Brooklyn's Onward Chariots reveal new song with Performer Magazine
Scenes come and go, but songs are forever. Just ask Ben Morss, the mastermind behind Brooklyn’s Onward Chariots. With Take Me To Somewhere, their brand new EP, the band is turning a new page.
Ben had already established an impressive indiepop pedigree in California before moving to Brooklyn, playing keyboards for bands like Cake and enjoying college radio success with his band The Pilgrims. He also made occasional home recordings with friends under the moniker “Chariots of Tuna”.
In New York, Chariots of Tuna grew into Onward Chariots, with a new lineup of Brooklyn musicians who shared Ben’s love for jangly pop, the Beach Boys and the Shins. With Onward Chariots, Ben found a new outlet for his prolific songwriting. The band’s first recordings catapulted Onward Chariots to indie pop nirvana, earning praise, airplay and positive reviews from Italy to Brazil. They landed two European tours and coveted slots on legendary festivals like Indietracks (UK), Athens Popfest and Popfest New England. The band also released a single on beloved Spanish label Elefant Records, and in 2013 their first full-length, the conceptual album This is My Confession, achieved critical acclaim.
Fast forward to 2014, and Onward Chariots has slimmed down to a duo, with Ben and Rus Wimbish playing almost all the instruments. Seasoned bedroom studio aficionados, the duo recorded in an honest-to-goodness studio this time with none other than fab producer Jesse Gander, known from his work with Japandroids and White Lung. Friends fleshed out the sound with backup vocals, trumpet, and drums. The resulting EP, Take Me To Somewhere, shows Ben’s songs in a whole new light. The music still chimes and sparkles like a vintage Silvertone guitar, but with a newly found muscularity and cohesion. Take Me To Somewhere blends the guitar attack of bands like Japandroids with some experimental touches and a driving rhythm section that would not have been out of place on an LCD Soundsystem recording. With Ben’s vocals front and center as always, the EP is giving new luster and polish to his tunes.
Take Me To Somewhere should give Ben Morss’ songs the audience they deserve, while still appealing to the many fans worldwide of Onward Chariots’ brand of melodic, sparkly indiepop. Onward indeed! |
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