| The Gregory Brothers | |
|---|---|
The Gregory Brothers at ROFLCon II. Top row: Evan Gregory and Sarah Fullen Gregory; Bottom row: Andrew Rose Gregory and Michael Gregory. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Genres | Auto-Tune music Pop Blue-eyed soul Comedy rock Country Music Folk |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels | Gregory Residence Records[1] |
| Website | thegregorybrothers.com |
| Members | |
| Michael Gregory Andrew Rose Gregory Evan Gregory Sarah Fullen Gregory[2] |
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The Gregory Brothers are an American musical group who characterize their music as "Country & Soul, Folk & Roll".[3] Members include Michael Gregory on drums and vocals, Andrew Rose Gregory on guitar and vocals, Evan Gregory on keys and vocals, and Sarah Fullen Gregory (Evan's wife[4][5]) on bass and vocals.[6] They are most famous for their creation of musical viral videos, most notably the Auto-Tune the News series, which includes the "Bed Intruder Song". The three brothers, originally from Radford, Virginia, moved to Brooklyn, New York in the mid-2000s and met Sarah in the local music scene. The four formed a band in 2007.
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The group released their first EP, Meet the Gregory Brothers!, on May 29, 2009.[6] Village Voice music writer Ben Westhoff characterized the effort as "a lounge-y, refreshingly sincere slice of blue-eyed soul", and Jake Frazier of PopSense praised the work, claiming that it "[brought] more to the table than the other 1000+ songs [in his music library]".[7] Westhoff opined that "unfortunately, many of the Brothers' new fans have no patience for anything that's not 'Auto-Tune the News'",[8] though the group itself takes a broader view of its fans' tastes, believing that "there will definitely be some fans who found us through our videos, and who will be disappointed when they hear our records and they're not a bunch of hip-hop political parodies…[but] most people get that we are capable of creating music in different styles, and can appreciate our folky soul jams for what they are."[7]
For the period of July 15–22 2009, 47–54 days after its release, the EP was ranked as the top-selling album on Amie Street in the category of "Soul / R&B".[9]
Contributing musicians on the album include Doug Hulin (bass) and Justin Keller (saxophone). The album was recorded at the Mission Sound Recording facility in Brooklyn, New York, and was produced, engineered, and mixed by Zach McNees. The recording was mastered by Ricardo Gutierrez. The cover art photographer was Denny Renshaw, and Morgan King, founder of Yer Bird Records, is credited with its design.[10]
| Meet the Gregory Brothers![11] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Cry Cry Cry" | 4:07 | |||||||
| 2. | "Butter on My Roll" | 3:37 | |||||||
| 3. | "West Coast Time" | 5:21 | |||||||
| 4. | "A Wonder" | 3:39 | |||||||
| 5. | "Do You Think?" | 4:11 | |||||||
The Gregory Brothers appear as members of the Welcome Wagon Choir on The Welcome Wagon's 2009 debut album Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, produced by Sufjan Stevens.[17] The Welcome Wagon is a project headed by Presbyterian minister Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique. The Gregory Brothers often perform live with Sarah Gregory's band The Stanleys.
The Gregory Brothers first became well known for a series of YouTube videos, Auto-Tune the News, in which recorded voices of politicians, news anchors, and political pundits were digitally manipulated to conform to a melody, making the figures appear to sing.
National television networks featured the Gregory Brothers' early political satires as early as the spring of 2009, but the group did not achieve mainstream recognition until the summer of 2010, when they released episode 12b of Auto-Tune the News, titled "Bed Intruder Song". "Bed Intruder Song," which featured excerpts from an interview with alleged crime victims Kelly Dodson and her brother Antoine Dodson, was viewed approximately 50 million times during its first six months online, making it the most-viewed YouTube video of 2010 (excluding major label music videos).[18] Being largely non-political in content, it marked a departure from the Gregory Brothers' roots in political material.
Following the mainstream success of that music video, the Gregory Brothers have generally produced a mixture of both political and non-political videos. The Auto-Tune the News series has continued to focus primarily on political material, while many of the non-political videos have been given the new branding Songify This.
Although the Gregory Brothers are best known for the Auto-Tune the News series, they have created several additional videos independent of that series which have received broad attention. The following videos had been viewed more than 5 million times as of 16 March 2011.[19]
The Gregory Brothers began to retroactively apply the series name "Songify This" to certain previously series-independent videos in late 2010, and they have released a number of new videos under this branding as well. The table above reflects the new "Songify This" branding where applicable.
The Gregory Brothers created a musical segment where they auto-tuned bits of 4 major motion pictures from 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Toy Story 3, The Social Network, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Host James Franco comically introduced the segment as a tribute to a "great year for the movie musical." Characters that were autotuned included: Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Sheriff Woody, Sean Parker, Christy Lee, and Edward Cullen. On July 14, 2011 it was announced that this segment earned The Gregory Brothers a nomination for a 2011 Emmy award in the category "Outstanding Short-Form Picture Editing." [20] Only Michael and Evan are nominated as there is a two person nomination limit in this category.
While only those four aired, an alternative cut was released on the official 2011 Grammy Awards YouTube channel on February 27, 2011, featuring an auto-tuned version of The King's Speech in place of The Social Network.[21]
In July 2010, the Gregory Brothers released an auto-tuned version of the Double Rainbow viral video. The original video featured the overawed reaction of Paul "Hungry Bear" Vasquez to a double rainbow at Yosemite National Park. The Gregory Brothers turned Vasquez's astounded speech into a song and pledged all of the song's earnings to Vasquez and Yosemite.[22] As of June 4, 2011, the Gregory Brothers' auto-tuned remix had received 24,577,548 views.[23]