Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Bishop Allen has mastered the art of quirky, unassuming pop with a fragile heart. The band's heartfelt, refreshing music is imbued with smart choruses and jangly guitars, and "Central Booking" exemplifies its charming, relatable songwriting..."
- National Public Radio
"Charting the band’s heady development on a monthly basis has proven absolutely enthralling. Despite its abundant appeal, Charm School offered little evidence that Bishop Allen was capable of songs with the slowly unfolding eerie beauty of “Flight 180” (April) or “The Monitor” (March). Meanwhile, February boasts four infectious-to-the-point-of-pandemic pop songs. In addition to more adventurous and accomplished musicianship, the EP series finds Rice rounding into a top flight lyricist. His detailed and evocative storytelling conjures the kind of contemporary yarns The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy might spin if he ever shed his fixation with all things Victorian." - Discorder
"Bishop Allen are the best unsigned band in America, a group that records pop-rock of outstanding vivacity, that brings a smile to my face and a song to my lips. Their first full-length, Charm School, has built them a loyal following based on word-of-mouth - but now they're trying to one-up even that. Every month in 2006, Bishop Allen will be releasing an EP. This in addition to their long-simmering sophomore LP, Clementines... It's a dustier take on The Kinks, or late period Velvet Underground on the set of Garden State." - Wired Magazine Listening Post
"I peeled off the plastic wrapper, dropped Charm School into my stereo and rocked out for the rest of the day. For the rest of the week. For the entire spring of 2003...Vibrant, vivid and refreshingly different." - National Public Radio
"If Modest Mouse spent a year in a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit, they might emerge sounding like the delightful Brooklyn quartet Bishop Allen. That's not to say that these indie-poppers aren't a serious band. On their debut, Charm School, the foursome blend sharp, jangly guitars with catchy melodies and big choruses. Songwriters Justin Rice and Christian Rudder write cheeky lyrics and layer their tunes with handclaps and singalongs ("Ghosts Are Good Company"). And the band's carefree attitude, along with their musicianship, make Charm School as addictive as it is playful." - Rolling Stone
"More talented than The Strokes, more charming than The White Stripes, Bishop Allen should be huge... Charm School is one of the top 10 albums of 2003." - Newsday
Discography
Bishop Allen released Charm School in 2003.
In 2006, they have released January, February, March, April, May, and June.
You can hear a song from each at www.bishopallen.com.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
In 2006, Bishop Allen has released a four-song EP every month. They will continue to until the end of the year. The response has been amazing, and the songs seem to be getting better and better. Some feature piano, some guitar, some soaring strings, some ukulele and glockenspiel. They all show that, to quote National Public Radio, "Bishop Allen has mastered the art of quirky, unassuming pop with a fragile heart."
Bishop Allen began when Justin Rice and Christian Rudder moved to an empty Victorian mansion in the abandoned historic district of Lynchburg, Virginia to spend a year recording. Thirteen songs later, they had a debut album, Charm School, and they headed to New York City to finish up and find their friends.
They had scarcely unpacked, however, when it became clear they needed to release Charm School on their own, and to tour like maniacs behind it. For a year and a half, they played night after night, hitting every city in the U.S. at least three times, and every city in Sweden at least once.
Once the tour extended well past its logical end, they settled back in New York City to work on a follow-up, entitled Clementines. For over a year they slaved, and yet they could not finish. Frustrated, they decided to bracket that record, and begin anew with an EP. Which, through a kind of double-dog-dare logic, quickly turned into the aforementioned EP-a-month-for-a-year project. Soon, the band will finish the EPs and Clementines, and hit the road again. Look out!
Links
