Ages and Ages

Ages and Ages
Background information
Origin Portland, OR, USA
Genres Raw choral pop[1]
Brisk indie-folk[2]
Years active 2009-present
Labels Partisan Records
Website partisanrecords.com/artists/agesandages
Members
  • Tim Perry -guitar, vocals
  • Sarah Riddle -percussion, vocals
  • Rob Oberdorfer -bass, vocals
  • Becca Schultz -keys, vocals
  • Levi Cecil -drums, vocals
  • Annie Bethancourt -guitar, percussion, vocals
  • John McDonald -guitar, vocals
  • Jade Brings Plenty -percussion, vocals
Past members
  • Daniel Hunt
  • Lisa Stringfield
  • Kate O'Brien Clarke
  • Graham Mackenzie
  • Liz Robins

Ages and Ages is an American rock band from Portland, Oregon which has been receiving positive critical attention[3] because of their upbeat[4] "raw choral pop" sound.[1] Every member of the band sings[1] accompanied by handclaps, shakers and noise-makers.[4] They are a secular band with a big tent revival sound.[5] The group was voted as a top Portland band by Willamette Week.[5] In 2011, they signed a record deal with Partisan Records and have since undertaken several national US tours. In 2013 the band changed their name from AgesandAges to Ages and Ages. The rechristened band played their first European dates in the winter of 2014. [6]

Alright You Restless

Ages and Ages came together in 2009, founded by Perry, Rob Oberdorfer (bass, percussion, vocals), Graham Mackenzie (percussion, vocals), Kate O'Brien-Clarke (violin, percussion, vocals), Lisa Stringfield (vocals, percussion), Liz Robins (vocals, percussion) and Daniel Hunt (drums, percussion, vocals), alongside other friends and players from Portland’s ever-fertile music community. Alright You Restless arrived two years later and immediately proved a critical favorite. An ardent audience also surfaced, a committed cohort that ironically included President Barack Obama who included (without permission, mind) the album’s “No Nostalgia," a song "about transcending "the way things can get dark and you can feel claustrophobic, unsatisfied with the status quo" on his 2012 campaign playlist. Another one of their most famous songs is Do The Right Thing. This song received much attention when they played it at the SXSW during March. [7]

Ages and Ages performed at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin in March 2011.[4][1] Their song "No Nostalgia" from their first album, Alright You Restless, was previewed on National Public Radio.[8] The album was recorded "almost entirely live" with seven voices singing into a single microphone, according to one account.[3] It sounds like "a group of friends who drive around in a van singing songs wherever anyone will let them sing," according to critic Ryan White of The Oregonian.[3]

The group draws "significant sonic influence from his religious upbringing" and that having seven members helps achieve a "congregation sound" even though the lyrics are basically secular thematically.[2] Perry said the sound was achieved by "all the voices chiming in, that swell and spontaneous movement that grabs you," in an interview.[2] In 2011, they released a video for the song "Navy Parade," which was directed by Alicia J. Rose[9] [10] Alright You Restless was produced by Kevin Robinson.[9]

Divisionary

“When we made this album, we wanted a word to describe how we felt and what we were going through as individuals and a band,” Perry says, “so we made one up. ‘Divisionary’ signifies a group whose vision of ‘right’ is upsetting to the existing power structure. It includes a philosophical, spiritual, and physical ‘breaking off’ from the status quo. It also references the individual inner conflicts that arise as you struggle to make the right choices in life. Visionaries don’t always create conflict, but they challenge the establishment with new ideas and with the threat of change. Where there is change, there is usually resistance, controversy, division.”

“The songs on our first album, Alright You Restless, described a group of people leaving a selfish, destructive society for a place safe from the madness. That was like starting a band, wanting to establish new rules and a language to put some distance between themselves and the noise outside. Those songs were optimistic, energetic and self-righteous because that’s how a group of people who broke off from society would feel. As the group faces the struggles of actually making their community work, reality sets in and things get more complicated. Divisionary details the second phase of the journey.”

Alright You Restless was made in eight days of feverish creativity. Divisionary evolved over months of experimentation at Portland’s Jackpot Studios with veteran producer Tony Lash (Elliott Smith, The Dandy Warhols, Eric Matthews), as well as the home studio of Ages bass player Rob Oberdorfer. During the process, the band suffered the loss of a number of close family members and dear friends, so the songs became a kind of road map for anyone attempting to avoid darkness, without becoming consumed by anger in the face of life’s difficulties. “There were also great things happening,” Perry adds. “One of us had a child, another got married. Life was tipping both ends of the scale; there were a lot of changes going on.”

Perry spent ten days on a silent meditation retreat, formulating the direction of Divisonary, and his calm, centered vision is at the core of the music. The intricate harmonies, celebratory choral vocals, churchical piano and organ, inventive counter melodies, bright acoustic guitars, and exciting, interlocking rhythms set off aural fireworks to frame the grounded emotions conveyed in the lyrics.

The title track, “Divisonary (Do The Right Thing),” is a secular gospel song with inspirational harmonies, sanctified piano and smooth violin adding muscle to a simple refrain: “Do the right thing, do the right thing….don’t you know you’re not the only one suffering.” A stomping, exuberant bass drum pushes the giddy pop vocals of “I See More,” as it reassures listeners that, “It’s all OK, I’ll be on your side.” The jaunty folk pop of “Big Idea” holds a flickering candle up to the darkness with intricate handclapping, gentle harmonies and the candid admission that, “All of my ins are on the outside. And I want you all to notice, cuz I have no will to hide.” On “Over It,” acoustic guitars played in open tunings dance across a complex musical landscape to Eastern melodies and counter melodies, leading to the group declaring over a swaying 6/8, “I have no remorse for the way that I am anymore. No, I feel no shame.” The band’s funky hand clapping folk rock rhythms move “The Weight Below” as Perry and the band belt out a soaring chorus to release the feelings that cause stress and suffering. “And the weight that we left behind, we’re all better off without it, and it ain’t even worth our time, so I ain’t gonna worry about it.” The complex structure of “Light Goes Out,” bounces along on a stomping bass line, bright, piano shenanigans and the band’s joyously dislocated vocals: “I kept up with the verses in my head, running right along beside ‘em all day. At some point, well I found myself wondering if I was even running or just running away.”

The harmonies and intricate instrumental interplay on Divisionary are carefully crafted, but never sound forced, with complex arrangements that are naturalistic, invigorating and free. The clash between the band’s stirring folkadelic sounds and emotionally thorny subject matter makes for a bracing listen, “as if the internal conflict is happening in real time,” Perry says.

“We live in a country where a substantial amount of the population would rather discard science than admit climate change is happening. A culture which, more and more, considers higher education to be some kind of liberal indoctrination. A culture that does not value critical thinking and a power elite that perpetuates misinformation, apathy, and ignorance because it preserves the status quo. I don’t blame people for feeling daunted, apathetic, powerless, and overwhelmed, but I believe that facing the darkness is a necessary step in overcoming it.”

“Ultimately I think the band all feels hopeful and blessed,” Perry concludes. “These songs reflect that optimism, but they don’t do so lightly or try to dodge the struggles we’re dealing with individually and as a band. It was an exceptionally long, hard road this time around but in the end, we’re all really proud and excited to share this record.” [7]

Discography

In Media

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Greg Kot (March 19, 2011). "SXSW 2011: Wild Flag goes for broke". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kevin Friedman (February 11, 2011). "Notes from the Northwest music scene: AgesandAges". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Ryan White (January 2011). "The AgesandAges debut is here, listen to 'No Nostalgia'". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Adam Conner-Simons (March 18, 2011). "SXSW: Friday afternoon recap: Cults, David Wax Museum, AgesandAges, James Blake". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 CASEY JARMAN (May 4, 2011). "Best New Band 2011: The 10 local acts Portland’s music insiders are talking about (and listening to).". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  6. ↑ All Songs, Considered. "New Mix: Death Grips, Angel Olsen, GEMS, and More". NPR. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 James Sullivan (February 10, 2012). "AgesandAges: The President's New Favorite Band?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
  8. ↑ "All Songs Considered: SXSW 2011 Preview". NPR: Music. March 2011. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-08. No Nostalgia * Artist: AgesandAges * Album: Alright You Restless
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ryan White (February 16, 2011). "Watch: AgesandAges explore St. Johns in video for "Navy Parade (escape from the Black River bluffs)"". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  10. ↑ Matthew Singer (February 17, 2011). "AgesandAges, "Navy Parade (Escape from the Black River Bluffs)"". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  11. ↑ http://www.partisanrecords.com/2014/09/ages-and-ages-divisionary-on-season-premiere-of-the-blacklist

External links