George
Usher Group - Fire Garden
Artist:
George Usher Group
Title: Fire Garden
Catalog#: Parasol-CD-088
Price: $12.00  |
Tracks
on this CD: |
| Are
You Coming Or Going? |
| The
Day Before I Found Her |
| Fade |
| The
Lost Fields |
| Too
Busy Dreaming |
| The
Return Of Your Loved Ones In Dreams |
| There
Is No Sleep |
| Spectacle |
| Nowhere
|
| See
You Later, There's The Door |
| She
Doesn't Even Know You're Alive |
| New
Lust |
| Dancing
In Troy |
| When
the Circle Closes |
| Daylight
Comes |
|
|
Third album for the Parasol label from New York City pop artist
George Usher (a former member of The Bongos, Beat Rodeo, and
The Schramms) with his Group, recorded in NYC and mixed in North
Carolina with Mitch Easter (at Fidelitorium Recordings). Using
a musical vocabulary sure to resonate with folks into the power
pop/roots rock sound, Usher scripts classic melodies and storied
arrangements recalling the glory days of The Beatles, The Left
Banke and The Beach Boys; and the crisp pop lassitude of the
latest offerings by Luna. A sublime collection of lyrical pop
anthems, shimmering ballads and sepia-toned Americana odes resplendent
with Byrds-ian guitar-chiming, and in fact George’s vocals
have some serious doppelganger action with Byrdsman Roger McGuinn.
'Fire Garden' is Usher's East Coast Power Pop songwriting smarts
(akin to fellow guitarpopsmith Tommy Keene) blended with classic
California folk rock rootsiness and whip-smart production. For
fans of Beatles (Harrison), Byrds (McGuinn), Zombies, Luna, Left
Banke, Tommy Keene, and Laura Cantrell (who used George's song "Not
The Tremblin' Kind" as the title track for her criticallly
acclaimed debut album).
ALL MUSIC GUIDE BIOGRAPHY: Art-pop singer/songwriter
George Usher was born in Cleveland, where his early demo recordings
gained local radio airplay while he was still in his teens. He
had already cut enough demo material to fill out a good 30 albums
before he relocated to New York in 1977, soon forming the power-pop
band the Decoys; by the middle of the following decade, Usher
was a member of the cowpunk outfit Beat Rodeo, appearing on their
1986 LP Home in the Heart of the Beat. A satellite member of
the Bongos, during the late 1980s he fronted his own band House
of Usher, issuing the LP Neptune as well as teaming with fellow
Beat Rodeo alum Steve Almaas in the Gornack Brothers for the
acoustic Refund. Subsequently joining the Schramms, in 1996 Usher
made his long-awaited solo debut with Miracle School; Dutch April
followed two years later. Usher returned in 2001 with the George
Usher Group, which also featured guitarist Doug Larcey, bassist
Dennis Ambrose and drummer John Bellon, and the album Days of
Plenty, which was mixed by Mitch Easter.
“
One of New York’s
best pop craftsmen” - VILLAGE VOICE
“ A nineteenth
century Romantic poet inhabits the body of a Beatles ‘n’ Byrds
pop-rocker… Light the candles.” - ALTERNATIVE PRESS
" They
just don't write pop songs like George Usher's anymore jangly,
sparkling and effortlessly irresistible, his music is a throwback
to another era, with rich melodies and sugar-sweet arrangements
harking back to the glory days of the Beach Boys and the Left
Banke (with a tip of the hat to the Byrds as well)…a virtual
primer in pop craftsmanship" - ALL MUSIC GUIDE
“ Veteran
tunesmith (and former Bongos/Beat Rodeo/Schramms sideman) Usher
is one of America’s foremost unsung pop auteurs….
By passing the garage entirely, Usher uses Pet Sounds/Odessey
and Oracle vintage baroque-pop as a jumping off point for his
evocatively poetic lyrics, heart tuggingly haunting melodies
and complex, yet oddly hummable arrangements. His nimble band
deftly navigates the turns and Usher’s keening voice is
well suited to the sweeping hooks and humanistic sentiments of
the tunes…” - TOWER PULSE
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