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[ PRESS RELEASE 17 November 2010 ] [ PRESS RELEASE 14 October 2010 ] CP @ CMJ Saturday 10/23 photo: Common Prayer performed alongside Phosphorescent, Monogold & more last week at the O+ Festival in Kingston, NY, where they played in exchange for free dental work and health services. Photo by Wendy Tocci. [ PRESS RELEASE 17 August 2010 ]
The project features graphics based on the vinyl records from Goldstein's original piece, "A Suite of Nine 7-inch Records of Found Sounds" (1976). "Seven Sounds Found" includes a whilstling faucet in an ancient Oxfordshire manor, the six a.m. cacophany of seagulls recorded from the attic window of Neil Halstead's home in Cornwall, the rag-tag band that sight-reads music at Paddington Station on Friday evenings, and a vocal piece by Caroline Weeks and Sophia Craig-Daffern, who shared a bill with Common Prayer at the Coach House in Brighton. The band encourages others to download and use the sounds in their own music.
Download a bigger version of the promo photo above.
[ PRESS RELEASE 1 July 2010 ] Spring 2009: In the English village of Steventon, Brooklyn based songwriter/principal heretic Jason Sebastian Russo and a constituency of British pop talent hauled several half-tuned guitars, myriad scraps of rusty metal and a piano with a knee-high flood watermark into a cow barn on Hill Farm. So was born Common Prayer’s first album, There Is A Mountain. Now, the band has signed to Big Potato Records, a british label founded in part by Neil Halstead. Live Dates: [ PRESS RELEASE 1 June 2010 ]
[ PRESS RELEASE 31 March 2010 ]
The band debuts their album cover today(!), and celebrates with an NYC show tonight at the Bowery Electric, (w/ Only Son, The Silent League, 9pm). [ PRESS RELEASE 11 March 2010]
In the album's eleven elaborately cinematic outsider-pop tracks, violin innuendos and organ riffs tangle with scrap metal samples and found sounds. While thoughtful and often somber in theme, Russo's songs are playfully bizarre, informed by extensive field research in the life of the heartbroken, reckless, romantic and mentally ill from a reflective and victorious post-everything perspective. Look for Common Prayer in duo-form next week at SXSW, and on the main stage of the inaugural Truck America festival this spring (alongside Russo's former bandmates Mercury Rev, plus White Rabbits, Here We Go Magic & more). Common Prayer is staffed by members of the Truck family from all corners of Oxfordshire, upstate-NY resident Alexandra Marvar, and Jason's brother Justin Russo. It is anchored in Brooklyn. ACCOLADES Official music video for "Of Saints" debuts on AOL Spinner! Read more about it and watch it here. Common Prayer's FOGLIGHT FILMS "Take-Away Show" (directed by Adam Hall) featured on IFC.com and Time Out New York's The Volume.
"In the end, what is striking about There Is a Mountain is how fully formed and lush it feels, and how strikingly inventive and brash Russo is when he stretches his arms past the prog and psych that has formed the bulk of his career.... There's never a moment that feels tacked on or hidden underneath banks of haze and fog.... There Is a Mountain is a joy to hear again and again. –Michael Stasiak, Other Music [ Read full review from June 7 Downloads of the Week / OM Newsletter ] "The most appealing aspect of There Is A Mountain, the exquisite debut record from Common Prayer, is the element of surprise that is layered throughout the album; where the plaintive beauty of one song hardly prepares you for the wildly inventive percussion of the next, and where decades of listening to music scarcely primes you for the fluid blend of heartfelt sincerity and offbeat experimentalism found within these numbers." –Erik Thompson, The Line of Best Fit (UK) "Weighing in at a skinny half hour, Common Prayer's debut album is a flab free and never boring journey through outsider-pop." –High Voltage (UK) "An excitably varied yet cohesive debut. 9/10 Stars" –Antonio Rowe, God Is In The TV (UK) "There Is A Mountain is an album you’ll love instantly, return to constantly and never tire of. 10/10 Stars" –Matthew Parri Thomas, Culture Deluxe Magazine (UK) "Mr. Russo and his helpers have made one of the finest records of the year, hands down. It’s overflowing with character unlike anything else you’re likely to hear, and its slanted and enchanted sound makes my little heart go pitter patter." –Les Enfants Terribles "Endearingly wayward and ragged. Combination of strings and junkyard percussion is bold and effective and its sudden switches of mood are unexpected and exciting." –Daniel Patton, Music OMH (UK) "Those willing to give Russo & Company a fair shake will discover a new act whose music boasts a deep reservoir of vitality, nuance, and charm." -One Track Mind "Violin innuendos and organ riffs interlace with scrap metal samples and found sounds throughout this deep and dark folk album." -New Dust "Common Prayer's blend of Microphones-esque instrumentation and lyrical intelligence will be intoxicating." –Miniature Music Press (Cardiff), Gig of the Month "Die vielfalt wird in einen riesigen überraschungskeks verbacken, den man stück für stück dem hörer gereicht." ("The album is baked in a huge suprise cookie which one served piece by piece to the listener.") –Das Klienicum (Bavaria) "Part of what makes their music so fascinating is how it effortlessly bridges the gap between country and city."–"The Brooklyn-Kingston Connection: Up-and-coming band Common Prayer roots itself in both cities,"The Kingston Times "Folky pop rock with a 'scrap metal' beat – sounds delicious to me... If you like your pop to be sweet but still rough around the edges, check this shit out." –Pigeons & Planes "While thoughtful and often somber in theme, Russo’s songs are playfully bizarre." -Audio Perv "Jason Sebastian Russo of Common Prayer has essentially done what I would in my most wildest dream: Go to the UK, pull together a large band of British pop talent and record an album that falls somewhere in the Folk-Rock divide... using their man power to create songs that slowly build instead of attacking you with sound. " -StandarDeviations "There is a Mountain is a charming mishmash of an album, where Brooklyn hipster affectations rub shoulders with old school brit-psyche sensibilities.... Sound collages, a concept oft tacked on to an album during the last 15 minutes of the mixing to imply indie credentials, are used in good taste and seem to take the listener on a journey." -We Heart Music "Highlights From America’s First Ever Truck Festival: Sunday - Moment of Transcendence: Common Prayer joined onstage by the mother of the Russo clan, then the ensemble of family and friends closes with “Everything and More.” All of Truck America gets choked up." -The Catskill Chronicle "The result of these sessions is an album’s worth of intriguingly weird pop songs that aren’t afraid to defy the listener’s expectations, but remain fully accessible." -Musical Pairings But despite my cynicism, Common Prayer is pleasantly convincing. The combination of Russo's caustic delivery (bringing to mind Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and the hodge podge of organic instruments feel very charming and genuine.... As a thoughtful piano leads into ["Everything & More"] group harmony "We may never pass this way again/This could be the last time my friend," the final crescendo brings me to tears for ever having doubted them. -Adam Thomas, Plug In Music "...An album filled rustic, melodic, and genuine songs." -Orange Alert SINGLE REVIEWS "Music doesn’t get much more care-free sounding than this." -Rebecca Schiller, NME ["Ten Best Free Downloads This Week" list] "Us vs. Them" has great melody and instrumentation, using piano so effectively I'd half-expect to hear it performed inside a rustic saloon." -I Guess I'm Floating "One of our favorite jams of the year thus far." -The Tripwire "‘Marriage Song’ binds the beating of piecemeal percussion and a dobro sounding slide into a delectable mixture of groaning sentiments. The chorus runs “It’s a long way down, it’s a long way doooowwn, it’s a long long long way down,” with overdubbing very much remniscent of Bowie’s ‘Candidate’ from ‘Diamond Dogs.’ It’s bizarre to find a link like that from this album to Bowie’s comment on totalitarian government and Orwellian dystopia, but if you listen, it’s definitely and clearly there." –Marc Thomas, Journal of Plastik (UK) "There Is A Mountain’s fourth track is “Us vs Them,” a song whose melodies are broad and whose heart takes it on all kinds of well-received tangents. From the piano-laced verses to the final, foot-shuffling moments filled with whistled curlicues, the track boasts a slightly deranged beauty." -One Track Mind "A delightfully shonky bar jam of forlorn optimism, not dissimilar to a bourbon-mellowed Walkmen, and complete with a lovely tinkly piano and whistle-a-thon ending." -Snipe (London) "A lovely logfire jam replete with 70s style close reverbed drums." -Proper Songs (UK) "A slightly grunged hard beat drives this piano/acoustic guitar number into a summer indie romp." -Guilt Free Pleasure "Som uppladdning bjuder de på vackra spåret Us vs. Them, vilket snabbt repeat-snurrat sig långt in i NMB-hjärtat" -No Modest Bear (Sweden) "A stomping beat, a twinkling piano and memorable whistling highlight the first single from Jason Sebastian Russo's rustic indie-pop project." -Atlas & the Anchor "If the single, 'Us vs. Them' is any indication of the album, than it’s one to jot down on the 'to get' list." -Indie Rock Café "The song is good and so is the whole album." -Electric Mustache "Pri-tay coo-uhl." -ListenBeforeYouBuy.net นี่ ก็อีกหนึ่งวงจาก บรู้คลิน นิวยอร์ค อเมริกา ซึ่งก็มีสมาชิกวงเยอะแยะจริงๆ (ประมาณ 8 คน) เข้าใจว่าพวกเขาเพิ่งจะฟอร์ม วงมาเมื่อปีที่แล้ว และอัลบั้มชุดนี้ที่วางแผงวันนี้พอดี (27 เม.ย.)ก็คืออัลบั้มชุดแรก งานเพลงของพวกเขาเป็นอเมริกันโฟล์คร็อค ที่ฟังเพลินไม่ใช่น้อย แฟนๆ โฟล์คร็อคทราบแล้วเปลี่ยน -Nanatakara Bloggang.com "Us vs. Them börjar med ett kraftfullt, tungt men långsamt trummande, en lugn gitarr kommer in, sen kommer sången och efter ytterligare en liten kort stund gör ett piano dem alla sällskap i en trallvänlig folkpop-låt som avslutas med några småvisslingar." -Tram7 (Sweden) More: Our Foglight Films "Take-Away Show" on Time Out New York ------------------- [ DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES PRESS PHOTOS]
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Catch Common Prayer twice next week at CMJ — details below. Their performances will coincide with the release of a new video by Foglight Films' Adam Hall, and their debut album* out on CD via Neil Halstead’s 
In the spirit of conceptual artist Jack Goldstein, Common Prayer announces 
After conquering their first SxSW, Common Prayer returns to a full month of shows in New York leading up to the release of their debut album There Is A Mountain (recorded last spring in a cowbarn, and available 6/1, Virtual). They'll then join Here We Go Magic, Mercury Rev, White Rabbits, Neil Halstead and more on the main stage at the Truck America music festival, an established british fest throwing its inaugural American event in the Catskill mountains near Woodstock April 30 - May 2. [ More info at 
"There Is a Mountain ranks as one of the year-so-far’s most recommended under-the-radar releases. 
"Common Prayer
