Grace Basement

Thanks to all at KDHX for playing Gunmetal Gray and featuring Grace Basement in the New Music Spotlight.Here's Chris Schaeffer's review from the RFT followed by The Post-Rockist blog review....more reviews to come as the record emerges.
Grace Basement bandleader Kevin Buckley may be a world-class Irish fiddler, but his gifts for harmony and melody don't stop at jigs and reels. As a guitarist, singer and songwriter, he synthesizes 50 years of popular music into engaging, direct three-chord rock songs. Buckley played every note on Grace Basement's 2007 debut, New Sense, but his Gunmetal Gray is a full-band effort and features other special guests from St. Louis' rock, folk and Irish music scenes (including his father Jack, who contributes sweetly keening Uilleann pipes). Even though Buckley surrounds himself with talented players, these ten songs are peppered with his unique trademarks: immediate hooks, stacked vocals, serpentine fiddle runs and quirky but heartfelt lyrics. Gray's easygoing pop swings in two directions. Certain songs are saddled with — but not bogged down by — a sense of resigned melancholy (the addiction lament/lullaby "Back of the Moon"). Others — such as the infectious opening track "There He Goes" — ramp up the group's perky, punchy, pop dynamics. On that sunnier tip, "On Your Side (Soldier's Song)" begins like a Sonic Youth jam and morphs into a horn-aided rocker reminiscent of Being There­-era Wilco. Even slower songs such as "Why Would I Wait for Another?" and the stunning album-closer "Land of Endless Change" turn Buckley's blues into something grand and majestic, thanks to their precisely arranged instrumental codas. Few bands anywhere spin out songs that spring to life with a simple, earthy joy and heart-on-sleeve sentiment — but Grace Basement and Gunmetal Gray achieve this balance with emotional maturity and musical intuition.
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The Post-RockistIt’s one thing for a band to proclaim Harry Nilsson and XTC among their primary influences; it’s quite another to follow through and deliver the goods. Gunmetal Gray, the sophomore effort from St. Louis’ Grace Basement, hearkens back to the better features of any number of pure pop purveyors — a more creatively concise Jon Brion; a Ben Kweller not inclined to indulge his hokum country fancies — but at no point does it feel reduced to pastiche. With impeccably layered harmonies, urbane arrangements, and lead songwriter Kevin Buckley’s deft fiddling, Gunmetal Gray has turned out to be one of most pleasant surprises of 2009.I’ve been listening to this album since April, when the band temporarily released it as a free download from their website. The download was split like an old record into two tracks, an A side and a B side. I don’t know if the vinyl analogy was intentional, but considering how meticulously composed each individual track was put together, the overarching emotional flow of the album as a whole is remarkably fluid. From the boisterous and baroque opener “There He Goes” to the wry resignation of “Tilly Lingers” through to the orchestral flourishes of “Land of Endless Change,” the band, only recently conceived of as a four-piece, puts on a consistent and exuberant display of power pop prowess.It seems the timeframe for nabbing the disc as a free download has passed, but you can still order it online from Undertow Music or, what I would recommend, buy it direct from the band tonight at their CD release show at Off Broadway. Boston’s Everyday Visuals and St. Louis’ excellent Old Lights are opening.
Voted "Best New Band" by The Riverfront Times (2007)

“The music is smart, and the tone is varied without being scattered; specifically, it's a genre-hop through alt-country, basement pop, fuzzy rock and acoustic folk…. More surprising is the source, 27-year-old Kevin Buckley, who plays every instrument on the record and who is primarily known for his mastery of the fiddle. New Sense is packed with simple harmonic riffs, complex vocal harmonies, and tossed-off lyrics that spring to life in the record's joyful atmosphere.”
- Christian Schaeffer, The Riverfront Times (July 2007)

“The sound is crisp, lush and ever-flowing streams of stellar guitar work and earth fiddle make "New Sense" a wonderfully arranged, smoothly harmonized and accomplished display of what song-craft should be about. VERY Highly Recommended."
- Bruce Brodeen, Not Lame Records (2007)

“Pretty hooks, jaunty verses, slightly-raggedy vocals… He's got real skill as a writer, and he imbues his songs with just enough of an off-kilter perspective to shear off the sharp edges of craft.”
- Jon Worley, Aidabet.com (2007)

“…the Beatles' melodic smarts; Guided by Voices' songwriting quirks; Superchunk's sunny, grungy riffs…”
- Annie Zaleski, The Riverfront Times (November 2006)

“The creative spark comes in many ways. For renowned fiddler Kevin Buckley, it started innocently enough with a project recorded on a Tascam 424 mkII 4-track cassette machine in his parents' basement and ended up as New Sense (Dren Records, 2007), a full-length CD recorded in Adobe Audition that blended power pop and Americana rock and was released under the moniker Grace Basement.”
- Diane Gershuny , Electronic Musician Magazine (Jan. 2008)

"Delicious Pop! New Sense is one of the few great comfort albums! I've listened to it a hundred times and it sounds better with each listen!"
- Nick Acquisto, The Space Parlour, KDHX

“This is a real awesome debut CD. The same kind of enthusiasm that emerged from the first Johnny Polonsky album "Hi My Name is Johnny" is here After a few listens, this one really sticks with you and the song melodies grows like a weed garden in your brain. That makes it a top ten contender in my book."
-Aaron Kupferberg, Powerpopaholic.com (2007)

TO PURCHASE NEW SENSE, CLICK ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING LINKS