2010
Song-writer Emily Long fronts a brutal and sexy self titled rock n’ roll band. Upon first listen you might hear influences of Ronnie Spector and Freddy Mercury in Emily’s voice but the band nods to a more modern T.REX or heavier Cars. Centered around Emily’s towering vocals the line up also includes finger bleeding melody chemist Daniel Ryan Espy as well as the clean and calculated Nik Lokenssgaard on guitars. The band’s rhythm section is carried by amp kicking bassist Bret Ritter and the hard hitting showman Zach Jones on drums.
Emily earned underground success with her debut LP “When I Was In Love With”. After a string of SXSW appearances, placements on The WB’s The Lake and Sorority Forever as well as on Universal Records compilation Bad Girls Don’t Cry alongside Amy Winehouse and Duffy, Emily and her band are back in the studio and hard at work with the follow up record “Dirty Face” due out Christmas 2010. “This work is different from the first in so many ways”, notes Long. “After we released the last album and Zach joined the band it breathed new life into all of us. We knew we wanted to approach this recording differently.”
As a result the band simplified arrangements and kept only the best songs around to see the light of day. After striking the interest of Coheed and Cambria producer Chris Bittner at a show the band called upon him to deliver a competatively spirited sound that would be new to the ears of music fans. “I knew I wanted a record that would rock mean and still be emotional. I knew Chris could do it.” Says Long
The result is a sexually charged set of lyrically driven, dynamic rock n’ roll songs.The title track “Dirty Face” is about capturing a one night conquest written from the female perspective while co-write with Daniel Ryan Espy “All the Way” compares marriage to a murder/suicide. The album winds down with “Good Hurt” which Long wrote as comforting lullaby to soothe the ache of trying at love and failing.
“Lyrics have always been important to me” explains Long. “I believe they deserve as much attention as music or arrangements. These songs are about what’s going on around me but I take those experiences into a fantasy world where I explore what could happen next. I’ve seen things in New York I never thought I would. There is no shortage of inspiration.”
Emily Long and her bands appearance on BETTER TV, and the stellar reviews which called her vocals “big and dramatic” in The Nashville Scene seem to be just a taste of what is to come as they prepare to support the record “Dirty Face” with two debut shows at CMJ festival in New York City. Initial buzz surrounding the record centers on Emily’s best writing to date. See for yourself when the record hits in December.
CMJ DATES
Lit Lounge 10/20 at 9pm
RethinkPopMusic/TheAudioPerv CMJ Showcase Crash Mansion 10/22 at 6pm
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