When Mike Sembos of Connecticut indie-rock band The Alternate Routes contacted me to let me know about his Other Band, The Backyard Committee, I have to admit I was a little wary. Here’s why:
“…part of the concept is a constantly rotating cast of musician friends, each who brings their unique voice to the project.” (quote from Mike Sembos)
When I see phrases like “constantly rotating cast,” I get the picture of a loose-knit collective of musician friends who are just getting together to jam–which is cool, and lots of fun, but usually doesn’t add up to making good records because as a general rule, there usually isn’t enough structure in it to make it work.
Meet the exception to the rule. This is a hodge-podge collective that actually works.
Yeah it’s a little sloppy in parts, but nothing like I would have expected. Yeah, it skates across a few genres (a fact which Sembo admits), but overall it stays close enough to the folk-Americana category that it doesn’t lose its audience. The end result is a sort of jam-session garage band you’d actually want to sit and listen to–like somewhere in Connecticut is this bunch of musician neighbors that get together for a barbecue or something, and actually sound really, really good.
And here’s the best part: you can download the whole album, right now–and forevermore–and you don’t have to pay for it. Says Sembo, “…[another] part of the band concept is that it doesn’t cost anything for anyone to own our music.”
So I’ve shared a couple of the tracks below to give you an idea about The Backyard Committee, but you can go to the band’s Bandcamp site and download the whole dang thing right now, for free. IMHO, it’s worth owning. And if The Backyard Committee ever decided to charge for the record, it would still be worth owning.
Alls I’ve got to say about it is if this is a backyard committee, this is a neighborhood I’d like to live in.
The Backyard Committee: “Red China”
The Backyard Committee: “25”
Or download the whole dang thing for free here.
