with this rotating cast of characters:
Bethany Spiers - guitar, bass
Tom Scarlet - guitar
Brian Jacobs - trumpet
Influences
david lynch, my bloody valentine, banksy, boards of canada, camper van beethoven, neutral milk hotel, rabbit songs by hem, jon brion, belle & sebastian, intergalactic faerie funk, the wonder stuff, devo, the frogs, the smiths & morrissey, flowchart, p.t. anderson, tbtmo, mall, freescha, lullaby baxter, olivia tremor control, john prine, johnny cash, stereolab, blur, the fruit bats, lemon jelly, electric company, elliot smith, akufen, mouse on mars, i am robot and proud, the minders, (early) beck, cLOUDDEAD, casino versus japan, the new pornographers, neil halstead, blah, blah, blah...
with this rotating cast of characters:
Bethany Spiers - guitar, bass
Brian Jacobs - trumpet
Tom Scarlett - guitar
A two-person trio, Marc Hug, Dominica Paige, and their rotating guest musicians play what can be described as electronic folk pop. Their song structures center around mandolin, cello, sliced & diced guitar and gastro-intestinal boops and blips. Paige's hazy and haunting vocals float overtop, painting poetic images of days gone by. They create glistening pop loop gems that leave you feeling part of a woozy, lilting waltz.
Born in the stormy weather of New York City, mossyrock released their first two songs on a red 7" vinyl single, A Decade of Autumns. Soon afterwards they holed up in the Zero to One Galleries in Ontario for a ten-day recording session, taking breaks only to plunge themselves off cliffs into the nearby quarry and eat strawberry-rhubarb jam. The end result was a full-length album, appropriately titled The Zero to One Sessions, which was released by Toronto's Nice+Smooth Records in August 2005.
Mossyrock set out on the road in support of Zero to One, and while travelling the long highways of the U.S. and Canada, they found and developed the sounds that they had always known they were capable of. They honed their skills at creating the three-minute pop songs they were always fond of, and returned home to record a 5 song e.p. which caught the ears of the legendary Tim 'Love' Lee.
Tim asked to hear some more music and soon signed them to his new Boy Scout Recordings label. After a summer spent hitchhiking across Canada looking for adventure and inspiration, Mossyrock returned to Brooklyn to write and record their second full-length l.p., tentatively titled The Winter Will Ask. For this new collection of songs, Paige has taken on more prominent role in regards to singing, and Hug has sharpened his mandolin stylings. They have worked with several guest musicians on the record, including Camper Van Beethovens Jonathan Segal, Canadian country singer Rae Spoon, and Brooklyn cabaret musician James Apollo. As the trio progresses, their quirky electronic roots are still evident, but their folk pop influences are becoming more and more apparent.
discography: i know i'm not wrong [ep]
the zero to one sessions
a decade of autumns [7" single]
press:
mossyrock's music is the kind of stuff a diehard clubber would listen to while hanging out with his shoegazer friends -- hushed, mellow and melodic electro-indie rock that floats by your ear like bubbles of sound.
-las vegas citylife
an experimental electronic trio that takes organic music they have created and cuts it up in a way that would make ol' Burroughs proud.
-arizona night buzz
mossyrock is a new project from the intergalactic faerie funk front man marc hug, a former philadelphian (now in brooklyn) who was actually born canadian. while the IFF sound focused mainly on chugging dark house grooves flavored with live instrumentation; mossyrock creates glistening pop loop gems by layering looped beats with textures, acoustic guitars, and sparse random haunting vocals. the end result leaves you feeling like a part of some woozy, lilting waltz.
some reviews of mossyrock - 'the zero to one sessions':
squeezing sequenced house beats into territories normally reserved for jazz, zero to one starts with gurgling beats that slowly gain momentum with electric rhythm guitar and keyboard noises that hint at melody. but whenever mossyrock reaches full-on danceable mode, an acoustic guitar loop is likely to cut a dry swath through the funk. even the distant trumpet call in 'i want to eat your eyes' seems to come from the song next door - sounds from the real world invading a daydream.
-resonance magazine
toronto-based electronica label nice+smooth mostly seems to specialize in a kind of electro-bossa nova, which makes the decidedly northern hemisphere sound of mossyrock's debut album something of a surprise. producer and multi-instrumentalist marc hug, a canadian residing in new york, is the root of mossyrock, and hug favors a kind of d.i.y. brand of indie electronica. the zero to one sessions isn't lo-fi or slapdash, but there's a decidedly insular feel to these low-key, meandering grooves, an appealing sense of playfulness that's quirky without being forbidding or offputting. elements of jazz (particularly in the loungey muted trumpet solos that decorate a few songs) and folk (the strummy acoustic guitars that propel several rythms) are present and accounted for, but for the most part, the zero to one sessions explores what happens when a songwriter/producer happens upon a cool drum machine or synth rhythm, loops it, and sees what happens from there.
-all music guide
the oddly named mossyrock make fun cruising guitar and silly electronix based compositions, whose track titles are only marginally more bizarre than the music itself. from the shape of their grooves, one might expect them to hail from the west coast, but the group actually formed in philly and currently reside in brooklyn. "according to the language fossils" suggests they were frozen in time at an age when stringy guitars and visionary synths ruled the world. the charmingly titled "pissjug" throws electrified keys and synth gurgles against sticky beats and bass nastiness. "stress kid" takes its energy from almost d&b styled percussion, which rattles along under wobbly synths and feeling blue keys. strangely endearing.
-jon freer
if wendy/walter carlos had risen to fame for scoring '70s pornography, this albums opening track is what it would have sounded like. based in brooklyn but brought to us courtesy of canadian label nice+smooth, mossyrock make up-tempo, instrumental break beats heavy on synths and unusual effects - though that doesn't really come close to describing the spread of sounds here. in some parts "whiskey is the devil" there is a funky latin flavour, while in others "vino collapso" it sounds like a jimmy jam and terry lewis production circa rhythm nation - until the acoustic guitars come out, that is. so it's hard to know where they're going with all this, but yet they pull it off. kind of like if tortoise decided to make a 'dance' album. how could that not be good?
-exclaim magazine
mossyrock 's 'the zero to one sessions' mix loungey, often herb alpert-ish folk-pop with electronic touches.
-disquiet.com
currently one of the hardest working bands in america's burgeoning indie-rock / electronic crossover scene, mossyrock's debut CD for toronto's nice+smooth label entitled, the zero to one sessions, is a floating, textural romp fusing elements of their past electronic bent with their current indie rock leanings. recent comparisons to current american peers such as the books, octopus project and toof are appropriate, as are the references and nods to the otherworldly yet highly nod-worthy sounds of the orb, a twist of lemon jelly and even the slyer moods of matthew herbert.
-studio distribution
listening to Lazy Ray. i just found the cassett and borrowed a boom box. i am ready to strut down the streets of juneau with my funk on and lazy ray on my shoulder. i may just settle for dancing my fucking ass off drunk in my living room.
hey! good luck with the rest of your tour, was lovely to meet you..your gig was brilliant(thankyou for cds too)! hope to see you again in london... sophiexx
bon voyage! see you guys in brooklyn when you get back! i'll try to get more names and places for you in amsterdam, my friends said they would probably be able to hang and bring you out!
