The Music Lovers profile picture

The Music Lovers

"golden lads and girls all must..."

About Me


You Have The City - For Myx - Spring '08
Our video for the song 'Masculine, Feminine' from our soon-to-be-released album of the same name. Directed by our dear friend Margaret Cho :
WORD MAGAZINE 01/07
We at THE WORD fell discreetly in love with The Music Lovers - San Francisco-based, Birmingham/Brixton-born, Bacharach-marinaded and probably unique in pop - when their debut CD arrived last year. With their gin-spritzed string arrangements and cocktail-bar melancholy, they came off like a Rat Pack version of Lloyd Cole. Japanese pianist-accordionist Jun Kurihara now replaces the Brixton component, bassist Jon Brooder, and for some reason they rock somewhat harder, *Plain Boyish* and *The Sailor And You* roaring past like a Vegas Morrissey. But grand, glossy and slightly seedy ballads like *The Sea And The Sun* are what really sets them apart. That, and the sense of literature-deranged mission: singer Matthew "Ted" Edwards eulogises Maoist minimalist composer Cornelius Cardew, transplants Jean Genet to Birkenhead and suggests we throw in our petty jobs for a precarious life in pursuit of pop perfection. The way he sings it, it doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE Review 11/06
"4 stars.. After a listen to The Music Lovers.. Guide for Young People one thing is certain, the Music Lovers do indeed love music, to be more specific, the golden age of U.K.-based pop music that first bloomed in the mid-..80s with artists like Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, Prefab Sprout, and the Bluebells, and which was later perfected in the late ..80s and early ..90s by bands such as the Trash Can Sinatras and the Beautiful South. Like them, the Music Lovers are hopelessly heartbroken and romantic, literate almost to a fault, and totally committed to being as sophisticated as possible at all times both lyrically and musically. Indeed, the sound of Guide for Young People is rich and warm; the chiming guitars and restrained drumming that form the foundation are backed by a rotating array of strings, keyboards, and percussion. Above all this float the charming and sophisticated vocals of Matthew Edwards, which are joined by some lovely harmonies and the occasional appearance of Jun Kurihara..s earthy vocals and provide a welcome female viewpoint to balance the restrained male angst."-AMG
'... it's stately cha-cha rhythms and Vegas-grade musical lexicon - bells, orchestras, woodwind, extravagently picked guitars - combine with Edwards love-broken lyrics to suggest a lost Graham Greene novel about seedy Brits shipwrecked in Caesars Palace rather than Port-au-Prince... immaculate' WORD Magazine (UK) Dec '06
'When The 'Lovers craft romantic songs as gorgeous as these, you'll want to stick around for the pillow talk' - MAGNET 2005
Hints of '60s AM-radio fodder regularly poke through the creamy, dreamy layers of piano, acoustic guitar, concertina, strings and mellotron, and the results are seductive.MAGNET 2006
'Gorgeous and knowing work' - AMPLIFIER 2005
Discography
Released November 2003 - "Cheap Songs Tell the Truth" EP, Marriage Records/LGM
Released November 2004 - "The Words We Say Before We Sleep" Album, Marriage Records/LGM
Released October 5th 2006 - "The Music Lovers Guide for Young People" Album, Le Grand Magistery (Enough-ho, Japan Spring 2008)
Coming in April 2008 - 'Masculine Feminine' , LGM records US, Sleeping Star (Italy)
All the Music Lovers records are available from www.darla.com, Amazon, itunes, or you local record emporium!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/24/2005
Band Website: themusiclovers.net
Band Members: Teddy Edwards - Vocal, Guitar
Jon Brooder - Bass, Harmonica
Bryan Cain - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Kate Weeks - Viola, percussion, keyboards
Ping Chu- Drums
and sometimes:
Jun Kurihara - Vocals, Accordion, Piano
Influences: Serge Gainsbourg, Dusty Springfield, Prefab Sprout, The Zombies, Sparks, The Brill Building, Marvin and Tami, The Smiths, Roxy Music, Jimmy Webb, 'Hunky Dory' era Bowie, John Cassavettes, Fairport Convention, Phil Spector, John Cale, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Bad Seeds, Scott 4, Go-Betweens, Teardrop Explodes, Girl Groups, Elvis in Memphis '70, Laura Nyro, Sly and Robbie, 'Oliver,' Goffin and King, Orton and Halliwell, Tim Hardin, Big Star, Muscle Shoals, The Clash, The Kinks, Sly Stone, Nick Tosches, Wyndham Lewis, Jackie De Shannon, Pulp, Charles Willeford,Curtis Mayfield
Sounds Like: The first three months of a new love affair forever, or seven years in jail for a crime of passion.
Record Label: Le Grand Magistery, www.magistery.com
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

’Masculine, Feminine’ finished and ready for release...

It's done. This is what the tracklisting is -The BlackoutSaturdayBobbie GentryMasculine, FeminineAutumn RoyalCoburn and RobardsA Word from your Fashion EditorThe WherewithalA Girl from SpaceL'Amour Pa...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:43:00 PST

Saturday's children and everyone's...

Yes, we have created our masterpiece. This has been the toughest record we've made... We have chopped and changed; been brutal; been perhaps emotional.It's romantically preposterous in present terms; ...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:53:00 PST

We are the Music Lovers!

It can be no other way - being one either kills you, or makes you stronger. Here's the boring version of the story with all the onstage collapses, drugs, failed marriages and fist-fights taken out...T...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:54:00 PST

WORD Magazine review (UK), 12/07

THE MUSIC LOVERSThe Music Lovers' Guide For Young People: they're woozy, they're boozy,they're absolutely schmoozyBy Andrew HarrisonWe at THE WORD fell discreetly in love with The Music Lovers - SanFr...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:34:00 PST

AllMusic Guide Review 10/06

"4 stars.. After a listen to The Music Lovers` Guide for Young People one thing is certain, the Music Lovers do indeed love music, to be more specific, the golden age of U.K.-based pop music that firs...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:57:00 PST

Margaret Cho directed Music Lovers Video!

Our dear friend Margaret has directed a video for our song 'The Former Miss Ontario'... upcoming will be a video for a song from our new record - 'The Sea and the Sun' Here it is - http://www.youtube....
Posted by The Music Lovers on Mon, 17 Jul 2006 05:28:00 PST

Selected (Love) Letters and Reviews

from 2004-2005 A band that calls itself The Music Lovers had better live up to it's name or else suffer the wrath of critic's who've had the love battered out of them by a non-stop onslaught of medioc...
Posted by The Music Lovers on Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:27:00 PST