Ramona Falls (band)

Ramona Falls
Origin Portland, Oregon, United States
Genres Indie rock Neofolk
Years active 2009–present
Labels Barsuk Records
Souterrain Transmissions
Associated acts Menomena, Lackthereof, Dat'r, Matt Sheehy, Dear Reader, Lost Lander
Website RamonaFalls.com
Members Brent Knopf

Ramona Falls is an indie rock project founded by Brent Knopf and based in Portland, Oregon. The band name is taken from a waterfall located near Mt. Hood, a place where Knopf used to hike as a child. Brent Knopf was also one-third of the band Menomena.

History

Ramona Falls took shape after Menomena's recording process for their third album was delayed.[1] Knopf embarked on the project with songs that were not used for Menomena.

Brent played a handful of his own material at shows around Portland, Oregon sometime in the years prior to the Ramona Falls project, including a performance October 24, 2008 in New York under the name "Dear Everything." Some of this material was further developed for the band's first album Intuit.

Recording Intuit gave Knopf the opportunity to work with 35 colleagues from the Portland and New York areas.[2] The album was recorded in Knopf's own studio and at the homes, practice rooms, churches, and other personal spaces of the featured guests.[3]

Intuit and its songs did not chart, but received positive reviews from Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound[4] and generated a large enough following for Knopf to justify leaving Menomena and release another album.

Prophet was released on May 1, 2012 and reached #28 on Billboard‍ '​s Heatseaker Albums chart on May 19. Knopf took a direction on Prophet that was less centered on the acoustic guitar and focused on expanding the band's sound.[5]

Prettymuchamazing chose Ramona Falls' drummer Paul Alcott as best drummer of SXSW 2012 for his "insane, massive fills" and stage antics, referencing times when Alcott would "come out from behind his kit, stand on bass amps and yell along, drum on the walls, play cymbals backwards, and shake around his giant red ‘fro."[6]

Other projects

Brent Knopf has been creating music since before his inclusion into Menomena. He initially approached Danny Seim and Justin Harris with a demo tape while the duo were in a different band. Knopf is frequently credited as the creator of the Digital Loop Recorder (sometimes referred to as DLR or Deeler) used to help compose creative ideas for inclusion into Menomena's music. The Menomena song "Rose" is believed to be most wholly contributed to by Knopf among other songs.

Knopf also works as an album producer. He is credited as producer of the South African band Dear Reader (formally known as Harris Tweed) album Replace Why With Funny. Knopf responded to Cherilyn MacNeil's request for a producer via Menomena's Myspace page. The two had not known each other prior but Cherilyn was a fan of Menomena and has since contributed to Intuit. Knopf also produced DRRT, the debut of Ramona Falls touring band member Matt Sheehy's lead project Lost Lander.

Personnel

Guest appearances on the album Intuit

Paul Alcott, Soren Anders, Bryan Arakelian, John Askew, Alva Bostick, Kelly Brickner, Friedrich Brückner, Eric Day, Sayard Egan, Larah Eksteen, Kai Gross, Bonnie Knopf, Sarah Lewis, Loch Lomond (Ritchie Young, Dave Depper, Amanda Lawrence, Jason Leonard, Laurel Simmons, Scott Magee, Jade Eckler), Cherilyn MacNeil, Lisa Molinaro, Stefan Nadelman, Kevin O'Connor, Liam Palmer, Michael Papillo, Mark Shirazi, Colleen Sovory, Matt Sheehy, Amy Smidebush, Mike Visser, Benjamin Weikel, Janet Weiss, Jay Winebrenner, Mirah Y.T. Zeitlyn

Touring members of Ramona Falls

USA: Brent Knopf, Dave Lowensohn (bass), Paul Alcott (drums), Matt Sheehy (guitars), Brandon Laus (bass)

Europe: Brent Knopf, Cheri MacNiel (guitar), Darryl Torr (bass), Michael Wright (drums), Jean-Louise Nel (viola and guitar)

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Reviews

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ramona Falls.