Ten Minute Turns

'Ten Minute Turns - [Brooklyn] - This eccentric outfit's lo-fi, almost primitive shenanigans produce off-kilter melodies too tough to tame. Most notably in "Red Light Room." ' - www.advancecopy.blogspot.com - Advance Copy

"With driving rhythms that are backed by some serious horn action, Ten Minute Turns reminds you to dust off your dancing shoes with their tight harmonies and sharp lyrics in 'Sad Animals.'" - CMJ New Music Report June 2007

While the good folks in Ten Minute Turns get crackin’ on album numero dos, they’ve quietly loosed the Sleepy Cranes EP as a digital release. This collection of songs is softer and slower than the mostly uptempo rock found on their debut Sad Animals, but it’s no less interesting thanks to the songs’ layered, quirky production. Many of the tunes were written before or during the Sad Animals sessions, so if you’re familiar with that disc, you’ll feel right at home here. - forepac.com

Ten Minute Turns is really a two-headed animal — guitarist Alan Foreman and bassist Roger Mason wrote, arranged, recorded, and produced the songs together — and I think that helps make Sad Animals a consistently winning listening experience: they trade vocals off and on, often in the same song; they both have a great ear for melodies and hooks; and they’ve got a playful, everything-often-including-the-kitchen-sink attitude about sound that comfortably blends classic indie-rock, post-punk, drone-rock, and unabashed pop into a cohesive idea.

The album’s percussion is consistently interesting — drums are enhanced with hand-claps, finger-snaps, jittery cymbal flourishes, and sometimes the rhythm section sounds like Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids were backing them up, like they raided a junkyard and banged on metal trash cans and empty pipes. The production is really playful, too: be sure to give the disc a spin with headphones on — some of the more subtle things they do with drum loops and sound effects get magnified with the buds in.

The album’s highlights are many: “C.A.R.L.” is a delightfully quirky pop tune built on a foundation of melodica and Casio-keyboard rhythms that features a fantastic, soaring chorus; “Since You Haven’t Been Around” is a building, muscular rock song, complete with singalong “oh, oh”’s in the chorus; “Calm” nicely recalls Modern English’s “Melt With You,” with its’ heavy synths and acoustic strums; and “Made Up Dreams” starts out quietly before building into a booming, anthemic, sturm-und-drang chorus. My two favorites on the album are title track “Sad Animals,” a bouncy pop tune with a crashing rhythm section, wild horn accompaniment, and a catchy-as-heck chorus, and album closer “Wolf in the Water,” a quiet, moody ballad that grows into a beautiful, epic crescendo and features some gorgeous vocal harmonizing.

Give Sad Animals a try — you’ll be hard-pressed to have more fun with an unsigned band this year.

- forepac.com

A Ten-Minute Profile on Brooklyn's Ten Minute Turns
By Mark Lungariello

Rockers Ten Minute Turns were once described by someone as a blend of classic indie rock, post-punk, drone-rock and unabashed pop. That someone is guitarist's Alan Foreman's brother. Well, the minstrel's kin isn't the only one having difficulty pinning down the group's sound. Band members call themselves "Modern English-influenced"? or even "The Everly Brothers at a rave in a junkyard."

Tough to pin down or not, the quirky quintet (Alan Foreman - guitar, Roger Mason - bass, Jacquee Novak - accordian/synthesizer, Jason Schultheis -drums/samplers, and Peter Forcucci - trash percussion/extras) are currently riding the wave of a blossoming music scene in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. But, the members say their location is about convenience, not artistic trends.

"Us broke artists have to keep moving further and further out and as we make certain neighborhoods "trendy" and "different" (East Village anyone?), the rich kids move in because they want to experience the "bohemian" lifestyle,"? Foreman told us in a recent interview. "What they don't realize is that for a lot of us, we live this way because it's the only way we can. And the only way we know how."

We got the chance to chat it up with Foreman and bassist Roger Mason, college buddies who together write and produce all of the band's material. We chatted up various scenes; the New York scene, the old Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) scene, and perhaps most importantly, the mustache scene.

So tell me how you guys met?
Alan Foreman: Rog and I met in Irene Lijoi's dorm room. We listened to a tape of his high school band; my hair was blonde, his was blue.
Roger Mason: There weren't a ton of musicians at RISD when we were there. There were also no music classes at all. The rock musicians had no choice but to start playing together

AF: After four years of playing together at art school house parties, we went our separate ways but always played in each other's bands. At a certain point, I bought a Pro-Tools setup and we started a recording experiment called 'ten minute turns',? wherein we would actually take ten minute turns at the helm of the computer.
RM: We've always worked on songs like kids play video games, with a kind of joyful obsession.

Bands always hate when people ask them what they sound like. So, what do you sound like?
RM: Nick Drake and Deerhoof playing the theme song from a kids show.
AF: People are always comparing us to all sorts of other bands and musicians. For me it's tough to nail down.

Here at the cheappop.com, we are mustache obsessed. Let's say hypothetically you had to write a song called "Mustache", what are the lyrics to the chorus?
AF: "Turn out the lights... forget about the past... sweaty in my palm like a wad of cash... you know that everything tastes so much better on a moustache..."
RM: "Baby, you're colder than a dead man's mustache, mustache, mustache."

Speaking of, who do you feel has the best mustache ever?
AF: Sam Elliot
RM: I'm most afraid of Ron Jeremy's 'stashe. Ever stop and think about the things that have been on it?

For years now, people have accused the New York music scene of dying out. Agree or Disagree?
AF: I don't know if I totally buy that. Yeah, there are a lot of old rock clubs going the way of the polar bear, but I don't think that necessarily means the scene is dying out.
RM: Some of those famous clubs had terrible sound and a disconcerting smell. I think it's only hard to be a New York band if you plan on making any money.

What are the plans for the band in the future?
AF: One of our original goals was to put out an album every year. Since then we've upped the ante to an album and an EP every year.
RM: Thanks to home recording our albums cost next to nothing to make. We've got a back catalog of hundreds of tracks. We might start a free "single of the month club" for the New Year. We're working toward a bigger live sound. More samplers and more band members. For that we'll need to play larger venues. - thecheappop.com

Visual and audio art go hand in hand with Brooklyn's Ten Minute Turns. Songwriting principals Alan Foreman and Roger Mason met while at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) "where there were no other musicians," according to Mason. They made music together at house parties and eventually made their way to New York. Foreman started work at a cartoon company while Mason became roomates with multi-instrumentalist Jacquee Novak, who later became his girlfriend and joined the band. ("Though we can't remember in what order that all happened," she says with a laugh).

Mason's boss at Animation Collective caught on to the group's buoyant music-which blends Foreman and Mason's dueling lead vocals, guitars and quirky noise samples-and matched them with a new project, the kung fu Nickelodeon cartoon "Three Delivery." Ten Minute Turns is now charged to compose the show's score and wrote the theme song. The show has been picked up for syndication in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada and beyond.

In another visual endeavor, the band (which also includes drummer Jason Schultheis and guitarist Peter Forcucci) can be seen in naked-seeming suits in the dazzling music video for it's song "Long Night Drone." Directed by RISD cohort Neil Forman, the video was recently accepted into the Los Angeles and New York International Independent Film & Video festivals.

- Katie Hasty, Billboard Magazine April 5, 2008 - Billboard Magazine

Whoever accused the New York music scene of dying out should rethink.
Ten Minute Turns is another Brooklyn based act showcasing some great talent.
Alan Foreman (guitar) & Roger Mason (bass) are also the main vocalists and write most of the sing-a-long songs.
Their sound is very versatile including more exotic instruments like accordions and horns. The driving rhythms are an invite to dance and are complemented by some trash percussions and quirky noise samples.
TMT combines memorable melodies, tight harmonies and sharp lyrics to bring you infectiously powerful rock music. - http://youngbohemians.blogspot.com/2008/04/ten-minute-turns.html - Soundtrack of Your Life