Recent History

Recent History. CD Release Party

Dec. 2nd @ Sky Bar 21+ Free!

Somerville



Boston's fastest growing trio "Recent History" will be accelerating their Alt-Rock movement come December 2, with the release of their debut album: "Lake Misfortune." "Soulful and Poignant" says Jon Meyer of WERS 88.9 FM. This band is stepping up fast! With Comparisons ranging from Jeff Buckley to Pearl Jam to Radiohead, this band will appeal to a large and extremely diverse audience.

The songs focus a little on the dark side of things as the [album] title suggests, but the band hopes you can get something positive out of it. Ken Mulstay (Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter) says he wrote everything multi-layered in hopes that if you listened more than once, you'd get something different out of it than the first time. Dave Barrett (Drums) and Tom Carlisle (Bass) hold the rhythm together with abrupt stops, and heart stopping lows.

"With firm focus in hand, the band is unabashedly excited for the early December release." In fact, so is anyone who has ever experienced them live. "They start off heavy(guitar), but gracefully bring you back down to reality with a strong acoustic set. " says one fan after their show at Copperfields near Fenway Park a month ago. "They play their acoustic stuff really convincingly...sometimes you think their playing electric with the energy they put in." The vocals are powerful, without all the screaming.

Bottom line: Recent History will make their mark this December. They will be in Somerville to celebrate. The boys want to make sure you say hello and have a drink with them when you see them there.

You can join Recent History's mailing list on their website at www.recenthistoryonline.com or add them as a friend on myspace at www.myspace.com/recenthistory

Sky Bar. Saturday, Dec. 2 Doors @ 8. 21+ Free. www.skybar.us 518 Somerville ave. Somerville Ma, 02143


- RH

Artist Interview: Recent History (Local Spotlight)
October 08, 2006

Kenny Mulstay, singer/guitarist/songwriter of Boston’s Recent History, has a certain “gentle giant” aura about himself. He stands over six feet tall with a stocky frame that makes the electric-acoustic guitar he plays look like a toy by comparison. Nevertheless, his delivery is soulful and poignant, eyes closed as he sings, backed by the band’s listener-friendly sound that recalls mid-90’s soft-guy alternative rock like Jeff Buckley or early Fuel.

“This is really something that I wanted to focus on the dark side of emotion,” Mulstay says following Recent History’s live set on The Left End’s Local Spotlight. “These are things that I had been feeling, but I wanted to make it universal as well. These songs that talk about inherently negative things can find a place in other people as well, almost put in a positive light.”

The band had a quick early development for this very reason. “It came together very easily,” says drummer Dave Barrett. “Kenny and I were working together, and he already had an album’s worth of songs written, just by himself, on personal things. I played the drums, and then we found Tom [Carlisle, bassist] on Myspace and the band was born.”

With a firm focus in hand, the band wants nothing more than to bring a sense of inspiration to listeners, to help them, in a sense, deal with those difficult bugging emotions of the past, their “recent history.” “You may have to listen a few times to really understand what emotions are being conveyed, which is good, because it can mean something different to someone else. People come up to me and say they always get something out of our songs, which is pretty much the best thing you can hear.”

Recent History is gearing up—and being unabashedly excited—for the upcoming December 2nd debut record, released all on their own. Its title, “Lake Misfortune,” has its own “history” to it, steeped in a sense of heartache as well. “Dave actually lives on a lake,” Mulstay explains. “And we were there, and I was kicking around a few titles for the record, when we heard a kid screaming out on the lake. His canoe had tipped over, in the dead of winter, and the friend he was with ended up dying later of pneumonia. We tried to help him, but there was nothing we could do.”

Don’t expect the whole album to be a completely tragedy-themed, though. Mulstay explains that that “whole experience just seemed to really capture the emotional range that we were going for.” Although speaking confidently, it is clear he’s engaged in an existential battle. “It just comes down to misfortune: canoeing on a lake, having fun, and then tragedy. It’s intriguing, that sudden shift from one end to the other, and that’s what we want to explore.”

Recent History will be performing at the Sky Bar in Somerville on December 2, 2006, for a record release show.

www.recenthistoryonline.com

-By Jon Meyer
- Jon Meyer