Patty Hurst Shifter
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Patty Hurst Shifter

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"Patty Hurst Shifter - All Quarternotes Feature"

Patty Hurst Shifter remind me of everything I love about power pop music, with hints of Beatles drenched in a hodge podge of influences from U2, The Cars, R.E.M. - oh Hell, it's all good! Hints of influences are here, but the originality and bouncy rhythms and interesting melodies make Patty Hurst Shifter something fresh and exciting. Something people in my line of work spend our lives looking for.
~Michael Buffaloe Smith - Gritz.net (Michael Buffaloe Smith)


"Patty Hurst Shifter"

On its second release, this Raleigh, NC-based quartet has tapped into that elusive bristling, electric rock 'n' roll energy that separates the wannabees from the real thing. Clocking in at under two and a half minutes, "She's Like a Song" is a letter-perfect, rocker that mixes Stones-styled opposing guitars and a Replacements swagger with an R.E.M . melody and tight harmonies. And so it goes. The jangly, driving "Never Know" and the pulsing "When You Lie" are only slightly less contagious. "Sadderside" is a country-tinged ballad with timely assists from former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan and two of the Tres Chicas. Perhaps the most impressive - and obvious - aspect of the disc is that it's clearly the product of a working "unit" that's hitting on all cylinders. At its best moments, "Too Crowded" approaches the level of raw, cohesive band energy of the first Television record or R.E.M.'s "Murmur." High praise indeed, but rock 'n' roll hasn't sounded this good in quite a while. - Charleston Daily Mail (WV)


"In My CD Player"

There are rock 'n' roll groups. Then there are rock 'n' roll bands. There's a difference. A group is a business enterprise. A band is family that lives and breathes music as a unit. Patty Hurst Shifter from Raleigh is a band (with a really great name and a reputation as a ferocious live act). The band's soon-to-be-released album, Too Crowded On The Losing End, is a rock 'n' roll treasure, a barroom brawl of an album the likes of which are all too rare in this age of American Idol. Ringing, amped-up guitars goose its serious edge. It boasts inarguable pop smarts. There is a soft, bittersweet taste of Southern country-soul. It's seductive. It's lucid. It's dangerous. It stands to be one of the best pure rock 'n' roll albums in years. In keeping with its unified status as a band, the individual members of Patty Hurst Shifter each shared with relish a single favorite disc. Then all four members agreed on a common fave disc. Check out these five discs to gain a sliver of insight to what awaits when Too Crowded On The Losing End is released Jan. 24.
Mark that date on your calendar.

- Relish Magazine


""The Short Record" - Patty Hurst Shifter"

A welcome aperitif. Patty Hurst Shifter's first EP, The Short Record, is exactly what the name implies: a four-track sampling of the goods to come on the band's forthcoming sophomore album, "Too Crowded on the Losing End". The band is tight and energized on this trial run, showing surprising finesse for a lineup that's switched bass players twice since 2002's debut "Beestinger Lullabies". There are new tricks for the old rock here: J. Chris Smith's world-wide-open songs are a fitting template for the sound, a guitar-heavy drive stapled into place by Skillet Gilmore and Jesse Huebner's rhythm section, capable of being distinct rock 'n' roll vintage with a dollop of the playful jangle the South made notable decades ago, too. "When You Lie" is a perfect opener, setting the tone for it all. Smith admits to experience and endless expectations of that at-least-for-now love that may last forever, but probably won't last through tomorrow. "Feed me hope and lay me down," he sings from both the first- and third-person. The band offers a new spin on the classic breakdown, large-tom bridge, dropping down into perfectly executed harmonies and launching straight out into an exit chorus. Those harmonies show up all over PHS's new material, especially in the second song, "Never Know." These aren't the harmonies that scream increased production for radio play. The band, at last and at least, just seems to be realizing that it's not un-rock to brighten the corners, to bold the accents, and the results lead to the most instantly memorable PHS songs so far. As a songwriter, though, Smith still realizes his goal isn't to be instantly memorable: His songs are rife with imagery and condensed anecdotes pocked with "dents and shells," and he offers up life as primo inspiration. "Which one's your confidant and which one's your coffin? Which one will bleed you and leave you just like the last?" he offers on "Wondertown," one of the two non-LP tracks found here and the best song on the EP. Guess we'll find out soon. - Independent (Grayson Currin)


"Patty Hurst Shifter"

Openers Patty Hurst Shifter are about as close as you'll get to an Americana supergroup these days. That is, if your idea of what constitutes a supergroup has more to do with talent than mainstream notoriety. Formed on a lark years ago, the North Carolina group has - at various times - included members of such fabled could've beens as Whiskeytown (Ryan Adams' early outfit), Snatches of Pink (a Let's Active offshoot), and 6 String Drag (an underrated group championed by Steve Earle). Simply put, this is a fantastic band that deserves serious nationwide acclaim and massive record sales. Equal parts Crazy Horse, The Dukes, early Jayhawks and The Heartbreakers (Petty's, not Thunders'), they've got the scratchy, intertwining vocals, tremolo guitars and apocalyptic piano runs down pat - plus a rhythm section to die for. They're a perfect match for The Tinfoil Stars, and the combination makes this your best bet for a post-Wilco hang (or a decent substitute if you couldn't snag tickets to that sold-out Trustees theatre show. Fri., The Jinx. - Connect Savannah (Jim Reed)


"Patty Hurst Shifter"

Thanks to their comfort level at this Hillsborough Street haunt, Patty Hurst Shifter can claim home-stage advantage. Not that the quartet needs an edge: The ease with which they unleash their guitar-rock anthems shows they've reached Top of Their Game status. As for the status of their upcoming second album, drummer Skillet Gilmore says, "It's always almost done." - Independent


Discography

Too Crowded on the Losing End (2006)
The Short Record EP (2005)
Beestinger Lullabies (2002) (Being re-issued in early ‘07)

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Bio

"Too Crowded on the Losing End," the second album from Patty Hurst Shifter, begins with what could pass for the credo of the spirited Raleigh-based band. "If she's like a song then I'm like the radio," frontman J. Chris Smith sings, in a tight, reedy voice that's frayed at the edges like Keith Richards' bleat, but with some there there. "She's turnin' me on and takin' me out for a ride." In those two lines, Smith hits on the nub of what has kept rock 'n' roll vital for more than a half-century: girls, cars and electricity. It's apparent in these lines and in every note they play that this young band believes in the enduring virtues of a heart full of longing, a full tank of gas and the shake, rattle and roll of an overdriven tube amp.

“…(this) literate, thrilling quartet is a classic of delinquent rock’n’roll bravado, barroom heartache, carnal testimony, all the regrets that come with reckless living and ruinous women. It's familiar territory, largely. But the urgent dispatch of swashbuckling rockers are rowdily irresistible...” (- Allen Jones / Uncut)

For a band that loves to fire away, Patty Hurst Shifter displays an impressive musical and emotional range on "Too Crowded...," rolling from jacked-up rockers like "Happy" and "Never Know" to the billowy, bittersweet "Break Everything" and the panoramic, 10-minute epic "Acetylene." Echoes of bands from the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to R.E.M. and The Replacements can be picked up; not surprising considering these musicians cut their teeth on all of the above. Fittingly, Neil Young's Buffalo Springfield classic "Mr. Soul" has become a showstopper in their live sets.

“They’ve listened to all the right people but this band is wired directly into the here and now. J. Chris Smith writes and sings with that curious balance of cynicism and joy, weary of heart but fire in his belly. His songs are the sort that make you want to get your own guitar and shout your own sad story. When a song does that, what higher praise can there be?” (- Robin Cracknell/AMERICANA UK)

The band-singer/guitarist/songwriter J. Chris Smith, lead guitarist/vocalist Marc E. Smith (no relation), bassist/vocalist Jesse Huebner and drummer Skillet Gilmore-is dedicated to the basics: writing relatable songs, rocking crowds wherever the play and having a blast, onstage and off. While these goals may not sound terribly ambitious, they're no different from what has driven the Rolling Stones for more than four decades, and what's good enough for the Stones is good enough for PHS.

“Smith has a way with words that packs extra punch into rave-ups… But the crown jewel is Acetylene, an expansive, cinematic epic that rolls more than it rocks, and earns every minute of its epic 10-minute running time. …its not hard to imagine a sea of arena lighters responding to that call.” (- OffBeat Magazine)

"At the core of it all, we are just friends," says Marc. "The fact that we're musicians and write songs together is just coincidence. If we were wood carvers it would probably be the same. We just wouldn't have to get in a van and drive to another state to carve wood." Adds Gilmore, "We're friends, first and foremost. The music is the by-product of us hanging out." Yet another rock 'n' roll tradition honored. "There's a lot of sincerity in what we do, but not in a heavy way," Chris points out. "It's fun, but at the same time I think we have a knack for taking painful experiences and imagery and turning it into something that rocks."

Patty Hurst Shifter has evolved considerably since releasing its 2002 debut, "Beestinger Lullabies," an album distinguished by "hard-hitting, textured anthems with plenty of space between the notes for the vivid scenes set by Chris Smith to sink in," according to No Depression's Rick Cornell, who added, "The band can bite hard or burn slowly, bringing to mind big-beat outfits like the True Believers..." Whereas roughly half of …Lullabies consisted of amped-up treatments of acoustic-based material Smith had penned during his days as a solo singer/songwriter, "Too Crowded…" is in every way a band effort, and that makes all the difference.

“…this Raleigh, NC-based quartet has tapped into that elusive bristling, electric rock 'n' roll energy that separates the wannabees from the real thing. …the disc is clearly the product of a working "unit" that's hitting on all cylinders. "Too Crowded…" approaches the level of raw, cohesive band energy of the first Television record or R.E.M.'s Murmur. High praise indeed, but rock 'n' roll hasn't sounded this good in quite a while.” (- Charleston Daily Mail)

"There's very little acoustic guitar on the new record," Chris points out. "We only used it because it added the right touch in a couple of songs, whereas it was the basis for everything on the first album-which is why I think we got tagged as alt country. People who thought that will be surprised by this new one." Their surprise will no doubt