The Walkmen
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The Walkmen are an indie rock band from New York City. The band formed with three members from Jonathan Fire Eater (which had recently disbanded) and two members from The Recoys in 2000. The group comprises Hamilton Leithauser (vocals, guitar), Paul Maroon (guitar, piano), Walter Martin (organ/bass), Peter Bauer (bass/organ) and Matt Barrick (drums). Four of the five band members attended St. Albans in Washington, D.C. They prefer the unique sound of vintage musical instruments, most famously the clangy upright piano, and often recorded at their self-designed recording studio Marcata Recording, which used analog recording equipment before closing in 2006 after Columbia University bought the building that contained Marcata.
The 2002 debut album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone was well received by critics for its experimental approach and progressive sound. The track "We've Been Had" from Everyone Who Pretended... was used on a television commercial for the Saturn ION. The follow up album Bows & Arrows, was released in 2004 and was listed by many critics as one of the year's best albums while embracing a less whimsical, experimental sound than the previous album. Several songs were featured on the Fox television program The O.C., including "What's in It for Me?", "The Rat" and "Little House of Savages".
Bows & Arrows was released on the Record Collection label (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers). The independent label Startime released Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone.
Their next album, A Hundred Miles Off, was released in the US on May 23rd 2006 to less glowing reviews than their previous albums. The band premiered most of the new songs on a tour of the Northeast in early 2006. The first single to be released was "Louisiana." Peter Bauer and Walter Martin have traded instruments on the new album with Bauer handling the organ duties and Martin playing bass.
2006 also saw the release of another full-length offering by the Walkmen: a track-by-track cover of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's drug-fueled Pussy Cats album from 1974.
In 2007, the band continued touring and writing songs for their next album, and "The Rat" was included the soundtrack of the video game Major League Baseball 2K7. Also in the beginning of 2007 they toured Australia.
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[edit] Trivia
- The Walkmen are working on a book entitled John's Journey.
- Had their prized gourd stolen from them early in 2006 [1]
- On March 17, 2007, alcohol-intoxicated lead singer Hamilton Leithauser was arrested and spent the night in jail during the band's stay in Texas for the South By Southwest festival
[edit] Discography
[edit] LPs
- Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (2002)
- Bows & Arrows (2004)
- A Hundred Miles Off (2006)
- "Pussy Cats" Starring the Walkmen (2006)
[edit] Other releases
- Untitled (with four songs) (2001)
- Untitled (with eight songs) (2001)
- Radio (aka Wake Up), track for This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (2001)
- Untitled (with eight songs) (2002)
- Let's Live Together (2002)
- Split (with Calla) (2002)
- The Rat (single) (2004)
- Little House of Savages (single) (2004)
- Christmas Party (2004)
- "There Goes My Baby" on the Stubbs the Zombie soundtrack (2005)
- Louisiana (single) (2006)
