The Sun Parade, The Congress

Grunge-soaked power pop, The Sun Parade's latest EP Heart's Out (2014) is a catalog of love collisions, casual sandwich obsession, load-bearing grooves, and Northern psychedelic guitar licks. NPR chose the title track for its series, Songs We Love, and wrote: " ... colored by both aching disappointment and cathartic joy ... moments of hushed suspension and full-throttle release, until it explodes unexpectedly into a backbeat-driven breakdown." The Sun Parade's music is influenced by Big Pink, the Black Ark, the White Album. the gloriously ramshackle lo-fi canon of Meth Beach, Elliott Smith, and bluegrass brother harmonies. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts since 2011, The Sun Parade has recently toured with their pals Lake Street Dive and And The Kids. This fall they're doing time in the studio, working toward a winter release.


With their noses to the grindstone for the past few years, The Congress hasn't had a moment to notice their ever changing surroundings. They have headlined tours across the US from coast to coast, as well as supporting full length tours for the likes of Tedeschi Trucks Band, Lake Street Dive, and Hard Working Americans, while incessantly playing their home turf in the Rocky Mountains in between these tours. The Congress has also succumbed to a growing writing habit that will culminate in the band's second full length album in 2016.

The Congress' recent incubation has led to a Muscle Shoals-esque tightness developed over hundreds of shows per year. Last year's addition of Virginia native Chris "Bernie" Speasmaker on keyboards injected a relentless energy into the former trio, stamping a tangible sonic signature on the band that is equal parts rock & roll, old-school soul music, and outlaw country. An obsession with rhythmic feel, songwriting, and instrumental mastery has only been further developed as the band has served as a backup unit on several other studio records and countless live shows.

With new and burgeoning success in markets across the United States, it is without doubt that The Congress will make their boldest statement with the next record, perhaps its most visible outside of the confines of word of mouth, where the band has garnered an exalted reputation in the music community.

Founded by Scott Lane and Jonathan Meadows in Richmond, VA, The Congress brings notions of genuine musicianship and inventive songwriting to a modern world of dubious cosmetic sound. Their brand of Rock & Roll is neither nostalgic nor progressive. It occupies the space between vintage sounds and the hyperbolic cynicism of our post-modern world.