Fanatic Promotion: Mount Pressmore makes pop with chops on “Enjoy,” its technically masterful, instantly catchy debut album. See the “Trampoline” video now.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Mount Pressmore makes pop with chops on “Enjoy,” its technically masterful, instantly catchy debut album. See the “Trampoline” video now.

Led by Thomas Shaw, son of 14-time Grammy-winning conductor, Austin-based band has been compared to Zappa, Steely Dan, Talking Heads.

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Mount Pressmore (L-R): Kris Studebaker, Danny Anderson, Thomas Shaw, Alexei Sefchick. Photo by: Vanessa Reiser Shaw.

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“Their jazz-juiced convoultion is gentle, not orotund. Pretzel logic redux?” – The Big Takeover

“The lineup draws together four highly-skilled players.” – Relix

“It’s virtuosic, but it feels familiar. Zappa fans will hear a little bit of Frank.” – KUTX, Austin

“Called ‘an indie rock Steely Dan’ by more than one pundit, and with good reason.” – BLURT

“Jaw-dropping chops.” – Maximum Ink

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

“Trampoline” is the latest single from the upcoming debut Enjoy by Mount Pressmore

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/mount-pressmore-trampoline

[DOWNLOAD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/mount-pressmore-trampoline/download

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/projects/mountpressmore/mp3/mountpressmore-trampoline.mp3

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See the premiere of the “Trampoline” video by Mount Pressmore via Performer Magazine!

Already being compared to Frank Zappa (via a feature from Austin’s NPR-affiliate KUTX), Steely Dan and Peter Gabriel, the “chop-pop” of Austin’s Mount Pressmore is just that: addictive earworms played with the utmost technical proficiency. Talking Heads is another touchstone, and that band’s more intricate moments and visual style can be felt in the video for “Trampoline” from the just-released Mount Pressmore debut album Enjoy.

“Music was his religion,” says band leader Thomas Shaw of his father Robert Shaw, the 14-time Grammy winning conductor who brought his son up amid technical exercises, music theory, and classical recitals. “Then I heard Oscar Peterson and I was blown away,” Shaw remembers. He soon found B.B. King, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and Fela Kuti.

Shaw’s unique musical education colors all of his work with Mount Pressmore. All compositions are charted and performed live by this schooled quartet, which in addition to Shaw, includes fellow New York Collective School of Music classmate, Kris Studebaker, along with bassist Alexei Sefchick and guitarist Danny Anderson, both graduates of Boston’s Berklee School of Music.

The video for “Trampoline” was shot over a couple of days in and around Austin by director André Costantini, whose recent film credits include “Bel Borba Aqui,” a documentary about the life and work of Brazilian artist Bel Borba. “Inspiration came from many places,” says Shaw. “In addition to the Talking Heads, we share an enduring reverence for Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer.’”

And what of Sasquatch, the star of the piece? “We’ve been playing with this idea of a Bigfoot creature as one of the primary residents of Mount Pressmore,” Shaw explains. “He’s a character wholly aware, but societally unencumbered. If Bigfoot exists within a mythical state, then man must be his avatar, and nowhere does this dualism approaches a fusion more so than in dance.”

Essentially, Mount Pressmore fulfills all of your dancing Sasquatch needs right here. Enjoy by Mount Pressmore is out now on the band’s own Pressmore Records.

Thomas Shaw of Mount Pressmore is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Mount Pressmore

Enjoy

(Pressmore Records, Out Now)