Schooltree
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Schooltree

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | SELF

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | SELF
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"SCHOOLTREE – “Rise”"

(Self – released)
2012. CD
art rock/progressive/medieval
USA
Autor: Branimir Lokner

Schooltree je sastav kojeg predvodi Lainey Schooltree, glavna autorka, klavijaturistkinja i pevacica. Strani analiticari uporeduju njene autorske poglede i nacin pevanja sa Kate Bush i Tori Amos, i ovakva poredenja sigurno gode. No, Lainey i njen bend zaslužuju da se na njih obrati pažnja.

“Rise” je aktuelno albumsko ostvarenje, na kojem se našlo devet songova, uradenih u art rock/progressive/medieval maniru, sa tekstovima koji zadiru u nacin tzv. “pozorišnog pisanja”. Rec je takode o nekoj vrsti rock opere, ali kompletna muzicka matrica pametno je upakovana u sadašnje vreme. Muzike gospodice Schooltree i njenih saradnika zadire u teritorije više žanrovskih idioma, od 70's rock varijanti, preko celtic/medieval tendencija, gde nepretenciozni, ali sa druge strane ozbiljni tekstovi upotpunjuju sliku o priredenom konceptu. Produkcija ide u korak sa savremenim tendencijama, a generalno uzevši materijal je melodican i slušljiv. Dovoljna preporuka, da ako vam se ukaže prilika obratite pažnju na Schooltree.

Ocena: 8, 5 / 10 - Time Machine Music (Croatian review)


""Fans of vinyl are always complaining about the loss of audio 'warmth' that arrived with the compact disc in 1982, but it’s hard to understand the complaint when you listen to Schooltree's Rise. This is music that embraces the era that ended with the CD’s"

Fans of vinyl are always complaining about the loss of audio “warmth” that arrived with the compact disc in 1982, but it’s hard to understand the complaint when you listen to SchoolTree’s “Rise.” This is music that embraces the era that ended with the CD’s arrival, and it sounds awesome in every meaning of the word “sound.”

Lainey SchoolTree’s vocals and keyboards give you all the Kate Bush you suspected you were missing between 1978’s “Wuthering Heights” and 1985’s “The Hounds of Love,” while her band – Brendan Burns on guitar, Jordan Ross on drums and Derek Van Wormer on bass – make up for the collaborations between Queen, Yes and Stephen Sondheim that should have happened but didn’t. (Drummer Jesse Armerding and bass virtuoso Michael Leggio contribute as well.)

While some of that can be credited to time at top-notch recording and mastering studios paid for with a more than successful Kickstarter campaign, much of it is simply Lainey SchoolTree’s total mastery of the idiom – “power pop, ’70s-era progressive rock, classical and theatrical storytelling,” in her own words.

Two of the nine tracks are taken from among the best of her “My Metal Mother” RPM Challenge album, then somehow improved, including the clever and totally seductive “Foreverish.” The other, “After You’re Gone,” at the very least shows just how good SchoolTree is at choosing bandmates: Burns is a consummate guitarist, but his playing is usually generous to the point of modesty, while here SchoolTree has him embracing his shaggy, 1970s era-of-excess rock god self. His solos in “After You’re Gone” and “Heavenside” are epic and blistering.

The entire album is like that, show-offy in the best way. Time travel can be dangerous, but you know you’re in good hands with SchoolTree from the six-minute opener of “Six Feet Up,” which keeps ripping aside curtain after musical curtain to show better and better stuff behind it, from a rising piano to an explosion of sound from the full band to SchoolTree’s full, fluid vocals to the kind of changes in chord and tempo you’ll remember from the era’s most monumental albums – Genesis’ 1974 “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,” for instance.

It’s not all grandiose, though. The sweet “Let’s Dance” holds back from bombast until the last, emotion-filled minute in a way instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever wanted to know where a relationship is going. SchoolTree’s grounding in comedy, burlesque and neo-Vaudeville also gets a chance to shine – sprinkled through the album in her sly lyrics but getting the spotlight in the very funny “Today,” in which a crotchety character complains: “Can’t pay the rent/feeling violent/can’t trust the government. Life as we know it/just kind of blows/not like it used to be.”

But for fans of SchoolTree’s influences (add ELO, Todd Rundgren, Frank Zappa, Happy Rhodes, Laura Nyro, Deerhoof and even some Debussy, Bartok, Bernstein and Gershwin to the list), things are as they used to be. This is the album they’ve been waiting for … even if it isn’t getting a release on vinyl.

Schooltree’s record release party with Count Zero – an iteration of the late, great Think Tree – (and some comedy and burlesque) is at 9 p.m. Friday at The Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., between Harvard and Porter squares. The show is 21-plus. Tickets are $10. - Cambridge Day


"Schooltree's No Laughing Matter"

It takes a certain kind of courage to get onstage and make people laugh. It also takes courage to lead a rock band playing your own autobiographical, if cryptic, songs. For Lainey Schooltree, it has been a long trip transitioning from one to the other. In January 2011, her ass-kicking musical-comedy duo the Steamy Bohemians were dormant, and Schooltree was desperate to create. She had been writing more serious-minded music since she was a kid, but was afraid to show it off. As a personal dare, she took the RPM Challenge, writing, producing, and recording an album in the space of one month. "I felt like, 'This needs to move forward,' " she says. " 'I've been trying to move this forward for years, and nothing has been happening.' "

The result was May 2011's My Metal Mother, a reflection of her eclectic tastes — art rock, '70s prog rock, Stephen Sondheim, Kate Bush. The last step was to put together a band to play the music, a prospect Schooltree had found intimidating. "I had wanted to do it for years and years," she says. "I think I just didn't have the courage, I was just sort of putting it off and instead doing more comedy stuff." She tapped guitarist Brendan Burns, with whom she had collaborated in the puppetry troupe Elephant Tango Ensemble and the variety show Bent Wit Cabaret. With Burns she formed Schooltree, the band, eventually rounding out the quartet with Derek Van Wormer (bass) and Chris Anderson (drums). They celebrate the release of their first album, Rise, this weekend.

Rise continues to develop Schooltree's varied tastes. "Today" conjures dystopia with a bouncy feel and plucking banjo (Schooltree told Burns to use the Muppets' "Rainbow Connection" as a reference). There's a dramatic sweep to the music and narrative of "Six Feet Up" that would be at home in a stage musical, albeit a fairly complex one. "After You're Gone," a Mother song in a new arrangement, owes a debt to '70s AOR.

Schooltree struggles to describe the band's sound — she calls it "cabaret rock for nerds and weirdos" on their Facebook page. But it is heavily influenced by melodic prog rock, which can be a tough label to sell. "There's such a stigma against prog, which makes me very sad because I think it is some of the best music ever made," she says.

Schooltree, the band, will continue to cater to the offbeat, and will include some cabaret acts before the music starts at the Lizard Lounge. And Schooltree, the person, will continue to take risks. "I like big ambitious things," she says. "Part of what moves life forward for me is setting a goal you're not quite sure you'll be able to do because you've never done it before, and then breaking your neck."

>> NICK@NICKZAINO.COM - Boston Phoenix


""Lainey is the prog rock queen of modern times, with her Broadway musical vocals and theatrical cabaret presentation.""

Schooltree revisits the ’70s with their rock opera “Rise” – record release party Friday night!
Schooltree Record Release
w/ Count Zero and WANTON REVELRY
Friday, March 15th @ the Lizard Lounge
8:30 doors, 9pm show | 21+, $10 cover
::: BUY TICKETS ::: | facebook event

This is going to be a very special event to celebrate the release of Rise, a modern take on the 1970s rock opera, very convincingly masterminded by the inimitable Lainey Schooltree Steamy Bohemians, Jerkus Circus, Bent Wit Cabaret).

I don’t think just anyone could have pulled this off. Lainey is the prog rock queen of modern times, with her Broadway musical vocals and theatrical cabaret presentation. You only have to know that she’s a fan of both Queen and Steven Sondheim to understand this completely.

On Rise, this musical journey is nothing short of epic and while strongly recalling the piano driven orchestral drama, screaming rock god guitar, vocal histrionics and sweeping harmonies of what was a proud art form of the time, it is also imbued with a contemporary feel. This isn’t just parody (though it did put a big smile on my face upon first hearing). No, it’s an honest depiction of present day struggles through the looking glass of the past, with a strong sense of reverence. As for the doom and gloom subject matter, the breakdown of society, feelings of alienation and loss, hope and salvation… well, all that’s eternal, isn’t it?

I’m unable to share anything off the new album with you (you’ll have to go to the Lizard Lounge on Friday night for that), but if you’re unfamiliar with Schooltree, have a listen below to a performance of “Everyman” from the Lizard Lounge back in February of last year.

This isn’t just any run-of-the-mill record release with any old backing bands either. “Wanton Revelry” isn’t the name of a new Allston punk band; it’s billed as “bombastic burlesque, sexy satyrs, olympian comedy, devastating elegance!” If you’ve been to any Schooltree performances in the past, especially Bent Wit Cabaret events, you will definitely recognize at least a few of these names… UnAmerika’s Sweetheart Karin Webb, Femme Bones, Lolli Hoops, Jade Sylvan, and there will be other special guests as well. Count Zero will close out the evening’s festivities, performing their first full show in almost a year. Definitely something you won’t want to miss. - Boston Survival Guide


""All in all, Lainey has her own stamp and an incredible sense of all aspects of music, from basic structure to finished master. Her arrangement skills are regal. Her composition smarts are sorely beautiful. Schooltree moves from art pop to symphonic rock,"

More scrumptious music by Lainey Schooltree that firmly nails her and her new band like a story house into a sprawling castle. ‘Rise’ is officially Schooltree’s debut but Lainey put out a solo called “My Metal Mother” ( see my review last year ) which I raved about. In fact a couple of songs off that private solo are redone on this one (‘Foreverish’ and ‘After You’re Gone’). It’s wonderful to hear them with full band and slight mods. This one is just as stunning and on the nine tunes, has a full band consisting of Jordan Ross on drums, Brendan Burns on guitar, and Derek Van Wormer on bass. Lainey does all the vocals and piano.
I still give strong references to Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes, Jane Siberry, and add Amy Neuberg and the classic Laura Nyro. All in all, Lainey has her own stamp and an incredible sense of all aspects of music, from basic structure to finished master. Her arrangement skills are regal. Her composition smarts are sorely beautiful. Schooltree move from art pop to symphonic rock, to haunting ballad to unforgettable music all over. This is totally impressive and much of the time jaw dropping.

A bonanza of beauty and dripping compositions, one after another. The first song ‘Six Feet Up’ let’s you know just how fantastic this CD is with an intro to praise and love. Tracks two and three are the remakes off her solo and are brilliant! ‘Heavenside’ (track 4) is beyond ethereal. Directly after ‘Today’ (track 5) is a happy go lucky theatrical ditty with a cabaret spin, silky interludes and ear to ear smiling harmonies. A brilliant tune in the center of things. ‘Let’s Dance’ is dreamy ( her trademark) with it’s floating angelic structure and ghost chorus. What a gorgeous cut.

Great use of vocoder on the title track ‘Rise’ which keeps that spacey dream-like atmosphere. ‘Everyman’ ( track 8) was a free download offered the time of her “My Metal Mother” as a single. It’s the most rocking gem that will fill the lust of all the Happy Rhodes/Kate Bush fans who miss the earlier years of those stunning progressive artists. The last tune is a collage of some of the songs and sounds like a beautiful fall through a giant rainbow. So many colors and a weightlessness that makes you feel rejuvenated. It has the magic of Ryuichi Sakamoto, a lush hammock of piano, vocal harmonies, tasteful guitar and whirling dervish.

There’s not much left to say about how great this disc is. I could empty the dictionary of adjectives but just one listen and that’s all you need. Lainey Schooltree is a remarkable artist and her perfection is your reward. This is surely one of the best recordings of 2013 on my list. Totally and highly recommended!!!

Reviewed by Lee Henderson on March 24th, 2013 - Prognaut.com


""Schooltree is a beautifully unique and experimental artist. Possessing a world of talent as vocalist, pianist, and composer, she is unafraid to let her creativity and imagination unfold and take her in whichever direction she feels like going.""

Schooltree’s latest album Rise is a lively, festive blend of pop-rock styles, alternative, and maybe a touch of show tune sprightliness. Lead by the singer-keyboardist Lainey Schooltree, this four piece band rocks, bops, and traipses its way through nine pieces of ear candy. Schooltree’s vast musical imagination allows her to compose some of the most strikingly original music in the greater-Boston scene. There isn’t ever any obvious signs of who her influences are. This makes for a refreshingly original batch of songs.
Opening track “Six Feet Up” is a successful blend of menacing guitar and sweet tinkling piano. The tension between the two instruments provides a dark startling backdrop for Schooltree to emote an otherworldly charm. There are so many colors, tones, and emotions going on this whirlwind of sound that a listener cannot help but get caught up in it.
“Foreverish” has a lively Broadway musical feel in its effervescent liveliness. It’s impossible to not picture stage motion to this number. Schooltree’s eccentric plea to a man to love her forever is expressed in various tempos, timbres, and instrumentation. Schooltree has an exceptionally strong and fetching voice. Placing it in this weirdly arranged song is a winner. Her frenetic cooing over her rollicking piano lines is like a mad dance of sound that you cannot stop listening to because it’s too unusual to ignore.
Huge sweeping vocal harmonies pull the listener into “After Your Gone,” a song spearheaded by Brendan Burns’s wide, rangy guitar phrase and buttressed by more of Schooltree’s odd piano rhythm patterns. Her vocal approach is over the top, crooning with a mighty force while her band plays like an orchestra during the climactic section in a classical piece.
“Heavenside” quietly glides into the listener’s consciousness with its brief gentle piano interludes and atmospheric guitar sweeps. Schooltree’s clear resonating lead vocal easefully builds tension in the song. She slowly climbs to a louder dynamic as the band moves into a more aggressive mode.
“Today” is a sweet blend of piano and jaunty rhythm section. Schooltree sings in an amicable, chirpy timbre that belies her list of serious gripes about the way things are today. Her sustains and coos are beautiful when her song starts to long for a better today. The complex piece can be taken as humor, piano ballad, or even possibly for a scene in a comedic off-Broadway musical.
“Let’s Dance” is a pleasant but hard to define work. Pop like piano tinkling, a light mellow groove rhythm section, and mild guitar excursions in the backdrop make this a cross between a pop song and something that might function as a film score. Schooltree’s voice is beautiful, silky smooth, and she finesses her notes with personality and skill. Her music, especially in this song, make it easy to picture her in an artist’s loft coming up with something quirky and brilliant. It’s all in the way that her songs are good without being pigeonholed into any one already known category.
Title track “Rise” engages the listener with an electronically altered Schooltree vocal that remains beautiful despite sounding simultaneously bionic. She infuses her vocal with warmth, richness, and expression while skillfully controlling the phrases with dynamics, harmonies, coos, and sustains. Schooltree is a woman who dominates her electronic devices rather than being enslaved by them.
“Everyman” is a lushly sung eccentric piece with a larger than life presence. Schooltree offers lots of sweet, silky vocal notes. Her voice arcs over the soundscape like a rainbow on a bright sunny afternoon as the rain is clearing up. Atmospheric guitar phrasing from Brendan Burns blends perfectly with the color and tone coming from Schooltree’s piano, creating a layered, tasteful structure.
Schooltree closes out her disc with “Reprise,” snippets of what came before, sprightly piano tinkling and backdrop cooing that haunts the back of the listener’s mind like a pleasant dream. Fuzzy guitar emerges, seemingly whenever it feels like it, and you are left with a sense of different personalities in one engaging conversation. Schooltree also does some interesting things with her voice during the ride out, and it makes you wish her song and her full length CD were even longer.
Schooltree is a beautifully unique and experimental artist. Possessing a world of talent as vocalist, pianist, and composer, she is unafraid to let her creativity and imagination unfold and take her in whichever direction she feels like going. There’s a lot of impressive things going on here and each is a joy to listen to. It certainly helps that guitarist Brendan Burns has a great feel and a supply of talent to fill in the right spaces in the right way here. It will be fascinating to see where Schooltree goes with her next recording.
www.schooltreemusic.com - Bill Copeland News


"Schooltree - Six Feet Up - Heavenside Van "Rise" (eigen beheer, 2013)"

Schooltree is de band rond de uit Boston afkomstige songschrijfster/producer/zangeres/pianiste Lainey Schooltree. Nadat ze alleen haar debuut in elkaar draaide stelde ze deze groep samen die haar achternaam draagt. Ze heeft duidelijk een fascinatie voor de eerste drie albums van Kate Bush - en de eerste twee van Tori Amos. Haar pianospel refereert aan de laatste, haar zang en de sound van haar band aan de voller klinkende nummers van La Bush. Maar de klasse van de composities is zó groot dat dit nooit ergerlijk wordt tijdens het luisteren. Ze heeft met haar band een gelaagd gearrangeerde plaat gemaakt die bij vlagen ook een flinke Queen-invloed laat horen. Dit mede ook door de soms Brian May-achtige gitaarsoli van Brendan Burns. De vocale harmonieën die Lainey laag voor laag opnam zijn bijzonder ingenieus en erg fraai. In "Foreverish" citeert ze niet voor niets letterlijk Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Buiten dit alles ligt er ook nog een intrigerend concept aan dit album ten grondslag. Al met al dus een album om helemaal in te verdrinken. Groots talent, die Lainey Schooltree, omgeven door een erg fijne band! Het album is in z'n geheel te beluisteren via Bandcamp en te koop bij CDbaby. - Radio Xymphonia (Dutch review)


""Unapologetically immersive... gets both artistic experimentation and accessibility right.""

"There’s something to be said for an artist who manages theatricality without sounding overwrought, who can self-identify as an “art-rock” musician and then deliver without pretension – and that something is simply, yes. Yes, I would like to listen to Schooltree’s debut album, Rise, on repeat, because yes, I am a huge fan of stylists in any medium, and yes I think frontwoman Lainey Schooltree has the songwriting goods to justify her formal risks. The album’s mix of Broadway showmanship and lyrical pathos is a bit of a throwback, because each of its nine tracks insists on your full attention: Far from coffeeshop din or radio noise, Rise was made to be attended to. Which is not to say the record is a difficult listen, but an unapologetically immersive one. Is it worth the consideration it demands, this album that gets both artistic experimentation and accessibility right? Yes - you better believe it."- Anna Storm, SeatGeek.com - SeatGeek.com


""To describe the sound of SchoolTree you’d be close if you combined the techno pop sounds of Buggles, the wonderful voice, theatrical and intimate talents of Kate Bush, the cool hooks of early Ambrosia (when they were still progressive) , the hauntingly i"

SchoolTree is actually a very cool progressive pop band lead by Lainey SchoolTree out of Boston. Still in her twenties, she actually did this release for the RPM ( Record Production Month) which is a contest of sorts, where you have to make a record in 28 days or less. It’s a challenge that thousands of musicians takes each year. I only mention this to allow the people who listen to this CD to be even more impressed that SchoolTree did this in such a short time. You’d be a fool to think the limited time took away from the quality. It’s simply amazing she produced this kind of stuff in a month’s time, lock stock and barrel. Lainey wrote, arranged, produced, recorded, performed and sequenced every single bit of ‘My Metal Mother’. Later, she put together a band to perform live. Readers would be smart to download the free live track ‘Everyman’ .
It shows the great stage ability of both the band and Lainey, plus the track is not on the CD.

To describe the sound of SchoolTree you’d be close if you combined the techno pop sounds of Buggles, the wonderful voice, theatrical and intimate talents of Kate Bush, the cool hooks of early Ambrosia (when they were still progressive) , the hauntingly in depth atmosphere of Happy Rhodes, the spiffy harmony and pop ditties of Shakespeare’s Sister, and the soulful master of play on words, solid core song writing skills of Jane Siberry. Got that?

This is a short recording of eight songs (35:27 minutes) but every second is quality listening. Some of it simply fantastic! All of it excellent! I was taken away by “Let You In” (Track 4) with it’s creeping spine tingling clever lyrics and brilliant compositional framing. For this music lover, the whole CD is a wonderful discovery of delicate but strong, simple mixed with complex, polished and ready to devour songs, in the all too rare progressive pop genre in the last decade.

Even after the first listen, the last song had me shedding some tears. It’s not often an artist can complete a tune that brings an emotion out in me like that. Check out “Disappearing ( track 6) for reference of the “wise soul” talents. It’s yet another brilliant set of lyrics and musical mingling that simply rings the bell of the tallest steeple. “The Orange Grove ( Track 7) reminds me of Happy Rhodes with it’s womb-like atmosphere and eerie warmth.

Then there is the masterpiece title cut “My Metal Mother ( track 8 ) that ranks up there with the best of the more epic Buggles/Seventh Wave progressive electronic pop. It’s incredible with it’s theme, song structure, beautiful melodies, and lyrics. The subject is the lab studies done on rhesus monkeys where they substituted the real mother with a wire and cloth mother to see the results on the babies. It’s going to be a classic in this genre. And even after four listens, it still makes me cry. Maybe it’s the animal love in me and how close I have gotten to them in the last twenty years, but I dare say no one could come away with a dry eye from this absolute diamond of a song.

SchoolTree is doing yet another CD for the RPM of 2012 and is said to be a bit different than this one, but I feel safe that the song writing will be great, as Lainey is a perfectionist with her recordings. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED!!! I wait for more music from this progressive pop goddess. - Prognaut


""SchoolTree is fronted by Lainey SchoolTree, who brings a mix of pop and classical influences.""

SchoolTree is fronted by Lainey SchoolTree, who brings a mix of pop and classical influences. While she might be compared superficially with Tori Amos her piano sound is more rooted in the classical tradition; she’s a natural performer who has also lent her talents to performances with Bent Wit Cabaret. Guitarist Brendan Burns plays an ultra-modern Klein guitar, that players like David Torn and Bill Frisell have been known to use; it is apparent from his playing that taste in gear is not the only quality that makes him a peer of these gentlemen. - Boston Band Crush


""It’s as if Imogen Heap, Tori Amos, and even Danny Elfman himself had made an appearance throughout Schooltree’s music.""

Starting off the night is composer, performer, Steamy Bohemian and audio engineer/producer dynamo Lainey Schaulbaum aka Schooltree, who will command your ears with her melting pot of sounds. After checking out a few of her songs, my heart was racing with pure joy. It’s as if Imogen Heap, Tori Amos, and even Danny Elfman himself had made an appearance throughout Schooltree’s music. - Boston Band Crush


""The waking dream of "The Orange Grove" arches softly through the space between you and it, until you realize it’s all but flowing directly through you.""

We are very, very used to hearing Lainey of Schooltree sort of, well, we’ll just say it, goofing off as one of the Steamy Bohemians. "The Orange Grove" is not some kind of clown that is here to amuse you or make you laugh. It instead stretches its neck out like some awakening animal – or maybe an animal that has a hangover and can’t figure out how it came to be sleeping in this particular tree, because it sure doesn’t remember.

The waking dream of "The Orange Grove" arches softly through the space between you and it, until you realize it’s all but flowing directly through you. The most direct personification of this track comes through in the vocal, which cuts a smooth path through the pond leaving barely a ripple in its wake. While this song has a definite sense of flow, it is also very rhythmic, as if the whole thing is being driven by some distant inner machinery.

Between the concrete piano chords and the flowing, ethereal strings, "The Orange Grove" sort of keeps you in and out of the dream. Lainey Schulbaum’s voice is a constant between both worlds, morphing from one to many back to one without effort or any sense of anything that is not smooth as silk. Is this real life? Will this last forever? If you’re lucky. - Boston Band Crush


"" 'Today' is a pure treat.""

School Tree – “Today”
This track starts off with some good old-timey, “lookin’ through the bottom of a whiskeyglass” piano. Like someone just told Sam to play it again without noticing that Sam is Lainey Schooltree. But she’ll play it again anyway. The overture for this song is sort of languid and lazy, yet smacking of the occasional sense of brilliance and smoothness that will leave most piano players slightly dreamy-eyed. You could listen to this all day, friends. But maybe that’s us piano mans. Men. Whatever.


“Today” opens up with a chorus of identical Laineys, all singing in round form, falling in and out of harmonization as quickly as they pop up in the mix, as if we’re in some weird garden where the flowers grow and recede quickly, and – wouldn’t you know it – they all have little Schooltree-faces on them. And they all have arresting vocal presence. The vocals bop around the mix, dynamically changing their shapes on the fly. The vocals are a more dramatic example of the style established by the piano’s introduction – able to change just about anything on a measure-by-measure basis. These little changes in altitude can occur without any hint or prelude, requiring only a whim on the part of the performer. And the skill to pull them off, which Lainey seems to have in buckets.


As the sketch, “Today” might be considered the purest form of musical expression. While it’s not a scratchy detuned guitar taped in a bedroom and has – by contrast – high production value, this is still the work of one mind. That mind is a beautiful thing, of coure, but it’s still one work. While there are several vocals in the mix, there is only one voice. Like a lesson in macrocosm/microcosm, the vocals, piano and herky-jerky accented drums form a rather impressive three-point figure that is actually made up of about three thousand points that are all moving so well together they seem largely united. “Today” is a pure treat. While this song is a merry-go-round, it is the kind that maintains the inertia to keep spinning (in your mind, man) well after the record/your hard drive is done spinning. You know how that goes. - Boston Band Crush


""With a voice that garners comparisons with Goldfrapp, Tori Amos, Kate Bush and even Freddie Mercury, and a virtuoso command of the keyboard, singer Lainey SchoolTree is a strong frontwoman who becomes two or three times actual size on stage. Believe it.""

SchoolTree‘s performance will be a special one, featuring original choreography of Jen Kenneally with Darren Bunch along with Karin Webb. With a voice that garners comparisons with Goldfrapp, Tori Amos, Kate Bush and even Freddie Mercury, and a virtuoso command of the keyboard, singer Lainey SchoolTree is a strong frontwoman who becomes two or three times actual size on stage. Believe it. Guitarist Brendan Burns, while capable of pyrotechnics when called for, really shines in this band for his subtlety. Not many acts can get away with nonchalantly touting that their awesomeness will be inexorable in their listing for this show on their web site, but these guys get a pass, and you’ll understand if you are wise and/or lucky enough to attend. You can check a review of their song “The Orange Grove” by C.D. on Songs right here on BBC. - Boston Band Crush


""Broadway-by-way-of-Danceteria chanteuse Lainey SchoolTree has an elegant new album, My Metal Mother.""

For an askew, metallic take on the Broadway showtune tradition, have a listen to Lainey SchoolTree’s just-released My Metal Mother. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform at Cafe 939 back some time ago. She has a lovely, technically accomplished and emotionally expressive voice, accompanying herself on piano that night. On this recording, she performs on piano, synths and drums, doing all her own writing, arranging and recording.

The album starts with a traditional ballad, “After You’re Gone”, yet it incorporates synthetic flavorings that give it a bite, and by the time we get to later compositions, and especially the final track, we’re in an entirely different and unexpected place. There are glimmers of 70s soul, 80s synth-pop, and German electronica – all against a charming backdrop of musical theater. Songs like “You Never Go Through” and “Ordinary Life” have those electro-pop touches that add dimension and an interesting twist. Lyrically, there’s surprising darkness and depth that gives this recording a slowly unfolding quality that greatly rewards repeated listens.

“We go into holding on, straight to losing control
into love and despair, into bottomless holes
into what you despise, into enemy eyes
into what we all know’s just ordinary life.”

“Hey, was it the death you wanted to die?
did you get to close your eyes?
was it all nice and dignified?”
- “Ordinary Life”

“Disappearing” is quietly heartbreaking; beautiful in its simplicity of voice and piano; “The Orange Grove” layers Lainey’s ethereal vocals and adds a touch of electronica to produce something dreamlike and psychedelic. The title track, which closes the album, is the most delightfully alien; it’s a walk through Kraftwerk ruins while contemplating lineage – “My metal mother / gives me food and water / to love, she would aspire / but her heart is made of wire. / my human father / measures my progress / rates my acclimation to a life of deprivation.”

Unique and compelling… highly recommended. - Boston Survival Guide


""Broadway-by-way-of-Danceteria chanteuse Lainey SchoolTree has an elegant new album, My Metal Mother.""

For an askew, metallic take on the Broadway showtune tradition, have a listen to Lainey SchoolTree’s just-released My Metal Mother. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform at Cafe 939 back some time ago. She has a lovely, technically accomplished and emotionally expressive voice, accompanying herself on piano that night. On this recording, she performs on piano, synths and drums, doing all her own writing, arranging and recording.

The album starts with a traditional ballad, “After You’re Gone”, yet it incorporates synthetic flavorings that give it a bite, and by the time we get to later compositions, and especially the final track, we’re in an entirely different and unexpected place. There are glimmers of 70s soul, 80s synth-pop, and German electronica – all against a charming backdrop of musical theater. Songs like “You Never Go Through” and “Ordinary Life” have those electro-pop touches that add dimension and an interesting twist. Lyrically, there’s surprising darkness and depth that gives this recording a slowly unfolding quality that greatly rewards repeated listens.

“We go into holding on, straight to losing control
into love and despair, into bottomless holes
into what you despise, into enemy eyes
into what we all know’s just ordinary life.”

“Hey, was it the death you wanted to die?
did you get to close your eyes?
was it all nice and dignified?”
- “Ordinary Life”

“Disappearing” is quietly heartbreaking; beautiful in its simplicity of voice and piano; “The Orange Grove” layers Lainey’s ethereal vocals and adds a touch of electronica to produce something dreamlike and psychedelic. The title track, which closes the album, is the most delightfully alien; it’s a walk through Kraftwerk ruins while contemplating lineage – “My metal mother / gives me food and water / to love, she would aspire / but her heart is made of wire. / my human father / measures my progress / rates my acclimation to a life of deprivation.”

Unique and compelling… highly recommended. - Boston Survival Guide


""...'Everyman' is an exceptional, extraordinary track in almost every sense of the word.""

To not love Schooltree is to not know them. Trust me, you want to know them. You want to be friends with them, you see? It is my hope that this post helps you get to know them a little better. And if that doesn’t work, then you can meet them live and in the flesh tonight! They are making their own brand of beautiful, joyful noise tonight at Church (Facebook event) with Goli (who you saw in last year’s version of next week’s special Valentine Time’s Day Edition of C.D. On Songs) as well as What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?, who you last saw in a “longest band name” competition with Michael J. Epstein. Who won? Ask them tonight. At Church.

School Tree – “Everyman (Live)”
[Go Download It!]

Despite the commoner song title and the huddled masses of its album art, “Everyman” is an exceptional, extraordinary track in almost every sense of the word. As a live recording, we hold it to a slightly different standard, and, like a proud person with a broken leg, it refuses to adhere to the lower standards and will hold the door open for itself, thankyouverymuch. If not for the extra bit of reverb in the mix and the lusty applause of the audience at the end of the track, it might be a studio track, so clean and crisp is not just the sound, but the performance. But we are dealing with a pro here.

“Everyman” is a shapeshifter of a track – it doesn’t simply change from man to wolf and back again, but it goes through several iterations and changes its appearance almost at will over the course of the six-minute runtime. Sometimes, these continuing changes produce a creature that is clumsy and unaccustomed to its new shape. This song, however, is very comfortable in its own skin.

This track’s coda is where things really begin slamming, Schooltree (the woman) starts pounding the piano and ups the vocal ante a bit, while Schooltree (the band) matches the energy level while maintaining such a tight sense of cohesion that we hope they are getting paid well by someone. The penultimate part of the outro is highlighted by a gnarly guitar solo over Schooltree’s solid, melodic piano figure. It’s kind of like “Layla” except a lot more plodding – yet with a little extra zippier electricity to it. The composition takes some interesting turns that aren’t so proggy as to throw you off the ride, but aren’t so boring as to be fully expected. Yet these turns – like the composition itself – are a delight. - Boston Band Crush


"SchoolTree’s “Metal Mother” makes you want more (but hold the cheese)"

Every November is National Novel Writing Month and every February brings the RPM Challenge, in which some 1,700 artists or bands agree to use only that month to record an album of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes. But while the wretchedly nicknamed NaNoWriMo has produced by its own admission “a lot of crap” and a breakthrough novel in “Water for Elephants,” the RPM Challenge locally has been good mainly for some extremely interesting work that generates excitement for an artist whose next album will hopefully not be squeezed into 28 days of writing, recording and producing.

So it is with “My Metal Mother,” a 35.8-minute album by SchoolTree that has a release party Thursday at Precinct in Somerville’s Union Square. While SchoolTree performs as a full band at the release party, the album is all Lainey SchoolTree herself — writing, playing, arranging and sequencing.

SchoolTree (the woman) is a painstaking crafter of sound, if not an outright artisan of sound, as is obvious after a good listen to Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys’ “SteamShipKillers” or “Technicolor Radio,” the comedy album she put out with Niki Luparelli as The Steamy Bohemians. (And believe me, all the listens are good.) So it’s safe to assume that despite having only 672 hours in which to start and finish “My Metal Mother,” it’s as she intended. And that means “piano-driven songs featuring odd time signatures, sometimes unusual chord changes, synthesizers, vocal harmonies and big drums,” as she puts it, a melodramatic melange of “avant pop” or “electroprog.” Like Goldfrapp on Broadway. (Or, for slightly different generations, Tori Amos or Kate Bush on Broadway.)

In a way, the first minute of the first track is a pretty strong warning for some for what’s ahead. If you can take 37 seconds of unadulterated vocoder a cappella followed by a burst of music that you’ll swear you heard watching a terrible movie’s third-act montage on VHS in 1983 — well, you can take everything “My Metal Mother” can throw at you.

For me, barely. SchoolTree’s fondness for cheese isn’t something I applaud; not because I loathe the 1980s, but because there’s better, sharper flavors underneath the cheese that I enjoy more (and are less fattening). SchoolTree’s voice is simply beautiful, and it’s most beautiful simply. I gritted my teeth to get through the first track, “After You’re Gone” and smiled blissfully when the pure vocals and piano of “You Never Go Through” followed it. Too many other tracks are frustrating because there’s a viscous coating of synthesizer clinging to SchoolTree’s natural, exhilaratingly crisp voice.

One hates to be critical of an experience SchoolTree describes as “transformative,” though.

“It was an amazing and often painful exercise in subverting perfectionism, not eating or sleeping, and consolidating my roles as producer, engineer, artist and nutcase,” she says. “It almost broke my brain, but then it saved my soul.”

And most of the album works for me despite the artist’s craving to go wandering in diaphanous gowns through floral groves under starlit skies yadda yadda. (This bit of reductionism, in retrospect, is inspired by the track “The Orange Grove.” Its ethereal moaning causes me to moan a bit as well, but the song also has a super appealing dark streak, with lyrics reminding you, “Don’t wake the baby from its psychotic dream.”) The title track, referring to social isolation experiments performed on monkeys, is terrifically creepy as well.

Most of what keeps me listening is SchoolTree’s sharpness and wit. There may be an occasional lyrical clunker — she uses “sever” to rhyme with “forever,” but what the hell, so did Placebo — but her mordancy is so seductive it matters less than even the synthesizer overload. (See the band live and you also benefit from the fact that she’s totally hot.)

“Tell me that you’ll love me forever, tell me that you’ll always be mine. Tell me that our love never severs, not until the end of time,” SchoolTree sings on the standout track “Foreverish,” on which even the name is awesome. “Or until you change your mind.” - Cambridge Day


Discography

My Metal Mother, (RPM Challenge, 2011)
Everyman (Live), (Single, 2012)
Rise (March 2013)

Photos

Bio

Schooltree conjures elements of rock-opera in highly crafted, piano-driven, guitar-laden rock arrangements that explore both gritty, melodic riffs and ambient textural detail. Their debut album Rise offers a modern spin on classic 70’s era AOR, with big, multi-tracked guitars and vocal harmonies, compelling lyrical content, subtle humor, and majestic gravitas. A few points of reference include Kate Bush, Queen, Grizzly Bear, early Genesis, Laura Nyro.

At the helm of this project is composer / vaudevillian / audio producer Lainey Schooltree (The Steamy Bohemians, Jerkus Circus, Bent Wit Cabaret), whose emotional intensity, quirky wit, and sophisticated musicality combine creating a larger-than-life master of dynamic shift on stage, delivering animated and passionate performances. Citing influences from Queen to Grizzly Bear, her writing is suffused with unpredictable changes and an unorthodox tonality; listeners often find a Schooltree song immediately recognizable as such. Lainey has performed to sold out crowds in Boston, New York, and Providence, and received press in The Boston Globe, The Herald, The Weekly Dig, The Boston Metro, The Boston Phoenix, The Noise Boston, Northeast Performer Magazine, Comedian Magazine (NYC), Somerville Times, Worcester Magazine, The Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Black Canvas, and others.