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Born the youngest child of two blind parents, William was raised in the outskirts of the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. William's childhood home was filled with a myriad of sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The house was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records and family sing-a-longs. His mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel.
William draws from those early folks stylings of his mother's music. He is often compared to contemporaries Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, and the late Elliott Smith, not only for his unique style and skill in writing and proclivity to deal with substantive and evocative subject matter, but also for his use of organic and colorful melodies and arrangements. His new album, "The Sparrow And The Crow," produced by Marshall Altman at Galt Line Studios in Los Angeles, is his first studio recorded work. While his lyricism deals often with darker undertones, a measure of hopefulness is always carefully blended in.
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“Freakoid Americana that sounds like a lost Mercury Rev or Grandaddy album. Not bad for a one-man band from Newport Pagnell.” NME
“Dillon might be a great British eccentric in the making” UNCUT
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"Though Harmonia began as a sideline excursion for Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!, the group became one of the most legendary in the entire Krautrock/kosmische scene with the release of several mid-'70s LPs.
Brian Eno had proclaimed Harmonia "the world's most important rock group," and he eventually joined the proceedings for several 1976 sessions -- the legendary results of which lay unreleased for decades. “ John Bush
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Merz, aka Conrad Lambert is back. It’s not the first time he’s been back – after walking away from huge hype and a major label deal in 1999, disappearing completely, he returned in 2005 with the critically lauded album, Loveheart. His third album, Moi et Mon Camion, is set to produce the same kind of fawning from all corners with its mixture of beautiful balladeering, heartfelt tunes, intricate production and a display of Merz’s multi-instrumental talents.
Since Loveheart was released, Merz has been touring Europe with The Earlies, playing all over the world at festivals as diverse as Green Man, Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland and SXSW. More acclaim followed in the US, where the track ‘Dangerous Heady Love Scheme’ was iTunes Single of the Week, and ‘Postcard From A Darkstar’ was also Single of the Week with influential LA radio station KCRW.
Conrad was joined by a few notable musicians for this record. Charlie Jones, some time bass player with Robert Plant & Jimmy Page and Goldfrapp helped out, as did Clive Deamer, drummer for Portishead and Roni Size and coincidentally, now drumming with Robert Plant. The Earlies also join Conrad for a guest spot, singing backing vocals on ‘Call Me’, dropping in on their way back from Glastonbury.
Where Loveheart was a more solitary and lonely affair, Moi et Mon Camion puts its arms around Loveheart and says everything’s alright. “That’s the spirit of the record; it contains themes of displacement with detached resignatio...
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“Harrisons’ dashing debut proves there’s more to them than a postcode shared with the Arctic Monkeys” UNCUT
“Combines spikiness with a raw dancefloor pulse.” Q MAGAZINE
No Fighting In The War Room is the debut album from hotly tipped Sheffield four-piece Harrisons. Fans of earthy lyrics, northern accents, hard guitars and good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll read on, but don’t be too quick to pigeonhole – Harrisons may hail from the same fertile scene that spawned the ubiquitous Arctic Monkeys, but this debut album is in a class of its own.
“We feel we have made an album of diversity,” say the band. “It sounds like everything we wanted and more. It has the slower numbers, it has the faster numbers, the upbeat and downbeat numbers. The production is perfect to our initial vision and we couldn’t be happier.”
Recorded in five weeks at Lincolnshire’s Chapel Studios with producer Hugh Jones, the album is a tour de force of British guitar music, recalling the slice-of-life lyrics of The Jam, the intensity of The Clash and the attitude of The Verve. Clearly, producer Jones, whose prior credits include Echo And The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and The Stranglers, was the perfect man for the job.
“The endless list of high quality bands that he produced left his ability in no question and working with him bore fruits almost instantly,” say the band. “We all learned a great deal from just observing him work and he has the most fascinating rock and roll stories any young mus...
