Bishop Allen
is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The band's core members are Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who are supported both on stage and in the studio by a rotating cast of musical collaborators. The band was formed in 2003 and grew out of Rice and Rudder's friendship; it takes its name from Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the two lived together after attending Harvard University.
Bishop Allen has released three albums and 12 EPs; their second album, The Broken String
, was released in July 2007 and their most recent album, Grrr...
, was released in March 2009.
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BISHOP ALLEN TICKETS
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History
Pre-Bishop Allen
Rice and Rudder attended Harvard University where they were
DJs on
WHRB's punk/indie program,
Record Hospital. The two formed a
hardcore punk band called
The Pissed Officers and self-released two split records with the then Boston-based
Casio-core duo
Gerty Farish. Rudder also played briefly in a
Devo tribute band with members of Gerty Farish,
Fat Day and
Trollin Withdrawal. Some years later Rudder and Rice took up residence at a house in
Virginia where they recorded the music for their first album as Bishop Allen.
Charm School
Charm School
was Bishop Allen's first record. Recorded in fits and starts over two years, it grew song-by-song as Rice and Rudder wrote and played in their spare time. They recorded all the instruments on the album's 13 songs themselves, using drum loops to hide the fact that neither is a drummer, and almost everything on the record was recorded one track at a time in an ordinary bedroom. Backing vocals by
Bonnie Schiff-Glenn and
Kate Dollenmayer and supplementary drums by
Coll Anderson, all added in the album's final stages, completed the songs.
After the album was finished, Ms. Schiff-Glenn and
Margaret Miller were recruited to play with Bishop Allen live, and their pictures were then featured on
Charm School
's back cover.
Jack Delamitraux and
Christian Owens later joined the band on the tours supporting
Charm School
's release.
The record came out in May 2003 and received many favorable reviews, most notably from
Rolling Stone
and
NPR's Weekend Edition. The album was released under the band's own
Champagne School imprint.
The EP project
frame
In 2006, Bishop Allen recorded and released an EP every month of the year. Each record was titled for the month of its release (
January
,
February
, and so on), and, with the exception of
August
, which was a 14-song live disc, each contained four new studio songs.
The project began when Rice and Rudder stumbled upon a discarded piano, dragged it into their rehearsal studio, and, refreshed by the sounds the keyboard added to their repertoire, put their old works-in-progress aside and began writing new songs. They soon began recording this new material, and by the time the
January
EP was completed on January 25, 2006, they had decided on doing one each month for the rest of the year.
frame
All 12 EPs were self-released and sold primarily through the band's website. The covers of the EPs, which reflect the homespun aesthetic of the music inside, were designed by
Darbie Nowatka, who also sang lead vocal on a few recordings and often joins the band on stage.
Bishop Allen collaborated with many musicians over the year, including the above-mentioned Delamitraux and Owens,
Jon Natchez, and
Kelly Pratt.
Cully Symington began playing with the band in September and has become their regular drummer.
"History of Excuses" from the
March
EP was used in an episode ("
My Turf War") of NBC's
Scrubs
.
"A Tiny Fold" from the
May
EP was used in the April 28, 2008 episode (
MoveOn.Cartwrights) of ABC Family's
Greek
.
The Broken String
In November 2006, Bishop Allen signed to Dead Oceans, a new sister label to
Secretly Canadian and
Jagjaguwar. They began recording a new record that January, at Blackwatch Studios in Norman, Oklahoma, and delivered it two months later. The album,
Bishop Allen & the Broken String
, was Bishop Allen's first true studio recording and was released by Dead Oceans on
July 24,
2007. It includes nine re-recordings of songs from the EP project, as well as three new songs.
Other projects
Justin and Christian's roommate at the Cambridge apartment that gave the band its name was
Andrew Bujalski, the film director, and they have both starred in his films.
Christian played the male lead, Alex, in Bujalski's first film, 2002's
Funny Ha Ha
, and Justin starred in
Mutual Appreciation
, in which his character, Allen, fronts a band called the Bumblebees and plays a Bishop Allen song on-screen. Rice also stars in the new indie film opening in several cities starting December 5, 2008 called
Let Them Chirp Awhile
, written and directed by
Jonathan Blitstein.
The band appeared in the 2008 film adaptation of
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
.
In the media
- "Click, Click, Click, Click" (from The Broken String
) was featured in an episode of the short-lived CW sitcom Aliens in America
, in an episode of college drama/comedy Greek, as well as in a Sony camera ad
- "Middle Management" is part of the Major League Baseball 2K7 soundtrack. It is also featured in the trailer for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and the band is shown in the trailer and in the film.
Discography
- Charm School
(2003)
- 12 EPs
(2006) (One for each month)
- The Broken String
(2007)
- Grrr...
(2009)