Longstay

Every now and then something makes me miss California. Earlier today, the rumor that we would have an 80% chance of rain every day through Monday triggered it. Then this evening, I found myself missing it because I learned that Longstay was from there.

It took me about one minute to decide that I wanted to share this group with all of you. Their EP Homes & Houses is truly quality stuff and merits immediate attention from anyone not already in the know (It’s possible you’re already in the know if you follow their buddies Delta Spirit, Dawes or Local Natives). Anyway, I think it’s great. I don’t even care that their entire bio is centered around bashing Napster and it feels like they’re calling me out personally for having an account. That’s for me to deal with, and I’m sure it’s nothing personal.

Right?

Oh and something else … I think their lead guitarist has the right idea … a 9:30pm bedtime sounds like heaven. - The Muse In Music

"Welcome Longstay. There is no glamorous behind the scenes story here. They were not raised by wolves, they don't have famous friends on TV, they have never done drugs with hookers or even stayed up past midnight. In fact, you may not know that they have had more members than songs in their setlist, you may not have seen them open for a metal band in a town you've never heard of, or play a backyard party for 200 people followed by a local venue the next night in front of 6. You may not know that they have been alternately paid in beer for a show, used student loans to press an EP that took 1.5 years to complete or that the lead guitarist goes to bed at 9:30 every night. You may not care that their tours involve shirtless "dad-wrestling," may or may not include the same instrumentation as the night prior (or functioning instruments for that matter) and at the end of the night, has a decent probability of a stage full of friends and strangers alike belting out every conceivable harmony in `The Weight`. Guess what? Longstay doesn't care either".

They play down their musical rambles, probably completely unaware of the rapturous noise being produced around them. Longstay produce complicated blues combined with a graceful Americana sheen, just add the brass and string section for a completely engaging experience - it`s not the Parisian red wine talking, I really do hear a metaphorical quest involving chiming guitars and convenient percussion. Their E.P Homes And Houses is downloadable now, a straight forward quest, indeed, a most worthy path to follow. - Mojophenia

Many musicians like to play a character. They tell tales of how they were shot up on the block, had to scrounge for food because their parents abandoned them or how their parent is a rock n’ roll superstar. The members of Longstay are not like most musicians, and they seem to be getting by just fine.

This San Diego five-piece introduced their debut EP Homes & Houses last December. Embodying Americana indie rock, Longstay proves on this album that they’re not afraid to bear their souls and rock out.

The opening track Old Heads On Young Shoulders kicks off with a slightly comedic introduction with one of the members asking if they’re live, then immediately introducing a tambourine, drums and eventually guitar chords. The song is upbeat and raw, almost what you would expect as the opening of a live set. The conversation found at the beginning of this track paves the way for the remaining songs, which also contain the playful banter at their openings/closings.

House Upon a Hill and it’s Reprise (which comes later) slow it down a bit, and when I say a bit, I mean a bit. The two begin as a rock ballad, but pick up pace around 0:36, however, since the latter is instrumental, it manages to keep a much slower pace.

Together! is my personal favorite on the debut. The lyrics are carefree and the song reminds me of the performance of a piano man in one of those classic bar scenes. Good Novices carries the same carefree attitude, but sounds too similar to Together! causing it to lose any luster it could have given off.

The closer on Homes & Houses is Retired Gospels, and the name really says it all. It contains similar instrumentals to that of what’s present in a church, including an organ, and embodies the blues side of Longstay, but there are so many slow instrumentals that it, once again, loses its luster. - The Wild Honey Pie

Longstay is a San Diego-based band led by primary songwriter Nik Ewing (vox/guitar/piano), and featuring Jordan Groth (guitar), Josh Dunn (bass/vox), Phil Hansen (piano/vox) and Kyle Rosa (drums/vox). They recently released their debut EP, Houses & Homes, at San Diego’s Casbah. It is an symphonic folk-rocker that can simultaneously call to mind Bob Dylan, Sufjan Stevens, Cold War Kids and the Hold Steady. With melodies that incorporate “a string section, a few horns and . . . some drunks for choir” it thumps, rings and rattles the floor boards while never straying off course. The band have hidden four downloadable tracks on their maze-like website (if you can find them). Check them out! - Musical Pairings

“This is music for the sake of music!”

Welcome to the world of Longstay – A melting soundscape of americana, blues-ridden guitar licks, harmonies, folkishness, rockability and other imaginary words that aren’t real but sound cool.

We’ve got three songs streaming and a mysterious maze, so come on in and get to know Longstay!

So…who are Longstay?

There is no glamorous behind the scenes story here. They were not raised by wolves, they don’t have famous friends on TV, they have never done drugs with hookers or even stayed up past midnight. You may or may not know that they have been alternately paid in beer for a show, used student loans to press an EP that took 1.5 years to complete (due to obvious monetary reasons) or that the lead guitarist goes to bed at 9:30 every night.

You may not care that their tours involve shirtless “dad-wrestling” and may or may not include the same instrumentation as the night prior (or functioning instruments for that matter). Longstay is just a nomadic band embedding the soulful passion of the 60's that is best embodied by acknowledging their debt to The Band for writing “The Weight” or to Bob Dylan for selling out or in their slow burning story of an unfaithful husband in “I Swore That Off Before” that hangs like a thundercloud in a Western sky.

Hailing from San Diego and beginning in 2007, members include (but are not limited to) Nik Ewing, Jordan Groth, Josh Dunn and Kyle Rosa. Their first EP, Houses & Homes, was released in December 2009 at San Diego legendary venue, Casbah. Even the Longstay orchestra lends its services to Homes & Houses, pulling a string section and a few horns, and even recruiting some drunks for choir detail.

Having opened for the likes of Delta Spirit, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and Castledoor and fresh off of completing a residency at Beauty Bar, the future is bright and it belongs to the underground, indie noises that are filling our local venues with newer, more unbridled sounds. Longstay will continue to make music that brings the masses together because they love music and they love good company. This is music for the sake of music!

There is a piece of us all in the heart of Longstay, as they sing, “we love, we steal, we don’t call back, we hope and we wish.” Amen.

But wait, “Where is the mysterious maze?”, you say. Well, as promised, here it is -> Thathouseisnotahome.com <- Complimentary to Homes & Houses, is this maze website of sorts that takes it’s name from the anthem of Longstay’s debut EP. Like most mazes and puzzles, it would not be fair to elaborate or tell all the secrets (but it is full of downloadable treasures), so let’s go get lost together. And please tell us what you find, but not how ;)

Longstay StudioAmazon UK Longstay | iTunes US

Upcoming Shows:

21 apr 2010 21:00 Beauty Bar - San Diego, California
07 may 2010 20:00 Ruby Room - San Diego, California

Longstay on Myspace, Facebook & Homepage. - EspyRock

Longstay is an Americana-leaning band out of San Diego, California with enough pop sensibility to hook and pull you in. "Old Heads On Young Shoulders" and "House Upon A Hill" are two songs that illustrate the band's ability to capture American life both lyrically as well as musically. Whether it's emotive vocals, rolling drum fills, frenetically delayed guitar, descending violin riffs, bold brass, or the dancing rhythm of the organ, the band is able to capture a dynamic range of moods, demonstrating a knack for aligning themes with notes. Their mix of Americana, pop, and rock is smooth, welcoming, and adventurous. They're willing to experiment and drift away from the straight and narrow, which helps to expand the range of textures in their music. While many acts that wet their toes in the sounds of the past end up submerging themselves entirely in such a sound, Longstay are wise enough to straddle the line between old and new. They might be thinking of the past, but Longstay is aiming for the future.

BUY: "Old Heads On Young Shoulders" and "House Upon A Hill" are from the Homes & Houses EP. Pick it up here. - Mixtape Muse

San Diego five-piece Longstay have self-released a cracking seven-track début EP entitled Homes & Houses, the band are Nik Ewing (vox/guitar/piano), Jordan Groth (guitar), Josh Dunn (bass & vox), Phil Hansen (piano & vox) and Kyle Rosa (drums & vox), the EP is a fine mix of Americana indie rock, the band have played with fellow Californians Delta Spirit and Dawes amongst others and on the strength of this EP they have more than enough talent to carve their own identity into the musical landscape.

The band have a labyrinth of a website that will reveal hidden tracks more info at their homepage, you can get the EP through iTunes - Beat-Surrender

When listening to music, the most important trait for me is authenticity. I gravitate towards bands that make heartfelt, organic music - regardless of the genre. And I dig bands that I can relate to, for whatever reason. I can relate to Longstay. In fact, their bio reads pretty much like mine:

There is no glamorous behind the scenes story here. They were not raised by wolves, they don't have famous friends on TV, they have never done drugs with hookers or even stayed up past midnight. LONGSTAY is just a nomadic quintet embedding a soulful passion, best personified by acknowledging their debt to Bob Dylan for selling out.

It's not hard to imagine that Longstay's debut Homes & Houses was written and recorded during long nights with whiskey bottles scattered around the room and Otis Redding and The Band on the turntable. Keyboards and guitar licks intertwine beneath Nik Ewing's vocals that touch on common themes of home, togetherness and friendship. Blues guitars and horn-section rave-ups give songs like Together! an Exile On Main Street swagger. On smoldering album-closer Retired Gospels, an R&B backbeat and Soul-drenched vocals build to a crescendo as guitars and harmonicas wail, before giving way to an a-capella group singalong as bottles clink in the background - the perfect way to close out the album.

There's a ton of excellent, soulful Americana coming out of southern California lately, and Longstay certainly deserves some attention alongside Delta Spirit, Dawes, Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons, The Romany Rye, Blake Mills et al. Houses & Homes is out now - preview the fantastic track I Swore That Off Before below, then get the album here. You can also find a few more track downloads by clicking around the band's maze site (kind of like a 'create your own adventure' book). - Visible Voice

The boys of Longstay have been busy. A new album, an online maze (complete with various mp3 treasures), and a January residency at Beauty Bar--oh my. Their first album, Homes & Houses, released in December, is either a rock-pop album that's not afraid to show some soul, or a soul-pop album that's not afraid to rock. Take your pick. The band describes their seven-track oeuvre as a "melting soundscape of americana, blues-ridden guitar licks, harmonies, folkishness, rockability and other imaginary words that aren't real but sound cool." Resplendent with velvet organs and catchy beats, Homes & Houses is definitely worth a spot in your music library, car CD changer, or magical computer device. Intrigued by all their recent happenings, I stopped by the Beauty Bar last Wednesday to catch their show and was pleased to see that somebody was giving the rain a run for its money. The North County band (whose houses, homes, apartments, or otherwise can be found in Oceanside) threw down a rolicking version of "The Weight" with harmonies straight out of 1968.

Who is Longstay? How did you boys get together?

This should, in theory, be the easiest question, but is a loaded question. Longstay started some years ago as an everchanging supporting/backing band to songs I (Nik) wrote. For months, the backing band consisted of whichever friend was able to play a certain show. I would dutifully practice with and teach the newest 'member' of Longstay. Members would change completely show to show, but the core has more or less remained the same since 2007, joined sometimes on stage by the rare trumpet or violin, a second drummer or an organist. The core is Nik Ewing, Jordan Groth, Kyle Rosa and Josh Dunn, with rotating supporting cast members. However, we temporarily lost Mr. Dunn to the philanthropic year-long commitment of teaching English to wealthier-than-us South Korean kids across the Pacific. As Longstay is accustomed to the rotating cast of characters, the show goes on. As mentioned with the drummer, we will sometimes joke about this rotation and say our drummer is Kyle filling in for Chris filling in for Donovan filling in for Kevin filling in for Kyle. Yes, our humor is that un-evolved.

Tell us a bit about Homes & Houses--what was the inspiration/recording process for this album like?

For some reason, of which I'm not entirely sure of, I would write songs that dealt with the concept of home. I would write these songs with pretentious titles like "The Difference Between Homes & Houses" or "That House Is Not A Home" (neither are on the record) or about greedy houses or broken homes with cheating husbands. I was originally thinking to name the record "That House Is Not A Home" but thought it sounded too depressing (so we just named a website that because nobody cares about internet urls).

A good number of the songs from Homes & Houses we've been playing for years, so when it came time to record, we attempted to track as much of it live as possible. Tempos fluctuate, wrong notes were played, mistakes made, but we wanted all that in there. Recording Homes & Houses took entirely too long, solely because of monetary reasons, but ruled nonetheless. Basically whenever we could pool enough money together again, we'd go back in to track more or mix or bring in our friends to sing or play strings or whatever was lying around. I may or may not have used student loans to just finally get everything finished this summer.

Your residency at the Beauty Bar: how was this arranged & how has the experience fared? Highlights/lowlights? Let's hear it.

We played the Beauty Bar a few times on random shows and happened to catch the eye and ear of the promoter. She was impressed and interested and offered to have us serve a residency there, which traditionally is a NY or LA thing, so we were excited to be the beginning of residencies in San Diego. One of the best parts of a residency is getting to play with touring bands or other local bands you might not play with otherwise. We have played with some really fun touring bands (Mia Riddle, These United States, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, etc.), some awesome local friends (The Howls, The RNRs, etc.) and some you're-terrible-and-we-hope-never-to-share-a-stage-with-you-ever-again bands (not to be named). Residencies also more or less forced to reinvent your set. No one is going to come watch you play if you show up with the exact same 5-song show you played the last two weeks. We've really taken that to heart and added a second drummer one week, we will be having strings (cello and violin) this upcoming last residency date and we brought in a second (third) guitarist and a keyboardist a couple weeks ago. It has been an incredible time of innovation and broadening. We've also brought out a few new songs to spice things up.

How was the online maze for Homes & Houses conceived?

I spent far too many hours digging through archives to find old photos to use for our album artwork. Also, due to monetary reasons like previously mentioned, the packaging of the record was reduced from the full booklet insert originally conceived of. I just started making tons of art including that and tons of other photos I loved but didn't use in the album artwork. Everything just eventually fell into place. I would map out this ridiculous maze, then Jordan would make it realistic and put it together, then we'd add more and repeat, throw in song downloads, etc. My good friend, Jeremy Boggs, made a short video to accompany that is in the maze somewhere, while I'd give notes and direction, a few drafts later, done. I would have dozens of more pages if I had it my way.

Three albums you can't live without?

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
The Beatles - Abbey Road

And basically every other band that starts with the letter "B" on my iPod, but also this: Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

What's next?

One last Beauty Bar residency date is this Wednesday with Social Studies, Secret Seven and a DJ set by Writer. An FM 94/9 Casbah show February 22 with Carney and Metrofique. Hopefully some touring in the near future. Ideally opening for Creed's reunion tour.

Catch Longstay tomorrow night (01.27) at the Beauty Bar for their residency finale (doors at 9pm). In the meantime, take a listen below and checkout their maze at thathouseisnotahome.com - Sezio

I was watching an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia the other night – the one where the gang decides to start a rock band, thinking the key to success is to act like a rock band. So rather than learn how to play instruments, they rent a hotel room and trash it, because that’s what rock bands do.

It seems like there are a fair amount of real bands out there that do the same thing. They may not trash a hotel room, but they act like they’re complicated and deep because they think that’s what artists do. Or they wear fancy hats because that’s what serious artists do. Basically, they’re fakes. But there’s a band out of San Diego called Longstay that doesn’t get caught up in the rock and roll lifestyle, and it’s quite refreshing. From their bio:

There is no glamorous behind the scenes story here. They were not raised by wolves, they don’t have famous friends on TV, they have never done drugs with hookers or even stayed up past midnight. They are just a nomadic group of friends who love music. In fact, you may not know that they have had more members than songs in their setlist, you may not have seen them open for metal bands in a town you’ve never heard of, or play a backyard party for 200 people followed by a local venue the next night in front of 6. You may not know that they have been alternately paid in beer for a show, used student loans to press an EP that took 1.5 years to complete or that the lead guitarist goes to bed at 9:30 every night. Guess what? Longstay doesn’t care either. They are simply going to continue to make music for the soul, regardless of what you think about it.

Hailing from San Diego, CA, Longstay has also been in good company, opening for fellow Californians Local Natives, Delta Spirit, and Dawes. Their debut EP, Homes & Houses, is a nice little appetizer of 7 songs that leaves you wanting more. Every track is solid, with lead singer Nik Ewing at times channeling a hint of Mick Jagger. And you’ve got to respect a band that’s in it for the music and the music alone.

Feel free to download the below track off of Homes & Houses. They also have a maze website where after clicking through a series of links “Choose Your Adventure” style, you can download more songs for free. - HearYa