GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS
''THE LION THE BEAST THE BEAT''
JUNE 12 2012
45:43
1/The Lion the Beast the Beat
Grace Potter/5:26
2/Never Go Back
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:40
3/Parachute Heart
Grace Potter / Scott Tournet/4:08
4/Stars
Grace Potter/3:35
5/Timekeeper
Grace Potter/4:39
6/Loneliest Soul
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:36
7/Turntable
Grace Potter/4:01
8/Keepsake
Grace Potter/3:36
9/Runaway
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:19
10/One Heart Missing
Grace Potter/4:21
11/The Divide
Grace Potter/5:22
Nico Abondolo /Bass
Dan Auerbach /Handclapping, Producer, Vocals
Jacqueline Brand /Violin
Matt Burr /Drums, Handclapping, Percussion, Shaker, Tambourine, Trash Cans, Vocals
David Campbell /String Arrangements, String Conductor
Andrew Duckles /Viola
Erika Duke /Celli
Matthew Funes /Viola
Tamara Hatwan /Violin
Gerry Hilera /Violin
Suzie Katayama /Contractor
Natalie Leggett /Violin
Mario De León /Violin
Michael Libramento /Agogo Bell, Bass, Drums, Handclapping, Moog Bass, Tambourine, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Alyssa Park /Concert Master, Violin
Grace Potter /Casio, Composer, Guitar, Hammond B3, Handclapping, Keyboards, Mellotron, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Pipe Organ, Snaps, Synthesizer Bass, Tack Piano, Tambourine, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Michele Richards /Violin
Steve Richards /Celli
Jim Scott /Percussion
Scott Tournet /Ambience, Bass, Composer, Echoplex, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Handclapping, Keyboards, Lap Steel Guitar, Noise, Slide Guitar, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Josefina Vergara /Violin
Benny Yurco /Ambience, Bass, Echoplex, Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Handclapping, Sitar, Synthesizer Bass, Vocals
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals' self-titled 2010 album raised the band's profile. It traded heavily on their concert strengths, and while not perfect, it more or less shored up their reputation with fans and spread their rep globally. The Lion the Beast the Beat is a creative leap. With the band having enlisted producer Jim Scott, most tracks were cut live from the floor of his studio with strings, effects, and backing vocals added later. The sound here is big, sometimes bombastic, but never slick; it's wildly varied, too. Collectively, the songs have a very loose thematic link about the gray areas between perception and reality, looking at everything from relationships to time's passage. The title track contains the band's signature big guitars and drums roaring above an organ and strings. It nods -- without winking -- at the Go-Go's' "We Got the Beat." Dan Auerbach co-wrote and co-produced "Never Go Back," the album's first single. It's a tricky, quirky number with an off-kilter funk riff à la mid-period Talking Heads. Its chorus is infectious and Potter's singing, alternately seductive and authoritative, grabs the listener by the throat. The ballad "Stars" looks directly toward country radio with its pedal steel and lilting hook. That said, it's warmer and more natural-sounding. Auerbach and Potter also co-wrote the Doors-influenced "Loneliest Soul," an uptempo groover with pulsing organ, slinky Rhodes, and a popping bassline that pushes it above imitation. The psych-tinged "Timekeeper" is an unlikely pop song, but its distinctly retro feel and Potter's exquisite vocal -- which is far more disciplined than on any previous recording -- are irresistible. "Runaway" is punchy, nasty, funky rock & roll -- one keeps expecting horns, but they never appear. Co-produced by Auerbach and Scott, it contains the former's feel for live distortion and the latter's layered ambience and dynamics, and combines them to great effect. The guitar break is smoking; it pushes Potter to her limit in response. The closer, "The Divide," is the set's best track. It's a slow-building, apocalyptic rocker, whose three guitars create menace and drama. They are balanced by a careening organ and a large string section, arranged to carry the proceedings from the abyss to transcendence. While Potter's melodies and hooks are solid on The Lion the Beast the Beat, some of her lyric choices are still a bit clunky. However, she and the Nocturnals compensate with passion, execution, and smart production choices and arrangements. With its exponential musical growth, this might indeed be the record that moves the band from the merely recognizable into the pop mainstream.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
Singer, songwriter, and Hammond B-3 player Grace Potter grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont, where she began playing piano at the age of seven; informed by her parents' extensive collection of some 4,000 LPs, she was gigging out locally by her late teens. She met drummer Matt Burr at an open-mike session while both were attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 2002, and the two formed Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. The band, by then a trio with the addition of Scott Tournet on guitar, recorded its homemade debut album, Original Soul, in 2004 on its own newly created Ragged Company record label. Bassist Bryan Dondero joined just as the group began tracking a second homemade effort, Nothing But the Water, which was released in 2005. The album garnered a good deal of critical acclaim, thanks to its sturdy, throwback, rootsy sound and Potter's impressive vocal work, which drew comparisons to everyone from Janis Joplin to Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, and Bonnie Raitt. Fiercely independent and in control of their own career, Potter and the band turned down several major-label offers before signing with Hollywood Records later in 2005. Hollywood reissued Nothing But the Water for wider distribution in 2006, and in 2007, in conjunction with Ragged Company, issued This Is Somewhere, which further refined the band's classic organic sound. In 2010, after a shelved Potter solo project produced by T-Bone Burnett, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released. Produced by Mark Batson (Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Beyonce, and Alicia Keys), the album's more polished, sound and tighter songwriting were part of an effort by both label and group to pull out all the stops in breaking them as a charting act. The band toured incessantly, and released an iTunes session, a live album in the U.K., a download-only live-at-the-Fillmore date, and even a Christmas EP. In the summer of 2012, they emerged with a new studio offering, The Lion the Beast the Beat.
''THE LION THE BEAST THE BEAT''
JUNE 12 2012
45:43
1/The Lion the Beast the Beat
Grace Potter/5:26
2/Never Go Back
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:40
3/Parachute Heart
Grace Potter / Scott Tournet/4:08
4/Stars
Grace Potter/3:35
5/Timekeeper
Grace Potter/4:39
6/Loneliest Soul
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:36
7/Turntable
Grace Potter/4:01
8/Keepsake
Grace Potter/3:36
9/Runaway
Dan Auerbach / Matthew Burr / Grace Potter / Scott Tournet / Benjamin Yurco/3:19
10/One Heart Missing
Grace Potter/4:21
11/The Divide
Grace Potter/5:22
Nico Abondolo /Bass
Dan Auerbach /Handclapping, Producer, Vocals
Jacqueline Brand /Violin
Matt Burr /Drums, Handclapping, Percussion, Shaker, Tambourine, Trash Cans, Vocals
David Campbell /String Arrangements, String Conductor
Andrew Duckles /Viola
Erika Duke /Celli
Matthew Funes /Viola
Tamara Hatwan /Violin
Gerry Hilera /Violin
Suzie Katayama /Contractor
Natalie Leggett /Violin
Mario De León /Violin
Michael Libramento /Agogo Bell, Bass, Drums, Handclapping, Moog Bass, Tambourine, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Alyssa Park /Concert Master, Violin
Grace Potter /Casio, Composer, Guitar, Hammond B3, Handclapping, Keyboards, Mellotron, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Pipe Organ, Snaps, Synthesizer Bass, Tack Piano, Tambourine, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Michele Richards /Violin
Steve Richards /Celli
Jim Scott /Percussion
Scott Tournet /Ambience, Bass, Composer, Echoplex, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Handclapping, Keyboards, Lap Steel Guitar, Noise, Slide Guitar, Vocals, Wurlitzer
Josefina Vergara /Violin
Benny Yurco /Ambience, Bass, Echoplex, Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Handclapping, Sitar, Synthesizer Bass, Vocals
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals' self-titled 2010 album raised the band's profile. It traded heavily on their concert strengths, and while not perfect, it more or less shored up their reputation with fans and spread their rep globally. The Lion the Beast the Beat is a creative leap. With the band having enlisted producer Jim Scott, most tracks were cut live from the floor of his studio with strings, effects, and backing vocals added later. The sound here is big, sometimes bombastic, but never slick; it's wildly varied, too. Collectively, the songs have a very loose thematic link about the gray areas between perception and reality, looking at everything from relationships to time's passage. The title track contains the band's signature big guitars and drums roaring above an organ and strings. It nods -- without winking -- at the Go-Go's' "We Got the Beat." Dan Auerbach co-wrote and co-produced "Never Go Back," the album's first single. It's a tricky, quirky number with an off-kilter funk riff à la mid-period Talking Heads. Its chorus is infectious and Potter's singing, alternately seductive and authoritative, grabs the listener by the throat. The ballad "Stars" looks directly toward country radio with its pedal steel and lilting hook. That said, it's warmer and more natural-sounding. Auerbach and Potter also co-wrote the Doors-influenced "Loneliest Soul," an uptempo groover with pulsing organ, slinky Rhodes, and a popping bassline that pushes it above imitation. The psych-tinged "Timekeeper" is an unlikely pop song, but its distinctly retro feel and Potter's exquisite vocal -- which is far more disciplined than on any previous recording -- are irresistible. "Runaway" is punchy, nasty, funky rock & roll -- one keeps expecting horns, but they never appear. Co-produced by Auerbach and Scott, it contains the former's feel for live distortion and the latter's layered ambience and dynamics, and combines them to great effect. The guitar break is smoking; it pushes Potter to her limit in response. The closer, "The Divide," is the set's best track. It's a slow-building, apocalyptic rocker, whose three guitars create menace and drama. They are balanced by a careening organ and a large string section, arranged to carry the proceedings from the abyss to transcendence. While Potter's melodies and hooks are solid on The Lion the Beast the Beat, some of her lyric choices are still a bit clunky. However, she and the Nocturnals compensate with passion, execution, and smart production choices and arrangements. With its exponential musical growth, this might indeed be the record that moves the band from the merely recognizable into the pop mainstream.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
Singer, songwriter, and Hammond B-3 player Grace Potter grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont, where she began playing piano at the age of seven; informed by her parents' extensive collection of some 4,000 LPs, she was gigging out locally by her late teens. She met drummer Matt Burr at an open-mike session while both were attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 2002, and the two formed Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. The band, by then a trio with the addition of Scott Tournet on guitar, recorded its homemade debut album, Original Soul, in 2004 on its own newly created Ragged Company record label. Bassist Bryan Dondero joined just as the group began tracking a second homemade effort, Nothing But the Water, which was released in 2005. The album garnered a good deal of critical acclaim, thanks to its sturdy, throwback, rootsy sound and Potter's impressive vocal work, which drew comparisons to everyone from Janis Joplin to Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, and Bonnie Raitt. Fiercely independent and in control of their own career, Potter and the band turned down several major-label offers before signing with Hollywood Records later in 2005. Hollywood reissued Nothing But the Water for wider distribution in 2006, and in 2007, in conjunction with Ragged Company, issued This Is Somewhere, which further refined the band's classic organic sound. In 2010, after a shelved Potter solo project produced by T-Bone Burnett, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released. Produced by Mark Batson (Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Beyonce, and Alicia Keys), the album's more polished, sound and tighter songwriting were part of an effort by both label and group to pull out all the stops in breaking them as a charting act. The band toured incessantly, and released an iTunes session, a live album in the U.K., a download-only live-at-the-Fillmore date, and even a Christmas EP. In the summer of 2012, they emerged with a new studio offering, The Lion the Beast the Beat.
