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PRESENTED BY JON RAY
"I'm impressed that eight-piece Rich Restaino & The Obits even exist in the first place," noted Austin writer and musician Western Homes on his greatly missed Big Western Flavor blog. "Busy people with schedules have to be hugely committed to make a rock band with pro arrangements and exquisitely sweet three-part vocal harmonies click."
Although the "weekend warrior" moniker may apply, the fact that members of the band are also teachers, accountants, graphic designers, and editors makes what Rich & The Obits do all the more impressive.
Since 2007, Rich & The Obits have been digging into music as seemingly divergent as funk, '50s doo-wop, British new wave, girl group, punk, and reggae, to root out the common melodic and rhythmic infrastructure that binds them all. While driven by the songwriting of bandleader Restaino, The Obits are the antithesis to the currently fashionable solo-artist-as-band phenomenon. While these acts often are bands in name only, The Obits feature six singers, any of whom might take a lead during a set. Drummer Dave Wylie and bassist Alexei Sefchick hug the pocket, laying the foundation for Restaino's and Hunt Wellborn's guitar work and Lloyd Wright's piano and organ. The arrangments are tight and clean, leaving room for background singers Sara Shansky, Roz Mandola, and Elzie Ivey Restaino to work their harmonic magic. Other members offer up songs, and the whole band contributes on arrangements. The result is a kind of on-stage chemistry and musical sympathy
that hired guns just cannot approximate.
The band has released two records, 2008's The C'est La Vie EP and 2010's We're in This Thing Together, which showcase the band's expansive melodies, intricate vocal harmonies, classic American rhythms, and Restaino's arched-eyebrow view of the world. With songs on topics as wide-ranging as Kurt Vonnegut's humanism, resilient teen mothers, early 20th century labor movement martyrs, and restless leg syndrome, Rich Restaino has been called "Austin's version of Randy Newman" by Austin writer Duggan Flanakin, and "as apt to remind you of Carl Perkins as David Byrne" by Austin.com.
The band is currently working on their third release, building on the sound of their Summer, 2011 single, "Before We Die." The band plays regularly around Austin and the surrounding area.
"Restaino is a true polymath: writer, reader, thinker, teacher, rocker," said Western Homes. "We're lucky to have him here in Austin. Go support him and the Obits."
www.facebook.com/richandtheobits
www.reverbnation..com/obits
http://richandtheobits.bandcamp.com/
www.myspace.com/richrestaino
TUNE IN AGAIN SOON FOR MORE FROM BALCONYTV AUSTIN!!!
PRESENTED BY JON RAY
"I'm impressed that eight-piece Rich Restaino & The Obits even exist in the first place," noted Austin writer and musician Western Homes on his greatly missed Big Western Flavor blog. "Busy people with schedules have to be hugely committed to make a rock band with pro arrangements and exquisitely sweet three-part vocal harmonies click."
Although the "weekend warrior" moniker may apply, the fact that members of the band are also teachers, accountants, graphic designers, and editors makes what Rich & The Obits do all the more impressive.
Since 2007, Rich & The Obits have been digging into music as seemingly divergent as funk, '50s doo-wop, British new wave, girl group, punk, and reggae, to root out the common melodic and rhythmic infrastructure that binds them all. While driven by the songwriting of bandleader Restaino, The Obits are the antithesis to the currently fashionable solo-artist-as-band phenomenon. While these acts often are bands in name only, The Obits feature six singers, any of whom might take a lead during a set. Drummer Dave Wylie and bassist Alexei Sefchick hug the pocket, laying the foundation for Restaino's and Hunt Wellborn's guitar work and Lloyd Wright's piano and organ. The arrangments are tight and clean, leaving room for background singers Sara Shansky, Roz Mandola, and Elzie Ivey Restaino to work their harmonic magic. Other members offer up songs, and the whole band contributes on arrangements. The result is a kind of on-stage chemistry and musical sympathy
that hired guns just cannot approximate.
The band has released two records, 2008's The C'est La Vie EP and 2010's We're in This Thing Together, which showcase the band's expansive melodies, intricate vocal harmonies, classic American rhythms, and Restaino's arched-eyebrow view of the world. With songs on topics as wide-ranging as Kurt Vonnegut's humanism, resilient teen mothers, early 20th century labor movement martyrs, and restless leg syndrome, Rich Restaino has been called "Austin's version of Randy Newman" by Austin writer Duggan Flanakin, and "as apt to remind you of Carl Perkins as David Byrne" by Austin.com.
The band is currently working on their third release, building on the sound of their Summer, 2011 single, "Before We Die." The band plays regularly around Austin and the surrounding area.
"Restaino is a true polymath: writer, reader, thinker, teacher, rocker," said Western Homes. "We're lucky to have him here in Austin. Go support him and the Obits."
www.facebook.com/richandtheobits
www.reverbnation..com/obits
http://richandtheobits.bandcamp.com/
www.myspace.com/richrestaino
TUNE IN AGAIN SOON FOR MORE FROM BALCONYTV AUSTIN!!!
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