Pinstripe 45's

"Good melodies mix with sincerity and organic insrumentation in Pinstripe 45's music....These songs.. sound like an exploration of day turning into the night: they are atmospheric and generally quite dark but also joyous in their melodic quality. " - Thoughts on Melody

We covered the reunion of one of Chicago’s favorite bands, The Blacks, in a couple of original video features (documentary, live return) in 2006. Now it looks as though bassist and namesake Gina Black has a new project with Chicago multi-instrumentalist Marshall Hanbury Jr. The result is a collection of lovely acoustic numbers heavy on harmonies and simple production called Pinstripe 45s. Hanbury has a great sense of melody and his and Black’s voices mingle into a lovely tone that sounds more like one complex sound than two that compliment each other.

There’s a good bit of traditional folk rock leanings in there with hints of Dylan, Donovan or Bonnie & Delaney, but it’s not simple rehashing or revisioning of late-60s/early-70s folk rock (as much as I love that too). There is something decidedly contemporary about these songs, even if they have one foot firmly planted in the past. And isn’t that exactly what you want from a folk singer? - Gloriousnoise.com

3 !s out of 4..
If you listen to the debut album by local folk-pop outfit Pinstripe 45's in the presence of frontman Marshall Hanbury Jr. (of Absentstar) you'll probably want to go up and give him a hug. The disc is covered in sorrow, from lonely opener "Because She Waits" to snappier closer "Letter to a Drowning Man". Yet Hanbury Jr. finds beauty in sadness, singing "You're just so pretty even when you cry", and moving toward the uplifting "I Love You, Irene" (sic). Produced by Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits), "Darkened Window" is clean and aching, dangling on the edge of despair and recovery, as likely to be given as an apology as savored after a breakup. There are wisps of David Gray and even Glen Phillips here, and the lyrical seriousness can sometimes be a little too much to take. ("Bent Back Cedar" is an unrewarding downer.) But the redeeming factor is the direct honesty of the words, bent and twisted by the tremble of Hanbury's voice. You'll actually want to listen to these sob stories, which are pretty enough not to bring you down if you're feeling fine, but likely to hit a nerve if you can relate.
-Matt Pais 11/12/09
- The Chicago Tribune's The Red Eye

Sure, with their name, you would think this band would be either ska or Christian pop-punk, but that’s waaaaay off. I reviewed the Pinstripe 45s EP Studies in Timing and Coincidence, and found it to feel along the lines of a haunted fishing hole: spooky, yet catchy. It’s not for everybody, but I think their sound can definitely have an audience.


Imagine if James Taylor (famous for “Fire and Rain,” and other well-made songs) took an emotional nose-dive. Then, imagine he moved to a shed out int the middle of Pennsylvania, and that shed were haunted, then he wrote songs about the whole experience, and you’d get a pretty good feeling for what the Pinstripe 45s sound like.

I mean all that in a good way, too.

The Pinstripe 45s have a sound that isn’t like a lot out there right now, which is commendable, and promising of them as a band. Vocally, they have a nice harmonic technique in just about all their sounds that remind me of some Simon and Garfunkel, although higher in pitch than most of their works. This is where the haunted feeling comes from for me. I dig it, but not as much as I think a lot of other people will. In the end, only your ear will be the deciding factor, just be sure to give it a chance to grow on you.

The downside to the singing style is that it de-emphasizes the lyrics, leaving them hard to follow (for me, anyway), in exchange for their sound. That’s not really a bad thing, but if you’re the type that likes to follow lyrics and extract meaning from them, you probably won’t find much from these guys. The end result is that you hear the repeated phrases, the catches, but not much else. Most any music you hear on the radio is like that, anyway, so it’s something forgiveable.

One song I really thought worked out well is “Times Like These.” I’ll give it to you below. In it, you really get a sense of what the Pinstripe 45s’ sound is capable of, with the haunting vocals, heavy acoustic guitar with some instrumental backing lending it a nice weight and depth otherwise not present in their other songs.
- www.theblahblah.net