Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Maybe the only Brooklyn outfit unafraid to play with hearts on sleeve and acoustics in lap, like they were something that hitchhiked from the Pacific Northwest 10 years ago and finally made their way to NYC. Think the first Red House Painters record (the official first, not the second self-titled one), but more succinct and with breathy female vocals adding extra warmth into the mix. - CMJ.com
Rest assured shoegaze fans, for someone is shouldering the Loveless burden. Brooklyn's psychadelic and sleek Ursula Points lay on the fuzz with dense ambient-pop that sounds like the soundtrack to a Sunday morning. With pop sensibilities, like a Williamsburg compliment to Toronto's Stars, acoustic flourishes are peppered between walls of roaring fuzz and atmosphere. Kevin McGinnis and Lindsay Marcus trade vocal duties, bringing a smooth sexuality to intimate songs of heartbreak and longing. Both stylish and easy on the eyes, they may have not made Loveless or Psycho Candy but didn't someone once say something about shooting for moons and landing on stars? If you want to see and hear these folks, be at Supreme Trading (8th street, btwn driggs and roebling in W'burg) Thursday 02.22 at 9.30. - Joseph Coscarelli
- The Deli Magazine Online
Discography
"Light Up A Galaxy",LP released 2006
"Oceans", song played regularly on Sirius Satellite Radio
"Gone To Stay", on Radio Indie Pop playlist
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
**************************BIO****************************
Ursula Points found itself realized after a dream within a dream...
Sparked by a bite into a flaming pepper delivered by an unknown hand, a vision of both the band’s name and its album’s title came into being. The next step was to wake up and turn those visions into music. This was easier said than done. Not only was matching the hallucinatory visuals to music a difficult endeavor, but finding the musicians, studios, money and time almost burned out the band.
The founding members of the group, Kevin McGinnis and Lindsay Marcus, had met in 2002 only to become estranged and find each other again three years later. This set the stage for the cycle of odd coincidences and unforeseen circumstances that surround the band to this day. After spending months testing out song ideas and sonic directions, gigging sporadically, and trying out dozens of musicians, Kevin and Lindsay took matters into their own hands as Light Up A Galaxy’s songs gradually began to allow themselves to be discovered. However it was only after the song “Softnoon” was written that the entire vision for the record crystallized in something of an epiphany - hence its placement as the album’s kickoff track. The rest of the songs had to be a satellite to this track.
In the end, Kevin and Lindsay were unable to find a band that shared their musical vision, pepper-induced or otherwise, and they wrote, performed, and recorded Light Up A Galaxy almost entirely by themselves. The perseverance necessary to accomplish this feat can be attributed to their respective musical histories prior to the formation of Ursula Points. Kevin had been a part of the New York music scene for a decade and brought his strong songwriting and unique guitar stylings to Ursula Points. He had honed his keen musical insight previously having signed a prior major label record deal with Virgin Records, as well having written and performed with other NYC and Memphis indie acts, and thus was in an excellent position to use his experience to help shape the sound and direction of Ursula Points.
His partner in crime, Lindsay brought her knowledge of music technology and studio savvy to the table after years of mentoring under the guidance of producer/engineer Bob Power. She had spent the last four years engineering at NYC’s Shelter Island Sound Studio, and had absorbed all the necessary expertise to allow her to the serve as both the recording and mixing engineer for Light Up A Galaxy. Together, Kevin and Lindsay, working in conjunction with other individual talents and friends, saw their shared dream manifest itself as the band's debut album.
But just after completing the recording came the next strange coincidence. Having seen the album's cover image (created by artist Michael Green) in a Rumi illustrated poetry book, Kevin and Lindsay knew that they needed it to complete the album and were urgently seeking permission to use the image. However, shortly after finding Michael and obtaining his permission to use his work, Kevin was assaulted and his left hand was broken. As a result, he had to get an x-ray of his own left hand that almost perfectly duplicated the cover art, adding another layer to the album's already bizarre history. While it took him some time to heal, the album was finished and the foundational chapter of the band had come together as hoped.
More recently, with Kevin’s hand mended, Ursula Points has expanded its ranks to include Kevin March, the veteran drummer whose résumé includes work with the late, great Guided By Voices and Shudder To Think, and Dave Horton, the mainstay NYC bassist formerly of The Black Spoons and Daylight’s for the Birds. Now, for the first time, Ursula Points has an accomplished lineup that supports and enhances the Light Up A Galaxy tracks while adding evolving dimensions to the band’s new material. Having played a few clandestine shows across the past month to get geared up, the band is now ready to step forward, proclaim itself, and be heard.
Ursula Points is currently writing for a new album and prepping for the many live shows to come in 2007.
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