NJProghouse Presents: Schooltree w/ special guest: Shueh-li Ong
Schooltree
http://schooltreemusic.com/
Biography:
From siren song of doom to shredding anthem of the righteous, Schooltree is art rock built for an amphitheater. Their second studio release and multimedia epic Heterotopia is a "fantastically, defiantly ambitious" (NPR) rock opera double album, fusing the research of classical music and literature with high-voltage pop songwriting in the absorbing, allegorical story of Suzi in Otherspace.
Morphing vocals crystallize characters, bombastic drums thump odd-time grooves under melodic moog hooks, lush string sections and stacked guitar choirs move in a thick wall of sound. A dark call from the bottom of a river beckons you to leap, while a glitching angel's voice stutters in and out of spacetime to guide you to salvation. This is the music of dream and nightmare a prism of sound shining through a crack in the sidewalk from another world.
Led by "determined frontwoman" (WBUR) and artist/producer with a "singular view on all things musical" (Fireworks Magazine) Lainey Schooltree, the grant-awarded 5-piece band charts a stubbornly individualistic path in the era of the algorithm-driven pop single with this effort, including an immersive multi-sensory show and illustrated book being released this fall.
"The record is a kaleidoscopic, hero's-journey-to-the-underworld-type tale a la Dante's Inferno," writes Emily Cassel for Scout Magazine. "Lainey Schooltree spent years putting together a 100-minute double album telling the tale of Suzi, a dreamer and underachiever who loses her body and has to take a trip through the collective unconscious to retrieve it. Yup, it's wild think less 'Hair,' more Genesis' 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,' " Herald writer Jed Gottlieb says.
After their internationally acclaimed studio debut Rise, Lainey set out to create a modern rock opera rooted in the classics of the genre while also reaching for a depth of thematic development characteristic of classical music and literature. Four years in the making, the result is a story and a world the listener can step inside and become part of; an original urban folktale written in the format of a three-act screenplay, with carefully woven mythos rich in symbolism and imagery, researched and developed as a story that could stand on its own.
"Heterotopia is, indeed, an opera, and it operates on an oceanic scale. The music is fluid and prismatic, churning through knotty riffs and shimmery hooks before coming to rest, briefly, in sublime moments of repose," writes Amelia Mason for WBUR's the ARTery. "With its harmonic inventiveness and timbral expressiveness, Heterotopia nods as much to Schooltree's classical loves Debussy, Bartók, Satie as her prog rock influences. But more than anything it reflects her exacting musical vision."
Meticulously crafted with co-producer Peter Moore (Think Tree, Count Zero, Blue Man Group), the production of this album stands out amid other releases. Avoiding claustrophobic use of compression and the in-your-face vocals of modern music, the sound of this record melds the airy, live dynamics of the golden era of recording with contemporary techniques that give it a sound that's both 20th and 21st century; favoring warmth and dynamics but also clarity and punch.
"Sometimes Lainey can sound like Kate Bush (as on 'The Abyss', track 5, which summons for me the mood of Aerial's 'Nocturn'), but honestly she is a vocal chameleon who changes from song to song so many times that you can never pin her down as anybody's imitator. She is a true original, but you'll have fun hearing musical allusions in the multiplicity of all her transformations. Sometimes she even sounds like Karen Carpenter from an alternative universe (in which she lived to go on to convert to prog and to make brilliant concept albums)." (Progarchy)
2017 LINE UP:
Lainey Schooltree | vox, keys
Tom Collins | drums
Peter Danilchuk | synth, organ
Ryan Schwartzel | bass
Sam Crawford | guitar
Shueh-li Ong
http://www.shuehli.com/
A world renown exponent on the oldest electronic musical instrument; Shueh-li Ong has been crowned Queen of the theremin in Nashville TN, and Diva in Singapore.
Though flattered, she's simply eager to compose new material for the instrument played without touching, and more challenging to perform each time! ThereminVox Italy said, "Shueh-li's an inspired artist with a solid background who has brought fresh ideas into the theremin field."
Since her last album, she has added more such fresh ideas to her playing technique. A theremin-synth concerto is ready to record, and certain movements have already made their way into her 2017 mini tour that began in Dallas TX.
Shueh-li has released 4 albums to date, showing off her studio production talents on progrock, fusion, synth pop, sung songs and more. UsaProgMusic said of her 3rd album, "New, original and engaging sounds are abundant throughout this wonderfully crafted album."
Shueh-li plays synthesizer and tin-whistle alongside her proximity instrument which was customized by Bob Moog.
Her theremin playing appears on an indie Sci-fi film, and albums by ProgRock artists 3RDegree, Little Dipper and Tom Brislin.
Sat, November 11, 2 PM · Roxy & Dukes Roadhouse · Dunellen, NJ
1PM doors... internet presale $22, day of show (cash only) $25
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