East Coast psych pop trio Museyroom released Pearly Whites, the band’s full length debut album, out on Grind Select.
Museyroom’s beginnings can be traced back to 2003, when guitarist and singer, Jack Donovan, and multi-instrumentalist, Ben Cohen, began to write and record their own songs. Working in Ben’s basement, they developed intricately layered pop songs on a four-track tape recorder using an old Casio keyboard, a tenor saxophone, and an acoustic guitar. The two bonded over influences ranging from The Strokes to Bob Dylan to John Coltrane, resulting in a musical eclecticism that is reflected in Ben and Jack’s earliest songs, which combine narrative-based lyrics with complex and nuanced melodies.
After playing together in a series of bands, they met drummer Matt Coppola, and together formed what would become Museyroom—a name derived from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, which references a sort of alternate dimension that the group would soon create with its musical output, sonically mirroring an unexplored, variable universe.
Their first release, a self-titled EP, was recorded over the course of a week in the summer of 2009 with singer Luke Rathborne at Williamsburg’s Motel Studios. With the inspired addition of a Wurlitzer found on the sidewalk and a stripped down drum kit—the kick turned on its side and played like a floor tom—the suite of four songs is a lo-fi snapshot of the band’s sample-filled live set at the time.
Over the past few years, the three musicians have been holed up in the studio, painstakingly capturing the breadth of their imagination in the form of a pop song. Blending delicate impressionist-inspired melodies with the rhythmic sensibilities of hip-hop, Museyroom’s forthcoming album, Pearly Whites, is a dense and ambitious work of rare quality.
The threesome developed the songs on Pearly Whites over a three-year period while each was living in a different city. The challenge of that geographical separation aroused feelings of nostalgia and idealization, which seeped their way into the lyrics and sounds of the album. As a result, the record flows with intimacy and emotion juxtaposed with challenging rhythms and electronic soundscapes, making it a truly original experience that fully propels the listener into the Museyroom.
UPCOMING SHOWS:
04/08 – Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades (LP RELEASE SHOW) w/ Gemma, The Gradients & Hank May