the recording setup and how many people we could capture at once, they just gathered at the end of the green room and, after a brief discussion about whether you can smoke inside the House Of Blues, nailed two songs.
Tim Rogers (You Am I)
Australia's You Am I have spent the better part of the last twenty years pulling off the difficult task of making insistently compelling and innovative rock music out of huge swaths of classic rock cloth. Frontman Tim Rogers has to be among the world's top three most charming dudes, and he is simply one of our greatest rock stars, despite never having hit the big time in the U.S. We sat down in the green room at Brighton Music Hall and he played (on our very own guitar, no less) two truly beautiful songs that gave little hint of the raucous full-band performance that followed. If you like rock and roll and don't know You Am I, we strongly recommend seeking them out, starting with their classic Hourly, Daily.
Tim Blane
Another longtime OurStager, Tim Blane and his band do accessible and commercially appealing pop music while maintaining substance and displaying a wealth of hooks. The band drove straight to the studio from New York, where he was doing a residency concurrent with another one at Cambridge's Lizard Lounge. Though we'd previously discussed a very stripped-down session, he had almost all the members of his very large band in tow, so we said what the hell and tracked the six-piece ensemble, complete with horn section. They knocked down three songs, totally pro, then headed off to their gig at the Lizard. It was an impressive whirlwind.
Lady Lamb The Beekeeper
Lady Lamb The Beekeeper is a one-woman tour-de-force in the form of Aly Spaltro, who hails from Maine but relocated, right around the time of this recording, to Brooklyn. We had heard a lot of positive buzz about her from people who can be trusted for this kind of thing, but still did not know what to expect. Right from the word "rolling," Aly really blew us away with the soulful intensity of her songs and her voice. We managed to catch her just after a packed gig at The Middle East in Cambridge MA, and she came into the studio with only her incredible voice and an electric guitar, tracking three songs in one take each. A rare instance of wishing it would take longer in the studio. Got an exclusive unreleased song from her, too.
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The Hollow Sound
Long an underground favorite, The Hollow Sound plays eclectic pop rock that resists pigeonhole definitions. In 2009, they were selected as the Grand Prize Winner of MTVU's Best Music On Campus search. They caught our ear around OurStage Headquarters a few years back and we were glad to have them for the first installment of Songs of the Revolution.
The band was great to work with – they hauled their gear down some rickety steps to the basement of Church, a club near Fenway Park, and we rolled tape. "Tape" being a wishful euphemism for our laptop. Cool as cool can be, and we got some new material out of them to boot.
The band was great to work with – they hauled their gear down some rickety steps to the basement of Church, a club near Fenway Park, and we rolled tape. "Tape" being a wishful euphemism for our laptop. Cool as cool can be, and we got some new material out of them to boot.
At OurStage, we consider ourselves very lucky to live and work around one of the world’s premier music cities. Boston, Massachusetts, home of legendary rock and pop acts, constantly plays host to the world’s greatest artists, big and small, as they travel through on tour.
We do our best to share this privilege with you – whether you live in Los Angeles, Moscow, Hawaii, or Hoboken – by grabbing some of our favorite artists to come into our studio and record an exclusive session for us. Often traveling straight to us from their previous date, these artists make the time to share unique versions of their songs, before heading off for their soundcheck.
We offer these streaming videos and free downloadable audio tracks to you, in the hope that you’ll hear something special here, see artists you already like in a new light, and maybe even discover your next favorite band.
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