Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Explorers Club welcomes Mark Linett aboard for mixing duties on new album

Band To Debut Tracks From Forthcoming Album Bundled With Covers In A Series Of Three EPs


The Explorers Club, a band hailing from Charleston, SC, is proud to announce that Mark Linett has come aboard to mix its sophomore set, “Grand Hotel,” scheduled for U.S. release via Rock Ridge Music in early 2012. After just finishing the mix on Beach Boys’ “SMiLE” for Capitol Records (which was recently called “the most famous unfinished album in rock & roll history” by Rolling Stone magazine), Linett is currently focusing on finishing The Explorers Club’s new album. In the past, Linett has worked with The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson (solo), Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Rickie Lee Jones, and many others.


Says Linett of working on the forthcoming Explorers Club album: “I am very excited to be mixing ‘Grand Hotel.’ As someone who grew up in the ‘60s listening to all of the records that influenced the band, their music really resonates with me, and it has been great fun mixing the album." The band was thrilled Linett was able to do the mix; as band mastermind Jason Brewer put it, “We’re honored that he’s signed on, and when we got the first couple of mixes back from him, we knew that ‘Grand Hotel’ was about to be enhanced beyond what we thought even possible! His association with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, among others, made him the perfect choice for us.”


“Grand Hotel” is the long-anticipated follow-up to the band’s close-your-eyes-and-you’d-swear-it-was-the-Beach Boys debut, “Freedom Wind,” and was produced in Atlanta by band member Jason Brewer, along with co-producer Matt Goldman. It features fifteen tracks that once again take listeners back in time to a period when radio was laden with songs by Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and pop mainstays like The Grass Roots.


In advance of the release of “Grand Hotel,” the band has just announced via YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-LCRsW0C0) that it has readied three EP “suites” that will each feature one cover song not on the album, bundled with two early “under-construction” (pre-Linett) mixes of tracks from the forthcoming set. The “suites” will be available in stages throughout the 4th quarter of 2011, with the release of “The Grand Hotel” coming in the early spring of 2012

    • The “Californian Suite” will feature the Burt Bacharach standard, “Walk On By,” along with two Explorers Club originals (“Weight Of The World and “Summer Days, Summer Nights”).

    • The “Carolinian Suite” reprises the Classics IV hit, “Stormy,” along with originals “Sweet Delights” and “It’s No Use.”

    • The “New Yorker Suite” will feature the Explorers Club’s take on the Vanity Fare opus, “Hitchin’ A Ride,” and it will be tied to “Anticipatin’” and “Run, Run, Run,” the latter of which will later be released to radio as the lead track from “Grand Hotel.”

    The Explorers Club’s debut, “Freedom Wind,” was released to accolades in 2008 via Secretly Canadian’s Dead Oceans label, and tracks from the album appeared on such hit television shows as “Bored To Death” (HBO), “The O.C.” (FOX) and “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS). The press praise was extensive and glowing:

    • USA Today: “quite remarkable”

    • Time Out Chicago: “indulgent fun”

    • Uncut: “It’s a toss-up whether Jason Brewer’s classically crafted songs or the spot-on arrangements are more irresistible.”

    • The Onion AV Club: “the album is beautiful – wholly, deeply, and truly.”

    • UTNE Reader: “Pet Sounds just got 35 minutes longer.”

    • Chicago Reader: “pristinely perfect”

    • San Francisco Bay Guardian: “instantly hummable soda-fountain swooners”

    • Performer Magazine: “a wonderfully cotton-candy sweet album of indie-pop gems that bring to mind the breezy/orchestral pop of years gone by.”

    The Explorers Club is: Jason Brewer (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Dave Ellis (guitars, mandolin, accordian, percussion, vocals), Wally Reddington III (bass, vocals), Justin James (guitar, steel guitar, vocals), Paul Runyon (keyboards, vocals), and Kyle Polk (drums).

    No comments:

    Post a Comment