|
John Brodeur has been writing songs since he was an infant. You probably wouldn’t want to hear much of that early material—it’s mostly post-modern free-jazz discotheque stuff, and hasn’t aged particularly well, but he did what he could working with a severely limited palette (pots and pans, wooden spoons, coffee cans, and such.) The years have been kind: He’s developed into a fine craftsman of modern pop music, and an all-around musical athlete, having tackled guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and saxophone, on both his own albums and others’. Needless to say, both his parents and his fans are very proud. After spending the latter half of the 1990s with various failed power-pop outfits (The Explosives, Kid Dynamo, and Norman), John decided to go it alone—almost completely—for his self-released debut CD, Tiger Pop. The record is a result of a solid year locked in engineer John Delehanty’s Scarlet East Studios (then conveniently located in the basement of Ma and Pa Delehanty’s Latham home). On Tiger Pop, John played everything, save for a few hand-claps, gang vocals, and kitten’s purrs (courtesy of feline friends Moby and Lucinda, an auspicious debut by the sensational singing duo). “Infected (So in Love with You),” the brisk, brash album opener, “just jumps out of the speakers” (Swizzle-Stick.com), while “Dying For Me” and “Sucker” showed that John could do the one-man rock band thing as well as any Jason Falkner or Lenny Kravitz around. (He earned more than his share of comparisons to the former, and considers the latter’s Let Love Rule album essential to his own musical development). Meanwhile, the more introspective fare (“It Goes Away,” “Selfish”) proved John to be much more than just another power-pop throwback. Waves of critical praise rolled in; initial pressings of the album evaporated; Budokan sold out (not really). Having not learned from past experiences, John assembled a new band to take on the task of fleshing out his songs in a live setting. The group, comprising Keith Hosmer (guitar), Jason Schultz (drums), and Ryan Battle (bass), was christened John Brodeur and the Suggestions. They hit the road, played tons of shows, and promptly got back into the studio. As 2003 came in, Battle exited, Hosmer moved to bass, the “John Brodeur and” was dropped from the group’s name, and the Mix Tape EP was released. The recordings, intended as a loosely bound collection of singles rather than a full-fledged album, were critically well-received—especially the Weezerific “Be True” and John’s stirring rendition of George Harrison’s “Art of Dying” (originally released as part of a Harrison tribute CD on Jealousy Records). Thanks to an extensive promotional campaign, Mix Tape charted in the top 200 of the CMJ radio airplay charts, and made big dents at national specialty radio (#12 single & #15 album at FMQB; #18 at U.N.C.L.E.; #19 at H.I.T.S.; Smoking Section at A.F.R.O.) and satellite radio (Heavy Hitter at XM). Jennifer Layton of Indie-music.com went so far as to say “Mix Tape offers a foregone conclusion that The Suggestions will be major label clients before too long.” Unfortunately, the bubble burst; band members went separate ways; John wrote an entire album about not feeling very good in general. Now, as the recently recorded Get Through—the first full-length Suggestions album, and the proper follow-up to Mix Tape—searches for a label home, John is quietly releasing the Nothing Is Permanent EP on his Mr. Duck Records label. The disc, recorded entirely in his Albany apartment, demonstrates the strengths of both John’s solo performances (in the form of a revamped “Easier,” first heard on Tiger Pop) and his unique studio vision (on the new “Movie Of The Week” and the de facto title track “Old Wounds”). He is also beginning work on two other new records: the Suggestions’ Feel and his own Slow Horses. Much like certain previous projects, both albums are being conceived and recorded (almost) entirely solo. Nothing Is Permanent will be released on Nov. 1, following a fall solo tour which takes John from New England to the Midwest. For more information on John Brodeur / the Suggestions, visit www.johnbrodeur.com. | ||
Buy John Brodeur CDs:
| |||
Visit the John Brodeur web-site | |||
| Email John Brodeur | |||
Other artists from NY Katie Haverly Kate McDonnell Peter Maine | |||
Uncommon Ground Past Show Dates | |||
| 2005-10-19 (1003 days) | John Brodeur | ||
| Don Conoscenti | |||
| Gabriel Otto | |||
