Independent music’s finest hour is fast approaching when Studio 35 brings alternative-pop spectacle Bishop Allen to its stage Sunday night.
“The best show I’ve ever been to was the last show they played here (in August),” said Matt Chess, owner of Studio 35. “After you see them, you have no doubt they are going to be huge.”
Chess and business partner Damon Dalrymple describe the sound of Bishop Allen as a mix between The Velvet Underground and The Violent Femmes.
The description is appropriate, as the band cited one of its biggest musical influences to be The Velvet Underground, along with Jonathan Richman – also a Velvet Underground devotee – and the now-defunct Scottish band, The Yummy Fur.
“We really don’t sit around and listen to music all that often,” said Christian Rudder, one of the band’s multi-instrumentalists.
Bishop Allen is touring in support of its debut album, “Charm School,” which the band members recorded, produced and distribute themselves.
The album was released to rave reviews from the most respected names in mainstream entertainment media.
Rolling Stone gave it four stars, Newsweek gave it an “A” grade and All Music Guide said, “This is the way pop/rock was meant to be.”
The reviews don’t lie. The swirling, jangly guitar rifts and fun-but-still-melancholy lyrics, teamed with a prominent tambourine beat make its sound unique and familiar all at the same time.
Bishop Allen is reminiscent of that glorious time in the mid-’90s – before Nirvana – during the heyday of independent rock ‘n’ roll.
The band is also a throwback to a time when caution was thrown to the wind and music was allowed to be deliciously weird and make listeners almost gleeful in their depression and angst.
Chess and Dalrymple contacted Bishop Allen in August after hearing an interview with the band on National Public Radio in the spring of 2003.
“We heard them and my partner and I both really liked them. For a lark we started messing around on the computer and found their Web site and contacted them to play a show,” Chess said.
The band is wrapping up its tour and is in the process of recording its yet-untitled second album to be released this spring.
“We’re in the deep woods right now. It’s going to sound a lot more rock and less acoustic,” Rudder said.
“We’re definitely independent. We’re shopping around for our next record but we’re fully prepared to release it ourselves,” he said.
Bishop Allen will perform at 7 p.m Sunday and the show is open to all ages. Tickets are $6 and are available at the Studio 35 box office.
