When I was living in Austin, my little group of friends and I used to get togther a couple of times a year for some rad mix tape parties. The rules were simple, bring your choice of adult beverage and at least 10 copies of whatever mix tape cd you created to share with everyone at the party. And then we listened. And drank. And discussed. By the end of the night there are always at least a dozen new itunes purchases or plans made to hit up Waterloo the next day to buy more from the artists we liked.
Sadly, I am back in the Big D and couldn’t make the last party earlier this year– but those awesome friends of mine went ahead and set me copies of their mixes anyways and that is how I discovered these guys– Frightened Rabbit.
Though the past year has seen Frightened Rabbit finally step into public view, with more extensive touring and three full-length albums now publicly available, the past few years have largely been about the band quietly, committedly honing their sound, and cultivating their art. Now a five-piece comprising Scott, Billy, Andy, Gordon and Grant, the origins of the band are rooted in 2003, when Scott began playing solo shows under the name Frightened Rabbit, mostly in support of fellow art-schoolers Shitdisco. Recordings were made on a tascam 4-track recorder, with Scott playing all the instruments (some more proficiently than others). Though looser, sparser, and certainly more lo-fi in terms of production values, their early demos still attest to a burgeoning talent with a defined personality, and a now familiar penchant for being able to nail a near perfect pop song.
In 2004 Scott’s brother Grant moved to Glasgow, contributing drums to certain recorded tracks, and playing live. Frightened Rabbit became louder and better. They burnt 50 copies of their subsequent demo, and sent some out to labels, resulting in three tracks being hosted on the FatCat MP3/demo website, and marking the beginning of a wonderful relationship. In 2006, Billy joined the band playing primarily second guitar, making Frightened Rabbit in the band’s own words, a wee bit better and louder still. That February they went into The Diving Bell Lounge studio with Glasgow based producer Marcus Mackay to record some songs over the course of a week. The intention was to record a better quality demo, but the resultant recordings ended up as the bands debut LP ‘Sing The Greys’, of which 1000 copies were pressed and released that May on home grown label Hits The Fan.
An incredibly accomplished live outfit (seemingly without any effort whatsoever), further live dates followed into 2007, including a brief but successful US jaunt, culminating in a sold-out show at The Mercury Lounge in NYC, before the album was even available in the US. After an intense spate of writing, rehearsing, recording, and remixing, and of course playing more live shows, ‘Sings The Greys’ was remastered by Alan Douches, and re-released in significantly revamped form by FatCat in Autumn 2007, along with debut single ‘Be Less Rude’. Rounding off the year with the incredible ‘It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop’ single, 2008 has been another busy one for Frightened Rabbit.
The band’s second album, ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, was released in April 2008, and is a progression in terms of songwriting, sonic depth, and as a fully realised entity. Recorded by Peter Katis (Mercury Rev, Interpol), ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ was conceived and realised in a much shorter time span than its predecessor, with the intention of creating a more coherent, ‘pop’ sounding album.
In July 2008, a live rendition of ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ was recorded in Glasgow, and mixed by Mice Parade’s Adam Pierce, entitled ‘Quietly Now ! – Midnight Organ Fight Live And Acoustic At The Captain’s Rest’. The stripped-down instrumentation brings singer Scott Hutchison’s vocal delivery – now wrenching, now soaring – to the fore, showcasing the emotive lyrics and memorable melodies that have earned the band their passionate following.
Live album ‘Quietly Now ! – Midnight Organ Fight Live And Acoustic At The Captain’s Rest’ was released in March 2009, the band’s first release with additional member Andy Monaghan on guitar and keyboards.
The band are currently working on a new full-length album, ‘The Winter of Mixed Drinks’. With a release date set for March 2010, excitement is already building up around it. Having recently returned from a US tour with labelmates Brakes, We Were Promised Jetpacks and The Twilight Sad, the remainder of the year is set aside for more studio work and UK/Ireland tours with Gomez and Modest Mouse, as well as recruiting fifth member Gordon Skene as another multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist.
The first song I heard from these guys was Fast Blood and I was hooked from the get go. I almost had to check the mix cd track listing as I could have sworn I was listening to some old Smiths song or even an Interpol song that I had somehow missed. Which makes sense now that I see that the album Fast Blood is on, Midnight Organ Fight, was recorded by the awesome Peter Katis.
Amber: cause apparently that’s what i do when i go to Sam shows
Amber
Li Li
