Posted on: August 28, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

*Debut Single “Imaginary Girl” Featured on Paste Magazine CD Sampler
*To Perform at Next Big Nashville Festival – Sunday Sept 9th (Details Below)

Brooklyn Vegan- June 07 “Their latest album “High Society” is like a soft rock (in a good way) record out of the 70’s that is so pleasant, it’s kind of impossible not to like. They’ve been compared to James Taylor, Jackson Browne, The Beach Boys, and Van Morrison. One of the highlights on the album is the song “Imaginary Girl”.

The Silver Seas debut LP High Society, opens up with “Country Life” an upbeat, fish-out-of-water story – a hipster city slicker’s version of Green Acres, if you will – that could indeed double as a jaunty sit-com theme. But the title track, which follows, is its darker, yearning flipside. With tunes about outsider guys longing for girls who are just out of their reach or their income bracket, High Society has remarkable emotional depth, even if the arrangements –which boast layers of harmonies from all four band members, jangly 12-string acoustic guitar solos, and shimmering keyboard touches – – have such an easygoing feel.

Daniel Tashian, lead singer and chief songwriter of Nashville-based quartet The Silver Seas, claims that the inspiration for the bittersweet pop songs on the group’s Cheap Lullaby debut didn’t come from a romantic breakup, some unrequited love or any of the typical catalysts for tunes like these, which teeter thrillingly between hopefulness and heartbreak. Tashian says it was sitcoms.

“I was wishing someone would hear one of my songs and pick it up for a sitcom theme,” Tashian confesses. “There is something about that music – songs from The Odd Couple, Laverne and Shirley, the Pink Panther cartoons –that got ingrained in my brain.”

Tashian, who’d been reading Evelyn Waugh and P.G. Wodehouse while he wrote these songs, is decidedly more Tin Pan Alley than most singer/ songwriters. He’s got a knack for creating instantly memorable melodies to pair with often plaintive lyrics, though he’s no show-off; his craftsmanship seems effortless, as if he just dashed off these sneakily addictive numbers in his spare time.—the cocktail-hour croon of “We’ll Go Walking,” the country rock of “Catch Your Own Train,” the breezy romanticism of “Imaginary Girl,” which, come to think of it, would have made a great theme to the classic ‘60s sitcom The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis.

High Society was recorded in two days at Sound Emporium Studio A in Nashville, which played host to R.E.M, when they were making Document. Along with Tashian and Lehning, The Silver Seas feature John Deaderick on electric bass and David Gehrke on drums. After the foursome had rehearsed and gigged enough to get comfortable with the new material, Lehning gathered his band-mates in one large room at the studio to cut these tracks live. Admits Lehning, “We didn’t have any money, so this was designed for us to get done fast.” He later added home studio overdubs and cut some more vocals. For the most part, though, the resulting album reflects one inspired weekend’s worth of intense recording.

BIO

The Silver Seas is the brainchild of lead singer and guitarist, Daniel Tashian, and Grammy-winning producer, arranger and keyboardist Jason Lehning. Both were raised deep within the Nashville music scene. While the young Lehning apprenticed behind the boards, Tashian was developing into a formidable singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He signed with Elektra Records and, in 1996, released his solo debut, Sweetie, produced by T-Bone Burnett.

Lehning and Tashian first met briefly by chance before choosing to work together. Tashian laughingly says he had “an allergic reaction” to Lehning, but something about their exchange stuck. Lehning continues, “Daniel called me out of the blue one day with his idea for the band, saying ‘I have this sound in my head, and I know who I want to be a part of it. Would you help me get started?’”

Tashian says, “Jason came over to my house and I played him ‘Message From the Birds’ and ‘Sea of Stars’” – both of which appear on the group’s 2004 debut, Starry Gazey Pie, self-released under its former band name, The Bees (U.S) –“and he said, ’Yeah lets do it.’ Then I told him I always wanted to do something with the drummer David Gehrke, and we got him in, and we were off and running.”

Upright bassist Robbie Harrington was part of the original lineup and played on the debut CD; then electric bassist Deaderick stepped in. Starry Gazey Pie garnered airplay on stations like Boston’s WFNX and L.A.’s KCRW and critical kudos from the press. For a time, the self-pressed disc was so hard to find that original copies were fetching premium prices on eBay. High Society began to circulate in a similar fashion, but a tour with Guster and lots of local gigs, praised by publications like Nashville Scene, brought the group a wider following and a record deal.

Next Big Nashville Festival / WRLT’s Lightning 100’s Nashville Sunday Night (live broadcast)

Sunday Sept 9th (818 3rd Ave. S. Nashville, TN 37210)

AUDREY SPILLMAN 07:00 pm
THE SILVER SEAS (FORMERLY THE BEES US) 08:00 pm
FREEDY JOHNSTON 09:00 pm
All Venues 21+ Unless Noted

For more info on the festival check out: http://www.nextbignashville.net/

myspace.com/thesilverseas

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