Biography
One of five bands:
1. Branches - Los Angeles, CA
- Indie/Folk Rock -
Best friends turned band-mates, the lady and gentlemen of Branches are an independent, self-writing and self-producing collective. Birthed in a living room in the suburbs of Los Angeles in 2010, Tyler, Natalie, Jacob, Mitch, Tyler, and Mike spent their first year together making friends, playing shows, and writing and recording the songs for their EPs ("O, Light!", "Cabin", "Merry Christmas") and their full-length ("Thou Art The Dream", released 2/12).
In their debut EP, 'O, Light!', and their sophomore release, 'Cabin', Branches offered an eight-song sample of their sound. Through both singalong celebration and solitary longing, the sounds of 'O, Light!' and 'Cabin' provide the full spectrum of what this band is capable of: Indie-folk-rock-family-fun in a style that has been compared to the likes of Arcade Fire, Mumford and Sons, and Freelance Whales.
Pouring as much creativity and imagination into every live experience as they have into their studio recordings, they have been honored to sing in such notable southern California venues like the Hotel Cafe (Hollywood) & the Glass House (Pomona), where the band first opened for Tyrone Wells. In April 2011, the band celebrated their first TV spot when their song "Maps of Wars" (O, Light!) was featured on an episode of One Tree Hill. In the Spring of 2012, they earned their second TV placement on One Tree Hill with "Sleeper" (Cabin).
After nearly a year of dreaming, writing, recording, eating, and praying, Branches are thrilled and proud to have released their first full-length album, "Thou Art The Dream". This collection of thirteen songs explore the ideas of doubt, faith, loneliness, love, and above all, hope for life as it was meant to be. About these songs and others, Tyler says, "We write songs that we believe and make music we'd want to listen to. It's just much more fun that way." In addition to a fuller track listing, this album also features a wider array of instrumentation, adding ukulele, trombone, trumpet, violin, toy organ, and other fun noises to their existing instrumental buffet. In the wake of its release, Branches are gearing up for another fun year of traveling, singing, and making friends.
When they're not writing, recording, or playing out up and down the west coast, the band spends their time laughing at each other, frequenting local Mexican cuisine, and loving their lives. Join them for a night of singing and see for yourself what their music is all about.
2. "Porto, Portugal’s Pedro Rios records dreamy, echo-soaked instrumental pop. His recent Alto Astral mixtape has eight of his recent songs, plus some sample chatter between. The overall effect (…) drifts from gentle to eerie and back, though this song in particular makes me think of bones washing up on a beach at night."
http://stereogum.com/378911/branches-alto-astral/mp3s/
"Branches has something of nomad. He wasn't born to stay in the same place. There's little (or even nothing) left of the embryonic recordings, other than an excavating will/determination of exploring the darkest corners of sound. But even in this something has changed.
In Alto Astral, conveniently released on tape, there is a slow but candid opening of windows to the sun and the light, a stretching out of toes towards the warm sands of the beach, a perfectly healthy flirt with the melodic beats and flavours of the 80s. All this with crafty cut and paste aesthetics, an abuse of minor samples (in a sinful collab between Pedro Rios and Miguel Carvalho), and and acknowledgement of the remains of a certain pop, so many times mistreated and rejected, doomed to end up in cardboard boxes brimming with old LPs for less than 5 euros.
Entering Alto Astral is also putting on repeat those 10 best seconds of the Caribbean LP we found in the attic in the holiday house, it's admitting to like that melody of dubious taste, it's finding life in keyboards kept forever in closets up to the top with memories, it's like watching life slowly unfurl in front of our eyes. Entering Alto Astral is seeing Branches reinventing himself while going with the tide, arm in arm with the beats and melodies we thought were lost forever. To see the entrance of the sun." André Gomes
http://www.myspace.com/branchesbranches
3. Branches - Chicago, IL
- Alternative/Indie -
Some bands make it look too easy. After day jobs and family commitments led to a brief hiatus, the four men of Branches returned to the studio, somehow stronger and more focused than ever before. These sessions produced the rolling grooves and breezy folk-rock charm of Grown in You, their second album for Contraphonic.
Branches' self-titled debut was recorded less than a year after the band's formation, yet it was a remarkably accomplished work, showcasing the singing and songwriting of all three founding members. After adding multi-instrumentalist Tim Joyce, Branches hit the road, focused their songwriting around Ben Schulman's psych-tinged pop-folk, and recorded a 19-minute freakbeat improv workout (Beard on Fire) to fill the gap between albums #1 and 2. All the while, Branches earned rave reviews for its diverse songwriting and quirky delights.
Although the band doesn't split the frontman duties as much on Grown in You, the song arrangements are more collaborative - each song becomes the product of four musician' labor, rather than a revue of backing men behind each other's work. Thus each members' strengths become part of the whole - John Byce's jazzy stickwork and upbeat vibes, Ben Schulman's honey warble and pointed strumming, Seth Bohn's bubbly guitar lines and cheery harmonies, Tim Joyce's understated coloration and expert ear for arrangement. Recorded in just three days by Barry Phipps (Coctails), Grown in You is the sound of Branches planting their flag, confident in each statement and phrase of their sound.
4. Branches- Vancouver, BC
Ambient, Post-Rock, Electronic
Branches is one of the music projects of Jonny Dylan Hughes, a Vancouver based artist who defines his music as "electronic indie pop".
5. A Goth band from Messina, Italy.
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