Quality Not Quantity: Major Leagues - Gregory Alan Isakov

Major Leagues - Someone Sometime.

Background promo - Since releasing their acclaimed debut EP in 2013, Brisbane four-piece Major Leagues have been busy touring throughout Australia with shows alongside the likes of Alvvays, Beach Fossils, Sebadoh, WIld Nothing and Wye Oak as well as local talents, The Preatures, San Cisco and DMAs. The band returns with their sophmore EP 'Dream States'.

Dream States was recorded in Brisbane by local producer/engineer Miro Mackie at Plutonium Studios, and mixed in Brooklyn by Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Blouse member, Jacob Portrait and Fergus Miller from Bored Nothing.

"With great pride, we're thrilled to be putting out this collection of songs that came together over the last eighteen months. It's been way too long between drinks, and in that void we've lived a world of goodbyes, fleeting romances and hard realities. Many of these stories have made their way onto this EP”- Jacob Knauth

The recent singles, ‘Someone Sometime’ and 'Better Off' were the band’s first music since their debut EP Weird Season, which was heavily supported by Australian radio in 2013 and 2014, achieving nearly six-months of continuous rotation airplay from triple j, a #3 position on the 2013 triple j Unearthed most played artist list, and support from community stations including FBi, Radio Adelaide, 4ZZZ, RTR, RRR, SYN and 2SER. The single achieved triple j high rotation and extensive support from community radio stations, while the band toured consistently with a headline tour in July, and alongside San Cisco on a 13-date national regional tour in September and October. Last month they also joined Canadian indie stars Alvvays on an east coast Australian tour.

'Someone Sometime' is one of six very good quality indie songs on 'Dream States'. The band deliver melodic indie rock music, which has clearly been honed over time, into a musically tight sound, which complements the dreamy vocals so very, very well.

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Gregory Alan Isakov - Liars.

Background promo - Gregory Alan Isakov is pleased to share his beautifully haunting new single, 'Liars' taken from his forthcoming album with the brilliant Colorado Symphony. The beauty of Gregory Alan Isakov’s latest album is realizing how much it surprises and rewards the listener. It burns slowly, not unlike a campfire that blazes one moment and then crackles the next. A song might begin with the barest of bones, with Isakov’s resonant voice closely synched to his acoustic guitar. But then the orchestral layers begin to pile up, transporting the songs to cinematic heights.

Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony marks a milestone for the singer-songwriter, who’s beloved for the spectral intimacy of his recordings and live shows. Set for release on June 10 on Isakov’s own Suitcase Town Music label, the album finds Isakov cracking his catalog wide open to see what else he—and we—can learn about them. The album features songs from Isakov’s previous three studios releases, along with the debut studio recording of “Liars,” a fan favorite that’s been a staple of his concerts for the past few years. The album will be released on limited-edition LP, CD, and digitally.

With orchestral arrangements by Tom Hagerman (DeVotchKa) and Jay Clifford (Jump Little Children) and with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s Scott O’Neil conducting nearly 70 clas-sical musicians, these are older songs cast in new and revelatory hues.

“I’ve always had this hunch that you can manifest whatever you really want if you dream hard,” Isakov says. “I think I wrote down this idea a bunch of times, thinking it would be so incredible. And when it finally happened, I was just over the moon.” - “It’s not that I thought these were better versions than the ones we put out before,” he adds, “but I think these versions are so different, and this collaboration with the symphony gave the songs a whole new angle.”

The kernel for the album was a 2013 collaboration between Isakov and his band and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Boettcher Hall in Denver. Since then, Isakov has performed again with the CSO at Red Rocks, as well as with the Seattle Symphony and the Oregon Symphony orchestras. This summer, he’ll collaborate with even more: the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra—all part of a tour that kicks off in early June.

The featured track 'Liars' is the only song I have heard from the forthcoming album. It's a beautiful piece from Gregory Alan Isakov, and from this song alone hearing the album becomes a must happen. The production balance between Gregory and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra is spot on, neither party dominates the other and yet both stand out with great clarity. That they complement each other is a must and by the sounds of it, they really do.

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