Tag: Brian King

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Brendan Boogie And The Best Intentions @ The Rosebud Bar 7.9.2011

Brendan Boogie is a man with a plan. His plan was to release six EPs in the first half of 2011 with a celebratory shindig thrown every month. He just successfully completed* this cycle with another fun night at The Rosebud in honor of Songs From The Armory Vol. 3.

The opening featured Brendan Boogie and his latest co-conspirators playing the songs from the new EP. It was loose and fun for just about everyone involved.**

The second part of the set had Brendan and The Best Intentions ripping through some of their finest material. I know there was a lot of (probably well-deserved) hype about a certain catch-us-before-our-reunion event elsewhere in town, but Brendan and his gang were putting on a memorable show of their own. No regrets here. It was a blast.

* Well, he did take April off, so the sixth EP didn’t come out until July. For some reason I feel the need to mention this (again). I don’t know if this is because I don’t want people to think I don’t know how to count or if I just like giving Brendan a hard time. It’s most likely the latter, but the former gives me a plausible out.

** Seriously, almost everyone had fun with this part. Almost…

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Brendan Boogie – Songs From The Armory Vol. 3 (2011)


Brendan Boogie
Songs From The Armory Vol. 3
2011

Brendan Boogie is back with the last EP of his ambitious project to release new music every month for the first half of 2011.* This time around, Brendan presents us with a third installment of songs co-written with like-minded pop aficionados.

First up is “Attraction Fades”, one of two collaborations with Oranjuly’s Brian King (who has so far managed to avoid the dragons that are no doubt pursuing him). Mr. King’s retro pop stamp is all over this song. This is one of my favorite songs to come out of Brendan Boogie’s EP experiment. I love it.

Naked On Roller Skates’ Leesa Coyne takes over lead vocal duties on the melancholic “Using Me Using You”. The song has a beautiful sadness to it. Brendan’s duet with Abbie Barrett on “Love Is For Losers” lightens the mood as much as a song that references clubbing baby seals can lighten a mood (which, it turns out, is quite a bit).

Brendan Boogie and Brian King reunite for the closing number, a timeless piano ballad titled “With A Single Motion”. The stark instrumentation allows the layered vocals to shine. Fantastic.

Where to get it:

* Much like the mid week hiatus of The Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble’s preliminary round, Mr. Boogie took April off. Slacker.

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Oranjuly – Oranjuly (2010)


Oranjuly
Oranjuly
2010

The worst part of peaking as an musician is not knowing that it’s happening. You can’t really tell you’ve reached your personal artistic summit until you’re already stumbling down the wrong side of the mountain. When you get to that point, all you can think about is trying to scramble back to the top. Guess what? This side of the mountain is much steeper. It’s colder. It’s covered in oil. And broken glass. And bees. It’s also protected by a dragon. Good luck getting back to the top, buddy.

I’m here to inform Mr. Brian King of Oranjuly that he may want to enjoy his moment at the top of Pop Mountain*. It’s all downhill from here. There’s just no way he and his band can top this self titled record. I’m sure they’ll try. In fact, I’m pretty sure Oranjuly will make some more darn good records. But I’m not fooling myslef, they ain’t making another record this good.

The songs on Oranjuly are crafted to pop perfection. For thirty-three minutes Mr. King’s tunes manage to call to mind Brian Wilson, Wings, Todd Rundgren, Ben Folds and Weezer (before they found Rick Rubin). The production is stellar. Oranjuly pulls out every pop trick in the book without making it sound like they’re pulling out every pop trick in the book. No afterthoughts or gimmicks. There’s nothing but pure love for the song on display here.

So, Mr. King, enjoy the rest of your day. You’ll be fighting dragons soon.

Where to get it:

*Ok, so it turns out Pop Mountain is a real place in Connecticut. It’s only 351′ high. That’s more like a hill. In no way do I mean this to belittle the accomplishments of Brian King or his band, Oranjuly. Pop Mountain sounds a lot more majestic than it actually is, I guess.