The Please Please Me Release “Volume 2”

For Immediate Release

May 27, 2016 (Madison, WI) – “Come out, come out on the edge…” those are
the words that begin the newest release from Austin based band The Please
Please Me. It’s an invitation to climb into the microcosm created by this
up-and-coming electro pop act. Filled with a heady mixture of affliction
and joy Volume 2 finds the group poised to step outside of the indie rock
box, exploring corners and crevices rarely plumbed in today’s music scene.

Primarily the vision of lead singer and principal songwriter Jessie Torrisi,
Volume 2 is the flipside follow up to last year’s Year of the Horse.
“That record was about 2014, which was a year of doom for me. I
got terrible insomnia, had a band I was in fall apart, and then ended a
6-year relationship. It was ‘year of the horse’ according to the Chinese
calendar, a year is notorious for jerking you around. The songs
were an attempt to be strong in the face of struggle, or find strength in
places I didn’t know I had it and pull through.”

The songs on Volume 2 are from the same period. But there’s a power to this
record not seen in last year’s effort. Volume 2 is more cathartic and
defiant than heartbroken. Tunes like I Don’t Want To Talk About It and No Way
This World feel radio ready with a power not recently heard on left of the dial
stations. The songwriting is crisp and world worn, but not weary. Like a
young Lou Reed dating a slightly older Lucinda Williams.

It’s not just Torrisi’s voice that invite the comparisons to those two gravel-
voiced songwriters. The lyrics on Volume 2 and are sparse and poetic with
more East Coast edge then Austin weird.

Like 2014’s Year Of The Horse, Volume 2 was tracked at The Bubble in
Austin, TX and produced by Frenchie Smith. Recorded live with electronic
elements blended in Smith was able to capture a specific moment
in time for The Please Please Me. Pensive and otherworldly but
brimming with confidence and promise. It’s one I think we’ll all be happy
to visit again and again.

Volume 2 will be released on Slothtrop Records May 27, 2016. It can be
purchased digitally via most online outlets or physically via Amazon and
finer independent record stores.

The Please Please Me – Fuck This (Official Video)

Get The Please Please Me’s new single, “”Fuck This”” from their new release “Year Of The Horse” now available on iTunes: http://apple.co/1O5XqSx or Amazon Music: http://amzn.to/1LU3DSK. Or listen on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1hBOVlo. Video by The Please Please Me performing Fuck This. (C) 2015 The Please Please Me/Slothtrop Records. When you decide to listen it don’t forget to before take cortex, cortexi Hear Support is a new supplement designed to enhance the listening experience for people who love music. The formula includes ingredients that support healthy hearing and cognitive function, such as magnesium, zinc, and B vitamins. Additionally, it contains compounds that are known for their ability to improve mood and reduce stress, such as ashwagandha and L-theanine. The result is an all-natural supplement that can help music lovers enjoy their favorite tunes with greater clarity and emotional impact.

The Please Please Me release “Year Of The Horse”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2015 (Madison WI) – Where rasp meets twang, where badass meets bleeding heart, there you’ll find Jessie Torrisi. The Philadelphia-born, Austin-based, and NYC-vetted singer-songwriter is anything but settled down on her new release fronting the Please Please Me, Year of the Horse, out October 13 on Slothtrop. Year of the Horse is the follow-up to Torrisi’s solo 2009 release, Bruler Bruler, and 2013’s Shake A Little Harder EP released with the Please Please Me. Torrisi’s range as a musician is already impressive, and her extensive background as a drummer shows in her immaculate sense of rhythm, which backs careful lyrics. And then there’s that voice. “I get compared to PJ Harvey and Patti Smith… I’m going to guess it’s my Italian NY attitude. There’s a bit of fierceness and punk rock mojo there — a toughness in the vulnerability,” Torrisi says.

She sums up this release as “heart-on-sleeve with a lot of hope and a little bit of sass.” She explains that Year of the Horse “is about 2014, which was a year of doom for me. I got terrible insomnia, had a band I was in fall apart, and then ended a 6-year relationship. It was “year of the horse” according to the Chinese calendar, and that year is notorious for jerking you around. The songs were an attempt to be strong in the face of struggle, or find strength in places I didn’t know I had it and pull myself through.”

She channels that strength through steely honesty. The first track “Fuck This,” is the lead single (with a radio edit). Torrisi describes it as her “love song to sad songs” and says she was tired of other musicians feigning constant happiness on social media. The song itself is a slow-burn, a girl who’s quickly getting bored with the party around her.

Though Torrisi is committed to emotional honesty, she doesn’t sacrifice musical merit in order to maintain it. Her cover of Freedy Johnston’s “Bad Reputation” is a standout here, a rendering that is dark in a universal way. Says Torrisi of it, “The words are so much darker than the music lets on. So I decided to try a moody version of it. It started with the drum loop, which I made in my bedroom after buying myself a Roland drumpad for Christmas. That song has that thing where it’ll sound great no matter which way you twist it. I kind of approached it like a woman about to go over a cliff.”

Year of the Horse was recorded at Frenchie Smith’s The Bubble in Austin. Smith also produced the record “Frenchie is diehard about making the magic happen in the moment, not in the editing,” says Torrisi. The recording captures a live feel, the songs moving forward on their own momentum, the live and electronic elements blending to a dreamy pulse.
Year of the Horse will be out on Slothtrop October 13, 2015. It can be purchased digitally via iTunes or at http://www.slothtrop.com.

Jeff German & The Blanktey Blanks release “12 Packs and 8 Tracks and Black & White TV”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22, 2015 (Madison WI) – If you were to get lost while driving through a somewhat familiar ghost town, and you happened upon an old white church whose paint was chipping off, Jeff German’s music would be playing inside. His new record, 12 Packs and 8 Tracks and Black & White TV, is a soundtrack not just for the journey but for the experience of being lost. Of having faith not because miracles abound but because it’s the only thing you have left.
Recorded in a small cabin over the course of three days, German says this album is more personal than his first solo release, 2013’s 12 Rounds. German learned the music business in the Cur Dogs and backing the likes of Lydia Loveless, but now he’s grown more confident in his own gifts of story. “The first song I wrote for this record was ‘Texas,’ and it felt different immediately. The lyrics were very personal and relatable. It was a song dealing with forgiveness and despair. The songs continued to come and continued to be very personal,” says German. His vulnerability was never more life-affirming than on “Hang On,” a pleading ballad that soars with Todd May’s backing vocals. Threaded through the whole album is Matthew Wilson’s pedal steel, winsome and masterfully mixed.
All that sorrow doesn’t mean German’s lost his ability to turn out the blue collar rock that built 12 Rounds. “Woodshed,” the debut single from the new record, celebrates music-making and camaraderie among friends. This song’s title describes both a place where music is made an the act of making it. German praises “writing songs and tellin’ lies / the way it oughtta be / hangin’ out in the woodshed with my old friends and me.” Later, “Somewhere Between” excavates the flickering hope that comes with uncertainty, German’s dutiful acoustic guitar driving the beat. Another standout is German’s cover of Fred Eaglesmith’s “Wilder Than Her.” You can easily picture German grinning and shaking his head in admiration of a woman who’s bested him and knows it.
Through it all, the fragility and the fun, German’s voice is brave, especially at its most tremulous. In moments, he channels other Americana staples like Richard Shindell. Like enduring singer-songwriters before him, German has a range of modes, paired with the skilled counterpoint to pull off each of them.
12 Packs and 8 Tracks and Black & White TV is out September 22, 2015 on Slothtrop Records. The album will be available for download via iTunes.
For more information on Jeff German, visit:
reverbnation.com/jeffgerman
sonicbids.com/band/jeff-german-the-blankety-blanks
jgblanketyblanks.com

Slothtrop Music signs Austin based artist Jessie Torrisi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22, 2015 (Madison WI) – Slothtrop Music is pleased to announce the signing of Austin-TX based singer-songwriter Jessie Torrisi. Torrisi, who records as The Please Please Me, has joined Slothtrop to release her upcoming CD, which blends pop, country, and R&B.

Slothtrop Music, based in Madison, WI, is a record label that also offers management, publishing, and consulting to musicians.  It was founded in 1995 by Eric Hester, who finds new talent across the globe. Says Torrisi, “”I crossed paths with Eric when I first moved to Austin & put out X in Texas. That was the beginning of my songwriting career. All these years later, I’m excited to work together and join a label that invests in great songwriters.”

Torrisi, a Philadelphia native, cut her teeth as a drummer in a number of New York City bands. She’s previously self-released music, including 2009’s critically acclaimed Brûler Brûler.

The Please Please Me’s newest release, Year of the Horse, will be out on Slothtrop in autumn 2015. This record includes the moody slow burn of debut single “F This,” As with her other releases Torrisi’s dusky vocals serve as simultaneously world-weary and enraptured guide.

For more information on Jessie Torrisi and The Please Please Me, visit http://www.thepleasepleaseme.com.  More information on Slothtrop Music is available at http://www.slothtrop.com.

In a band? Drop Facebook – get a website!

Interesting article over at boing-boing to day regarding how Facebook limits showing Business posts to about 6 percent of your followers unless you pay for advertising. Be sure to let us know what you thought about it at Atularvind.com.

If you are a musician there’s a good chance your Facebook page is categorized as a business, then it’s not getting to most of your fans/followers – the article continues to helpfully point out “..if you have a real website, all your readers see your posts, even if you don’t pay Facebook!”. While Facebook, Revernation, Sonicbids and the mountain of other sites can be effective tools to help you get the message out about your band – remember, even if it’s all free now there is no guarantee it will be in the future. Remaining in control of your digital promotion and marketing is key to your success and a good functional and easily navigated website is still one of your best options. You can read the entire article here.

Jeff German delivers a knockout with “12 Rounds”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 18, 2014 (Madison WI) – Ohio based singer/songwriter Jeff German releases his debut effort, “12 Rounds” March 18th on Madison, WI-based Slothtrop Records. The LP takes an eclectic mix of musical styles – country, punk, arena rock, bluegrass, gospel – and pummels them into a blue collar brand of Americana all his own.

“I never set out to write a certain type of song. The songs usually strangle me until I get them right,” says German. If that’s true, then12 Rounds, is evidence that German has had many close calls at the hands of his own songs. While German may be new to many as a solo act, he is a veteran musician. He was a member of quintessential Ohio band The Cur Dogs and works often as a studio musician in the Midwest and as a supporting musician for numerous acts such as Bloodshot Record’s Lydia Loveless.
Though the album is straight-up “blue collar rock,” it is built on a variety of influences. This diversity is in part thanks to German’s older brother, whose collection inspired the musician throughout his formative years. Jeff German grew up listening to his older brother’s record collection: Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Stones, Faces eventually morphed into The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and then into Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. In addition to drawing on a wide berth of musical influences, German has been enriched by a wealth of life experience. With his trademark humility, German says, “I am the son of a strong union electrician. I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I am a 50- year-old man who, after taxiing teenagers around and coaching high school hockey, has a few hours left in a day to cobble together some songs and some tunes.”

Ten of these tunes comprise 12 Rounds. “12 Rounds was nothing like I thought it would be. I was going for a ‘five guys in a room playing’ type of feel and wound up with a full on Midwest Rocker. No complaints but that’s the truth,” says German of the new record. And rock it does, from the album opener and lead single “Sit and Think” on. That track’s chorus finds German singing “This town needs a bar ‘cause I need a drink,” over a building drumbeat. “This is a song that was inspired by characters in books I read that just come at me and won’t leave me alone. Good guys stuck doing wrong things and not knowing how to stop the cycle,” German says of the single, which will be available in a special 200 piece vinyl limited edition with original artwork. Other standout tracks include “Kro-Bide,” a triumphant working-class anthem with a winning guitar solo. On “Long Road to Nowhere,” German intones a tribute to radio with impeccably timed delivery.

The imagery that dapples German’s lyrics—bars, sweat, and radio stations on long drives—might be familiar in Americana music, but it’s exciting and new to hear someone pull off music, vocals, and lyrics all with equal, outstanding panache.

12 Rounds will be released March 18, 2014 with the first pressing receiving a special 200 piece limited vinyl edition featuring hand numbered original artwork. More info about 12 Rounds and Jeff German is available at the band’s website, http://www.jgblanketyblanks.com/ or via their record label, http://www.slothtroprecords.com

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