Every Friday night, on the corner of 5th Ave and 49th St South, the sounds of reverb drenched guitar, thundering percussion, and voices trying to find a place in the natural world, could be felt emanating from the grounds around the neglected turn of the century neighborhood. The audience of that time consisted of the homeless, the hopeless, and an occasional jogger. It was the fall of 2007 when the members of what would eventually become, Imaginary Planes, started to convene in that spider infested cellar to exchange ideas and material. Something cool was happening down there as the swirling sounds and cadences were summoned from some otherworldly place.
Rising from the ashes of several other projects, five people were magnetically attracted by a mutual love and appreciation for cutting edge music and pop culture in general.
Wes Daniel and Christopher Jeely, long time acquaintances, shared the roles of guitar in a psych throwback band call The Northern Rattle. There was a chemistry and understanding of music composition shared by these two as soon as the music started. Sadly, after several shows, the project disbanded as soon as it began. Soon after a collaboration between Jeely and Daniel started to materialize in the form of sonically intertwined guitars and rhythms.
Bass player, Marc Blumenthal, and drummer, Beth Ragland were introduce to Daniel at a local coffee house where Blumenthal was a Barista. What began as conversation about music and movies eventually became, "hey we should play together". Blumenthal and Ragland previously had been playing with a local power pop quartet called, The Alright Lights, whose dysfunction had sealed the deal for these two. With similar musical taste things were starting to come together as a viable project.
The stage was now set for the arrival of, diamond in the rough singer, Christy Daniel, sister to Wes, as well as talented local artist and all around personality. Christy's beautiful but haunting vocal melodies would help complete the bands ethereal, bittersweet sound.
With everyone in place, the doors to a rehearsal space were locked for the next eight months. Each of us saw a music scene completely oversaturated with genre driven bands, and wanted escape the trappings of letting that happen with what we were doing, So with zero preconceptions we went without a name or a definition for quite some time. Patiently and sometimes not so patiently we allowed what we were doing to unfold and breathe like a vintage red wine. People would constantly approach us a ask " What do you guys sound like" and we could only look at each other, knowing something cool was emerging. With varied musical tastes and influences, a live set was crafted which would grip the lonely and brokenhearted while commanding the attention of those preoccupied with personal drama or the previous work day.
Imaginary Planes live, work, and perform live in Birmingham Alabama. The owl 7" picture disc is now available in a special limited edition run on Lathelight Ltd., While the band is currently in the studio recording its debut full length, also to be released on Lathelight Ltd. later this year.
NEW SHIRT: the Cursive Octopus shirt available now. visit LATHELIGHT Ltd to order online, or purchase from the merch table at our next show.
RELEASE NEWS: our first release "Lion's Den b/w Autumn & Sage" 7" picture disc will be available Tuesday MAY 19th! The 7" record can be purchased in limited edition at our shows and by mail order, as well as, available for digitaldownload from iTunes, Napster, and Amazon. Lathelight Ltd is releasing the single.
The group is currently in the studio recording their first album. Although the picture of the album is still emerging, we can tell you we will be recording 9 songs, and that the album will be available on CD and digitaldownload. JM of Sunny So Brite will be engineering the recording. More details to come.
Imaginary Planes - 'Lull' - live at O Kafes
