Penny Royal
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Penny Royal

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This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Best New Band 2006"

Penny Royal is by far the most dynamic and original band in Houston. Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but this shit is true. The three most important things for a band to have are the following: Songs, songs, and thirdly, songs. Penny Royal has songs that are rounded out by breath-taking soundscapes and calculated musician-ship. They have played only about a dozen shows, but have wowed the crowd every time. With an impressive array of recorded material under their belts, Penny Royal is just about done with their long-awaited LP. But the wait is well worth it; their songs are epic masterpieces that are meticulously designed by their unrelenting tedious efforts. Think I am overstating this just a bit? I would too if I had not pulled up their stuff on myspace, or seen a live show. These guys might be Houston's next great hope. They're absolutely worth pulling for. - Free Press Houston


"Houston Chronicle: weekend picks"

Various shows covered of Penny Royal's:

• A tantalizing triple bill -- and it's not even the weekend. Artful, atmospheric rock from Penny Royal, dark instrumentals from Two Star Symphony, and turntable madness courtesy of CeePlus and the House of Bad Knives.

Details: 9 p.m. $5. Numbers, 300 Westheimer. 713-526-6551.

Sunday (May 13):

• Penny Royal is the highlight on this bill, which also features Primary and the World's Most Dangerous Band. Personal plea to Penny Royal: Get the disc out, already! I can't wait much longer for more of your velvety, dramatic pop.

Details: 8 p.m. $5 and $8. Scout Bar, 18307 Egret Bay Blvd. 281-335-0002.

- Houston Chronicle


"Houston Chronicle: westfest"

I was looking forward to seeing Penny Royal, featuring Derek and Evan Dunivan formerly of Pure Rubbish (to find out why that matters, check out the band's extensive listing on Wikipedia.) Whoever was manning the soundboard wasn't listening to Derek's commands, so Derek began to get impatient. But the volume wasn't getting fixed and we had already waited longer than we should have just to catch a 30-minute set, so the band launched into its first song and it was an impressive, solid, sound of Brit-pop, glam-rock influences.

A few minutes into the song, the power went out. "Inexcusable," Derek said.

Which is true. Inexcusable was the word of the day for most of what happened at this event, which I've railed against before: an inability to stick to a schedule, technical difficulties, and no sense of actual community (it feels more like we were invading a neighborhood than celebrating.

Instead of moving on, the band announced that it would restart the song. Around the same place in the second take of the first song, the power went out again. Derek apologized to the crowd again and said the show would definitely be worth the wait, but if the power went out again they would throw in the towel. The power returned, but sound difficulties ensued and it probably doesn't need to be said that we were all a bit punchy at that point. After hearing Aveil Aveil, a great song that confirmed for me that this is a band worth seeing again, we left to visit the Mango's stage one last time.
- Houston Chronicle


Discography

Penny Royal is a self-produced entity that writes, composes, arranges, records, produces, performs, engineers, mixes, and masters all of their music on their own in their Houston-based rehearsal room/studio. They are currently completing their full-length debut and in the meantime have a 5-song demo available at their shows. This consits of the tracks:

1) 2020
2) How You Were
3) Aveil, Avail
4) Wondering and Wandering
5) The White Elixir (and the art of silence)

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Formed in 2005 by brothers Derek and Evan Dunivan out of Houston, Tx, Penny Royal has quickly established itself as much more than another transient band destined to drown amidst the masses. The genius of the Dunivan brothers, coupled with the talents of their creative counterpart, Omar Al-Bochi, has brought forth exquisitely orchestrated compositions that leave their audience with an ecstatic optimism for the future of rock music.
As many know, Derek and Evan received extensive international acclaim and notoriety with their previous band Pure Rubbish. They enjoyed raves and top reviews from publications such as Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Kerrang and Spin. They shined as featured artists in interviews and stories on MTV and VH1. At the ages of 16 & 14 they signed a deal with Sharon Osbourne's Divine Recordings, then spent half of 2001 and 2002 touring Europe and North America with the likes of AC/DC, Motorhead, and the annual rock event Ozzfest (where they were certainly the odd men out, but soon tour favs). Prior to hitting the road, Pure Rubbish completed their full-length LP with the help of Guns n' Roses' famed producer Mike Clink. However, the recordings never saw the light of day. While waiting for corporate complications to subside (which never did), Pure Rubbish was asked to back Kelly Osbourne for her televised singing debut on the MTV Movie Awards, putting them in front of 34 million viewers worldwide.. As downtime continued with Pure Rubbish, Derek and Evan began expanding their musical interests and further honing their skills, resulting in a distinctly different sound and broadened direction. Eventually, for the purpose of their musical evolution, Pure Rubbish was "scrapped" to make way for the even more ambitious project…Penny Royal.
After about of year of composing and auditioning players, the musical collaborators they had dreamed of were now their band mates. With the cumulative force of Derek Dunivan (lead vocals/lead guitar/keyboards), Evan Dunivan (drums/percussion/vocals), Omar Al-Bochi (keys/guitar/vocals), Ariana Renn (bass), and Chase Hamblin (guitar/vocals), an organism of sound that sets the stage for a soul stirring, jaw dropping show of shows has been created. With an array of impressive reviews of live shows, a recently successful series of performances in New York, an upcoming, self-produced LP, and their first music video near completion, Penny Royal and members have already been proclaimed as, "Best New Band", "Best Rock Band", "Best Songwriter", "Best Guitarist", "Best Drummer", "Best Vocalist", "Best Live Show" and "The Band to Change the Face of Music" by The Houston Chronicle, The Free Press Houston, Houston Press and fans from coast to coast.
More importantly, Penny Royal is a continuously expanding multimedia vessel geared toward initiating a revolution of the Mind necessary for the age to come.