Bridges and Powerlines

The New Yorkers could be the best example of this year's "Six Points sound," with energetic, sharp indie rock songs. - Washington Post

Rock band Bridges and Powerlines, one of the best local acts we’ve seen in quite a while, will bring its high-energy show to Union Hall tonight. (They’ll be joined by openers The Great Lakes and Rachel Lipson.) Make it your New Year’s resolution to get to more great rock shows, and make this the first. - the Brooklyn Paper

Bridges and Powerlines might sing about rather serious issues like growing up and the struggle for maturity, but they do so with addictive jangly indie pop tunes that have the power to complement the content of their lyrics and lift our spirit at once. Their sound is steeped in the indie rock of the 90s, with some refreshing elements brought in by Andrew Wood's signature buzzy keys and thoughtful melodies, well supported by a solid rhythm section. In 2007 the band put the finishing touches to their first full length titled "Ghost Types", and embarked on an East Coast tour that peaked in a sold out show at the Mercury Lounge. The record described as "incontrovertibly fun" by Yahoo music, and "energetic, sharp indie rock songs" by the Washington Post was released on Apr. 22. You can catch the band live at Pianos on an afternoon bill on May 11, or at Cakeshop on the eve of May 30. - The Deli Magazine

"Bridges and Powerlines followed and was was all clangy guitars, hot synth, plaid shirts, indie and trumpets. Theirs was a set of solid, sharp pop music with some electronica thrown in now and then for kicks. They put together an entirely satisfying set filled with catchy riffs and beautiful melodies. And really, that's all you can ask of music." - Gothamist blog

If you like brooding indie pop tunes exploring the angst of maturing, or just a groovy breed of alternative meloncholy, then this band might be for you. The album is produced by Chris Zane, whose more notable projects include Asobi Seksu and Les Savy Fav. Cool credentials, and appropriately so; this is a sound people can get into.

Bridges and Powerlines, at only a few years old (the band formed in 2005), have created an album that is both pop-friendly and exploratory. Their debut full length, entitled Ghost Types, dropped at the end of last month. The songwriting is solid, and vocalist Andrew Wood almost sounds like a New York version of Colin Meloy. Maybe if Colin was the frontman for The Old 97's. Pick up the record, or if you live in New York, check out an upcoming show. - Baeble Music

Hailing from New York, Bridges and Powerlines debut album titled Ghost Types was produced by Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, White Rabbits, Asobi Seksu). Its a strong pop record featuring washes of dynamic lift and just enough quirk to keep the art school set pleased. The band is blessed with a top-rate rhythm section, but the loose quality of the vocals, guitar and various embellishments act as the perfect counterbalance. The end result is an album thats incontrovertibly fun to listen to. - Yahoo Music

When we last discussed Bridges and Powerlines here at PopMatters, I expressed hope that their solid debut album, Ghost Types, portended brighter things in their future. That album was full of good indie-pop songs based around guitars and synths, but it didn’t turn out to be something that stuck with you over time. At least not for me. Now the band has returned with Eve, and they’ve indeed stepped up their game.

The album opens with “The First Equation”. It begins with a quiet guitar line, which is quickly joined by singer Andrew Wood. This soft intro soon adds bass and harmony vocals before it opens up into a march with military-style snare drum and swirling keyboards. While this is essentially still a three-and-a-half-minute pop song, there are some strong arrangement ideas here that break new ground for Bridges and Powerlines. The second track, “Mirabell”, shows instantly that “The First Equation” isn’t a fluke. It begins by combining a fuzzed-out synth-as-organ sound with a banjo and an extremely catchy beat. It gives the song an instant hook and groove to accompany Wood’s strong upper-register vocals. When “Mirabell” shifts from its solid 4/4 groove to upbeat 6/8 time two-thirds of the way through, it feels effortless. Even the glockenspiel outro works in the song’s favor.

Throughout Eve‘s 11 tracks, the story is the same. Bridges and Powerlines already had solid instrumental chops and good songwriting in their playbook, but now they’re writing songs with distinct ideas and arrangements that set them apart from the crowded indie-pop field. “The Cave-In” is a dark-pop barn burner that shows off guitarist David Boyd’s playing and drummer Mason Ingram’s stickwork. The hard-rocking title track bounds along, driven by Keith Sigel’s intense bassline, which locks in especially well with Ingram underneath Boyd’s chugging guitars. The songs that emphasize Wood’s singing, such as the percussion-heavy “The Roman Leaders”, are buttressed by Boyd and Sigel’s excellent backing vocals, which slide from harmonies to well-placed ooo’s and ahh’s.

Once Bridges and Powerlines establish their basic template on the album, they use the disc’s final chunk to upend that template. Where the bulk of the songs here are under four minutes, the band goes big on the five-minute-plus “Gazes Wide”, which effectively uses both horns and strings to give the track an epic feel. While most of the songs on Eve are bright indie-pop, “The Leaves” begins with a creepy minor-key acoustic guitar riff, backed up by a subtle tremolo violin. The song does brighten up as it goes, but it never abandons its acoustic instrumentation. Closer “Floodlights” one-ups “Gazes Wide” by virtually eschewing the band’s main instruments for a full pop-orchestra arrangement.

Creatively, Eve sounds like Bridges and Powerlines coming into its own. The band’s bedrock of strong songwriting keeps their arrangement ideas from feeling like an overreach. Andrew Wood’s keyboard playing, which on Ghost Types was dominated by Moog-style synths, uses a much wider variety of sounds this time around, to great effect. It makes for a catchy, appealing album that deserves to find an audience.. - popmatters

Bridges and Powerlines is an appealing indie quartet searching for the perfect modern three-minute hit song, in a style they call “optimistic fuzz pop. - The New Yorker

Bridges. Powerlines. Calibration. Sounds like this band from Brooklyn may consist of engineering nerds, but the words on this track from their debut album Ghost Types sound like they might be into something more along the line of metaphysics: "I could make it cold inside just by being here," goes one line. Now that's power. The press kit mentions that Bridges and Powerlines are into Elephant 6 but I can't help thinking Elephant Shell, as the chord textures are all steel-wool shimmering and fuzzy, not unlike those favored by Tokyo Police Club. Chris Zane, who helped produce Les Savy Fav's Let's Stay Friends, was behind the boards for this, so we have him to thank for the bright sound. - Pitchfork Media

Tonight Bridges and Powerlines will be hitting the Lit Lounge stage to celebrate the release of their new full length album Ghost Types. This is your chance to get your hands on the album way ahead of the April 22nd release date, and after listening to the album all week (thanks guys!) I have to say it is more then worth the trip to Brooklyn and the cash it'll cost. Ghost Types is rife with familiar influences and a style that should be immediately recognizable to us music types. The indie pop sound that permeates the songs here are from every area of the indie rock world. There are elements of The Shins, traces of R.E.M., tastes of Modest Mouse, and I could go on and on until my face turns blue, but the overriding theme here is that the music has the immediate appeal of being recognizable, but it still manages to retain a sense of originality that most bands seem to be giving up on these days. Instead of just photo copying the bigger indie bands, Bridges and Powerlines take elements and piece them together with their unique brand fo songwriting and musicianship. It's a powerful combination, one that will have you coming back to the album over and over again. But don't take my word for it, head out to Lit Lounge tonight, see the band, then listen to their wonderful album all weekend long! - Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

New York's Bridges And Powerlines have finished their debut album with producer Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, Asobi Seksu) and will be kicking off a tour to celebrate. Showcasing new songs as well as their self-released EP, the indie-pop foursome will kick off their latest jaunt with fellow New Yorkers Man In Gray before ending up in Baltimore on October 13. A new track from their record, "Floods And Fields," can be heard on their website. - CMJ

Bridges and Powerlines’ new “mini-album” (their term, it’s really a six song EP) finds them continuing in the same synth and guitar-laden power-pop vein as their first two full-lengths. This time around, they’ve scaled back just a bit on the symphonic pop ambitions of their previous album, Eve, and focused on the core four band members. The six songs here are each named after a neighborhood in Brooklyn, and all six of them have strong, catchy elements. Driving opener “Bushwick” not only has a great shout-along chorus (“We’ll find a new way!”), but it also has melodic and memorable synth and guitar lines.

The gently rolling “Williamsburg” starts with xylophones and violin, but builds to a very cool drums and electro-style synth duet in the middle of the song. “East New York” also starts off slow and quiet, and takes most of its five minutes to fully blossom into its regretful chorus—“I was young / And I was wrong.” The EP finishes out with “Red Hook”, a mid-tempo pop song that uses mostly piano instead of synth and features beautiful harmonies and backing vocals. All the songs on Better are comparable to the band’s best previous material, so putting together a mini-album of six good songs seems preferable to making a full album with subpar filler tracks. Well done, gentlemen. - Popmatters

The last two years were rather rough for the guys of Bridges and Powerlines. Each member of the Brooklyn rock band had their own bit of heartbreak and strife, the kind that can follow you anywhere in a city of 2.5 million people. Instead of wallowing in their own self-pity, though, the band picked up their instruments and hit the studio with producer Kieran Kelley (Sufjan Steven’ Illinois) to record Better, a new 6-track mini-LP due out May 21st via Daisy Pistol.

Keeping with the concept that this effort is about turning negatives into positives, each track borrows the name of a Brooklyn neighborhood in which their personal tales unfolded. “Bushwick” is a propellent example of the album’s ethos. Frantic guitars keep the track from ever losing steam, while keyboards that sound one SNES sound card away from chiptune give the song an undeniable pop edge. Proving that the group remains eternally optimistic, vocalist Andrew Woods sings, “Don’t cry / we might see tomorrow if we try / we might be the ones who never die / leave this space behind and go outside / we might be the only ones who find a new way.” Chin up, and click play.

Better, which also features members of Bon Iver, is due May 21st on Daisy Pistol. Bridges and Powerlines are set to preview some of the songs when they headline Mercury Lounge in NYC on April 18th, and they’ll also be throwing a record release show on May 18th at Pianos. - Consequence of Sound