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Sunday Music Spotlight - Bishop Allen

October 14, 2007 in Music, Spotlight by Sean | No comments

Bishop Allen, an indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York
From quiet reminiscences of bus rides to raucous tales of corporate America, Brooklyn’s Bishop Allen brings an air of authenticity to everything they create. With an astounding 14 releases in the last four years they’ve proven to be one of the most prolific acts in music today.

Bishop Allen is primarily two dudes, Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who are joined in the studio and on stage by a rotating cast of characters to fill out the band. They formed the band in the early 2000’s, taking the name from the street they lived on after college (Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, MA). They recorded their first album Charm School in a bedroom over the course of two years, and finally released it themselves in 2003. The album got solid reviews, but not a lot of notoriety. The band realized they needed to drum up a little publicity. So they promised to release one EP every month in 2006.

They lived up to their promise, releasing 12 EPs in 12 months. Each one contained four new studio recordings (except August, which was a live recording containing 14 songs). So in the course of one year the band put out 44 new songs. Yikes.

But they weren’t done yet. In late 2006 they signed with Dead Oceans Records to record their next full-length album. The result was The Broken String, released in July of 2007.

Bishop Allen - The Chinatown Bus

A charming simple little tune with reflective lyrics. The title refers to a bus that runs between Chinatown in Washington, DC to New York. With it’s repetitive melody and unique phrasing it’s likely to be included in my Songs of 2007.

Bishop Allen - Middle Management

A hook-filled rocker about the boredom of modern corporate life, this tune shows the more upbeat side of Bishop Allen.

Bonus Videos
“Like Castanets”