ALL MUSIC GUIDE: Everyone Thinks You're the Best is a rocking good time, executed with soul and conviction, and ultimately a wonderful endorsement for a band that must be a blast in a live setting.
BOSTON HERALD: “A” - If you’ve bounced from Marah to the Hold Steady to Art Brut looking to recapture the high you get from discovering fresh, 24-karat rock ’n’ roll, you need to freebase New York’s Teenage Prayers… this Steve Wynn-produced follow-up clobbers cool and catchy with maniacal rock brilliance.
BRUCE WARREN WXPN-PHILLY: Frontman Tim Adams comes with the drama and energy so lacking in indie-rock these days and his brother Terry is adept at riffing on soul music as he is with the classic rock. The songs on this album promise you a bright future should you indulge.
POPMATTERS.COM: Bucking the "nostalgia band" trend by being authentically nostalgic, the Teenage Prayers cause you to give blessings to that raw, purely enthusiastic adolescent music fan in all of us.
BROOKLYN ROCKS: The forthcoming sophomore release from The Teenage Prayers hasn't left my CD player for the last week. The band's music is somewhat of a throwback to the 70's but it touches on all points of the spectrum. There are elements of Cheap Trick, New York Dolls, Queen and California funk-rock on this disc.
UNDERRATED MAGAZINE: If these guys started their own religion, it would get you to stand up and sing. Trust me. I did it.
POPMATTERS.COM: Solomon Burke must have sensed that waft of tension in the Teenage Prayers' irony-free delivery -- their calculated smoke signals suggest they're searching for the secrets of the real showmen, not just fanatically aping them.
BOSTON PHOENIX: Frontman Tim Adams sing-shouts are a cross between James Brown and Isaac Brock
TROUSER PRESS: One of the most soulful indie rock outfits to come out of New York in years...
CITY BEAT, CINCINNATI: Their riffs have a sort of visceral simplicity, somewhere between the Rolling Stones and the Presidnents of the United states of America. Add the piano/organ and the juxtaposed guitar parts and a stew thickens. When you pourin the soulful vocals, the mixture becomes too thick to stir, but the Prayers are just going to start a food fight with it, anyway.
Influences
blind boy grunt and the hawks, john cassavetes, the clark sisters, solomon burke, iggy, bowie, stax, kinks, otis, phil spector, sam & dave, hayes & porter, william bell, lorette velvette, steve shiffman, atlantis black, steve wynn, mike viola, lou, keith, hi records, jerry lee, randy, harry, aretha, dan penn, nina simone, mud boy & the neutrons, scharpling & wurster
Sounds Like
EVERYONE THINKS YOU’RE THE BEST - IN STORES NOW!!!
Get it at itunes here!
"TEN SONGS" AVAILABE ON CDBABY.COM...
THE TEENAGE PRAYERS: Ten Songs
With a sound that lies somewhere between the Band, the Kinks, Otis Redding and the soundtrack to "Cabaret", the Teenage Prayers are both oddly familiar and totally distinct.
It’s a risky business to meet your musical heroes. They can shatter your illusions in a word.
Or they can turn out to be the people you dream them to be.
So far, the Teenage Prayers are two-for-two on the winning side of that equation. In 2005,
Grammy-winning soul legend Solomon Burke offered to produce a final track for their first
album, Ten Songs, flew the New York group to LA and did just that. In 2006, Steve Wynn
-- founder of the Dream Syndicate and 30-year hero of the DIY rock world -- watched the
Teenage Prayers open a gig for him. He, too, offered to produce them. The result: Everyone Thinks You’re the Best.
Everyone Thinks You’re the Best is filled with raucous melodies, a truly dislocated sense of
time and place and lyrics that explore the dark corners of manhood and mankind. Touching
many points on the musical spectrum, the album cavorts through garage rock, glam,
America’s south, soul, gospel, reggae, bossa nova, and Teutonic stomp. Amazingly, the
diverse menu always sounds like the Teenage Prayers.
Lead singer Tim Adams, who has been called "a cross between James Brown and Isaac
Brock" (of Modest Mouse) by the Boston Phoenix, is one of the band’s signature elements;
brotherly harmonies by guitarist Terrence Adams provide perfect counterpoint. The rhythm
section of Kyle Chrise on bass and Kyle Wills on drums, underpins the oddly familiar yet
totally unique sound of this band.
“Frontman Tim Adams comes with the drama and energy so lacking in indie-rock these days
and his brother Terry is adept at riffing on soul music as he is with the classic rock. The songs
on this album promise you a bright future should you indulge.” Bruce Warren, WXPN-
Philadelphia.
Formed in 2001, the Teenage Prayers have worked their way up from New York dive bars to
the Prospect Park Bandshell, where in 2007 they opened for the Hold Steady at Celebrate
Brooklyn. They are a merciless road band, bringing their hail-of-bullets live show to Los
Angeles, Chicago, SXSW in Austin and all over the Eastern Seaboard.
Everyone Thinks You’re the Best will be released March 18, 2008 through MRI Associated
Labels and Red Distribution.
Contact:
dreams of the south is my new spring anthem. let us join together once more for jim beam and kittens and brainstorming. maybe a roadtrip, but definitely no disasters.
Caught you guys opening for Sarah Borges the other night. Love the new CD and love your live performance even more. Won't be long before people are opening for YOU GUYS. Keep it up. Come back to Philly soon.
