HELLO INTERNET! FOR INFO ON LIVE SHOWS/UPCOMING RECORDINGS, I NOW PLAY THESE SONGS WITH A BAND CALLED LAND THE SEA. PLEASE GO TO LANDTHESEA.COM FOR MORE INFO.....Twenty-three year old Brooklyn singer/songwriter, Chuck Criss, originally hails from San Francisco, CA but has recently settled down in the wondrous Sunset Park, Brooklyn and has just formed his newest band, Headlamp. When he is not basking in the sun in Sunset Park (because it’s really always sunny there), or frequenting Dumpling Restaurants on 8th Avenue, Chuck records piano and banjo driven tunes that highlight those little snags and hurdles we all encounter as we reluctantly grow older. He highlights the modern times and our wishes ‘to be kids,’ ‘revenge on the world that don’t owe ya’ a thing,’ and ‘moving day’(s)- when you just gotta pack your things and go ‘to a new home that don’t know where you’ve been.’ Lack of electric guitar in Chuck’s music give the tunes a raw, live feel- leaving all the rock n’ roll excessiveness to wither in the wind. He has consistently placed on Top 10 lists on Ourstage.Com- a music lover, voter driven website. Most recently, he has been featured on Daytrotter.com as an emerging artist, as well as on blogs such as puddlegum.net, 8hands.com, pasta primavera, and Deli Magazine.
Chuck Criss is also a member of the indie pop/synth/banjo/bells group The Freelance Whales
and has some indie vocoder garage pop demos at Grocery Store
What people have said so far:
As mentioned on Daytrotter:
Brooklyn singer/songwriter Chuck Criss has a name that could have been that of a character from "The Goonies" or an admiral in the KISS Army, but the music that he makes glistens with highly bouncy bubblegummy-ness that aligns with some of the great basement/bedroom troubadours – Owsley, Bart Davenport, Devin Davis, Self -- who all have made tunes cursed by anonymity, but which are no less spectacular. They make you think – ice cream's ice cream – and a good song is a good song even if no one wants it or can't get it on iTunes. "Same Old Situation," a song from Criss' album featuring what appears to be a mutated, aviator koala bear on its cover, has been hanging in the top five of OurStage's indie rock rankings for the majority of the month of April and that can only mean good things as strangers have to be voting for it to stay there. We know this because Criss has just 149 friends on his MySpace page. He's getting adopters to his piano and banjo-loaded tune about magic in modern times – which perhaps is just his way of describing optimism and effort, going for things that wouldn't normally be tried. Criss comes off sounding like the friend you'd call up to get you out of the dumps. He'd come over, you'd order in, he'd bring the beer, he might play you a new song he's been working on and then you'd watch movies you've seen too many times already. He's a chum and he writes music you can be friends with.
As mentioned on Pasta Primavera::
....It's like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah turning out a wicked sweet hoe-down.
As mentioned on Deli Magazine NY:
....contains elements of indie/folk/rock/pop that blend together into banjo arpeggiated and piano heavy songs focused on interesting structure and melodic ideas. Lead singer Chuck Criss's voice is unique and recognizable and his lyrics of youthful optimism and pessism help round out there sound. - The Deli Magazine
As mentioned on 8hands.com:
....he simply recorded banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, bass, and drums which sounds great altogether. Without the presence of an electric guitar, the tunes are much more piano driven, which is always a good thing for piano suckers like me. Criss and the rest aren't signed yet, but that doesn't stop them from working hard and preforming all over Manhattan. - 8hands.com
So, if you made it this far, thanks for listening. Tell your friends.
