Last night, tireless Philly rock four-piece Cheers Elephant headlined Johnny Brenda's. Opening sets were performed by South Carolina's The Explorer's Club and Bucks County folk ensemble Honeychurch. Check out a recap of the show in the photo gallery above. Continue reading
Last night, tireless Philly rock four-piece Cheers Elephant headlined Johnny Brenda's. Opening sets were performed by South Carolina's The Explorer's Club and Bucks County folk ensemble Honeychurch. Check out a recap of the show in the photo gallery above. Continue reading
Violinist, singer and composer Kishi Bashi performs at the First Unitarian Church tonight. Using his violin as a starting point, Bashi creates entirely new universes in his compositions with swirling loop sequences, layered vocals and atmospheric synth backdrops. In addition to touring and collaborating with of Montreal, Regina Spektor, The Barr Brothers and Sondre Lerche, ... Continue reading
This six-piece from Charleston, South Carolina does a mighty fine job of channeling the Beach Boys (with a hint of the Ruby Suns mixed in). They have a great "vintage California sound" that always seems to brighten up my day. ♩ The Explorers Club - Run Run Run [from Grand Hotel ] web // facebook // twitter // soundcloud // shows // iTunes It's been three years since Edward Droste and company [...]
#50 to #41 // #40 to #31 // #30 to #21 // #20 to #11 // #10 to #1 ------------------------------ ------------ 20. Dent May - Do Things Formerly known for ukulele-led material, Dent May traded the uke in for some vintage synths and a drum machine on Do Things , his second full-length on Paw Tracks. One of the album's standouts, “Best Friend”, is a disco-tinged burst of revivalism, with a touch of Brit-pop recalling the big-personality variety of Pulp and Squeeze. [...]
Here's some immaculately executed vintage 70s AM radio jams from The Explorers Club , whose album Grand Hotel came out in February, but is just hitting our radar today. Very Dawes-like in their presentation, and very Beach Boys in their sound. An enjoyable Wednesday listen.
The zeitgeist is an asshole. Great albums come out all the time and get passed over - that's just part of the game. But it's most frustrating when a band makes an impressive square peg and the world's ears curve to round holes. The Explorers Club's Grand Hotel is an album out of time, a tuneful collection that updates the group's Beach Boys worship with the fluegelhorns and lounge-lizard arrangements of Bacharach and Herb Alpert. (They might be best served by a tour with the Beachwood Sparks as the Monsters of '72.) The group's at its [...]
Apr 11, 2012, 8:00am
DOA
An exceptional homage to 1960s orchestrated pop music.
The best tracks from February are compiled for easy listening. Among those featured are Bryan Scary, Andrew Bird, The Explorers Club, Arctic Monkeys, Frankie Rose, Moonface, Cats on Fire, and Deerhunter
From Charleston, South Carolina, The Explorers Club released their new album Grand Hotel in February on Rock Ridge Music . The album is a fun collection of pristine indie-pop. There are many familiar and classic Sixties musical touchstones on the album including like The Association, The 5th Dimension, The Buckinghams, and The Box Tops with some obvious nods to the detailed pop songwriting craft of Brian Wilson and the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Joyous harmonies, the well placed sitar solo, anthemic horn arrangements and exuberant instrumentals that could [...]
A masterful pastiche of ‘60s and ‘70s pop sounds The Explorers Club’s debut, 2008’s Freedom Wind , set a very high bar with its unerring evocation of the Beach Boys’ most sophisticated period. Incredibly, the band’s second effort manages to top their first, with a seamless pastiche of ‘60s and ‘70s pop sounds that suggests the band’s mastermind, Jason Brewer, is a twenty-first century savant of Brian Wilson, Curt Boettcher, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach and others. He lovingly mashes riffs, instrumental sounds and melodic structures into confections that will [...]
The Explorers Club, a band hailing from Charleston, SC, has hit #27 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart following the first week of sales of their new album, “Grand Hotel.” (The album was released on February 14, 2012 through Rock Ridge Music, with distribution via ADA.) This is the band’s biggest sales week ever by far. [...]
I came across The Explorer's Club through the track "Forever" which I included on one of my "Be My Baby" drum beat mixes a couple years back and I recently re-discovered the Charleston, SC band as they've just released their sophomore album, Grand Hotel . Whereas their debut was practically impossible to listen to without thinking about the Beach Boys, the new album draws from a broader palette of classic American pop from the 602s and 702s. The exuberant first single "Run Run Run" is a great example, with [...]
http://www.facebook.com/explor ersclub - Go there and tell them you like them! In case you don't know yet, I love the Explorers Club. I am ecstatic about them. I saw them in Boston on Valentine's Day and I am going to post a lot of pictures from the show in this review. There are videos below. When I first heard them I was sitting in a college dorm room and I came across the song "Don't Forget The Sun" and listened to the entire song with headphones on and my jaw hit the floor. I had wondered [...]
After the heavenly Beach Boys harmonies of Freedom Wind , Explorers Club moves forward five years to the early 702s AM soft rock era. Starting with a Pet Sounds styled instrumental intro, the horns blast out the first single "Run Run Run," a hook filled gem with lush orchestration similar to The 5th Dimension. Then the guitar and multiple vocals of "Anticipatin'" make it a dead ringer for a lost Grass Roots tune. You'll have lots of fun playing "spot the influence" on each track - like the BJ Thomas shuffle on "Bluebird," then the Sergio Mendes-Burt Bacharach [...]
Crisp production and tender performances from all members of The Explorers Club aside, their newest release, Grand Hotel , lacks the extra edge required to escape a number of the kitschy pitfalls of era infatuation. For Jason Brewer, David Ellis, and the rest of the Club, their undying reverence lies with the Beach Boys singles and suburban supermarket jingles of yore. Grand Hotel features quaint barbershop ballads and soft, surfside rockers in spades, and The Explorers Club borrow gluttonously from the sounds of '60s and '70s popular American music, providing sharp delivery but [...]
It feels like decades since The Explorers Club released their stunning debut, Freedom Wind. Truth is, it only came out in 2008, but its timeless sound and remarkable consistency made the wait seem much longer than that. Until last year it looked like The Explorers Club might be a one-and-done group, who like some of
The Explorer's Club - Grand Hotel Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting Shearwater - Animal Joy Tennis - Young and Old WWTB Happy Valentine’s Day! You should celebrate by buying yourself and/or your valentine some music. The Explorers Club - Grand Hotel ( buy the CD / buy the MP3s ) Islands - A Sleep & A [...]
Have you ever listened to a group's discography and then realized that their new album is coming out the next day? For me, that happened on the eve of the new Islands' album. While I enjoyed Arm's Way (2008), Vapours (2009) thrust me into fandom. Exciting, right? Along with A Sleep & A Forgetting, we won't forget the thrilling Sick Friend album, sick vibes from The Phenomenal Handclap Band and something for perhaps a matured ear with The Explorers Club. Canada's Islands even have some excellently creepy videos (" Creeper ", " [...]
Alex Yaker is one of those way-busy Philadelphia musicians. Most recently, you've probably seen him rock his bass-playing swagger in Summer Fiction. In the past he's performed with Grammar Debate, The Yaker Bros and done a bit of production with Surreal Sound Studios. With everything going on, it's not unsurprising that his own project, Roomtone , only makes periodic appearances, but whenever it emerges, it's worth the wait. This weekend, the band Yaker also refers to as "The Official Indie BossaNova Goosebump Machine" plays its first show in over a year and a half at Johnny Brenda's, [...]
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