Patrick McGrath is a great singer-songwriter with a rock and roll bent you might have missed on. That would be because you missed my rave review of his set last summer . Well, it doesn't suck to be you any more because Patrick has formed a new band, Blue Coin, with Brian Joyce (formerly of Benzo -it sez here).
The band sent me a stream of their first EP, The Killing Spree, and it won't play but I am assuming it kills because, honestly, McGrath's is one of those guys you just gotta wonder why more folks aren't loving his sardonic, heartful songs. "To Be In Your Heart Again" is a superb country waltz and Patrick has the most distinctive voice on earth!
Blue Coin's release party is next Saturday (June 23rd) at Bowery Electric (a real nice room, by the way) and I am gonna be at James Taylor's concert otherwise I would have definitely gone. Here is the Press Release:
NEW YORK’S BLUE COIN, FEATURING BRIAN JOYCE OF BENZOS AND PATRICK McGRATH,
RELEASE THEIR DEBUT (the killing spree ep)
BLUE COIN CELEBRATES THEIR EP RELEASE WITH A PERFORMANCE AT BOWERY ELECTRIC ON SATURDAY, JUNE 23
4 June 2012 – Blue Coin will be celebrating the release of their debut, (the killing spree ep), with a performance at Bowery Electric on Saturday, June 23 ($10, 21+, 7pm). Blue Coin will be joined that night by friends, Happy People (10pm), Dark Parker (8pm) and Graph Rabbit (7pm). Blue Coin will take the stage at 9pm.
The four-song ep, (the killing spree ep), contains themes of apocalyptic longing, antiquated materialism and wasted time. Recorded live with the exception of a few overdubs, the songs resonate with edgy emotion and capture the concept of “weather systems”. The idea of creating a listening experience in which the music acts like a storm system, creeping in and affecting the landscape it encounters by manipulating the mood, led them to record simply with all the musicians in one room, focusing on the song, not individual performances. The resulting recording is ethereal, organic and haunting.
Blue Coin was formed in 2011 when Patrick McGrath started to put together a band in support of his second solo album. He asked Brian Joyce to join the band and it quickly turned into something completely different. As they began writing together, they decided to form a band separate from what Patrick had been doing on his own. Blue Coin was filled out with Logan Laflotte on keyboards, Pier Paolo Pappalardo on bass, David Yannuzzi on pedal steel, Randy Schrager (Scissor Sisters) on drums and Sarah Beck Renfro (The Loom) with harmony vocals.
(the killing spree ep) was recorded in two days in January 2012 at Mavericks Studio with Allen Farmelo (The Cinematic Orchestra, Pronto, Sea of Bees).