New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Green Light Go) Washington D.C.'s The Petticoat Tearoom want to take you back in time - back before Auto-Tune ran rampant across the music industry, and before people stopped touching albums and started clicking a mouse. They recorded their latest self-titled neo-folk album at Wright Way Studios in Baltimore where they ambitiously recorded an entire album to tape. "We decided to do it live and in one weekend. It was pretty wild," said Tomas Pagan Motta (lead vocals, guitar).
The rest of the band includes Brian Gerber (guitars), Chris Plog (guitars) and John Twiford (bass, vocals); their process of collaboration - guitar weaving an acoustically lush base with strong structure and defined movements, while creating space for the addition of other elements like the low-end bass, harmony vocals, and percussion - lends itself nicely to producing the authenticity necessary for a great analog recording. They created modern-sounding music by merging the processes and equipment of the past and present, recreating the "golden era" of recording and capturing a performance without sacrificing dynamics. As the band's desire is to leave listeners with the most accurate recording and highest quality product, their album will only be sold as vinyl or physical CD for the first several months of its release.
It is interesting how The Petticoat Tearoom used such an old-school style of recording to create a very current sound with this album. "Love Isn't Gone," for example, starts off with the energetic strumming of an acoustic guitar and soon builds up to showcase Motta's soaring, breathy vocals dipped in a warm reverb. Their sound has a raw honesty unavoidable by live performance, and as Motta explains, "the goal is to only use instruments that fit each song -- no more, no less." This leaves space to explore and experiment with the direction of the music.
The Petticoat Tearoom derives its name from a now defunct Southern Harmony Accent and Petticoat Tea Room located in Baltimore. Motta came across the sign during a nighttime walk. He says, "Baltimore at night is an inspiring sight at times, a melancholy sight at times, but always real and abrupt and direct." Baltimore reflects the dichotomy found in their sound, organic blue-collar roots combined with a thriving underground artist community. The energy of the city feeds the band's creative process. Their latest album was recorded during last year's Super Bowl weekend, while the Baltimore Ravens played the San Francisco 49ers. "The city was on fire. There were people getting crazy. The energy was incredible. We could feel it during the process," Motta said, although where they recorded, The Station North Arts District, was far from the hubub and closer to indepedent theaters, music clubs, art galleries and right by MICA, the Maryland
Institute College of Art, one of the most renowned art schools on the east coast.
Baltimore is the city of their conception and has supported the band since their start, with radio stations throughout the region praising their sound, including WTMD 89.7 in Towson, MD and WRNR 103. in Annapolis, MD. The new album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Steve Wright (Jane's Addiction, Diplo, M.I.A.,
Mos Def and Jimmie's Chicken Shack).
Wright is the engineer and owner of Wright Way Studios and Pagan Motta says he took The Petticoat Tearoom on as a pet project, but in the end, the results speak for themselves. "Everyone at first was a bit dubious, he said. It takes an immense amount of patience, endurance and focus. You have to channel these performances, these feelings time after time. There's no going, well, I hit my parts - let's punch in the bass again. The point was to capture when we all hit that same - for lack of a better word - 'spiritual' space. The incredible warmth, the dynamics that were captured and how the tape soaks in all the sound made it worth it."
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Praise for The Petticoat Tearoom:
"...it reminds me of when
Wilco used to rock, but instead it's played on acoustic guitars. I'm getting a really nice college rock vibe from this one." - Hometown
Sounds DC
"...local openers Petticoat Tearoom were pretty terrific... their cover of Pure Prairie League's 'Amie' was memorable and inspired." - Punk Rock Skunk Blog
"...a charming four-piece sounding like demure indie-pop gone Skynyrd" - Baltimore City Paper
"... a refreshingly not-cheesy take on roots Americana." - Baltimore City Paper
"...an invigorating blend of alt-rock, alt-country, Americana, and just a nibble of ambient electronica. Although each song is very different from the next, the album's common thread is made up of beautiful harmonies, perfectly matched instrument combinations, and poetic, bluesy lyrics that tell tales of love, heartbreak, and hope." - District of Sound
