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Prosaics

MusicBlog

Location: New York

Website: http://www.dimmak.com/prosaics/

Bio: Aghast Agape, the five-song debut EP from New York pop group Prosaics, will be given North American release by Dim Mak Records on October 12th. ... (more) The tremendous opening moments of its first track, "Teeth," unfold to evince an urgency and passion distinctive to each and every second of this recording. Propulsive rhythms, boiling-point bass lines, convulsive guitars, and graceful vocals bristle against the austere structures that frame their sounds. Aghast Agape is an exciting foreword to a band that promises longevity, delivered with a force and eloquence that has also come to distinguish the group's live shows.

Prosaics formed around a shared passion for sincere, smart, direct pop music. Eschewing "singer-songwriter" models of creativity, the band writes songs collaboratively and collectively in its rehearsal space -- with an emphasis on songs, which, in a word, is the Prosaics' modus operandi. To write, perform, and record powerful, well-crafted songs, devoid of extraneousness, is the band's foremost aim.

Andy Comer (guitar, vocals), William Kuehn (drums), and Joshua Zucker (bass) came together serendipitously in early 2002. Andy (born and raised in Louisville, KY) and Joshua (from Baltimore, MD) had each spent the better part of their four years in NYC searching in vain for like-minded, like-handed musical collaborators. After hundreds of increasingly desperate flyers, phone calls, e-mails, newspaper ads, and traumatic get-togethers (Andy once arrived at a meeting to find his prospective colleague "slapping" away at a six-stringed, fretless Carl Thompson bass) the two were introduced by a mutual friend, met at Joshua's apartment with instruments in tow, and instantly clicked. A cassette of their rough song-sketches made its way (with ample help from Joshua) into the hands of Madison, WI-born drummer William Kuehn. The three met one February afternoon at a rehearsal space and emerged after dark, resolved to work together.

Within three months of the group's July debut performance at now-defunct East Village venue Brownie's, the Prosaics' emotionally urgent sound had attracted a burgeoning audience and earned the band enthusiastic coverage in national publications such as W magazine (October 2002), with New York magazine (September 30, 2002) designating the trio one of New York City's "25 Best New Bands." Prosaics also caught the eyes and ears of New York's luminary acts: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars invited the group on an October Midwestern U.S. tour, and the Rapture brought the Prosaics to the United Kingdom for several April 2003 dates. The band returned to the UK in August for another series of live shows, culminating in performances at the Reading and Leeds festivals, and ventured to Reykjavik in October for an appearance at the 2003 Iceland Airwaves festival. (less)