Pacific Coast Band

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007


Patrick William Horn might hail from Edgerton, but he's all "Pacific Coast" at heart.

"Even when he was growing up in Edgerton, he was a big fan of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys," said friend and co-musician Jonah "The Breeze" Chilk. "He's always had ... a piece of California in his spirit, you could say."

Now Horn, a 1998 graduate of Edgerton High School, is exporting that California sunshine through Pacific Coast, his peace-and-love band harkening to a time when music had a more positive message.

"When I turn on the radio today, I hear songs about people not wanting to go to rehab … and things like that, and I think, 'What happened to that uplifting, inspiring, feel-good message from the '60s, that summer of love?'" he said.

Horn, 27, is an unashamed "neo-hippie." He and his friends use words such as "groovy," "awesome" and "vibes."

The band's Web site describes it as "a potent mix of joy, love and harmony to brighten your day."

"All the dreams of other dreamers laugh and play, whirling me," a chorus sings out in "Shine, Shine, Shine," one of the songs Horn wrote for the band's self-titled album released in September.

Horn's father, James Suski, knows where his son got his love for "sunshine pop."

"It's stuff I was raised with," said Suski, who still lives in Edgerton. "I know exactly where he got it from, listening to The Beach Boys."

Horn, who was born in Chicago and moved to Edgerton at 14, grew up playing and composing music, but he moved to California to study film.

He became a ... professional student on the West Coast, studying history, philosophy, religion and literature.

He was inspired to write songs by the poetry of Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth, he said.

About two years ago, Horn put Pacific Coast together. He produced the CD, writing all the songs and performing wherever needed for the recording. In live performances, he usually sings harmony and plays the piano, he said.

"This really is my project, my baby," he said.

Though the CD doesn't have a label behind it, it has gotten good feedback so far, Horn said.

Several radio stations across the country have it in their libraries, including WORT 89.9 and WSUM 91.7 in Madison. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences chose the album for Grammy consideration, the last step before nomination, in six categories.

More important, fans have responded to the band's efforts to "spread the love," Horn said.

"People are responding so favorably to it," he said. "It's real nice to know that there's a place for love and peace and harmony and joy in the world we live in now."

The band has plenty of future plans. Members are working on adding videos to the band's Web site and are in negotiations to launch a southwest tour, perform in several festivals and maybe even get their music on television or film.

Horn already has written half a dozen songs for the band's next album, he said.

"Our sound is very laid back and mellow, and I'd like to rock 'n' roll a little bit harder," he said. "Less like The Beach Boys, a little bit more like The Rolling Stones."

To learn more about Pacific Coast or listen to the music, visit www.pacificcoastband.com. - By STACY VOGEL for the Janesville Gazette (Wisconsin)

PLUGINMUSIC.COM REVIEW

Meet Pacific Coast. Pacific Coast’s turn ons are romantic songs where they can share their feelings, harmonizing while singing about happy relationships and cuddling in the rain and other outdoor settings. Maybe it is Pacific Coast’s light, upbeat songs or their uplifting lyrics but there is something almost religious about this pop oriented Los Angeles band. Mixing some essence of The Mamas and The Papas with The Polyphonic Spree, the band’s self-title album is a smooth acoustic ride.

Sounds Like: Optimistic, heartfelt indie super pop - Pluginmusic.com

Confusion is the first thing that comes to mind when listening to Pacific Coast Band - confusion about its place on the musical timeline. Is it 2007, or 1973? Half of the tracks on the album, including "Meant to Be", sound like they belong on the Forrest Gump Soundtrack. Both the lyrics and the music are a bit too overly simplistic, leaving them with a sound that is completely out-dated. "Shine, Shine, Shine" could easily be sung "Turn! Turn! Turn!" It doesn't even seem like Pacific Coast Band is "highly influenced" by genres like "oldies" or "psychedelic rock." Their music IS old, peace rally, hippie-era, folk rock music, the type of music one would hear by a popular local band at a midday gathering next to a lake on a sunny day in 1972. If the members of the band wanted their sound to be reminiscent of 1970s peace music then their goal was absolutely accomplished. - Hot Indie News

SONGS OF JOY AND HAPPY LIFE
by Zachary Bloomfield;The Next Big Hit Press (January 2008)

After hearing the Pacific Coast Band’s debut offering, the grand promises of 1968 and a better world is renewed in 2008, and you feel peaceful and joyfully inspired, as if by a breath of clean forest air.

Working in the Sunshine Pop tradition, Pacific Coast delivers the impossible: new music that sounds like the classics of the sixties, mixing a unique original style with the forever fresh flavors of Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys, the Mamas and Papas, and the great sounds of the Summer of Love.

Pacific Coast is the brainchild of writer/producer Patrick William Horn (www.patrickhorn.com), who recruited the 11-person ensemble from the Los Angeles indie acoustic music scene. The group recorded the album on analog gear, eschewing the studio doctoring and sheen of computer recording for the warmth of a live band performance in the studio.

The songs convey a timeless and urgent message by way of a loose narrative across the disc: a call to union with the natural environment and the journey from darkness to light through the power of love. “Shine! Shine! Shine!”, adapted from words by the classic American poet Walt Whitman, opens the record like an invocation teleporting you to a perfect sunny day in the mountains or at the beach in California.

The spiritual overtones of the collection are on full display in “Angel,” with words adapted by a 17th-century Christian poet Thomas Traherne. The music video, directed by Los Angeles video production artist Cassandra Brower in a meadow of redwood trees and at a North Hollywood mural, captures the ensemble’s Beatles-esque whimsy.

A choir of four- and five-part harmony gloriously soars above shimmering tracks reminiscent of the Polyphonic Spree. Percussionist Jonah Chilk’s snare and woodblock are classic Sunset Sound. Ian Krupp’s melodic bass lines will convince Paul McCartney to retire. Bruce Grossman’s electric guitar screams will make Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham blush.

Special attention is due to lead vocalist, Jason Wrobel. He is what Mick Jagger wishes he could be: a sexy rock star with angelic pure tone and perfect expression. Videos on the band’s website (www.pacificcoastband.com) reveal him as a charismatic commander of the mob of twirling fans of all ages gleefully singing along at the group’s live shows.

On songs like “Meant to Be” and “Destiny”, both featuring innovative and transcendent harmonic progressions and jazzy vibraphone solos, Horn is obviously inspired by Burt Bacharach’s songwriting and production. Both “Full Moon Fever” and “I Want You (You’re Mine)” rock, and the website’s videos of the songs demonstrate the ensemble’s talent as they stretch out in improvised live jam.

True to our digital age, the band regularly plays their organic folk rock on live multi-camera Internet TV to a massive website audience from the world-famous Kulak’s Woodshed, a labor of love supported by donations and operated by volunteers.

When the ensemble chants “Magic and wonder fill all our lives...the Power in the spirit of you and I beneath a clear blue sky”, the Rent-like anthem is more than a song: it’s an authentic way of life, and the peace and harmony of the Hippie-era lives on in the Promised Land of Pacific Coast.
- The Next Big Hit Press