super cool dudes

We’d like to introduce you to the fifth band in the Making Moves singles series - A Great Big Pile of Leaves.

The Brooklyn NY based A Great Big Pile of Leaves are Peter Weiland (Vocals, Guitar), Tyler Soucy (Drums)  and Tucker Yaro (Bass).  They released their debut album, Have You Seen My Prefontal Cortex?,  in the summer of 2010 (Hint - you can download the album here) propelling them onto tours supporting Say Anything, Saves The Day, The Appleseed Cast and Hellogoodbye.

And as some of you may know, The Leaves have been out on tour with us before as well.  We took a real liking to their overly infectious style of indie rock that has this brainy, jazz underpinning.  We can’t really explain it except to say that they’re great and you just have to check it out for yourself.  Watch the video for “Alligator Bop”, or, listen to We Don’t Need Our Heads and you’ll know what we’re talking about.

Jesse says:

I’ve known Tyler from A Great Big Pile of Leaves for many years, and I knew he was in a band the whole time.  (Hint: I never listened to his band)  One day my girlfriend was listening to a band I hadn’t heard before, and I liked it a lot… Obviously I asked who it was.  I’m sure you can see where this story is going.  Of course it was A Great Big Pile of leaves. Of course they were awesome.  Of course I felt like an idiot for not checking them out earlier.  From that point on, I wanted to help them any way I could because I truthfully and passionately believed in the music and art they were making.  This blossomed into myself stepping up to the role of manager for the band and more importantly they have become great friends too.

For the Making Moves recording sessions, the Leaves enlisted the help of Mike Poorman (Hot Rod Circuit, The Dear Hunter) to co-produce three tracks with the team of Drexel’s Engineers a few weeks ago.  

Follow the Leaves on Twitter.

Check out the A Great Big Pile of Leaves Making Moves single coming out later this year on Mad Dragon Records and The Boombox Generation.

Yours truly,

Motion City Soundtrack

Please meet The Skies Revolt, the 4th band in the Making Moves single series.

Hailing from Grand Rapids, MI, we found these five lads via twitter. 

Says Josh Cain:  I wanted to find a band that I had never heard before to work with for the Making Moves project. I tweeted that I was looking for suggestions of new, unsigned bands.  I received hundreds of suggestions and I went through them all.  The Skies Revolt really stood out to me when I listened to their songs.  They have this very cool mix of heavy, electronic and party music - like Devo meets NIN.  Plus it was refreshing to see a band living their own manifest destiny - they were releasing music, making videos, touring - all on their own dime.

Skies Revolt are flat out creative: (a) check out their choose your own adventure game; (b) check out their new music video for “It’s All in the Reflexes” which they produced in it’s entirety using claymation, animation, and yes, explosions; (c) check out their self-released album in the form of a comic book in which each song has a corresponding page with graphic arts and captions of the lyrics of the songs.

The Skies Revolt - Dave Prindle, Nathan Smith, Rusty Vining, Bobby Dowell, and Jarred Irby - came to Philadelphia after Thanksgiving to work with Josh Cain and Justin Pierre and the Mad Dragon team of engineers on their recordings.  

Follow The Skies Revolt on twitter.

Check out The Skies Revolt new songs on Making Moves due out later this year on Mad Dragon Records and The Boombox Generation.

Yours Truly,

Motion City Soundtrack

The third band in the Making Moves series is Richmond, VA’s Goldrush.

Goldrush came together when Prabir Mehta, who was in a local Richmond band called Prabir and The Substitutes, met Treesa Gold and Matt Gold, classical instrumentalists who often play with the Richmond Symphony. The Substitutes were going to record some new tracks with Treesa and Matt, but then broke up.  

From the proverbial ashes of The Substitutes, Prabir, Treesa and Matt all realized they shared a self professed love for Beethoven and The Beatles. Fast forward, the three come together, add Gregg Brooks and Goldrush is born.

As you might have noticed our attention-to-detail reader, Goldrush share a hometown with our very own Matt Taylor.  So guess who produced the Goldrush sessions?  

Good work.

Here’s what Matt has to say about how he came across Goldrush:

It’s a funny story. I was cleaning my house with iTunes blaring on shuffle. A song that I didn’t recognize came on. It sounded like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with bits of Elvis Costello, Soul Coughing, Led Zeppelin with 2 classical instruments thrown in. It blew my mind so I checked to see what it was. Of course it was labeled Track 01 and there was no band name.  I remembered that from time to time my friend Kevin would send me songs that he had recorded, so I took a shot in the dark and asked him who it was. The song in question ended up being “Touch” by a band called Goldrush that he had recorded months earlier. I had never heard them until that moment when they shuffled their way into my life. I immediately did some research on the band and found out that they were playing a show. I went to see them and was blown away. I knew then that I had to work with them in some fashion. When the Making Moves series came about, Goldrush was my only choice.

Follow Goldrush on Twitter.

Keep an eye out for the Goldrush Making Moves single coming out this year on Mad Dragon Records + The Boombox Generation.

Yours truly,

Motion City Soundtrack

The second band in the Making Moves series is Asbury Park, NJ’s Brick + Mortar.

When we started the process of developing the Making Moves singles series with Drexel University and Mad Dragon Records we submitted a list of potential bands that we were interested in working with, and in turn, the students submitted a few ideas of their own.

Brick + Mortar was one of those suggestions that caught our attention.

It turns our that Brick + Mortar are only two guys: Brandon Asraf and John Tacon.  While not related, they are clearly brothers who are very passionate about their music and about each other.

After exchanging demos and notes over email with us, Brandon and John came to Philadelphia in early January to record with Josh Cain and Justin Pierre, and the Drexel engineers. The sessions turned out great and we think you’re going to dig these Brick + Mortar tracks on their Making Moves single due out later this year.

Follow Brick + Mortar on Twitter.

Check back tomorrow for the third band in the Making Moves singles series.

Yours truly,

Motion City Soundtrack