Best of 2010: US Royalty
Described as “70s-style cock-rock-with-indie-melodies” (Washington City Paper) and “Vampire Weekend if VW creamed over northwest Arkansas instead of Africa” (Absolute Punk), US Royalty embody an upbeat musical spirit as filtered through a blend of staggered harmonies. This progressively rich rock might be no better evidenced than with “Equestrian” (featured below), a track which My Old Kentucky Blog compares to the sounds of breakthrough indie act Local Natives. Recently wrapping production on the Washington DC-based band’s debut full length, MIRRORS, the group checked in looking back on some of their favorite musical memories from the past year. MIRRORS will be released January 25.
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#1) On our way down to Austin for SXSW we made a few pit stops to play some gigs. We brought along three friends with us on the road and it made for quite a traveling posse. The first night we played at a real divey club called the Milestone in Charlotte, NC. It started pouring the rain and after we soundchecked, noticed there were people braving the storm to head into this small church across the street. We decided to follow and what a great decision that was. People were playing tambourines in the audience, the pastor was playing a washboard, and the organist didn’t stop playing even while the preacher was talking. When they gave the altar call, he kept mentioning that he felt two girls wanted to come forward. I guess he thought a few of us looked like girls. Anyway it was all cleared up after the service, one of our friends was anointed with oil, and they sent us on our merry way.
Them “Baby Please Don’t Go” (video)
#2) While in between mixing our debut album, we spent some of this last fall in Los Angeles, exploring and recording new material. We holed up with a producer friend of ours, Alex Goose, in his downtown loft and recorded every idea we had. Having never been to the west coast, we tried to see as much as possible. From South Paradiso Leather’s Laurel Canyon bungalow showroom to roaming the canyons of Topenga to braving the cold Pacific at sunrise on El Matador beach to house parties in Beverly Hills, it was a productive time. We also discovered this artist from New Jersey called Com Truise around this time, and this song soundtracked our whole experience out there.
Com Truise “Sundriped” (video)
#3) In June we accompanied the boys and girls from Gant Rugger to Cape Cod for their S/S 2011 shoot. There was a lot of whiskey, porkslap beer and late night sing alongs. Designer Christopher Bastin had a great collection and the energy he brings to these shoots is very palpable. While he is a studied historian of Gant’s early years as an American shirtmaker, he also strives to bring fresh ideas and people into his world of design. Also we are fans of Guy Aroch as a photographer and it was great to be able to have him shoot photos for our album. We played at a local watering hole called the Beachcomber with the crew and Wellfleet locals in attendance. It made for a memorable night. (Also the new Radio Dept album was out so we were spinning that non-stop while traveling.)
Radio Dept “Heaven’s On Fire” (video)
#4) We recorded our album in the spring of 2010. While we have been writing songs for the past two years, this time was definitely the most fruitful and creative. Having a project, such as an album, really helped us bring into focus the music that we were writing. Now that we are done and ready to take it on the road (where we usually feel most comfortable) we are actually looking forward the next time we can get in the studio and work on that next project. While there is a lot of music that has influenced us over the years, this song was on repeat all spring. I included the studio “behind the scenes’ version because during this time, I enjoyed watching all sorts of studio behind the scenes footage, just getting ideas for things to do. This being our first time producing a record, we were trying to soak up as much as possible.
Fleetwood Mac “Angel” (video)
#5) Early in the winter of 2010 we met up with Phil Ade, a local hip hop artist in DC, for a jam session at our studio space. We weren’t sure what we were going to jam on but he seemed really talented and we thought it would be interesting to write a song together. So we quickly laid down a beat, added bass, and a vocal hook before he arrived for the session. After hearing the track he wrote about 16 lines of verse off the top of his head. We then quickly finished off the song and did a show together at the end of February. It was a great cross section of the traditional DC band scene as well as the rising hip hop scene. We have a few more tracks we are working on with both Phil Ade and Alex Goose for this project; hope to have some of it released in 2011. Here is an in studio clip of the song we did as a promotion for the show last February.