Backlash, a Live Performance Video from Factory Underground Recording Artist Brian Larney and The Town Hall Premiered Exclusively by VEVO.

Backlash, a Live Performance Video from Factory Underground Recording Artist Brian Larney and The Town Hall Premiered Exclusively by VEVO. 

The Town Hall - Backlash

When Brian Larney began recording his 5-song EP, his plan was to call it The Charm Offensive. That changed the day he stumbled across an old political button that read "America Needs J.F.K."

"It was simple, direct and America does need The Town Hall" says Larney, for whom The Town Hall is as much a pseudonym as a band name.

"I prefer playing with a band to playing solo, but it's always The Town Hall, regardless of who is on stage," Larney says. "I like to say that 'We are all the Town Hall,' myself and the audience."

Though America Needs The Town Hall isn't a political album, that it was written in this time of political divide and social upheaval by a writer as introspective and sensitive as Larney, it's little wonder that the state of the media and politics would be so reflected by his songs. Backlash was the writer's reaction to the awful and unfortunate outcome of the Dallas protests last summer: "Everyone has lost it, the crowd loses sight. There's five dead in Dallas tonight."

But not everything is so dark and moody when it comes to Larney's songwriting, which leans as much Burt Bacharach-Partridge Family as the modern, alternative groups he is often compared to as Father John Misty, City and Colour and the Lumineers. 

The video for Backlash was filmed live on stage, right here at Factory Underground Studio in Norwalk, CT. Appearing in the video are frequent collaborators Joel P. Kelley and Jeff Hatcher of the groups Edisun and After The Rush, Kenny Cash on bass, and Adam Matlock on keyboards. The video was directed and edited by Larney himself.

Next up from The Town Hall, a light hearted comedic spoof for "No End In Sight," co-directed and edited by the singer, who appears in the video as an Uber-style driver having the worst day ever. The video will be released to Vevo in September.  

The full five-song American Needs The Town Hall EP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and is available as a free download from www.TheTownHallBand.com

The Town Hall is:

Brian Larney

Kenny Cash

Jeff Hatcher

Adam Matlock

For more information visit:

www.TheTownHallBand.com

https://www.facebook.com/thetownhallband/

https://twitter.com/TheTownHallBand

The Town Hall Press: 
 

https://www.facebook.com/evermetal2017/posts/1753389571629724

http://werockwebzine.co.uk/the-town-hall-premieres-backlash?platform=hootsuite

https://ignitemusicmag.com/2017/08/15/29867/

http://www.nataliezworld.com/2017/08/the-town-hall-releases-video-for.html

http://www.playitloudproductions.us/bridgeportct-alternative-band-town-hall-premiere-video-song-backlash/

https://madmimi.com/p/b6e0aa?fe=1&pact=756372-140894650-9476322544-cc164759604e3923f0670f0a91263536cddabc4e

Factory Underground Online:

Factory Underground Studio 

Factory Underground Records

New Alt Music Album from Brian Larney "America Needs The Town Hall" in the Norwalk Hour Newspaper

A SONGWRITER'S OBSESSION

Reprinted from the Norwalk Hour Newspaper, May 25, 2017

 

Brian Larney at Factory Underground Studio

NORWALK — Last summer, Brian Larney enjoyed a picnic at the beach, the details of which he still remembers vividly.

He was at the boat marina in Fairfield, not far from the Black Rock apartment he shares with his cat.

He ate a sandwich — turkey with cheese — and a side of chips with iced tea. Stuffed from his feast, he did what any reasonable person at the beach would do.

He took a nap.

But when he awoke, it hit him. He’d been struggling to name his next album and suddenly — perhaps caused by a sandwich-induced euphoria — he had it. The collection of songs he’d written as his own response to current events would be called “The Town Hall.”

“I was taking a nap after I ate a sandwich at the beach and it just came to me,” Larney said. “I wanted something identifiable and simple.”

Brian Larney at Factory Underground Studio

 By day, Larney is a software engineer at Norwalk-based Factset, a financial data and software company. But by night — and pretty much any free time he can find — he’s a guitar-strumming, piano-playing, song-writing musician who’s just released a new album through the Factory Underground recording studio and label.

The album is a solo project filled with songs written by Larney. He said the album is more “socially aware” than his previous albums, and the songs are more about his reactions to current events.
“I write all my own songs,” Larney said. “It’s my main obsession. Lately I’ve been getting more world-aware. In the past, generally it’s been broken heart crap. Loosely it’s rock. Someone once called it smart pop ... I thought they meant college rock. I think I’m a little less angular than that.”
He’s never been injured enough to find out for sure, but Larney is pretty sure he would bleed music notes in a dire situation.

“I got in a fight once with a singer and he said, ‘If I cut you, you would bleed music notes,’ and I really think that’s probably true,” Larney said.

Brian Larney at Factory Underground Studio

Larney first fell in love with music as a child in Fairfield where his father would constantly play old records. As he got older he only grew more obsessed with songwriting, and even taught himself how to play the piano by sneaking into the music room at Fairfield High School for 6 a.m. practice sessions. Eventually, the school found out and — after reminding him not to use the room outside of regular school hours — simply gave him a key to practice whenever he wanted.

“In High School I was kind of a dork,” Larney said. “I didn’t have a ton of friends. But I played electric guitar at an ongoing show my freshman year and after that it was easy. People respected people who played music. I formed a band after that and I haven’t stopped making music since.”
Even as a software engineer at Factset, a job he’s held for nearly a decade, Larney has found a connection between his work life and his music, as well as the ardent support of his coworkers.
“I know a lot of software engineers who are also musicians and I think there’s a reason for that,” Larney said. “When it doesn’t suck, it’s like writing a song.”

Larney said he’s often thought about making the leap to full-time musician and part-time regular adult, but hasn’t worked up the courage just yet.

”One day I’ll just do it,” Larney said. "I'll just stop and just do it. On tour, I always say I’m going to. It seems so easy, and the happiest time for me is on those tours where all I have to worry about is getting to the next show where I get to play again.”

Larney’s album, ”America Needs The Town Hall” is out now, and available on iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music and www.thetownhallband.com.

kkrasselt@scni.com; 203-354-1021; @kaitlynkrasselt

NEW VIDEO RELEASE: TOBIN MUELLER MASTERWORKS TRILOGY: MUSIC OF TRANSCENDENCE

     Tobin Mueller has announced his film biopic "Masterworks Trilogy, Music of Transcendence," featuring interviews, and a behind the scenes look at the writing, recording, and mixing of his latest work "Of Two Minds: The Music of Frederic Chopin and Tobin Mueller." Directed by Marc Alan of Factory Underground Records, with editing by Aidan Gerety of Stateside Visuals, the ten minute film work is now available on Mueller's YouTube video channel. 

     The Masterworks Trilogy is a three album set recorded by Mueller over the past three years. The final album in the trilogy, "Of Two Minds," is an exploration of the intersection between jazz and classical piano. On disc one, "Tobin Plays Chopin,"  Tobin performs a selection of intricate musical compositions by Frederic Chopin, including Polonaise in A Major, Op 40, No 1, Mazurka in A Minor, Op 17, No. 4, and others. Disc Two is "Tobin Plays Tobin," nine pieces of solo jazz piano written by Tobin Mueller, inspired by the music of Chopin. Mixed, mastered and engineered by Kenny Cash of Factory Underground, the double album set was released in 2016, and is available for purchase on CD Baby, Amazon, and other online retail sites. 

    The two other albums in the trilogy are "Tobin Mueller: Impressions of Water and Light," featuring original compositions inspired by Impressionist painters of the 19th Century, and "Flow: Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Tobin Mueller," another two disc set.   

     Interviews in the film detail parallels between Mueller's struggles with A1AD lung disease, and Chopin's struggles with tuberculosis and other lung disease that resulted in the composer's death at 39. As Mueller explains, "This is why I have to get the music out as long as I can continue, why I've had to reduce stress, change all my priorities..."

     The film also outlines Mueller's volunteer work at Ground Zero in New York City, which began the day after 9-11, September 12, 2001. Mueller's work on site including supplying the firemen and welders with food, water and other materials. In the years after 9-11, Mueller developed what he thought was a bad case of asthma, but that later turned out to be A1AD, a condition which involves inflammation and swelling of his joints and lungs. 

     An interview with Kenny Cash reveals Tobin's prolific nature, having worked on at least eight of Tobin's albums over four years of their work together, a number of them multiple disc sets.

http://www.TobinMueller.com
http://www.CDBaby.com/m/cd/tobinplayschopin
http://www.factoryundergroundstudio.com