Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“Rocknroll gospel revival music for gothgirls and soulboys. Razorsharp songwriting, infectiously catchy and an unpredictable & charismatic frontman. A truly original band. Possibly the best unsigned newcomer in Canada.”
- ChartAttack.com (Canada)
“EYE's must-sees: The Thurston Revival: Vancouver songwriter O'Connell (one name only please) is no standard solo operation. Looking goth but feeling new wave, his songs are built from live, spontaneous samples à la Joseph Arthur, forging a union between gospel-informed ecstasy and synth-pop sadness. The Pop Montreal performance saw a frustrated O'Connell hurl his malfunctioning key-tar at the floor (who knew those things could bounce?), but when god and technology are on his side, The Thurston Revival's electro hymns feel feel just like heaven.”
Stuart Berman, EYE Weekly (Toronto)
- EYE Weekly (Toronto)
“This song just blows me away. This is like one of those perfect songs that everyone can love, instantly danceable and singable and heavily, heavily catchy (despite being structurally interesting and complex). But it also has depth, meaning, musicianship, and really awesome production.
If this was put out by someone who was already successful and got played on radio, it would have the potential to be one of those "perfect" songs that everyone likes... like “Hey Ya” or “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
It's also one of the songs (like the ones above) where you behold one guy's vision coming through clearly, where one guy sings, writes and plays most or all the instruments, perfectly executed, which is such an incredible thing to witness.
Usually stuff like that is self-indulgent trainwreck, but when it does work its the best thing ever. Anyway I guess if you read all this before hearing it, you'll probably never like the song now. This actually illustrates well how music criticism and reviews create hype and ruin everything. So if you're feeling my hype, just turn the song up real real real real loud.”
Mark Of The Beats.com
- Mark Of The Beats.com
Discography
debut ep out on DarK Arts Gramophone Company
also available from iTunes
advance copy airplay:
RTE 2FM....Ireland's national music station
CBC Radio2....Canadian national radio
CBC Radio3....Canadian online radio
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Erratic. unreliable. tempermental. depressive. demanding. ego-centric. dictatorial prima-donna. self-destructive. opinionated. messy. delusional romantic. idealist. sensualist. auteur. singer. songwriter. producer. painter. fucking idiot? Pop genius?
mediocre? no definitely not mediocre.
In the past year Ive seen all these sides to the young Vancouver-based singer OConnell better known by his alias The Thurston Revival.
Before I ever saw The Thurston Revival, I had heard OConnells music described as sounding like the Leonard Cohen songbook as sung by Sly Stone. I was doubtful - the dark poet-laureate of suffering could never share the stage with the ecstatically-high Family Stone.
But what I discovered is probably the vanguard of an emerging gospel-influenced rock movement.
Onstage, The Thurston Revival is wildly unpredictable: using an old 1920s microphone, a primitive drum machine and an echo pedal, OConnell layers his voice and instruments on-the-fly. The result swings between a one-man Bohemian Rhapsody and a drunken gospel revival.
Hes a charismatic, intense and commanding frontman (although the first time I saw him play, he was a little out of it and fell over onstage three times, causing the drummer to quit mid-set, to my great amusement.) But OConnell still managed to deliver an inspired set, with enough religious fervour for a travelling revival meeting, and enough pain and rapture for an old-time New Orleans funeral parade.
And when The Thurston Revival plays as a full six-piece band, there are moments of absolute abandon. With Rob Chursinoff (tegan&sara) on drums, Fraser MacKenzie on guitar, Wes Regan (speed to kill) on synth, Mary Ancheta on organ, and Joel Myers (holly mcnarland) on bass, the band is made up of some of the most talented and interesting musicians in Canada.
Whether its the unhinged political sermon Prophet Potential (a blistering castigation of corporate profiteering in the African AIDS epidemic), the lascivious and sexually-overheated urging of Want, skid-row desperation in the darkly-poetic Hotel, or the minute-long pop gem Coolsong, the songs of The Thurston Revival show OConnell to be a subtle and powerful writer not to mention a master of the deceptively-catchy pop song. Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a raw poetic depth and a level of multiplicity and complexity usually reserved for modern novelists.
A true believer in the DIY ethic, OConnell plays a Prince-like 25 instruments.
But hes not afraid to get a little help from his friends, including:
Torquil Campbell (stars) Pat Steward (matthew good)
Barry Mirochnick (veda hille) Fio Kone (kanda bongo man)
Brian Minato (sarah mclachlan)
The upcoming debut EP (soon to be released in the UK, Ireland, and Canada on the small Dark Arts Gramophone Company label) was produced and recorded by OConnell and Howard Redekopp (new pornographers / tegan&sara) at the legendary Mushroom and Armoury studios...as well as in the back of an old Ford van, strangely enough.
So far, The Thurston Revival has already played the prestigious Pop Montreal Festival, recorded in Morocco, garnered airplay on RTE 2fm (Irelands national radio) and CBC Radio2 & Radio 3 (Canadas national radio/internet) and is currently #1 on the NewMusicCanada gospel chart.
This is a golden era for Canadian music and if OConnell keeps up his sly mix of rock, gospel, and tragedy, The Thurston Revivals status as a strictly-underground band will soon be in jeopardy. Smart, sexy, passionate, addictive, and often heart-wrenchingly sad, The Thurston Revival has taken over my stereo.
In a era when most bands are looting their old record collection for derivative ideas, The Thurston Revival is off claiming new territories. In a world of calculated rock, a true original is a rare discovery.
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PRESS:
Rocknroll gospel revival music for gothgirls and soulboys. Razorsharp songwriting, infectiously catchy and an unpredictable & charismatic frontman. A truly original band. Possibly the best unsigned newcomer in Canada.
ChartAttack.com (Canada)
EYE's must-sees: The Thurston Revival: Vancouver songwriter O'Connell (one name only please) is no standard solo operation. Looking goth but feeling new wave, his songs are built from live, spontaneous samples à la Joseph Arthur, forging a union between gospel-informed ecstasy and synth-pop sadness. The Pop Montreal performance saw a frustrated O'Connell hurl his malfunctioning key-tar at the floor (who knew those things could bounce?), but when god and technology are on his side, The Thurston Revival's electro hymns feel feel just like heaven.
Stuart Berman, EYE Weekly (Toronto)
This song just blows me away. This
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