Little Beirut
Gig Seeker Pro

Little Beirut

Band Rock Alternative

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Little Beirut"

“[Hamilton and Edwins’] songwriting has a patented knack for writing larger-than-life tunes while still managing to connect effectively on an emotionally accountable level.”
- The Oregonian


"Little Beirut Thank the Presidency"

"High Dive [is] a startlingly consistent alternative-rock release that relies on both accessibility and pure melodic infectiousness to create an experience that is hard to rival in contemporary alternative-rock...This is an album clearly crafted with precision, with its consistency being something of a rare entity in the realm of independent alternative-rock" - obscuresound.com


"Little Beirut"

[Little Beirut] sculpt their rock and roll into a pristine, hook-heavy weapon that is primed for an assault on the FM airwaves. It's hard to ignore songs with such addictive choruses and the genuineness in the voice of singer Hamilton Sims. It's a record that does not disappoint.— - The Portland Mercury


"Little Beirut"

This little Brit-inspired pop gem has quickly become one of my favorites of 2008. Stunning guitar hooks fill the album as do catchy choruses that are memorable from the very first listen. - Big Takeover Magazine


"Little Beirut"

Little Beirut is certainly one of those bands doing something a bit different-sounding on the indie circuit these days. These guys definitely know how to craft a lush melody, and aren’t afraid to experiment with different musical textures… This is certainly an album worth hearing, as well as a band to keep an eye and ear on in the future. - Bullz-Eye.com


"Little Beirut"

[High Dive] will stay in my stereo for some time. It is too damn full of beauty and possibilities for me not to want to search it for new things with every listen. 9 out of 10 - Skyline Press


"Little Beirut's High Dive"

High Dive [is] a great little pop gem….A wonderful pop/rock album with some amazing hooks...Beautifully done…. This is one of the best debuts I've heard in a long, long time. - Music Emissions


Discography

Permanent Kiss, full-length CD, independently released 2006.

High Dive, full-length CD, independent, to be released in March 2008.

More information and songs at www.littlebeirut.com.

Photos

Bio

One of the biggest challenges for musicians is finding songwriting chemistry, a lesson well learned by Portland, OR’s Little Beirut. The band’s creative relationship began where many musical alliances have formed--New Orleans. Having met as college students trading REM and Smiths mix tapes,
Hamilton Sims (vocals, guitar) and Edwin Paroissien (guitar) lost no time in recruiting four friends and launching a psychedelic funk collective called Geraldine Fischer.

Independent albums and line up changes brought
them to Portland and the Northwest 90’s rock scene.
Rechristened Silkenseed, they signed to local indie label Rainforest Records. Edwin and Hamilton performed for enthusiastic audiences up and down the West coast, playing NXNW and SXSW, as well as LA Showcases for Dreamworks, Atlantic, and Columbia records before disbanding in 2000.
Disillusioned with the music industry and calling the
partnership quits, Hamilton headed back east to grad school while Edwin experimented with other musical outlets and built a basement recording studio.

Four years later, following Sims’ return to Portland, the two found themselves bit by the same songwriting bug that originally drew them together. They began recording new material in Edwin’s basement that evolved into the band’s
debut recording, Permanent Kiss. The album, explains Hamilton, “is a recording project that turned into a four-piece rock band.”

As the songs took shape, those same youthful ambitions drove them to search out Alex Inman (drums) and Jon Trause (bass) completing the live lineup. Alex is a Portland native who honed his chops playing in various college bands around the west, including a stint with Frank Zappa’s longtime singer, Ike Willis. Trause has been all over the map in terms of geography and genre. His resume goes from metal to soul to alt-country with many stops in between.

Although raised on a diet of British shoe-gazing guitar
bands, Little Beirut keeps its indie quirk in check by crafting big, non-ironic pop songs. The music evokes a lush mood blending electronic flourishes, atmospheric guitar layers and organic stand-alone song writing. The lyrics wander seamlessly from soulful every-man experiences to amorphous
dream-like states while the rhythm section anchors the stratospheric to the barroom floor. Energized by having found their best musical incarnation to date, the band is currently recoding new material and playing regionally.


“...instant pop hooks and tight guitar/rhythm interplay that
mainstream rock has begun to embrace.”
Billboard Magazine

“[Hamilton and Edwins’] songwriting has a patented knack
for writing larger-than-life tunes while still managing to
connect effectively on an emotionally accountable level.”
Curt Schultz, The Oregonian

“The music builds, tumbles, and reshapes itself with unusual
dexterity.”
John Chandler, The Rocket