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Generationals

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Location: New Orleans, LA

Websites:

• http://myspace.com/generationals
• http://generationals.com/

Bio: Generationals is the collaboration of Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer. Following the breakup of their previous band the Eames Era, they returned home to New ... (more) Orleans in 2008 to form Generationals and record their first record, Con Law.

They tapped the Oranges Band founder Daniel Black (the mind behind the Eames Era's swan song Heroes and Sheroes) to engineer and produce the record at his D.C.-based home-studio. Black recorded Con Law in the style of his heroes—George Martin, Phil Spector, Jeff Lynn and Quincy Jones—with a meticulous attention to detail and a willingness to make the recordings sound old. The result is one of those classic “first record” moments that blissfully wills its listeners into repeat listens.

The sounds of Con Law were cobbled together from the far corners of the instrument room to form a cohesive group of songs written in straight-forward pop structures. Chiming 12-string electric guitars sit next to 8-bit sequencers, synth-bass and trumpet. Often the shakers, hand-claps and acoustic guitars sound like Paul Simon and Tom Petty, while another arrangement recalls Junior Walker and Booker T., all recorded to an old 24-track 2-inch tape machine that threatened to melt down several times.

Live, the Generationals can include as many as seven pieces with background singers, a trumpet, guitars, keys, bass and drums. And when the whole band is singing en masse on songs like "Faces in the Dark" and "When They Fight, They Fight," …shit sounds real good. You would want to be there when that happens.

Park the Van Records returned to New Orleans in December of 2008, four years after the label was birthed in the same zip code. A chance meeting at the Mid-City Yacht Club (not what it sounds like) led to discussion about Park the Van’s dearly missed the Teeth, the Spinto Band, Dr. Dog and the Grant and Ted’s new band. A handoff of their “just mastered” album led to an almost immediate signing with Park the Van. Generationals are the first New Orleans band signed to Park the Van. Con Law, their debut record, is available for your ears on July 21st, 2009 on Park the Van Records. (less)