SIX RED CARPETS

Six Red Carpets has released their first album, Nightmares + Lullabies, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered solely by the band at their expense as they don't have a label. The Italian alt-rockers have hit on something truly unique, with an album featuring 13 tracks that will have you drawing comparisons to bands from The Clash to U2 to Porcupine Tree. Band members Majlco, Mills and Leaf are tremendous in their combinations of edgy guitars, effects and vocals. The entire album is available as a free download, we'll start you off with a couple of the best from the EP here. Highly recommended...likely one of the best bands you've never heard of. - http://localvertical.blogspot.com

Six Red Carpets, a Milanese 3-piece, released their debut album ‘Nightmares + Lullabies’ at the end of June. As is fast becoming the norm the album was issued free of charge for anyone with the time/inclination to download it. So Six Red Carpets were accorded no headlines or calls from important media outlets about their novel approach. Freebies are so passé these days you see, we’ve become ambivalent and somewhere along the way some important music has been lost. So you should put some time aside getting this album on your hard drive because it is a beautiful record. There are flashes of Smashing Pumpkins and early Whipping Boy throughout the 13 tracks, the production is lush and the strings when they appear illuminate the scene rather than appear like an afterthought. The most pleasing aspect of ‘Nightmares + Lullabies’ is that it sounds so vibrant and ripe with possibilities. ‘Vanilla Scent’ and ‘The Dream of / Billy Kite’ are my current favourites but there are lots more besides to enjoy. KD

Six Red Carpets - The Dream Of / Billy Kite

Six Red Carpets - Vanilla Scent - http://mp3hugger.com

The Six Red Carpets are a 3-piece band out of Italy. I know of very few bands out of Italy and at best I don’t think there’s a booming indie scene in Italy, at least it’s not known for that. The Six Red Carpets have gone to great lengths in attempts to promote their music. First off their album is available free on their website. They are currently signed to no label and are promoting their LP Nightmares + Lullabies by themselves.

They actually asked me for some advice on promoting their records, I had no really meaningful advice. I said to just play gigs and go to more blogs in hopes of reaching more people and gaining more fans. I might have said to possibly move to better locale but that’s kind of a mean thing to say… and not as easy as well.

I have a hard time describing their music, it’s not pop and it’s more of a straight up alternative style of rock, someone like The Hold Steady reminds me of them. I also liked what I heard from their myspace and they sound far from being raw despite being different from the typical pop rock band that generally gets me hooked.

The Six Red Carpets have a great range of music on their album, they make it hard to pin point a certain sound they have. They are rarely all over the place at the same time and I think I enjoyed listening to this music as if it were a post-rock outfit. The vocals are a little tough to listen to, it’s almost contrasting as he sings in a semi high voice that sticks out in on the subtleness of the music. I started disliking the vocals as I listened to the album more and more, lyrically I’m unsure of what affect it has on the music as well.

The album is very very solid, great for a band without a label and going through with the DIY route. I think the problem they have for now is that they don’t do anything specifically great to propel them to instant success. It would be wise if they slowly built up a fan base as best as they can and see if they can hook up with a label, perhaps move to a better location to play shows. Otherwise it’s tough for a band that doesn’t make pop music to do well based on internet hype.

The Six Red Carpets make great music and hopefully they can garner some more fans and success. - http://awmusic.ca

Die van Six Red Carpets hebben het gevonden. Maak een album, en een kortverhaal dat het album inleidt, en bied dat aan. Kwestie van de mensen iets extra te geven en op te vallen in de oneindige wereld van netlogs, netlabels, en andere netreleases. Het is niet eens zo'n slecht album. Stevige rocknummers die het niveau van de tegenwoordig nogal belabberde Afrekening zouden kunnen opkrikken. Stubru zou er spijt van krijgen dat ze in het commerciële wereldje van Jim en TMF zijn gestapt. De songs doen me wat denken aan een mengeling tussen QOTSA en Soundgarden, en klinken stuk voor stuk goed. Niet slecht voor een gratis plaat. Je moet wel een pdf-reader hebben om het boekje te lezen, maar dat lijkt me standaard-bewapening voor copyleft-activisten. - http://bandieter.blogspot.com

Six Red Carpets know how to put out a free online album. Nightmares + Lullabies have 45 minutes of well produced rock music somewheres between alternative and progressive rock. Add to that a downloadable 16 page booklet of lyrics and drawings and you have a product most people would pay for. Fortunately for us, the band chose to put this one out for free. The Italian trio sports a indie sound that is slightly centered in the 90s and leans a little toward Smashing Pumpkins. Vocalist Mills has a pleasing nasal quality that has just enough tension to be interesting. Percussionist Leaf and Guitarist / Synth player Majlco fills in the rest admirably in a way that makes it hard to believe this is a trio. Most of the album has a medium hard, up-tempo quality but occasionally a nice dreamy ballad like “Vanilla Scent” will surprise you. This indie group has a good chance to garner a substantial cult following from this intriguing debut effort.

The album is available in 320kbps MP3. - http://freealbums.blogsome.com

I thought I’d offer up something sort of new today: I got an email the other day from Italy’s Six Red Carpets telling me about their debut disk, Nightmares + Lullabies.
At first glance, this trio didn’t seem like the kind of music I’m usually interested in. It falls somewhere between pop and rock – kind of alternative, kind of not – maybe a little indie. But I found something in the songs on the Six Red Carpets MySpace that made me stop and go back for a second listen. The band recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced Nightmares + Lullabies themselves and it has a sort of raw, DIY feel to it. The music is instantly catchy. Singer Mills has a nasally voice that, for some strange reason, brings to mind the way Scorpions vocalist Klaus Meine sounded many years ago.

The album was actually released June 28, so it’s been out a while – the band working the blogosphere to promote it. They’re also giving it away, as part of a downloadable package that includes an e-booklet, a video, and a short story that attempts to explain the concept behind the album. I’ll let you check that out and interpret the meaning yourself.

In the meantime, check out these songs. If you like what you’re hearing – and I think you might – go the Six Red Carpets’ MySpace and you can get it gratis. - http://licorice-pizza.blogspot.com

Il paraîtrait que l’industrie du
disque va mal et celle-ci ne s’est toujours pas remise de sa cuite depuis
l’évolution des formats musicaux et des nouvelles technologies.

Les lois peuvent pleuvoir, il est bien
trop tard, et il leur faudrait mieux étudier le comportement des clients plutôt
que de chercher à les sanctionner sans réfléchir à des solutions alternatives.
Les grosses maisons de disques ne couleront pas à cause d’internet et les
petites y trouvent le moyen de s’exposer dans le monde entier. Alors de quel
côté se ranger ?

Troisième solution, c’est le cas de
Six Red Carpets
qui a préféré tout faire tout seul pour préparer, produire et diffuser son
album de façon gratuite.

En ces temps de récession qui serre la
ceinture à ceux qui veulent maigrir, je trouve cette manière de faire de la
musique particulièrement reconnaissante. - http://rocknblog.fr

J’ai décidément la cote auprès des groupes inconnus américains : après Sarah SabDAU, le groupe Six Red Carpets m’a contacté cette nuit pour diffuser dans son intégralité son album, mais comme il est bon, autant le chroniquer par la même occasion)

Que pouvons / devons-nous savoir de Six Red Carpets outre leur nationalité outre-atlantique ? Il sont plutôt du genre altruistes, puisqu’ils n’hésitent pas à proposer dans son intégralité et en très bonne qualité leur album 100% fait maison “Nightmares + Lullabies” : un des avantages de ne pas être signé - encore - sur un label. Pourtant, l’on se demande pour quelle raison cette dite signature n’a pas encore été possible, puisque tout y est : un véritable univers, un son très personnel, un album construit autour d’une histoire (ahhh les concept albums, ça manquait), un fil conducteur distillé à travers 13 titres, une voix captivante, des choeurs bien placés et qui font mouche, un ebooklet bien foutu - tout en pastel, rappelant fortement l’univers de Burton, voire la série déjantée Lenore, Cute Little dead Girl … le tout pour donc, histoire d’en remettre une couche, 0 euro.
Ce rock (voire pop, après réécoute) mélodique fait dans l’efficacité la plus totale, sans pour autant s’affranchir de subtilités prenant souvent la forme d’arpèges discrètes agrémentée d’effets flanger d’une autre époque, ou encore quelques nappes quasi effacées mais arrangées pour se fondre à la brutalité de certains riffs. Bien qu’américain, le combo sonne davantage comme un groupe britannique : il suffit d’écouter Here’s to the Nightmare ou encore Run Over Free pour s’en convaincre (seul le côté ultra gras de la guitare façon Les Paul peut trahir l’origine)
Au delà d’une très bonne surprise, Nightmares + Lullabies, réalisé, mixé et produit par Six Red Carpets (on n’est jamais aussi bien servi que par soi-même) est à écouter (en 1 traite et dans l’ordre, si possible), à découvrir, à télécharger, à diffuser, comme peut le laisser sous-entendre leur message envoyé :
Ce qu’on pourra reprocher - peut-être ? - à Six Red Carpets ? D’abuser parfois, tels les inusables et immortels AC/DC, d’une géométrie rythmique calquée d’un titre à l’autre … www.myspace.com/sixredcarpets - http://www.le-hiboo.com

Increíble las cosas que uno se encuentra en Internet, y más si es un music geek. Les presento al grupo Six Red Carpets, originario de Italia. No conozco a ciencia cierta de qué parte de Italia son, ni cómo los encontré, sólo recuerdo que estaba en MySpace, haciendo nada, y vi un grandísimo “Regalamos nuestro CD!” que, obviamente, me despertó la curiosidad. Al principio pensé que “Nightmares+Lullabies” era un virus pero realmente es un freebie de esos que uno no puede perderse.

Six Red Carpets es un grupo EXTREMADAMENTE desconocido, imagínense que no tienen más de 9000 visitas en su sitio de Myspace y aparte de eso su canal de Youtube no tiene más de 36 vistas.

Con un sonido levemente psicodélico y a la vez crudo, el disco es cantado en inglés, es completamente gratis y de paso es música indie en su máxima expresión. Es más, le meten mucho sonido alternativo, lo que simplemente consolida todavía más la ya conocida fórmula indie-alternativa que nunca cansa.

Para que estén segur@s de que quieren bajar el CD, les dejo un video de Six Red Carpets tocando en vivo, aparentemente en la sede de un show de radio de Italia:
Además, les presento el video de su canción The dream of Billy Kite. No es la mejor animación que he visto (es más, esa boca del personaje principal parece un simple hueco que se expande y se cierra), pero permite sentir la imágen y overall feeling que el grupo quiere proyectar.
Se me olvidó decir algo importante: no sólo es un CD con trece canciones, si no que también incluye el Ebooklet y una breve historia introductoria al CD escrita por ellos mismos. Nice! - http://mujerrenacentista.wordpress.com

Italian quartet Six Red Carpets shows how a band can make a successful album recording and producing it themselves with no help from a major label. The band’s debut Nightmares + Lullabies is a totally independent album with solid production. Musically, Six Red Carpets has a hard-hitting garage rock sound that falls somewhere between Nirvana and Interpol, with a bit of Ramones punk rock. Nightmares + Lullabies is a surprisingly eclectic rock album.

Six Red Carpets opens the album with “The Weaver Call,” an introduction track composed of light piano and string melodies. It’s a lot like listening to a wordless lullaby, and it establishes the album-long theme of balancing uplifting and dark melodies.

From the introduction, Six Red Carpets moves on to “Twenty Two and the Charm of Gravity.” The track is composed of a simple, droning guitar melody with a driving bass with dark synth melodies in the background.

Lyrically, the song has a Nirvana-like quality of disillusionment. Stephen Mills sings at the chorus, “Pull the Sun outside. Moon and Stars won’t hide. Keep the sun outside. Resist, once in your life.”

Despite the dark vocals of the chorus, “Twenty Two and the Charm of Gravity” features thoughtful, light melodies at this point, providing the enjoyable balance of light and dark melodies that Six Red Carpets does well throughout the album.

Many of the songs on Nightmare + Lullabies feature a simple guitar driven melody familiar to bands like Interpol. “Words Forgetting, Words Forgot” makes you comfortable with these often repetitive, dark melodies. The minimalist nature of Six Red Carpets really shines on the song and will be quickly appreciated by any rock fan.

Of course, Six Red Carpets always seems to slide into more complicated, thoughtful melodies before any of the songs can become monotonous. “Words Forgetting, Words Forgot” features a pleasing guitar solo at the end. Likewise, the droning verses of “Fall Asleep” give way to airy, strummed melodies at the chorus. The band really perfects this formula on “Here’s to the Nightmare” as well as “Angels’ Vanity.”

Later on Nightmares + Lullabies, Six Red Carpets shows more diversity with the powerful acoustic songs “Asphalt Song” and “The Dream of Billy Kite.”

Six Red Carpets makes very few mistakes with Nightmares + Lullabies. The spoken-word portion of “Fall Asleep” is a little absurd. The synth melodies of “Bring Me Noise” are equally overwhelming.

Overall, Nightmare + Lullabies stands out as an example of the great sound an independent band can create all on its own. Six Red Carpets’ mastery of minimalist melodies is appealing, as is the band’s ability to show great balance in their songs.


MuzikReviews.com Assistant Senior Editor-Chris Homer

January 12, 2008 - www.muzikreviews.com