Paperplanes

------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------
Ok- here is the deal. We have 2 records coming out this year (2008). One record "Rhinestone Republic" is out now and available here•••• http://cdbaby.com/cd/paperplanes ••••• Our other record - TransAmerican Lights features a little more of our rockin side. This will be available for download on CD Baby within the next couple weeks. It will be available in CD format as soon as we can afford to put it out.Thank You all for the recent support we have been getting.---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------R E V I E W S------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------ ---------------------------------------------- WWW.ROOTSTIME.BEWij staan altijd open voor een uurtje frisse, moderne rootsmuziek. Daarom is het met vreugde in het hart dat we het schijfje “Rhinestone Republic” van Paperplanes uit Long Beach, Californië in onze cd-lader schuiven. Want sinds hun ep-album “Volcanoes” uit 2006 weten we al dat deze formatie de kunst van het songschrijven perfect in de vingers heeft. De honky tonk ritmes met country-invloeden gekoppeld aan uit-het-leven gegrepen teksten over vluchten uit de realiteit van elke dag, verslavingen en verlies zijn zonder twijfel origineel. De meeste nummers worden door zanger en frontman Micah Panzich geschreven, maar ook bassist Pete Tavera en drummer Rob Harvick steken af en toe een handje toe. De klagende pedal steel van Cliff Kane is ook zeer nadrukkelijk aanwezig in de meeste nummers. Aan dit album werd gedurende acht maanden in de luwte gewerkt hetgeen uiteindelijk zo’n 25 liedjes opleverde, teveel voor één plaat. Dus werd geopteerd om er dan maar ineens twee te maken, waarvan de country georiënteerde “Rhinestone Republic” de eerste is en de tweede meer rockende “TransAmerican Lights” binnen enkele maanden zal gereleased worden. Het zangwerk op de songs wordt steeds waargenomen door de schrijver van het nummer, ofwel Panzich ofwel Tavera dus. Hun stembereik en timbre verschilt nogal waardoor ze een typische klankkleur aan de liedjes geven en dat komt dan weer de diversiteit van de songs ten goede. Op hun best zijn Paperplanes in de tragere nummers zoals “In This Town”, “Number Nine”, “Something That You Need” en “Full Bloom” wat niet weg neemt dat ook de meer rockende songs als “Suits Of Armor” en “Weekend” makkelijk verteerbaar zijn. Het drinkebroersliedje “Oh Be My” met een nasaal zingende Panzich verdient een speciale vermelding. En bij een nummer als afsluiter “Don’t Make A Sound” waarbij de violen treurend aanzwellen naast de tranerige stem van Micah Panzich wil je de lichten alleen maar dimmen en meegesleurd worden in de emoties van het moment. De typische countryrock-sound die je langsheen de Californische stranden uit zowat elke club hoort galmen is waarin Paperplanes zich gespecialiseerd hebben. En dat ze daar heel goed in zijn kan je op “Rhinestone Republic” horen. (valsam) www. rootstime. be---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------ALTCOUNTRY.NL NETHERLANDS APRIL 2008 http://www.altcountry.nl/http://www.altcountry.nl/recensiesm rt08.htmlpaplanesCalifornische countryrock! Zwalkend langs de county line op zoek naar het juiste evenwicht tussen country en rock! Met psychelische prikkelingen! Twangend in de beste SoCal-tradities! Gierende gitaren die door slordig mooie koortjes klieven! Dat alles en nog veel meer valt er te zeggen over Rhinestone Republic (eigen beheer) van Paperplanes! Dat deze jongens discipelen van de eerste generatie countryrockers in Californië zijn bijvoorbeeld! Met de zonnige zijde die de cowboyhippies van weleer ook toonden! Geluidstechnisch overigens net een verloren opname uit die gouden periode eind jaren zestig toen het genre werd uitgevonden! Met samenzang die bij tijden tegen het vals aanleunt! Met een fraaie geborduurde en van rhinestones voorziene plattegrond van Californië als hoesfoto! Ons allen aangeboden door Micah Panzich (gitaar, zang, toetsen, slide, percussie, guitjo, mondharmonica, songschrijver, producer), Rob Harvick (drums, zang, percussie, toetsen), Pete Tavera (bas, zang, gitaar, toetsen, songschrijver) en Cliff Kane (pedal steel, lapsteel, gitaar, zang)! Vier jongemannen uit Long Beach die hun Velvet Underground-gevoelens hebben gezandstraald in de woestijn van Arizona, voordat ze via Bakersfield de kust van Californië bereikten! The First Burrito Beachwood Ryders! Vijftien nummers in bijna 58 minuten! Met de belofte van nog een plaat dit jaar, Transamerican Lights, aangekondigd als meer rock dan country! (John Gjaltema)--------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------OC WEEKLY MARCH 2008 By ERIN DEWITTBeing the ethical and fair music critics we are at the Weekly, it’d be unjust to place any presumptions on a band we’ve glowingly reviewed before. For instance, in 2004, we proclaimed Paperplanes’ five-track EP to be the “greatest rock & roll music” we’d ever heard. No pressure, right?So we approached Paperplanes’ Rhinestone Republic (Cougar Trap) with a sparkling clean and unburdened mind. One noticeable difference, however, is the improved production values since we last heard from this Long Beach foursome—there’s not a single Sharpie scrawl in sight. And for a group that’s had a revolving turnstile of band members, the current assemblage of Micah Panzich (guitar, vocals), Pete Tavera (bass, vocals), Rob Harvick (drums) and Cliff Kane (pedal steel guitar) might be their much-needed foundation. Paperplanes seem to have found a solid stomping ground to perfect their foray into the blossoming alt-country scene.Long gone is the riff-rock penchant so prevalent in ’04; they’ve removed all traces of scuzz and grunge. “Honky Tonk” gets right down to their newer dusty Western sound, thanks to Kane’s bright, shining pedal steel. Tavera’s bass thumps along perfectly to Panzich’s guitar twang, all very tumbleweeds-and-moonshine. Little-known fact: Cowboys dig love songs, and this disc’s “Full Bloom” is a sorrowful ballad that sweetly shows off Tavera’s deep, honey-coated vocals. “Oh Be My” does the same for Panzich’s nasally crooning. So what if these shitkickers are from the LBC?Rhinestone Republic reveals Paperplanes’ latest stage of evolution: crisp, twangy country that’s cool enough to survive in picky OC. And the band’s steady stream of shows suggests they’re not just surviving, but thriving.For more information, visit www.myspace.com/paperplanes.-------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------LA RECORD: VOL. NO. 3 ISSUE. NO. 1 -Paperplanes are four (more if they coax the paino player out) familiar faces from Long Beach who like Heartworn Highways and Bigfoot and who find a sound of their own between Terry Allen’s Lubbock and Guy Clark’s L.A. freeway. Singer/guitarist Micah handles his ragged high lines like David Lowery (“Hold On” or “You can Have It All”) and singer/bassist Pete takes shitkickers (“You Know Sin,” pushed cheerfully along by Rob’s understated drumming) and the songs that sound lowest and slowest among those the abject desolator “Full Bloom.” Jerry Jeff Walker could have barely done better on a song that must take new guts every time they play: “Well I been drinking quite a bit,” explains Pete, and between the pedal steel (Cliff Kane) and the gospel choir (which I think is just the band being very clever in the home studio) it’s just about a near-death experience. Rhinestone feels like a lot of sad songs-funny since these guys are crack-ups in actual conversation-but they’re different kinds of sad songs with different ways of being hopeful, and the tangles between the two make an album that might could last a little while.-Chris Ziegler----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------GROUND CONTROL MUSIC MAGAZINE 02-10-08 REVIEW BY: Casey LombardoWhen we last heard Long Beach's Paperplanes on 2006's self-released Volcanoes, they had just taken their first baby steps into the alt-country wilderness, adding elegiac strains of steel guitar to their jittery, Velvets-infused sound. With Rhinestone Republic, however, the 'Planes have eschewed the "alt" prefix, driving deep into real country territory. Here, twangy Bakersfield guitars, honky tonk rhythms and heartfelt lyrics of loss, escape and addiction coalesce into something undeniably authentic—and almost unbelievable given that the record is an entirely DIY affair, written, recorded and mixed by the band.Trading off songs by guitarist Micah Panzich and bassist Pete Tavera, Rhinestone Republic uncovers remarkable songcraft and musicality. Panzich trades licks on his Telecaster with the virtuosic Cliff Kane on pedal steel, whose presence throughout the album is an outright blessing. Rob Harvick drums with an understated touch, rolling the beat across the saloon floor on the upbeat "You Know Sin," but dialing it back on weary-eyed numbers like "In This Town" and "Full Bloom."Once the fiddle swells up alongside Panzich on the intimate closer "Don't Make a Sound," you'll feel like turning the lights out. Although a companion album—the rock-oriented TransAmerican Lights—will be out later this year, you can't escape feeling that with Rhinestone Republic the Paperplanes have achieved something definitive.For more information visit thepaperplanes.comhttp://groundcontrolmag.com/detail/3/878/- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------Robs Dad- "better than your other bands..."--------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------THE DISTRICT WEEKLY FEBRUARY 2008It got dark and I’d been waiting so I could most diligently listen to the new Paperplanes album, and so I took off Terry Allen’s Lubbock (On Everything), which contains some of the finest writing of any kind ever to come with an American credit, and I put on Paperplanes’ new album and let it roll, just as Guy Clark reminds us, and it fit like Terry himself had just been saving a seat. Paperplanes took the other road to Lubbock c. 1979—singer/guitarist Micah Panzich calls it “post-punk with twang,” which makes only half sense to all redneck mothers and El Paso assholes—and though we end up chatting happily about Pere Ubu and Velvet Underground in the cozy high-rise rehearsal space Paperplanes call the Eagle’s Nest, their new Rhinestone Republic shares only a certain purity of guitar tone and weariness of spirit with those ’70s rust-rock debasers. Rhinestone is big sky not big city—cowtown country rock (with pedal steel filigree by Cliff Kane) from the year 2003 minus 25.Until last week, Paperplanes—Panzich, Kane, bassist/singer Pete Tavera, and drummer Rob Harvick—hadn’t showed a hair in sunlight for almost eight months, instead ensconced—a word inappropriate only until they took me up to a rehearsal studio checkered with thrift-store oils and a signed photo of Bigfoot, though not signed by Bigfoot—until they quit recording after 25 songs that they’ll be releasing as two different albums, even though Panzich says they’ve still got more they didn’t have stamina reserved enough to tape. (Since Paperplanes started in Tucson, Arizona, as Panzich’s four-track band, he figures 300-some songs have come and gone.) Transamerican Lights is coming soon and will be the “rock record,” which is more what we remember as Paperplanes—Lou Reed/Robert Pollard/maybe some Replacements trio—and here is Rhinestone Republic now with one humble honest hour that’s easily the best I’ve heard so far this short year.Panzich sings in the high register (David Lowery when he’s sad and not sarcastic) and Tavera sings in the low middle and they sing lead on the songs they happened to write, and although the fast songs are good and sometimes so great (“Honky Tonk,” like an outlaw George Jones cover, and Panzich says Jones and Jennings are all over Rhinestone) the slow songs make the lights dim, and here I’ll find you two of the finest: Panzich’s “Number Nine,” written during the minutes Tavera was in the hospital possibly having a heart attack, and Panzich was by the home phone waiting for the call back, and as pedal steel flutters down to the telephone wire he sings, “Because you choose your own path, you’re at the end of your line / now I’m standing on the edge, waiting for a friend to die . . . ” And then Tavera’s “Full Bloom,” which could replace “Stoney” on Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1976 A Good Night For Singin’ to the benefit of all involved, and which Pete sings so fearless and true that I’d have to go lay down to wonder about my own life before I could finish typing three lines of his lyrics, and when the fiddle comes in on follower “Weekend” (very Camper van) it’s like someone shaking you awake. I did a whole interview with them but what’s good for print after that? So we grabbed beers and I looked out the big windows at Long Beach in the night and wondered how they did it. Have you heard Terry Allen, I asked? No, they said. Well, I should have said, he’d probably like to meet you.-------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------OC WEEKLY Five-Track CD EP Self-ReleasedThese are the life-affirming moments we live for: a CD comes in the mail from a band we’ve never heard of, with ordinary, hand-scrawled text on the paper-insert cover and a disc that’s been violated with a Sharpie, and, not expecting to get much use from it as anything other than a beer coaster or coke mirror, we slip it in the box, hit PLAY . . . and it instantly becomes the greatest rock & roll music we’ve ever heard in our lives. And for a few days last week—a week where everybody, from The Orange County Register to the LA Times to Rolling Stone, preferred to wallow in flatulent Beatles-on-Ed Sullivan anniversary nostalgia (they broke up 34 fucking years ago and weren’t nearly as great as everyone thinks they were, all right?)—we happily opened our ears to the here and now and as-yet-unheralded. And it felt invigorating, too, because calling Long Beach’s Paper Planes "greatest rock" anything somehow doesn’t feel like soulless, shameless hype, either. For here was a case of love at first strum—a hard-on from the opening split-second of "Fever Blister," with its killer Velvets-purloined riff that the Strokes tried hard to nail down but never could and the fantastic, desperate plea from singer Micah Panzich ("I’ve got a fever blister baby!/It’s causing me some shame!"), all coated in snazzy guitars and chaotic yowling that manages to neatly wrap up in just more than two minutes, just as the best rock & roll always has. In a weird way, this sort of sucks because "Fever Blister" is one of those tremendous tunes you never want to end—but then, that’s why some Japanese technicians wisely invented the REPEAT key, innit? But hold up—there are still vast realms of unexplored greatness in the disc’s 23 minutes. "Constant Frustration" is a snappy shuffle, with lines that may or may not allude to American occupations of foreign countries (Paper Planes aren’t political, at least not overtly). "Mexico" has terrifically poppy choruses that, in our secret fantasy world, we retreat to whenever the officemates have Fox News turned on; "Mexico" should be at least as popular as "Hey Ya." "Time Won’t Build" has a jangly quality that feels like it was separated at birth from REM’s Murmur (with lyrics based on "The Torturer" by South African-born Zulu poet Mazisi Kunene; Paper Planes aren’t just an incredible band—they’re smart and literate, too), sad and plaintive, yet gloriously so. And "Live How We Live" is their epic, a nearly nine-minute song littered with handclaps and scream-out-loud hooks—you might think of Big Star, but like everything else on here, they hammer it into a marvelous object of their own design. So how great are Paper Planes, besides being merely the sculptors of, like we say, "the greatest rock & roll music we’ve ever heard in our lives?" (Clarification, on further thought: we do change this pronouncement with some regularity.) So great that we notoriously freeloading rock critics would actually go out and buy this record if we didn’t already have it for free—and we wouldn’t even insist on getting reimbursed by our accounting department, either! They are that fabulous.--------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)