The Gulf
Gig Seeker Pro

The Gulf

Band Alternative Rock

Calendar

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

Music

Press


"An album of extraordinary measure"

Filled with ambient emotion and brilliant subtlety, The Gulf’s piano-fueled jazz/pop on their opening track “Waking” is a refreshing change from you average rock and roll din. This song is strictly thinking man’s music filled with rich nuance and stark imagery. If this tune doesn’t hit the Top 40, the powers that be aren’t doing their jobs!

Slide guitar dominates the texture on “The Missionary” as its easy groove lulls you into a euphoric sense of well-being. The bizarre lullaby of “God’s Machine Gun” turns into a frenetic wake-up call on God’s little mortals…time. “Time is God’s machine gun.” Elegantly put.

Piano riffs pop back into the melody on “Get the Feeling” while the vocals get crowded and hurried. This is a wacky and wild little number. Then, the ethereal, organ-fueled “Sensation Z”, reminiscent of Ray Manzurek and The Doors in their heyday, ignites the aural sky in all its glorious pageantry. While the laid-back, harmonica-dotted “Nothing but Neon” illustrates a magical walk down any street through the night, you realize just how originally gifted The Gulf are. The acoustic finger picking of “Tell Me it’s Alright” not only validates their songwriting savvy, but their musical talents as well.

Boasting an album of extraordinary measure, The Gulf have secured their spot in the Boston music scene with Mind in a Helmet.
- Metronome Magazine


"cliche-free"

It's [Chinatown] a really rich set of songs- mystery and poetics
in the songs, smartly arranged and played- cliche-free from beginning to
end as well!

David Greenberger, Duplex Planet/ National Public Radio - Duplex Planet/NPR


"Making waves"

“…epic arrangements and surreal lyrics…Their irresistible melodies find receptive crowds in both hipster and mainstream listeners.” - Metronome Magazine


"well-constructed dark pop"

"They are creating vast arrangements of music no doubt due to the fact that members of their band come from Seattle, New Orleans, Massachusetts and New Jersey. It is well-constructed dark pop music."
blogspot.com - Blogspot.com


"The Gulf Says It All"

"...An awesome blend of universal and individual viewpoints that are subtly identifiable. Really desciptive one syllable verbs and nouns like that evoke something without saying much...or too much. And good melodies abound." - Dan Leininger, New Orleans Producer, Screenwriter and Musician


"A lucid dream"

The Gulf Mind in a Helmet
Recorded at UltraCold Studios in Boston, MA
Produced and Arranged by the Gulf


Mind in a Helmet starts off like a lucid dream. Lead-off track "Waking" is a mix between the fantasy worlds of classic Pink Floyd with the realism of music rooted in folk. Such is the mood and vibe that the six-piece Boston band loves to create: sixties psychedelic merging with alt-country, or Gram Parsons on acid, if you will.

The band is also fond of bi-polar shifts, not just from song to song, but within songs. "God's Machine Gun" is the album's best example of this spastic tendency. The song starts off with a campfire sing-along proclaiming that "time's God's machine gun," only to abruptly suggest in speed-up Phish mode, "run, run, run, you better run." The listener has fallen down the proverbial rabbit hole for a brief moment until the song returns once again to the sing-along. On "Get the Feeling," the band sounds more along the lines of Beck, which is quite appropriate since Beck is noted for his genre mingling and bouncing. "Get the Feeling" features keyboardist Adam Brock on vocals striking up images of a suburban wasteland and deadened senses: "Woke up outside a pink motel / In a drained swimming pool / In the suburbs of hell / The kind of place that we knew well / And I tried to get breakfast but it was already twelve / Can you help me get the feeling?"

The Gulf's lyrics tend to be left of center, which is not done for quirkiness. "The firehouse is on fire and it's raining underground," sings the band's other vocalist, Adam Garland, on "Waking." The goal of the statement seems to be philosophical pondering and mind-expansion as opposed to just cute wordplay. "The Missionary" finds the Gulf storytelling a la Charlie Daniels Band's "Devil Went Down to Georgia," without the fiddle. "The Missionary" is the story of a missionary stopping by for a visit offering advice.

Overall, the Gulf creates dreamy sonic landscapes and then litters the landscape with philosophical meanderings and vivid images. The music would appeal to fans of Beck, Calexico, Pink Floyd, and the Flaming Lips; all of whom, like the Gulf, tend to be heavy on instrumentation, moods, and less straightforward songwriting.

-David Ryan Polgar - Northeast Perfomer


"The Gulf Comes out of Hibernation"




The Gulf Comes out of Hibernation
by Alexander Moore

“Boston’s not an easy place to live…everything is hard here for a musician, so you need to want it.” Adam Garland of The Gulf would know. He converses so easily and comfortably about the personal and musical path that brought him to this city, his speech inflected by his Texas upbringing and Louisiana musical roots, that you almost think its ordinary. But most Boston musicians don’t have a biography that involves close to a decade playing in New Orleans—“influential in every way,” according to Garland—multiple cross-country moves, and the decision to forgo the shackles (and ample paychecks) of a comfortable corporate job for full-time devotion to music and part-time work in a supermarket. Nor do most Boston musicians break into empty school classrooms to record albums, but that’s another story.

Indeed, Garland’s eclectic musical pedigree and combination of Big Easy humility and Big-thinking dedication comes straight to the fore in his band’s music. The Gulf applies traditional roots instrumentation—pianos, guitars, lap steels, trumpets, cellos, violins—to atmospheric, neo-psychedelic compositions. Their eclecticism and ambitious approach to exploring the surreal outer-limits of the rock format recalls Pink Floyd, but where Floyd championed “space-rock,” The Gulf is very much of this Earth. As atmospheric and expansive as their sound gets, at their core The Gulf are grounded; by the familiar, organic sounds of the acoustic instruments they use, by the do-it-yourself ethos of indie-rock, by their lyrics, dreamlike but rooted in raw emotion and earthy imagery.

The band’s forward-looking compositions and ambition has fit well in Boston, a city known more for its songwriters and composers than its improvisers. “Before Katrina, New Orleans was an easy place to live, and [its easy-going nature is] reflected in its musicians. Boston is tough on musicians—bars close early, there aren’t lots of places to play, the weather…” Garland stops himself, but he’s made his point—Boston doesn’t lend itself to street-corner jams and jazz-fueled parades, and it’s exponentially harder to be a professional musician here than in many other cities. So the area tends to foster ambitious songwriters, and those who want to make a go of it professionally tend to want to push the envelope creatively to differentiate themselves. Considering this, Garland’s decision to settle here begins to make sense--his musical pedigree is New Orleans, but his approach is fully Northeastern.

After making their initial dent in the Boston scene with the self-released EP Mind in a Helmet, Garland and the Gulf have spent much of this year busy with the largely invisible but essential process of fortifying their personnel lineup and recording a full- length disc. “I’ve been staying up all-night, 6 nights straight, working constantly to finish this,” Garland told me, “and we’re planning a run of shows in November and December.” Despite the insomnia, he sounded anything but fatigued, charged, it would seem, by the satisfaction of putting the finishing touches on the project, and the prospect of bringing it out to clubs here and in New York.

So what of the new record? What can people expect when the band reemerges from its self-imposed recording exile? Well, for starters, it was indeed recorded in an empty school classroom which Garland is loath to describe in detail, on equipment he bought with savings from his previous life in a cubicle-farm. Garland suggests it’s a natural evolution from “Mind in a Helmet” with the sextet refining its formula of emotional, sprawling, layered rock, and, from the tracks I’ve heard, upping the emphasis on lyrics. The complexity of the tracks belie the unorthodox makeshift studio—this is a strong, fully-realized effort from a polished, ambitious group.

Garland discusses his music critically, almost as if he’s talking about another band, and with the self-awareness of a seasoned pro: “It’s layered and conceptual,” he says, and adds that the group aims for “power without melodrama.” Finally, he addresses his lyrics, which are central in shaping the band’s identity. “We get strong reactions to our subject matter,” he makes a point to mention, “We have a dynamic, complex sound, but we always want people to listen to the lyrics.” Indeed, Garland was never at a loss for words during our conversation, and, discussing his music and his background, he projects a folksy, matter-of-fact confidence that never crosses over into arrogance. It’s the kind of understated self-assurance that might allow someone to follow their own path and not look back—even if it leads to empty schoolrooms.

The Gulf will be playing a CD release show at the Lizard Lounge on December 21st - Insite Magazine


"Glorious"

The Gulf changed the locks on a room in the Chinatown building where the keyboardist worked and a set up a studio where they recorded between 12 am and 4 am. They got busted, but they finished their disc, the glorious and aptly-titled "Chinatown". They celebrate its release tonight at 9 at the Lizard Lounge.
- Boston Metro


Discography

"Chinatown" LP 2007
"Mind in a Helmet" EP 2005

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

In the tradition of the Pixies and Morphine, the Gulf is a Boston band breaking out. The story starts with the band “squatting” in a run-down Chinatown school building where they secretly changed the locks on an old storage room and converted it into a makeshift studio. Amazingly, the band used the room for nine months before being discovered, forcing the release of their debut album"Chinatown.”

The six-piece group explores a dreamy sonic landscape in their psychedelic debut, a darkly beautiful album that takes listeners from the circus to the cemetery -- often in the course of a single song. According to Insite Magazine, "The Gulf applies traditional roots instrumentation—pianos, guitars, lap steels, trumpets, cellos, violins—to atmospheric, neo-psychedelic compositions. Their eclecticism and ambitious approach to exploring the surreal outer-limits of the rock format recalls Pink Floyd, but where Floyd championed "space-rock," The Gulf is very much of this Earth. As atmospheric and expansive as their sound gets, at their core The Gulf are grounded; by the familiar, organic sounds of the acoustic instruments they use, by the do-it-yourself ethos of indie-rock, by their lyrics, dreamlike but rooted in raw emotion and earthy imagery."

The unveiling of “Chinatown” is the beginning of a worldwide effort to find support for promotion and distribution. The Gulf's epic live shows and a growing fanbase have made them regulars at top venues throughout the Northeast like the Lizard Lounge, Knitting Factory, The Middle East and John and Peters. The Gulf is now touring and playing to packed houses to promote "Chinatown". Discussions with several indie-labels and distributors are on-going.