The Essex Green - ProfilesArchive

About Me

The Essex Green is a band based in Brooklyn NY. For their new album, Cannibal Sea, the bands three principal songwriters - Chris Ziter, Sasha Bell and Jeff Baron - have assembled a collection of songs that speak to themes of travel, exploration, wanderlust and the desire for quiet niches amid the pressures of big city living. Like the protagonists in the opening lines of Dont Know Why (You Stay) - Stepping along the hum of the sidewalk / A marionette, a slave / Your legs are wood and tied to the city / Who has final say? - the characters from the songs on Cannibal Sea display a yearning to break free of the boundaries and constrictions of city life. To escape the darkness and fatigue, to move on to more lighthearted settings surrounded by water, replete with the spray of the sea, the gentle lift and sway of a boat on the waves.

Cannibal Sea is the third full-length release from The Essex Green, who, though based in Brooklyn, have roots in more pastoral climes such as Vermont and Ohio. Ziter, Bell and Baron share vocal duties across the album and, with the help of some exceptionally talented friends and collaborators, unfurl a diverse range of styles and influences.

Listening to Cannibal Sea is like leafing through a songbook of classic pop. These 12 songs blend the old with the new, incorporating the country rock mood of The Byrds, the Greenwich Village balladry of Fred Neil and the acoustic pop harmonizing of the Mamas and The Papas. Add a little of the pure pop perfection of The Left Banke to traces of contemporary artists such as The Shins, The Hidden Cameras and Jens Lekman and you have The Essex Greens recipe for timeless pop that is classic without being retro. Recorded over the course of a year in several locations in Brooklyn and Ohio, and points in between, Cannibal Sea is The Essex Greens most cohesive and accomplished album to date.

We are taking a break right now from touring and recording.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/14/2005
Band Website: essexgreen.com
Band Members: Jeff Baron Sasha Bell Christopher Ziter Julia Rydholm live photos by underexposed.org.uk
Influences: USING THIS SECTION FOR NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:Congratulations to Chris and Meredith on their recent marriage!Congratulations to Sasha Bell on her baby daughter Bebban LabelleVisit The Official ESSEX GREEN Website at www.theessexgreen.com.PROFILE PICTURES COURTESY OF BOB @ underexposed.org.uk!
Sounds Like: The Mamas & The Papas, Belle and Sebastian, Fleetwood Mac, Ladybug Transistor, The Aislers Set, The Byrds, The Hidden Cameras, The Shins, Jen Lenkman, The Monkees...
Record Label: Merge Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

MAGNET- Top 20

#18 Though it's tempting to call this The Essex Green Preservation Society- the Brooklyn trio's lazy-meadow pop and familiar bass-line bounce can't help but conjure late-'60s Kinks- it really is somet...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 03:12:00 PST

Musings

A cool sunny day here in Brooklyn. I'm sitting here at my desk looking out into the dank airshaft, reflecting, with not a little wistfulness, on the excellent tour of last month. ...
Posted by The Essex Green on Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:34:00 PST

Paste Magazine Review- "Turning Back the Clock without Falling Back On Schlock"

4/5 stars Originally dismissed as an Elephant 6 also ran- it's members having played in Ladybug Transistor and The Sixth Great Lake- The Essex Green comes fully into its own on Cannibal Sea, a sunnily...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 04:15:00 PST

Silent Uproar's Review 4.5/5

On their third trip around the indie rock block, Brooklyn collective The Essex Green reaches the pinnacle of their career--so far. Cannibal Sea is an seemingly effortless foray into psychedelic pop, c...
Posted by The Essex Green on Tue, 09 May 2006 11:22:00 PST

Chord Magazine Review

THE ESSEX GREENCannibal Sea [Merge][Fans of Elephant 6 bands, Lee Hazlewood, and the Monkees' TV show take note.] You've heard this before: From the "Pleasant Valley Sunday"-isms of "Snakes in the Gr...
Posted by The Essex Green on Wed, 26 Apr 2006 04:43:00 PST

"You Aint No Picasso"-- Interview

Its hard to write pop music these days. Though the Beatles, Kinks and countless others have taught the world that songs can be both catchy and groundbreaking, it seems that pop has once again acquired...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 24 Apr 2006 05:40:00 PST

Optical Atlas Interview With Sasha

Sasha Bell is singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (keyboard, flute, etc.) for The Essex Green, a trio of prolific and talented songwriters--Chris Ziter, Jeff Baron, and Bell--whose latest a...
Posted by The Essex Green on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 07:04:00 PST

Home Again!

Ahhh, back in the Brooklyn saddle. We just returned from a magical jaunt through Germany with our beautiful, Swedish compadres, The Shout Out Louds. The multitude of withdrawal symptoms are beginning ...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:34:00 PST

Harp Magazine Review

If it is at all possible to be a postmodern Romantic, the Essex Green has got it nailed. The threesome forming the nucleus of the group Sasha Bell, Chris Ziter and Jeff Baron has, with the help of var...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 17 Apr 2006 10:41:00 PST

All Music Guide Review

The Essex Green's previous album was a marvelous fusion of their psychedelic pop, soft rock, folk, and indie pop influences, much like a fusion of the Ladybug Transistor and the Sixth Great Lake (not ...
Posted by The Essex Green on Mon, 17 Apr 2006 05:20:00 PST