About Me
BIO:
After touring and collaborating with rock 'n' roll soul man Cody Chesnutt, singer/guitarist/keyboardist and Los Angeles native, Sharif Dumani and bassist Aaron Ebensperger, made The Moon Upstairs their fulltime project, along with guitarist Mark Sogomian and drummer Josh Mancell (later bringing on keyboardist/guitarist Dave Baine, ex-player in Good Time Women and Jonathan Wilson.) After a couple years of local praise and playing alongside such artists as Silversun Pickups, Moris Tepper, Damon & Naomi, and Dead Meadow, The Moon Upstairs together recorded eleven songs, co-produced by member Sharif Dumani and Dave LaChance (Los Super Elegantes, The Minstrels, Friends of Dean Martinez), four of the tracks featuring the intricate string arrangements of Steve Gregoropolis (Lavender Diamond, W.A.C.O.). For a year they sat on this release, while the members did side-work on outside recordings and Dumani toured with The Tyde (Rough Trade) as their lead guitarist for The Black Angels 2006 tour.
In early 2007, Gifted Children Records took on their first full length album, Guarding The Golden Apple, from The Moon Upstairs, putting them alongside artists Women and Children and the legendary Silver Apples. Epic in its nature, with uncanny aggressiveness, infectious pop hooks, haunting harmonies, and assorted baroque psychedelic sounds, this varied collection of songs takes you back to the days of orchestration and the carefully crafted song work of such bands as The Left Banke, George Harrison, Neil Young and Pink Floyd. Equal parts beautiful and gritty, this classic psychedelic rock-pop masterpiece was brought to you by the multi-instrumentalist members of The Moon Upstairs. In a day of false scenes and computer engineered tunes, The Moon Upstairs prove themselves to be a "a real band, not some sort of theme park dress-up act," as Dream Magazine's George Parsons put it. With their own distinctive style of apocalyptic, yet deeply personal sound, a sense of real love and respect for the word "song" can be found in each track.
Tracks from The Moon Upstairs can be found on the Little Radio "Sampler 2" (featuring Black Mountain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Wolf Parade, and Camera Obscura), and Dream Magazine's Issue 7 compilaton (featuring Sharron Kraus, Yellow6, Farina, The Left Outsides, Adrian Crowley, Mike Tamburo, Keenan Lawler, The Kitchen Cynics, and many more).
Other bands The Moon Upstairs have played with: Silver Apples, Trembling Blue Stars (SubPop), The Warlocks (Mute/Birdman/TeePee), Elf Power, Howlin' Rain, Moris Tepper (Captain Beefheart/Tom Waits/Frank Black), The Black Angels, Gris Gris (Birdman), Chrime In Chior (members of Nation of Ulysses and The Fucking Champs), Apostle of Hustle (members of Broken Social Scene), Medium Medium (Cherry Red Records), The Ditty Bops (Warner Bros), Mammatus (Holy Mountain), Residual Echoes and many more.
- M. Gregoire, Gifted Children Records
