The Bradbury Press
Gig Seeker Pro

The Bradbury Press

Band Pop Rock

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"THE BRADBURY PRESS"

Its sometimes easy to forget that there is such a thing as a good pop band. Then a band like The Bradbury Press comes along to remind cynics that well-crafted songs and tuneful vocals develop not just in the black hearts of scheming producers, but also grow organically from a genuine desire to play music.

A solid ensemble with a musical rapport that comes accross even in short tunes, The Bradbury Press gives a good name to the creation of popular music. Though drummer Greg Garcia has been with the band just a year, the other members have played together since 1999 and the cohesiveness of the group comes accross.

On their albums, Darren Golden's vocals stand out in front of the band's sound. Golden evokes a warbling style reminiscent of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Adam Duritz of Counting Crowes, both bands that The Bradbury Press list as influences. Their instrumentation is similarly polyvalent, lacing seemingly omnipresent finger-picking guitar melodies over reggaesque rhythms in one tune, driving rock stylings in another and steady young country beats in a third.

A band like The Bradbury Press is a treat to see in a small venue because they bring enough energy to fill the room and combine that with musicianship that makes it worth sticking close to the stage.
- MISSOULA INDEPENDENT


"CD REVIEW / THE FRONT: THE BRADBURY PRESS"

One thing I do thoroughly enjoy about The Front is the sophistication of the lyrics. Without even listening to the music, I could tell this band is about more than drugs, sex and rock 'n roll. Their lyrics, by means of metaphors and a well-rounded vocabulary, resonate deeply into real, yet not totally transparent human experiences. "Past the clouds into your eyes can you say.... nevermore ... when we were young all the structure in our lives it ran its own course ... awakened child rolls its eyes and all the lies they come back to the source." Nice. Every song has a literary jewel like this.

But what about the music? What I like about The Bradbury Press is that you can actually hear the individual notes in their chords when they strum their guitars, rather than the predominance of white noise from highly distorted power chords. The acoustic guitar work on this CD is very articulate and played with taste, but what I find unique is how the bass guitar lines of most songs don't simply follow the root notes of the guitar, but integrate various note inversions, counterpoints and other clever melodic techniques that convert normal guitar chords into catchy polychords or arrangements. Now that's playing outside of the box.

The Front offers many musical goodies. The song "White Picket Fence" creates a nice transition between jazz swing, acoustic rock and reggae. "Domino" has some smooth slide guitar work that will likely test your patience far less than the slide guitar on "Freebird." And finally, "Country Ditty" is exactly that: a bouncy, boot kickin' tune with banjo and a very convincing country guitar solo.
- Krispen Hartung, Boise Weekly


"The Bradbury Press - The Front"

I don't know if you could call it a trend just yet, but it's at least worth mentioning that two of the more intriguing entries among the latest batch of indie-rock discs I've been listening to recently play down the traditional rock and roll subject matter of love and relationships in favor of more worldly, philosophical lyrics.

Of course, once you've named your band The Bradbury Press, you pretty much have to bring some substance to your game if you want to be taken seriously.

Nobody's laughing here. This Seattle-based quartet has created an interesting, engaging, even thought-provoking album in The Front. Building off an acoustic base in the manner of Dave Matthews or early Counting Crows, the Press -- Darren Golden on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dave Brewer on lead guitar and vocals, Travis Hartman on bass and Greg Garcia on drums -- craft an album's worth of intelligent, tuneful roots-rock. The genre might be labeled melodic Americana, basic guitar-bass-drums arrangements with occasional piano and Hammond accents. There's also a Michael Stipe influence evident in the steely intensity of Golden's lead vocals.

Best of all, though, are the smart and sometimes wry lyrics of tracks like "Dive," in which the breaking-free Golden declares (among other things) "I got tired of preachers who didn't know what the hell they were talking about." Musically the song has a bit of a Shawn Mullins feel with its spoken word verses telling an oblique story full of symbolism and allegory before kicking into the soaring, purposeful chorus "I'm gonna dive / To change my life."

Later on "Drown" offers a tight, dark little number whose dense, exotic feel, double-time tempo and eerie melody reek of Dave Matthews, complete with spidery Boyd Tinsley-ish picking and tremendous vocal intensity on a downbeat lyric about "drowning in the water" of loneliness.

For contrast, they follow with "Running Through My Mind," a superb, steady-building, beautiful mid-tempo love song that sounds like acoustic R.E.M. crossed with early Jayhawks, and fits like a comfy shirt. Brewer takes on lead vocal duties for a pair of similarly upbeat tunes, "Better Day" and "Falling Up," featuring uplifting, lilting melodies that feel familiar but are brand new.

Other notes: Jason Homey contributes some smoking electric banjo (no, really, it's very cool…) on the aptly-named "Country Ditty," bringing the band's alt-country influences to the forefront. "Ditty" and "Where Do We Go" are also perhaps the most relationship-focused tunes here, albeit ones examining missed connections and other misunderstandings.

"Domino," one of the most interesting cuts here, plays on the old sci-fi conceit explored in Back To The Future, The Butterfly Effect and a hundred short stories, about how each small choice we make shapes and changes our entire future. "We create tomorrow with every breath we take / Every choice is a domino" goes the chorus of this brooding, well-crafted tale of fate and consequence.

The occasional lyrical stumble aside -- which I'd ascribe to trying too hard -- The Front is a very strong album, a musical suite that runs ribbons of melancholy through a steady undercurrent of optimism and intelligence. This mature, perceptive disc left me feeling better than when I started, and looking forward to hearing much more from The Bradbury Press in the future. - Jason Warburg, Daily Vault


"INDIE MUSIC: The Bradbury Press/The Front"

Finding your way can be a lonely and sad pursuit. We've all been there--some may never leave the relative safety of being lost. It's rare to find music which celebrates this universal search, even as it allows a bit of room for healthy wallowing. All 12 tracks on The Front from The Bradbury Press strike just such a balance quite impressively. Neither so sad as to send you reaching for the tissue or razor blades, nor so sweet as to send you running for the insulin or barf bag. Lyrically very real, musically very strong, this release covers all of the real stuff of life without being heavy-handed or brooding; preachy or saccharine. A running theme of hopeful, glass-half-full searching (for oneself, for a connection, for a way to identify and be identified) the band's sophomore effort, The Front, certainly seems to find them headed in just the right direction to find all of these things and more.

Lyrical highlights come in the form of the cool, smooth Lost, a song for which Lead Guitarist Dave Brewer does the honors and asks reflectively, “Who's to blame for making you this way? I don't like them anymore”, bringing to mind that one guy who treated you like pearls--even when you felt like swine. Strong, promising writing and musicianship abounds throughout. The ballad Running Through My Mind, a seemingly very personal eulogy to a love lost forever, sports an interestingly Norwegian Wood-esque intro sans sitar, and makes you feel like you might be getting just a glimpse into its writer’s very soul. The tongue-in-cheek Country Ditty forces a smile of remembered lovers' spats in the same way Barenaked Ladies' One Week did in 1998, with it's own sense of humor. Stilted lines like, "It doesn't matter how I try to say it; my heart, like a fire, burns for you," are held up by top-notch bluegrass-inspired guitar- and banjo-picking (the latter courtesy of guest player Jason Homey). Boasting the chorus "We can change the future with every move we make," the song Domino, presents three scenarios of choice and consequence for one man in a single situation, and shows a bit of personal pathos which forces one to think, even if just for a moment.

The Front as a whole is a good, solid effort portending the makings for something truly great. This young band -- only a year in its current incarnation -- seems to have found its wings. Infusing what might seem at first glance an obligatory hats-off to such creative forbears as Counting Crows and Dave Matthews Band with notable harmonies and a bit of a country hook, they create an engaging and quirky style quite their own. Lead singer Darren Golden's deep, rich vocals blend well with artful musicianship in the persons of Lead Guitarist Brewer, Bassist Travis Hartman and Drummer Greg Garcia.

Check out The Front from The Bradbury Press. The band is a great little find and the CD is one you'll only enjoy more with each listen.
- Robin Sisson - The Cheers


Discography

The Front - Released February 2005
Hanscom - Debut CD, Released October 2002
Live at The Crocodile Cafe - Soon to be released in 2008

CDs available at: www.cdbaby.com/cd/bradbury

Photos

Bio

Praised at once for their intelligent lyrics and their pop sensibilities, The Bradbury Press have the uncanny ability to make thought-provoking music that sounds familiar the first time you hear it.

With their latest CD "The Front", The Bradbury Press demonstrate this ability perfectly, combining melodic storytelling and inspired riffs with an clear vision that steers clear of rootsy melodrama or jamband boredom. Songs like "Domino", "Dive", and "The Front" strike the balance almost perfectly, painting complex scenes
laced with optimism onto a refined musical canvas.

"I want to write about ideas that interest me; the choices we make, and the way we influence eachother's lives, even in small ways, every day", says Darren Golden, Bradbury's main songwriter.

Led by the immediately recognizable voice of Golden, The Bradbury Press have invite quick comparisons to acoustic rockers Dave Matthews and Counting Crows, who sport similarly distinct vocals and thoughtful
lyrics stacked over acoustic based tracks. But this is no one man show, the band is a band in the truest sense of the word, with Dave Brewer(Electric Guitar and the band's other vocalist/songwriter), Travis Hartman(Bass), and Greg Garcia (Drums) each contributing their talents to the whole. Call it Popular Americana or Rhythmic Roots Rock, The Bradbury Press call Seattle their home. Better known for spawning indie rockers like Modest Mouse and labels like Sub Pop, Seattle also hosts a thriving acoustic scene. Having cut their teeth at the Seattle proving ground, The Tractor Tavern, opening for artists like The Clumsy Lovers, The Clintons, Tom Lambda and The Paperboys and The Samples the Bradburies have been criss-crossing the Western States in their mini-bus, Shelley, creating new fans in their wake.

From the beachside party haunt of Canes in San Diego to Seattle's million-plus world famous Bumbershoot Music Festival, these boys have as much fun offstage as they do on, making new friends and fans in every
town. Drummer Greg Garcia notes, "We LOVE playing out but the best thing about shows is almost always the new friends we make." Judging by the band's consistently busy schedule, they are making a lot of friends.