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“Soulful,” “Heartfelt,” and “Funky As Hell.” Formed in New York City, this dynamic soul group has been delighting audiences with deep grooves and deeply personal songs written by their leader Douglas Goodhart.
After having his heart broken by a long term love, Douglas picked up a pen and grabbed his guitar and began to tell his stories: an unrequited love affair with a neighbor, the hurtful things said during a breakup, and how he “can’t commit but will commute” when it comes to love.
Douglas’ unique ability to tell a story through song combined with his dynamic dance moves and tight control over his six piece backing band is what has brought Douglas and the Goodharts in the span of two short years from sporadic shows at Rockwood Music Hall, to headlining shows at Brooklyn Bowl and B.B. Kings in front of a fast-growing audience of fans
Experience the soul!!
EPA dirty-water technician Doug Renegleis (pronounced re-nuh-GLESE) awoke from his beach-chair snooze at the edge of the Gowanus Canal to the buzzing of his phone.
It was an email.
Lab tests on the prior week’s collection of Gowanus Canal sludge had uncovered unprecedented levels of ununseptium (element 117 in the periodic table), a highly radioactive evaporation residue resulting from the fusion of calcium and berkelium.
“What?” Renegleis muttered to himself. “That’s impossible.”
Renegleis was turning the phone over in his hand, trying to wrap his mind around the findings, when suddenly a growl came from the canal. Sprinting over to the edge, Renegleis arrived just in time to see what could only have been some type of hallucination: two giant construction workers, possibly twins, heaving mightily at a thick rope the end of which was tied to a hulking mess of goop and metal slowly emerging from the water. Renegleis strained his eyes into focus, the twins strained their muscles, and slowly the instrument revealed itself. Could it be? A giant bear trap.
On that cold January night Renegleis wrote a short a poem. Then BOOM.
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In March of that same year four men were found inside a recently pressure-washed subway car, alive but unconscious, piled in a corner by the motorman’s booth and enveloped in a sopping mess of frayed quarter-inch cables and black mayonnaise. Their ranks included a prominent luthier, a Zen HVAC technician, a retired garbage man, and a condottieri trained in shredding at Brown University. Terrified that these men were the victims of some foul chemical experiment, the NYCTA workers turned their power washers on the crumpled bodies and let it rip.
Steam filled the car. The sound of yelling, wild laughter.
Minutes later, they emerged. Cleansed. Ready.
“Where’s my keyboard?” said one.
“I don’t know,” said another. “But I think we’re late for practice.”
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Where do you go from here? Into the weird and wonderful pop world of GROUNDERS.
This spring, the Toronto-based band – Andrew Davis (vocals and guitar), Daniel Busheikin (keyboards), Mike Searle (Bass) and Evan Lewis (guitar) – will release their first full-length album, a collection of dense and intricate pop music under the gauzy veil of krautrock and psychedelia. In the time between releasing the Wreck of a Smile EP in 2013 and laying demos for their debut album, GROUNDERS rediscovered their love for classic pop music, an appreciation that had waned over the years as they became obsessed with circumventing the conventional. They listened to pop staples like David Bowie and Devo, and revisited old favourites like Velvet Underground, Neu and the Zombies. When GROUNDERS finally came up for air, they had a newfound love for pop and a glut of ideas for a debut LP.
Meanwhile, Meditation for Dummies and David Lynch’s self-help guide Catching the Big Fish, on transcendental meditation and the creative process, were passed around the van while touring through North America. As Davis’s interest in meditation increased, his lyrics began to reflect his search for serenity and inner peace.
The album came to life in two distinct spaces: Davis’s bedroom in Toronto’s sleepy High Park neighbourhood; and a spacious two-car garage packed with vintage gear from various pawn shops and second-hand stores across the country.
After recruiting DIANA’s Kieran Adams to handle drums, the band headed into the studio with longtime pal Marcel Ramagnano (Born Ruffians, Absolutely Free) to record. Months of tracking, tinkering and layering later, GROUNDERS enlisted the incomparable David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Holy Fuck) to give each song the bombastic, fried analog treatment he’s become known for. First single “Secret Friend” sounds like a bleached and sunbaked Zombies; “Vyvanse,” which yes, is named after the ADHD drug, contains a lilting guitar riff that’ll break your heart; “Pull It Over Me” careens into the dreamy ether courtesy of a wistful cyclical guitar that’s the epitome of a lazy summer’s day; “No Ringer” is a wobbly Silver Apples trance doused in a saxophone freak-out; “Fool’s Banquet” sparkles like early Broadcast flooded by constant glistening waves of pleasure. After cross-country tours, an acclaimed debut EP and a David Lynch-inspired spiritual journey, GROUNDERS have finally come of age.
Terrible Terrible is an ambitious quintet that combines naturalistic and contemporary shades of the musical spectrum to create a new aesthetic using synthesizers, guitars, varied percussion, and three voices in close harmony