Album Notes
While critics praised The Alrights debut album HIGH SCHOOL and the CD charted on some college radio stations around the country back in 2006, the boys in the band were smiling to themselves and saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. The Alrights have come zooming back down with a new EP long on title and even longer on talent. As good as HIGH SCHOOL was, The Alrights have grown by leaps and bounds and achieved a new maturity and musical excellence with “Meeting of the St. Louis County League of Volunteer Astronauts: Excerpts from the Keynote Address”. The brilliant new EP marks the group as one of the more potent creative forces in contemporary rock and pop. With their new EP, The Alrights are now about the place creatively that The Beatles were with the release of “Rubber Soul”--talents that have found themselves as a cohesive whole and found the beginning of their true, and very unique, sound. For The Alrights this is a sound perhaps not as diverse, but even more compelling and accomplished than the earlier HIGH SCHOOL. The band features, once again, the tasteful drumming of Chad "Chavo" Amborn, the sweet harmonies and steady bass of Danny Cosgrove and the creative genius of keyboardist, guitarist and lead vocalist Toby Churchill. The marvelous songs are mostly by Churchill including, among others, the powerful “When I Get Born” and the Beatlesque and intellectually playful “Happy Birthday Universe” but Cosgrove holds his own with his contribution the punky, sparky “Love Love Love Love Love”.
Artist's Bio
Diverse. To say the Minnesota trio The Alrights is diverse in their sound, might perhaps be like saying Mark Twain was good at writing. Whether you listen to the recordings or see the band live you will inevitably hear true diversity. One song is Rock, another is soul influenced. One sounds like a Spiritual, another Punk. One may be smooth and exact with a lot of vocal harmonies and thoughtful arrangements, the next might be raw, almost Garage.
Its not a gimmick. Its just what lead vocalist and guitarist/ivory tickler Toby Churchill feels like doing. His lyrics for the bands tunes are no less diverse. Some are about love or carnality and some are about death and non-existence, though pretension is kept at bay with some silly numbers like a birthday song for the universe and hard core fans of the group are well aware of whom Churchill considers to be the greatest running back of all-time.
Danny Cosgrove plays a mean bass and sings a sweet harmony. Thankfully, he can do both at the same time allowing this three piece to often sound like four. Drummer Chad Chavo Amborn knows when to hold back, which is a lot given the simplicity of many of the arrangements, but has the chops to bring down the house when its called for.
The band formed in the summer of 2003 although, its members have known each other and played together for much longer. In the fall of 2005, after extensive gigging, the band was signed to a record deal by NYC City Canyons Records. The Alrights have since begun to tour and are in the process of building a national audience.
