Way to Go Einstein

From one of my favorite regions in Canada - Way to Go Einstein hails from Vancouver, British Columbia and we apparently enjoy saying their name so much as it doubles as a nice age-old method to convey epic failure to someone.

On the flipside of the meaning, Einstein has a successful sound that jumps a lot of musical pandoric trees ala Sigur Rós, Jump Little Children, Coldplay, and seems to have a slight shoegaze element that you’d possibly find layered in an Ulrich Schnauss collaboration. While navigating this musical obstacle course, they still remain grounded with their own unique vision for the artwork which takes it forward in some very interesting directions and to promising heights. - insomniaradio.net by Charles Stepczyk

Our second Raised on Indie Vancouver podcast features Vancouver rock band Way To Go Einstein. The band is a five-piece rock band with two albums under their belt, their most recent titled Pseudonym, which is also available free on their myspace page. For the podcast we feature two tracks, the first is the track Look, and second is a remix of the track called Look (dirty bears remix) which was done by the electro side project of Kevin and Geoff from the band – called Dirty Bears. Both are great tracks – have a listen after the Bio below - www.raisedonindie.com

Way to Go, Einstein
Hide and Seek Champion (Broken Oak)
Don't let the silly name fool you: Way to Go, Einstein isn't a goof-pop combo striving to be the next Barenaked Ladies. Instead, the Vancouver band has grander musical ambitions that seem to be equal parts Coldplay and Sigur RÓs. Singer Andrew Carter's delivery is often tremulous and unpolished, but his melodies soar to the heavens, and are backed by lush beds of reverb-treated guitars and synthesizers. It's a gorgeous sound, and if it lacks a little in the hooks department, so what? Something tells me that the members of Way to Go, Einstein would rather be some lonely soul's late-night-headphones favourite than a top-40 act anyway. Now, if they could only do something about that name before someone books them as the support act on a Moxy Früvous reunion tour. - By John Lucas of The Georgia Straight

WTGE caught my attention as soon as they hit the stage. It wasn’t just the unicorn on the mic stand, but it was the musicality of the group. I couldn’t help but compare them to a successful Vancouver indie band called Yuca. They both have the same passion for music and it shows through their live set. With Andrew Carter on vocals and keys, Benson Musaev on bass, Geoff Nilson on guitar and synth, Michael Munro on drums, and Kevin Jack on guitar, this quintet brings together the stadium rock we are so accustomed to from the likes of Coldplay and Radiohead, into a smaller and more intimate environment.

They are heavily piano driven, but also having the necessary oomph of a rock band to make them unique above the rest. Andrew’s falsetto is soothing and effortless, and at the same time quite vulnerable. Let me elaborate a little with this last statement. For me anyways, every time I see some great, powerful vocalist perform, such as Chris Cornell, everything is just so effortless it’s scary. I don’t know if they’re actually singing or if they’re machine made. But with Andrew, sure he’s a great vocalist, but he also brings it back down and you realize what he’s doing is quite sincere. The highlight of their set was definitely when they pulled out the double keyboard for “Walk Through Fire.” To put it lightly, it was easy on the ears. The harmonies were undeniably pleasing and the instrumental arrangements were something to be amazed by. The only real bad thing I can say about WTGE (and to be quite frank, this really isn’t a bad thing), is that they have no real hook in their songs. With the mainstream pop-culture generation we’re in right now, every song that gets radio airplay has some sort of melody that just hooks you right in (pun intended…) and gets you singing a long. But to be fair, not every band has to follow the same formula to be successful, and WTGE is a perfect example of that. - http://www.ronatron.net

If you hadn't noticed yet, Vancouver has the world's ear right now. It’s not that there’s a sudden surplus of talent -- Vangroovy’s coming out ball is the result of events starting somewhere around the time the New Pornographers busted down the walls that Cub, Copyright, or Carl Newman’s previous band Zumpano couldn’t quite scale back in the ‘90s, despite critical hosannas and hipster cred.

Back then, thanks partly to its geographical quarantine from the business centres of ye olde music racket out east, Vancouver barely stood a chance. The internets and concurrent death twitches of the music industry changed all that, our hometown came out on top, and barely a day goes by without some Vancouver outfit or another making splash page news.

That’s no reason to relax, however. For every new weird punk underground getting its 7-inches tickled in Exclaim!, there’s a dozen great acts still doing their thing on the outer circles. Say hello, Way to Go, Einstein; a handsome five-piece trafficking in the kind of brimming adult pop that was invented -- depending on your prejudice -- by either Jeff Buckley or Radiohead around the time of The Bends, and which eventually put the clown-Prince of fake plastic cheese Chris Martin and his solemn band of boobs Coldplay in Hollywood mansions.

Allow me to go out on a limb and say that if I want a dose of melancholy rapture, sparkling production, and a surging chorus that takes its sweet time to bring me to headphone apotheosis (two minutes and 11 seconds, in this case), I’ll take Way to Go, Einstein’s “The Flood” over any of the droopy nonsense on Viva La Vida.

Not to get side-tracked. Way to Go, Einstein’s second album Pseudonym was released in March to the chirping of crickets, immense quality notwithstanding, probably because it isn’t avant-noize, fake jazz, or hirsute Mount Pleasant retro -- the three faces of this season’s Vancouver Special to the rest of the world.

But Way to Go, Einstein is sitting on a sleeper with its new album. While the rest of Pseudonym is no less pristine, huge, or international sounding as that opening track, WTGE also changes the backdrop on its big emotions to fashion grown-up alt rock into something it can call its own -- skittish verses preface the wailing guitar choruses of “Shiver in the Sun”; “Everywhere You Turn” introduces almost-flamenco guitar to a 7/4 time signature; “Parallax” is Andrew Carter’s beatific vocals above, and uptight, quasi-NIN distortion below. It’s the album you might expect from a band that lists Sigur Rós as an influence, along with “contradictions” and “childhood obesity”.

Way to Go, Einstein holds its album release party with two other outstanding if not quite Pitchforked (yet) local bands, Fake Shark! Real Zombie! and Junior Major, at the Biltmore Cabaret (395 Kingsway), tomorrow (May 28).

By Adrian Mack - thetyee.ca

Walking past the Blenz at the corner of Granville and Broadway, you would never guess that the unassuming 29-year-old politely sipping his tea inside has the game of hide-and-seek down to a science. But as the story goes—at least according to the elaborate tales woven on Hide and Seek Champion, the 2007 debut by Way to Go, Einstein—Andrew Carter, the local quintet's mild-mannered frontman, is indeed a regular David Copperfield.

“We wanted to have a funny story [attached to the first album] so people wouldn't take it all so seriously,” says Carter of his band's plan to offset its rather somber repertoire with a wacky narrative. “This time, though, we decided maybe not. We don't want people to think it's all a joke.”

If you've heard the majestic harmonies on the group's latest record, Pseudonym, you'll know that the chances of that are pretty slim. With vocal inflections that bring to mind alt-rock genius Thom Yorke, Carter leads his bandmates through epic soundscapes heavy with hypnotic guitars and quivering synths. Building on the musical archetype perfected by Brit-rock icons Coldplay and Muse, Way to Go, Einstein imparts its own vision of modern rock with slow burners like “Shiver in the Sun” and “Insensate”.

The intensity of the sophomore release is further heightened by the contemplative nature of Carter's lyrics, which, the Ottawa native reveals, come across as far gloomier than he had originally intended. On sullen tracks like “The Flood”, “Will This Last” and “Everywhere You Turn”, Carter traces dreary themes such as hopelessness and the impending apocalypse.

“I didn't realize it at the time [of writing the songs], but this record has a lot to do with impending disaster,” he muses.

It's a far cry from the quirky stories of Carter dazzling the nation as a professional hide-and-seeker, but Way to Go, Einstein's ringleader is confident that the new material holds up—even without a goofy back tale.

And from the sounds of things, he had plenty of time to come to that decision.

As chief songwriter for the outfit, Carter spent close to two years hunched over a piano, tapping out chords before he felt prepared to head into the studio with his bandmates. “We ended up writing stuff that might not hit people right off the bat, but it makes sense for how we wrote it—it was over a long time,” he explains, clearly unaware of how utterly captivating the disc actually is, even upon the very first spin.

While most of Pseudonym was recorded at the band's New Westminster rehearsal space, it was a pair of eight-hour sessions at the Hive Creative Labs with recording engineer Colin Stewart that really shaped the new record's lush atmospheric style.

“Our drummer, Michael Munro, and Colin ended up getting a really, really good drum sound,” Carter exclaims. “It really helped us when we were recording other stuff, because we were listening to that drum sound and it really inspired us to get, like, the best guitar sound, you know.”

With a second release now under its belt, the talented group is finally starting to find its legs.

“We've really grown,” says Carter. “Originally, the guys were like, ‘Andrew, it's your project—what do you want me to do for this?' But it's started to grow into ‘Oh, you play this and I'll play that.' It really feels like a band now.”

It appears Carter is also adjusting to another part of being in a band: the democratic process. Although the reserved singer prefers to perform original material at the group's gigs, against his better judgment he has bowed to popular opinion within the outfit and agreed to perform a cover song at Pseudonym's official release party this week. “Our guitarist Kevin really likes Tears for Fears, so we're going to do a cover. I don't like Tears for Fears, but it should be fun, I guess,” Carter says, trying his best to be a good sport about the whole thing.

Way To Go, Einstein plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Friday (May 29).

By Jenny Charlesworth - The Georgia Straight

Let’s face it, this city is expired! New West is a place for newly-weds and nearly-deads, a place more or less for houses and parks, both of which are probably cemeteries.

We have one high school and it’s an 80-year-old asbestos-ridden building. No movie theatres, but plenty of bars and skanky clubs downtown. The two main shopping centers (Royal City Centre and the Quay) are almost entirely deserted by the general population. This place is undergoing renovations, and it will be another 10 years until it’s aesthetically pleasing again.

So what’s come out of New West in the last few years? Well, there’s my old classmate Kyle Turris, who plays for the Phoenix Coyotes, a third-overall draft pick when he was 18 years old. Lucky bastard got out and went somewhere he can make six figures a year, wouldn’t you? Finding a local celebrity or even something to be proud of is rare in this city, so when something comes around that is worth mentioning, we should jump on them and exploit the hell out of them just like any other city would... respectfully, of course.

Way to Go, Einstein is a band from New Westminster who is releasing their second LP, Pseudonym, at the end of the month on Submerged Records. Aside from some sessions done at the Hive Studios in Vancouver, this album was largely recorded right in their dirty jam space here in New West.

With influences ranging from Coldplay, Muse, and The Decembrists, Way to Go, Einstein sound like Radiohead if they played in more eclectic time signatures. Songs such as “Everywhere You Turn” and “Parallax” are both in 7/8 time, with an interesting groove and floating synths. Soaring vocals with driving guitar riffs create a nice contrast that holds the listener’s ear and make the music pleasing to listen to.

“Shiver in the Sun” and “Victory” are good examples of the band’s complex simplicity. Earlier songs contain intricate drum groves and synthesizers for atmosphere, but on these tracks, a breakdown is appreciated with just piano and voice and scarcely any other instrumentation. This just goes to show how the group pays attention to songwriting as well as creating a sound with their musical abilities.

The closing tracks on the album are slower moving ballads that focus heavily on the atmospheric rock side of their music. The final track, “Epilogue,” has a resolved feeling to it with moving drums in triple meter.

Way to Go, Einstein are playing the Biltmore Cabaret on May 29th to celebrate the release of this new LP, and I strongly suggest giving them a day in court with your ears. For fans of indie and experimental music, this is almost a must for you, and if you live in New West and don’t know about these guys, check out their MySpace.

So fear not, people of the NW, at least we’ve got this to hold over Burnaby’s head.

By Jay Schreiber - The Other Press