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Breaking: Bishop Allen

Who: A Brooklyn-based indie pop band fronted by two Harvard alums — singer-keyboardist Justin Rice and multi-instrumentalist Christian Rudder. The pair met in a mandatory English class in the mid-Nineties and formed a punk band called the Pissed Officers before starting up Bishop Allen, which they named after a Cambridge street. In 2006, the group put out an EP per month, and their third full-length, Grrr … is due in March. Sounds Like: A blend of Los Campesinos! and Yo La Tengo with a twee-folk vibe. The band’s literary influences, like Jorge Luis Borges and G.K. Chesterton, is evident on songs like Grrr …’s “The Ancient Common Sense of Things.” “There’s something cool about writing songs. You think, ‘Yesterday, this song didn’t exist but now it does,’ ” Rice says of the songwriting process. “But there’s something gratifying about playing shows because that you think ‘That thing I made in my room, these people appreciate it and they’ll give me a high-five.’ “ Vital Stats: • Moviegoers might recognize Bishop Allen from their appearance in last autumn’s hipstertastic Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, where they performed their song “Middle Management.” Rice and Rudder are no strangers to the silver screen: Rice recently starred in the indie film Let Them Chirp Away, while Rudder appeared in 2005’s Funny Ha Ha. • The band has been married to the road in recent years. Rice admits, “We make enough money if we play every night to just keep going, but if we ever stop we’ll be broke.” The band stopped touring long enough to record their new album, using obscure studio equipment like a 1950s Magnerecorder while recording with Bryce Goggin, who has worked with Apples in Stereo, Pavement and Luna. • Bishop Allen have had their share of awkward concerts. “We’ve had a show where the band that played before us unplugged all the power in the club because they wanted to beat us up or something,” Rice says. “They got evicted forcibly by the bouncers. Then we played a Christmas party

Published: 2009-02-04
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Breaking

Picture: Electronic Projects for Musicians by The Apples In Stereo

Picture: News Ticker: Flaming Lips, Patti Smith, Arcade Fire and Blur

Alternate Takes: Test-Driving Amazon’s Music Megastore

It took six minutes. First I had to install the Amazon MP3 Downloader, a simple three-click process that dragged on longer than it should have because the page loaded so slowly. Then came a free song to show me how easily it worked (”Energy,” by the Apples in Stereo, though I thought I was going to get to choose any song when I pushed the button). And then I bought the number-ten downloaded album on Amazon’s new MP3 service, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. This was loaded directly onto my iTunes in high-quality MP3s, with no Digital Rights Management restrictions. Because its forty-four minutes are split across just five tracks, it cost me $4.45. The same album costs $11.99 on iTunes, though how long before that price drops? Already iTunes has eliminated the premium fee for buying music without the DRM lock, an annoyance that has always kept me from downloading much music from the iTunes store. Amazon’s MP3 service, which launched soft in late September, is expected to provide the competition necessary for iTunes to introduce the variable pricing the labels are keen to see. They’d like you to pay more than 99 cents for new music you really want and less for catalog items you might pick up if they were cheap, the same way you do at the Virgin Megastore. Amazon already does it — browsing around, I bought albums for $7.99 and $8.99 and one track for 89 cents. It’s hardly perfect. Something about the title track of Wish You Were Here reminded me of Van Morrison’s “Almost Independence Day,” and I tried an impulse purchase. But Amazon doesn’t have MP3s from Warners yet, so no go. Amazon remembered I’d scoped Bruce Springsteen CDs in a previous visit, but when I took the bait, I was directed right to the CDs — no Sony MP3s yet (like Warners, the label has refused to sell DRM-free music). The interface is clean and easy to use, but it’s as bare-bones as it’s always been. The iT

Published: 2007-11-09
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Alternate Takes

Picture: Wise Up With The Apples in Stereo's 'Space and Time' Math-Pop

Picture: New Nurses - "Caterpillar Playground"

Picture: To Do: Badly Drawn Boy, Beck, Herzog

MERRY LISTMAS: Dan Hopper’s Year-End Pix (which are too cool for that “cks” sh*t)

Behold, my list of reordered hipster goodness mixed with things that are deliberately non-hipster in order to reaffirm said hipsterness, topped off with, well, a bunch of things I just really happened to enjoy this year. I'll let you figure out which picks fall into which category (Answers at the bottom!): Top 5 (Hundred) Songs 5. "Rain" by Bishop Allen - Why is it that I instantly rip on any movie that feels the slightest bit unoriginal, yet I'll happily listen to 3-minute pop songs about "rain" again and again and again? Does that mean I'm not a complete A-hole? Or maybe that makes me more of an A-hole? Man, I am complicated. 4. "The Underdog" by Spoon - Was never a big Spoon man before this year (meaning, I didn't literally play the spoons), but I greatly enjoyed Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Wasn't too big on that Jason Lee movie this song inspired, though. 3. "Sunndal Song" by Apples In Stereo - Not much to say about this track other than it's super catchy, it's super likable, and eff the music blogs for not at least giving Apples In Stereo some love on their Songs of the Year lists. 2. "Australia" by The Shins - "Garden State" sequel, anyone? Starring the two leads from "Cruel Intentions 2"? 1. "374 Wave Backwards to Massachusetts" by Hallelujah The Hills - The thing I miss most about doing the daily "Listen Up" feature was finding random, hidden gems like this one; what I miss least about the feature was coming up with a different New Pornographers joke twice a week. More like... OLD... Pornographers...... See? Honorable Mentions: "A Bottle of Buckie" by Ted Leo "O Valencia!" by The Decemberists "Climbing The Walls" by They Might Be Giants "Good Day" by Jukebox the Ghost "The Year Before The Year 2000" by Les Savy Fav "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi" by Radiohead "Fireworks" by Animal Collective "It Won't Be Long" by The Hives "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse" by Of Montreal "Melody Day" by Caribou And what the hell, Favorite Albums, for the record: 5. Les Savy Fav - Let's

Published: 2007-12-31
Provider: Best Week Ever
Keywords: Entertainment