Ephrata

Eternally dreamy, intermittently poppy Seattle proposition Ephrata may have passed us by last year, their self-explanatorily succinct Two Songs EP never picking our plaudits, despite indubitably being due more than a few. However, with a slew of SXS[ho]W[cases] already penned in for next month, and a second collection – the five-track I Scare No One – due out ‘sometime very very soon’, Skadi von Reis, Brady Hall, Jules Jones and Ben Bromage ought to be joining more than our dots in the nearing future.

Returning to the début a moment though, it’s Two Songs’ Belle Of The Ball that first won us over, this coruscating shoegaze toe-tapper as evocative of The Popguns’ Love Junky as it is The Cranberries’ Dreams. No bad thing, not least as it also sounds to have been drizzled with the gooey residue from Battles’ Ice Cream, too. - Dots & Dashes

Connoisseurs of sweetness and light, local four piece, Ephrata, took to the stage next looking like the loveliest, dewiest church band with two matching dresses and an air of genuine excitement about them. This demeanor wasn't shaken as they delivered song after song of punchy, jubilant tunes. Their set was lively with swells of crashing cymbals that make you feel all the feelings and harmonies (they all sing!) that fused together as seamlessly as honey in a cup of tea. Bucolic with a bite. - The Stranger

Another week and another band from Seattle being featured, which really isn’t a surprise given the terrific music that has been produced in the Pacific Northwest for decades (and more than just Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana). Add Ephrata to the mix of new bands making great music.

The dream-pop shoegazers have only released a handful of songs, but the quality of the songs are excellent. “The Sound” is a gorgeous, lo-fi, symphonic, synth-pop song. “Belle of the Ball” is a catchy pop sound with a rousing melody and a fantastic video. Both of these songs can be purchased on their bandcamp site.

No word on when the quartet will produce new music or if an LP will come this year, but I anxiously await to hear their next songs. - The Revue

We have a song in a Dell commercial thingy! - Dell Inc

Awesomeness of the coolest kind has arrived at HEA: Our very own Julia Quinn in a music video! (I can say she's our very own, right? I mean, she's a best-selling romance author and we love her, so that makes her ours. Luckily for her, we're not stalker types. Mostly.) At any rate, Julia, whose Oct. 29 release is The Sum of All Kisses, has done something super fun: She's starring in a music video for the song Belle of the Ball by Ephrata. Here, Julia shares how she ended up in the video – and why music videos have been on her radar since the 1980s. And then Brady Hall, maker of the video, explains how Julia ended up in the video. (More coolness: The video was filmed in the backyard of sci-fi author Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash is my favorite of his books. Loved it!) The video is below, too. And, hey, maybe you'll visit Ephrata's Facebook page after you watch and "Like" them — they're pretty darn likable. The FB link is below.)

Julia: When I was 11 years old, my town got MTV. I don't think I watched the very first video (Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles, in case you want to know), but within a week, every kid over the age of 10 was parked on our couch, glued to the screen. Music videos may seem old hat now, but let me tell you, in the summer of 1981, MTV was indubitably the COOLEST THING EVER INVENTED. And the people who were in the videos … coolest people ever. No question.

Over the years, music videos lost their prime spot among my entertainment choices, but even as MTV veered away from music in favor of reality shows, I've always had a soft spot for the channel, thanks to that long-ago New Wave summer. And I'll never stop thinking that music videos, as an artistic medium, are the epitome of cool.

So when Brady Hall popped up in my e-mail box a few months ago, asking if I wanted to appear in a music video, I practically leapt through my computer screen to shout, "YES!" I was going to be in an actual music video! On MTV! (or MTV Hive, but I'm not picky). I would be cast as Woman Who (Tries to) Put Out Fire. (To which I immediately said, "Wait a sec. I'm not actually responsible for putting out the fire, am I?")

Happily for everyone involved (but most especially the folks near the fire), I was not, in fact, actually responsible for dousing the flames. Instead I got to run like a banshee through the backyard of famed writer Neal Stephenson, wielding what looked like a shower head on a pike.

It was awesome.

And the 11-year-old inside of me finally got to be the coolest person ever.

From Brady Hall, maker of the video: I make book trailers for a living, and usually get sent off to the two big romance conventions every year, RWA and RT, to shoot content. I met Julia at RWA in 2008 and usually run into her every year. We both live in Seattle so when she wanted to do a trailer for What Happens In London, we talked about it and we actually ended up using her cousin as the lead actress. At RWA 2013 I was talking to my Avon Ladies (yes, I call them that) and mentioned the video that was planned, and Pam the publicist, being the publicist that she is, said we should get Julia to be in the video. I asked her if she wanted a cameo and she enthusiastically agreed!

For more of the story behind the video, visit www.mtvhive.com.

And here's the Ephrata video for their song Belle of the Ball, starring Julia running with the aforementioned hose … - USA Today

An unsuccessful swordfight for at least one man, the slickest pickpocket ever, a wedding dress on fire, the flower girl holding a match and pocketing a $20 bill: Welcome to the chaotic, unholy union depicted in Ephrata‘s “Belle of the Ball” video.

Filmed in Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson’s gorgeous backyard, the video for the Seattle band’s seven-inch single is akin to a marriage ceremony thrown at the Twin Peaks Roadhouse, standing in sharp contrast to the melodic track. In fact, band member and filmmaker Brady Hall (who also produced Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls’ debut album as La Sera) envisioned the song being played at an idyllic summer wedding.

“You always hear stories of wedding guests getting into fistfights and knocking somebody’s ass into the cake or something,” Hall told Hive, “So we thought up a list of bombastic visuals within that theme.”

The wedding in the video, however – also attended by best-selling romance novelist Julia Quinn — goes beyond the norm when it comes to wedding day drama. It’s more in the realm of a bottle getting cracked over your head than wiping cake off of your tux trousers. Characters partake in poison-spiked champagne cocktails and dash around the yard wielding showerheads, each living out their own individual dramas. “We tried our best to make sure those came across if you look hard enough,” Hall said.

“There is also a main story,” he added. ”The maid of honor has a side affair with the groom and paid the flower girl to light the bride’s dress on fire and ruin the wedding. I’m not sure that ended up being super clear, but who cares ‘cause fire!”

The video itself combines a sense of almost twee cuteness (because honestly, what’s cuter than a wedding besides maybe puppies?) with a very keen sense of the macabre. Hall said, “I definitely tend to go towards weird or gruesome vibes with a lot of my music videos. Honestly, I don’t know why I keep making those kinds of videos. I suppose there’s just a real aversion to the way a lot of videos are just the band sitting there playing and lip synching or walking in the woods staring at the sky. I’d rather see some weird or exciting things happen.”

Mission accomplished. - MTV Hive

Before we talk about music, I’d like to give a shout out to Ephrata’s band photo. It features the four members—Brady Hall, Skadi Von Reis, Jules Jones, and Ben Bromage—holding what I assume to be their pets. Band is stoic, the brown backdrop is stoic, two of the four dogs are smiling; the single cat looks pretty okay with the whole thing. Moving on. Ephrata’s sound is wavy shoegaze with everyone contributing to vocals for extra dreaminess. On “Belle of the Ball,” ripples of shiny guitar and angelic harmonies obscure what I suspect to be somewhat sinister lyrics (I definitely recommend checking out the music video for this song as well, where they take the sweet/sour concept to wonderful extremes). Ephrata also have a totally free digital-only EP coming out any minute, maybe even by the time you read this, at ephrata.bandcamp.com. Get over there! With the Soft Hill and Low Hums. - The Stranger