| Band of Horses | |
|---|---|
Band of Horses at the 2006 SXSW festival, from left to right Hampton, Bridwell, Barrett (hidden), Brooke, Arnone |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Seattle, United States (Now based in Charleston, South Carolina) |
| Genres | Indie rock Southern rock Alternative country |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Sub Pop Columbia Records |
| Associated acts | Carissa's Wierd, Grand Archives |
| Website | bandofhorses.com |
| Members | |
| Ben Bridwell Ryan Monroe Tyler Ramsey Bill Reynolds Creighton Barrett |
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| Past members | |
| Joe Arnone Ludwig Böss Mat Brooke Sera Cahoone Chris Early Matt Gentling Rob Hampton Tim Meinig Blake Mills Robin Peringer |
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Band of Horses, originally briefly known as Horses, are an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle by Ben Bridwell. They have released three studio albums, the most recent and most successful of which is 2010's Grammy nominated Infinite Arms.[1] The band's line up, which included Mat Brooke for their debut album, has undergone several changes, although the current members, Bridwell, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey, Bill Reynolds, and Creighton Barrett have all been with the band for several years.
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Ben Bridwell (vocals, guitar) formed Band of Horses in 2004 after the break-up of his previous band, Carissa's Wierd, along with bassist Chris Early and drummer Tim Meinig. They were soon joined by former Carissa's Wierd bandleader Mat Brooke (guitar, vocals).[2] The band initially received attention from Sub Pop after opening for Iron & Wine during Seattle area shows. In 2005, the band released the Tour EP, which was sold at shows and on Sub Pop's website.
Their first full-length album, Everything All the Time, was recorded in 2005 with producer Phil Ek and released by Sub Pop on March 21, 2006. It features the band's original four-piece lineup, although both Tim Meinig and Sera Cahoone receive drumming credits.[3] The album included new versions of five of the six songs from the Tour EP along with five brand new songs. It was a minor hit in Scandinavia, entering the lower reaches of the Sweden and Norway album charts.[4] Ben Bridwell explained the sound of the album, "I thought before recording that I really wanted an ELO-sounding record, with strings and keyboards and synths, but then, as we got closer to it, we wanted to take a more raw approach."[5]
Bridwell found that there was a personality clash between himself and Meinig and Early and the two left soon after the recording of the album. Ben explained his side of the story, "All of a sudden I was...with two guys I didn’t really even know...they were nice guys, there just wasn’t a personality match."[6] For the subsequent tour, Joe Arnone (guitar and keyboards), Rob Hampton (bass and guitar) and Creighton Barrett (drums) were brought in to play with Bridwell and Brooke.
Everything All the Time's first single was "The Funeral", which has been used in numerous television series, films, video games, and advertisements. On July 13, 2006, the band performed the song on the Late Show with David Letterman without Brooke, who had left the band.[7] He subsequently formed Grand Archives, who have since signed to Sub Pop and released two albums. Brooke explained how he joined Band of Horses, "So they ended up getting a show opening up for Iron and Wine in Seattle and Ben asked if I would just come up and do a couple songs, just 'cause we're friends. So...I did that. It was fun and then a couple of Iron and Wine tours came up...and then next thing I knew, we were in the studio making a record for Sub Pop." On why he left, he said, "I'd never really given the commitment to be a formal member. It was just a spur of the moment...and Everything All the Time took off really fast...I still didn't feel quite committed. It was still 100 percent Ben's project and I kinda wanted to see what else I could do."[8]
Before recording their second album, Bridwell decided to relocate the band from Seattle to his native South Carolina.[9] He said, "We were touring so much that nowhere was really home, so I figured...if I’m gonna come home after these long stretches of traveling, it would nice to be around my family."[10]
Band of Horses toured Europe and North America in 2007, prior to the release of their second album. Joe Arnone was no longer part of the band, which now toured as a six-piece band following the addition of Matt Gentling (Archers of Loaf - bass), Robin Peringer (Modest Mouse, Carissa's Wierd - guitar) and Ryan Monroe (keyboards) to the line up. The album, Cease to Begin, was recorded in North Carolina and produced by Phil Ek. It was released by Sub Pop Records on October 9, 2007. The album features the core trio of Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett and Rob Hampton, with keyboards played by Ryan Monroe.[11] Cease to Begin gave Band of Horses their first hit in the U.S. by reaching number 35 on the Billboard 200 and was also a hit in Norway, Denmark, France and Sweden.[12] It was voted ninth best album of 2007 by Paste magazine[13] and 47th best by Rolling Stone.[14] The single "Is There a Ghost" gave Band of Horses their first European hit single, reaching number 30 in Denmark.[15]
Following the release of Cease to Begin, Monroe became a permanent member of the band, along with new recruits Tyler Ramsey (guitar and vocals) and Bill Reynolds (bass). This once again made Band of Horses a six-piece band. In addition to his role in the band, Ramsey often performs solo as the opening act before the band play live.
In 2008, Band of Horses played at the Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, the Bridge School Benefit concert, and the Roskilde Festival.
In May 2009, producer Phil Ek stated that he was recording the third Band of Horses album in North Carolina.[16] Ben Bridwell mentioned that the new album was titled Night Rainbows several times while introducing new songs during the band's summer 2009 tour,[17] but in a March 2, 2010 interview, the band revealed that the album was to be called Infinite Arms.[18] Prior to the recording of the album, Rob Hampton left the band. He was later replaced by Swedish guitarist Ludwig Böss, although Böss does not appear on the album and on March 19, 2010 it was revealed that he too had left.[19] The album was recorded by the current five-piece lineup of Bridwell, Ramsey, Reynolds, Barrett, and Monroe.
Infinite Arms was released worldwide between May 14 and 19, 2010 on the Columbia, Brown, and Fat Possum labels. Aside from the North Carolina sessions at Echo Mountain Studios, parts of the album were recorded in Los Angeles at Perfect Sound Studios. The album was self-produced by the band, with additional production from Phil Ek. On April 20, the band appeared on the BBC television series Later... with Jools Holland, promoting Infinite Arms by playing new songs "Compliments," "Factory", and "NW Apt". Following this appearance, the band's two earlier albums entered the UK Top 200 for the first time.[20] Infinite Arms entered the UK chart at number 21, giving Band of Horses their first top 100 UK chart hit and debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200, far exceeding the performance of Cease to Begin. An outtake from the album, "Life on Earth" has been used on the soundtrack of the Twilight Saga film Eclipse, which was released on June 7, 2010.[21]
Band of Horses toured Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 2010. They opened for Pearl Jam on their tour of the Midwest and East Coast and for Snow Patrol at their concerts in Bangor and Glasgow in June. They played the SXSW, Sasquatch, Splendour in the Grass, Summer Sonic, Pukkelpop, Highfields, Malmo, Rock en Seine, Reading, Leeds, ACL and Farm Aid festivals in 2010.
On October 7, 2010 Band of Horses released a cover of Cee Lo Green's "Georgia" via their official website. Ben Bridwell explained, "This began as a very random idea I had on my dad's patio after we watched our beloved Georgia Bulldogs football team get robbed of a win at the hands of the referees and LSU last year. I knew I wanted to pay homage to my favorite team in song but didn't have any idea how to begin. Once I heard Cee Lo's 'Georgia' I was immediately smitten and figured that's as good as any tribute to any state I've ever heard. It wasn't until I heard his cover of our song though that it occurred to me: Duh, we should return the favor. Incorporating the Redcoat marching band was just the icing on the cake! This song is so nostalgic to me as my parents grew up in Atlanta and have so many family members in the great state of Georgia. It's always been a second home of sorts. We've played some great shows there as well, including our run of annual New Year's Eve shows in Atlanta from 2007-2009."[22] The cover version Ben referred to is Cee Lo's version of "No One's Gonna Love You". The two tracks are were released together as a 'split' 7 inch vinyl single.[22]
Band of Horses released a video for their song "Dilly" on November 16, 2010. Previous videos for songs from Infinite Arms had been collections of still photographs by the band's longtime collaborator Christoper Wilson, merged together to make movies. "Dilly" was shot in the Mojave Desert by director Phil Andelman and was exclusively premiered on the movie website IMDb. The video features the exploits of a trouble-making motorcycle gang and includes surreal sequences of the gang dancing in formation, as well as them killing people by shooting them with nothing more than a pointed finger. The collaboration with IMDb represents the first occasion that the website has premiered a music video.[23] "Dilly" was released as a single on February 14, 2011 and includes the band's cover version of Cee-Lo Green's "Georgia".[24] The single was a minor hit on the Belgian (Flanders) singles chart.[25]
Infinite Arms was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Alternative Album category[1] and featured in several end of year "Best Albums of 2010" lists, including Q Magazine (#21),[26] NPR Listeners (#15),[27] Filter Magazine (#10)[28] and Paste Magazine (#14).[29] The song "Laredo" was placed at number 28 in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 50 songs of 2010.[30]
In 2011 Band of Horses returned to Europe for a tour in January and February, which included a show with Foo Fighters at Wembley Arena on February 25. They undertook a brief US tour in early April before returning to Europe for several festivals in June. The band were scheduled to support Kings Of Leon on their US tour from July to September 2011[31] and their eight Australian concerts in November 2011,[32] but Kings of Leon cancelled their US tour after just 3 shows.[33]
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | UK | Nor | Swe | Den | Fra | Aus | Bel (Fl) | Bel (Wa) | Can | Ned | Fin | Gre | NZ | Swi | Ire | Ger | ||
| 2006 | Everything All the Time[4][20]
|
— | 199 | 25 | 58 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2007 | Cease to Begin[34][12][20]
|
35 | 149 | 18 | 57 | 23 | 199 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2010 | Infinite Arms[34][35][36][37][38]
|
7 | 21 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 91 | 19 | 29 | 83 | 7 | 64 | 26 | 4 | 16 | 29 | 21 | 88 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | EP details | Peak chart position |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Tour EP (Self Released) | Did not chart |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Alt. | US Rock | Denmark | Bel (Fl) | |||
| 2006 | "The Funeral" | — | — | — | — | Everything All the Time |
| "The Great Salt Lake" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2007 | "Is There a Ghost"[15][39] | 34 | — | 30 | — | Cease to Begin |
| "No One's Gonna Love You" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2010 | "Compliments" | — | — | — | — | Infinite Arms |
| "Laredo"[40] | 34 | 41 | — | — | ||
| "Factory" | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Georgia" / "No One's Gonna Love You"♦ | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2011 | "Dilly"[25] | — | — | — | 43 | Infinite Arms |
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart | ||||||
♦ Split single featuring "Georgia" covered by Band of Horses and "No One's Gonna Love You" covered by Cee-Lo Green.
Ben Bridwell's vocals have been likened to Jim James of My Morning Jacket,[41] early Neil Young and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.[42]
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