Acoustic rock that spans the gap between Simon & Garfunkel and Alice in Chains

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic FOLK: Modern Folk

You Already Know This Songs


Details:
***In preparation for our next album, _Superstructure_(due out in the summer of 2005), we are clearing out this one, and have levied a sharp price cut. You were overbold not to buy up to now. Smart, overbold you. Aren't you proud of yourself?***

Michael Dowd and Neil Seas, two students at CUA in Washington, D.C., met in McMahon Hall waiting to take a Spanish entrance exam in 1994. Soon thereafter, they realized they lived in the same dorm, had similar hair density, and shared an affinity for music. They continually lunched together after Spanish class, and founded a relationship that was based on deli meats and used many irregular verb forms.

Neil was a thoroughly practiced guitarist at the time and Mike was trained as a writer in prose and poetry. One day, Neil presented Mike with the lyrics and the progression to a song he had written and charged Mike with finding the melody. This collaborative effort held fast as Mike learned guitar, Neil learned English, and the two learned that, despite their best efforts, they were not supporting Henry Weinhard's Red Lager enough to enable its continued distribution on the east coast.

Notoriety among fellow students encouraged one such student, Bonnie Burke of Connecticut, to commission them for songwriting and performance in a play she had written: "The Square Root of Truth." During the show's run, they met an audience member and an acquaintance of Burke's: Dan Parker of One World Studios in Northwest DC. They were urged to record the songs from the performance, and began to do so in April of 1998 under the name 2 ½ Lounge.

The recording sessions swayed between attempts to record their entire repertoire, and intense studies of single songs. An ample portion of the production and the mixing became the lot of Bill Turney, an engineer at One World at the time. Bill turned a deft ear to their music. He allowed their best ideas to manifest and their worst ideas to be recorded for the comedic interest and stark horror of all posterity. Bill took a shine to their ability to collaborate musically without actually speaking to each other, and began to contribute to the group through adroit bass performances, unique hair color, and long, long silences.

The sessions lacked direction however, and Neil eventually moved to New York City for career reasons. After a brief pause in the music, Mike and Neil began to collaborate long distance and occasionally record with Bill at his studio in Alexandria, Virginia. These recording sessions were wrought with much more focus than before, and an album of their worth was planned. Mike eventually moved to New York, excited about the prospect of electing Congressional representatives who could actually vote on the House floor.

2 ½ Lounge is based in Brooklyn, NY. "You Already Know This" is their first album.

They still haven't recorded the songs from Bonnie's play.