One Sheet - King of Prussia

Press Contact: Bill Benson, Team Clermont [email protected] (706) 543-­‐9455 King of Prus(s)ia Zonian Girls…And The Echoes That Surround Us All Minty Fresh Records In 2011, King of Prussia songwriter, singer and guitarist Brandon Hanick returned from Barcelona to American shores a new man. With very few euros in pocket, he was rich with stories from three years spent overseas, spoke Spanish fluently and had, perhaps most importantly, written the 20 songs that would become King of Prussia’s first double album, Zonian Girls…And The Echoes That Surround Us All. He didn’t set out to create a “concept album.” It just so happened that half of the songs represent the lighter side of the human psyche (love, joy, and ‘whitewashed afternoons’), while the other half represent, well…the other half (the loss of love, woe, and ‘the dark side of town’). Each ‘light’ song on Zonian Girls has a darker counterpart on The Echoes that Surround Us All, and the two ‘cousin’ songs are bound together by related melodies, musical arrangements, lyrical themes or a combination thereof. The idea of a transcontinental recording affair had taken shape on previous albums, but it wasn’t until this, King of Prussia’s third and fourth album, that the American and European versions of King of Prussia became fully united; the process fully realized. The adventure began in late Autumn 2012 in Barcelona, where Hanick met up with Vasco Batista (guitar, bass, keys) and drummer Simon Mille. They rehearsed five or six hours per day, six days a week in Borders’ punk rock practice space, complete with a vending machine from which one can purchase cans of Estrella Damm for a mere euro. The marathon practices prepared the boys for a five-­‐day drum sesh at La Caverne Studio in Bordeaux, Mille’s hometown. They recorded with Sebastian Moreau-­‐Ellero, drank good coffee and wine and ate croissants from the same boulangerie every day. They rounded out the Euro sessions recording Christine Kelly’s vocals at Neverland Studios while Batista handled most of the lead guitar duties from his chilly Barcelona flat. Hanick bid “adeu” to his Barcelona buds, promising to send the final project, upon completion, via carrier pigeon. Work on the album continued in the band’s birthplace of Athens, Ga. in December. Multi-­‐
instrumentalist and singer Nathan Troutman hopped a plane and a bus to town with a glimmer in his eye and a banjo on his knee. He, Hanick and multi-­‐instrumentalist Brian Smith locked themselves away for 12-­‐hour sessions in Casa de Smith. It felt like home. They invited Athens friends, new and old, to join the recording process, and together they laid down guitars, banjos, keys, harmonicas, vocals, horns and strings while Smith’s wife Cory patiently endured the album’s multitudinous overdubs. Keeping with the collaborative ethic embraced by the Athens music community and employed by King of Prussia since Save the Scene, its 2008 critically acclaimed debut album, Zonian Girls…And The Echoes that Surround Us All features contributions from over 20 musicians, including Chicago musician Patrick Burke and notable Athenians from bands like The B-­‐52s and Elf Power. Sometimes they made house calls. They recorded University of Georgia classical music students in campus practice rooms and even recorded Mike Mills (R.E.M., Hindu Love Gods) on grand piano at his house. They continued recording in the infinitely more profesh Glow Studio with their friend Jesse Mangum, who would ultimately mix and ‘awesomize’ the albums. When King of Prussia released Save the Scene, critics compared the band to “twee” pop perfectionists like of Montreal and Apples in Stereo. This might have had something to do with the fact that the album was released on sunny Kindercore Records. Or maybe it was because the band was formed in psych pop wonderland Athens, Ga. Or maybe they really did sound “twee.” Most of KOP’s members like and were likely influenced by the aforementioned bands. But they never felt twee. The band’s follow-­‐up EP, The Time of Great Forgetting was composed of country western songs that garnered not inaccurate comparisons to twangier indie rock bands like Beachwood Sparks and Mojave 3. 2012’s full-­‐length Transmissions from the Grand Strand brought reviews that compared King of Prussia to bands like The Shins and Belle & Sebastian, and normally included at least one question like “Where the hell has this band been the last few years?” 3 The answer to this question lies in the wax that Zonian Girls will be pressed upon. As if to say, “Here it is. This is what we have to give. This is what we’ve been doing,” King of Prussia presents a collection of songs that defines where the band is coming from, where it is and what will be. Comparisons to other bands are inevitable, and the Prussians will rejoice in reading them, content to know that someone cares enough to even give their work a critical listen. But this time around something feels different. Zonian Girls and The Echoes feels more Prussian than anything that has come before it—a getting blue, of sorts. An ascend, perhaps? Yes, a band’s self-­‐actualization. ___________________________
King of Prussia’s “first record is a
masterpiece most artists spend
years seeking and rarely touch.
Save the Scene shifts between
moods and melodic drives,
memorably displaying King of
Prussia’s lyrical depth and talent
for connecting with listeners
immediately and consistently.”
-Delusions of Adequacy
“King of Prussia falls in line nicely
behind the '60s psych-worshiping
Apples in Stereo and Of
Montreal. Whether this means
frontman Brandon Hanick will be
cross-dressing in 10 years and
crooning about paying girls to hit
other girls is anyone's guess. But
he and Kevin Barnes already have
one thing in common: They each
made one of the better records
released this year.”
-Magnet Magazine
“Those with seasonal affective
disorder will find that a listen to
Save the Scene will work as well
as sticking your head in a lightbox
to up your serotonin production
on a grey, snowy day.”
-Pitchfork
Transmissions from the Grand
Strand” is a consistent pleasure.
It’s the kind of album that creeps
into one’s consciousness;
eventually feeling so essential, one
wonders how one lived, before,
without it.”
-My Old Kentucky Blog
“The Athens, Ga. group’s debut
heaps of promise.”
-Paste Magazine
“An extremely polished pop sound
with ridiculously clever lyrics.”
-Optical Atlas Elephant Six Blog
The songs’ “desperation is clear,
but with a sound plucked from the
whimsy of 1960′s pop, listeners are
more likely to be singing along
than wallowing in despair.”Consequence of Sound
Transmissions “is pop music at its
most sophisticated. Hanick
foregoes any sappy choruses or
psychedelic flower power in favor
of thoughtful, nuanced narratives.
Even if love is often on his lips,
Hanick's poetic phrasing is never
trite, sometimes even venturing
into darker or politically charged
themes that belie the buoyant
harmonies”
-Flagpole Magazine
“Indie pop for the thinking man.
Something to tap your foot and
stroke your beard to.”
-The Aquarian
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