Multi-City Rock Band Grabs Headlines With Album Created Via Email
buy our tunes on cdbaby.com or iTunes. woo!
NEW YORK/PROVIDENCE, R.I./PORTLAND, Maine -- "Red Abbott, the band, is not really a band at all in the traditional sense... In fact, they don't see much of one another at all" (excerpted from Popular Mechanics).
Bert Brown, Joe Madera and Chip Means are three multi-instrumentalists who create Red Abbott's music via email from their homes in New York City, Providence, R.I. and Portland, Maine, respectively.
Red Abbott's first album, Having Fun Without You, was made over 18 months of recording individual tracks and sending them to each other one at a time.
"By the time a file came back to me, it was a completely different song than what I imagined it could be," Bert said in a recent interview with Popular Mechanics, who took interest in the band's do-it-yourself approach and recording techniques. "By the seventh or eighth song we were handing each other more thoughtful and complete work," added Chip in an interview with The Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle (Mass.).
Through their email process, the band developed a layered, textured sound that fans have likened to artists ranging from Brian Eno and Pink Floyd to The Beta Band and Radiohead. This rich sound is perhaps best exemplified in the album's first single, "The Spare Room," a mellow, spacey song featuring bouncy keyboards, ethereal vocals and chiming 12-string electric guitar.
Since its release in September 2007, Having Fun Without You and its accompanying music videos – animated by Bert – have found audiences throughout the US and overseas.
The video for the single "The Spare Room" is currently in rotation on MTV2's 120 Minutes in the UK. "The Spare Room" has also been aired as the feature video on Portland-based television program My Tunes on The CW.
Meanwhile, the video for "Reversed Sides" has been a top-rated featured item on both The Daily Reel and Crackle.
The editors of CD Baby, one of the online music sites where Red Abbott's music is sold, named Having Fun Without You among the "Editor's Picks" in three categories: Experimental Rock, Electronica and Party Music.
Baltimore-based Sleepy Records chose "The Spare Room" for a forthcoming two-disc compilation Lullabies and Good Morning Songs featuring artists such as Au Revoire Simone and Little Name.
Other tracks on Having Fun Without You beg a variety of descriptions: the high-energy "Black Ice" glides over a fierce dance beat; "Dutchess County" carries its quirky hooks through a swaggering groove; the slow folk number "New England" offers a hypnotic waltz; the bright, poppy "Sip of Water," the scorching "Arson" and bric-a-brac "Bag of Change" round out the album's alt-rock tracks.
Red Abbott recently gathered in their native city of Boston, joined by drummer Shawn Hildonen, formerly of Radka, to play the first live performance of the music on Having Fun Without You. The band is currently adding live dates while recording new tracks.
