Pleasant Grove

This Saturday in Fort Worth at Dia de Los Toadies, on a line-up filled with promising talent and proven veterens, there may not be a band that represents the past while pointing to the future as vividly and dramatically as Pleasant Grove does.

The five-piece, formed in late 1998 by Marcus Striplin and Brett Egner, quickly became a prime local purveyor of stellar, contemplative, folk-tinged indie rock. Their excellent self-titled debut in 2000 certainly impressed, as did the locally beloved 2001 LP Ascultation of the Heart. The group's final album, 2004's Art of Stealing is a stunning collection that holds up remarkably well a decade later, much like the better albums from a couple of the revered bands they'll be sharing the stage with on Saturday such as Old 97's Hitchhike to Rhome and Too Far to Care, and of course, the Toadies Rubberneck.

But for many years now, the group has oscillated between dormancy and regrouping. Indeed, it has often seemed as though Pleasant Grove was destined to be the local band that many of us in our late 30s and older would try to tell younger fans about, that band that was "almost great." They never landed that massive "Possum Kingdom"-sized radio hit, nor catapulted into the big-time in the way the Old 97's have. So a new generation of local music fans might've been left without any Pleasant Grove in their daily diet.

Thankfully, that type of destiny has been put-off for the time being as Stripin, Egner and the current lineup of stud local music vets, including drummer Jeff Ryan, multi-instrumentalist Chris Mayes and Tony Hormillosa have banded together to not only play some shows but to complete work on a new Pleasant Grove album that will consist of unreleased tunes Striplin and Egner wrote years ago along with some fresh ones. While the record doesn't have a title yet, Striplin expects it to be released in February of next year on a label he calls We Know Better Records.

In anticipation of the band's Dia De los Toadies set at Panther Island Pavilion on Saturday evening, we chatted with Striplin and Jeff Ryan to get a taste of the group's past, present and future, as well as that of the local music scene.

DC9 at Night: Why did the band stop performing together and recording in the first place?

Marcus Striplin: My alcoholism had really proved itself stronger than my focus on the band and my family. I take a lot of responsibility for those extremely dark days. It put so much strain on my band mates and girlfriend at the time. I was an asshole.

DC9: What did you do during your non-Pleasant Grove time?

MS: I moved to New York City in 2008 for a bit and found that I was working on making money more than figuring out a way to break my writers block. After some deep consideration and an annoyance of a kick-ball game that went south, I decided to move to Austin. I started a project named A.D. BLOOD that never quite took to flight. But the highlight of the Austin move has been that my writer's block dissipated and Bret and I have become closer than ever.

Jeff, you've played drums for numerous acts. Who all have you played for?

Jeff Ryan: I've been very lucky to have toured or recorded with St. Vincent, the War on Drugs, the New Year, Baptist Generals, Daniel Johnston, Keren Ann, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Sarah Jaffe, Myopic, Crushed Stars, Daniel Hart, he boomboombox, Sean Kirkpatrick (of Nervous Curtains), Fury III, Doug Burr, Blue Mountain, Chao, Jeff Whittington and Trey Johnson.

In your opinion, what are the most notable differences in the local musical landscape now compared to 10 years ago?

JR: I don't know, really. t just felt kind of splintered or discombobulated in a way. There weren't new bars like Twilite Lounge and established clubs like Dada and Three Links bringing in people to Deep Ellum. There was no thriving Oak Cliff scene like the Kessler booking great bands and restaurants and hotels like Smoke, the Belmont and the Foundry working with venues and artists to bring in great talent. It seemed like the city was fighting against us or just didn't care, I don't know. But now we have all these things in our grasp and the right people making these things happen.

In the past year, we've seen albums and celebrations the Toadies, Old 97's and Centro-matic. Has this type of vibe in the local scene helped inspire your Pleasant Grove thoughts?

JR: Well, we love and are lucky to call all those guys our friends and I'm lucky enough to also be in the Baptist Generals. So there's always been a great vibe between all of the bands listed here and their relationship with us. So yeah, what's most important is that these bands are not only important, but probably are just now really hitting their stride. I mean, come on, Rubberneck is 20 years old and the Toadies are more popular now than ever. Centro-matic and the 97's are making amazing records. It's a great time to continue to try and make something we think is important and keep doing what we've done for a long time now, which is play and record music together.

DC9: Marcus, after going so long with hardly any shows from Pleasant Grove, was there a moment where you realized it was time to get rolling again and working on a new album?

MS: We played a one-off show at Twilite Lounge last year and that did it for me. I had a vision that if we were all on board mentally and emotionally that this band was worth saving. We are extremely lucky that we have had support on all fronts. It's never too late to pick up these pieces and put them back together. I guess the keys are discipline, focus and love.

What can we expect from the new album in terms of a possible theme or material taken directly from the major events of your past few years?

MS: Bret and I were listening to play-backs here in Austin and we had multiple moments of just looking at each other and kind of sharing these microbursts of emotion with the "N.O.S. [New old Songs]. "We Lost the Maps" is a new song that puts the needle back onto the record for us. As far as a theme goes? Batten down the hatches and jump in the tub because a twister is coming!

Fair enough! So why is now the right time for more Pleasant Grove shows and a new record?

MS: The world doesn't have long to go and thus life's too short. The five-year break recharged Bret and I in a big way. It'll reveal itself in this and the future records. We still have moxie. Basically we're getting back to work as older and wiser dudes in a üntz-üntz world. It's inspiring to listen to the War on Drugs and [British psychedelic band] Toy and realize we have a full tank of gas and all the maps! - Dallas Observer

Pleasant Grove were one of Dallas' most treasured bands in the early 2000s. Their four albums earned them devoted fans here at home and a record deal with European label Glitterhouse.

They earned the attention with a folk band's command of melody and a psych band's command of reverb and a few tricks all their own. Formed in 1998, they released two EPs and two full-lengths over the next eight-odd years. They were recording a fifth album in 2005 and 2006 with producers Stuart Sikes (Cat Power, The Walkmen, Jets to Brazil, etc.) and John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, The Paper Chase, Swans, etc.) when family and other obligations forced a sort of hiatus.

It was a "sort of" hiatus because Pleasant Grove have continued to play very occasional shows. There was a performance of 2002's Auscultation of the Heart at the Kessler in August 2010, and a show with The Relatives, Sarah Jaffe and Seryn last year at the grand opening of the Dallas City Performance Hall. In August, they played a mostly improptu set at Twilite Lounge for guitarist/vocalist Marcus Striplin's birthday.

"It reinvigorated us," says Striplin of that show. "We just kind of felt like it's kind of silly to not just keep doing this."

So they will, starting with a January 24 show at the Kessler Theater. That show will also mark the release of a new album from Dallas' Crushed Stars, which just had a new single featured on Rolling Stone. Pleasant Grove drummer Jeff Ryan and bassist Tony Hormilosa also play in Crushed Stars, incidentally.

Pleasant Grove's set will be long and feature plenty of the old material, and that would be news all by itself except that this "reunion" show is different in that it marks the band's return to regular rotation. They'll be playing more and releasing that album they recorded seven-plus years ago with Sikes and Congleton. "We have all these songs, and a lot of them would be on our personal top 10 [Pleasant Grove song] list," says Striplin.

"Stuart and John are both so good at what they do. They were two of the best engineers in Dallas at the time," says Ryan.

So yes, the one-off shows here and there have been fun, but this is something more. The current lineup of Striplin, Ryan, Hormilosa, Chris Mayes and Bret Egner will be in regular rotation, in Dallas and possibly elsewhere, as well.

"Pleasant Grove is back," says Striplin.

To get yourself ready for the return, here's "Impossible" from 2004's The Art of Leaving - Dallas Observer

"a critic's wet dream: dreamy, sad and flat-out catchy Americana that drips with as much Neil Young as it does Sigur Ros." - Dallas Observer

"After their last album Auscultation of the Heart was released in Europe only on Glitterhouse Records, Dallas' Pleasant Grove got a break, inking a deal with the emerging Badman Recording Co., and with good reason. The band's moody songcraft is lush, crystal-clear, and as sincere as Pavement or Grandaddy at their most pastoral and heart wrenching."
- SXSW PICK, Michael Chamy, Mar 2004 - Austin Chronicle

So viele falsche Spuren: Das Cover-Bild gemahnt an Kraftwerk, die Fotos im Booklet rekreieren die Industrial-Images der frühen Pere Ubu-Alben, manch ein Songtitel (etwa:"I Couldn't Withstand The Damage Of An Evil And Wicked Divorce") erinnert an kopfgesteuerte Post-Rocker. Was all dies für die Musik bedeutet? Nun - nichts. Denn Pleasant Grove klingen in keinem Moment wie einer der Vorgenannten. Eher so, als spielte Pink Floyd während der Syd-Barrett-Ära Stücke, die - so viel Geschichtsklitterung muss sein -Gram Parsons auf Valium eingefallen sein könnten. Das Quintett aus Denton,Texas, hat also nichts von der erdigen Bodenständigkeit vieler anderer Musiker aus dem Lone Star State, frönt lieber einem schrullig psychedelischen, sanft fließenden Kammer-Country-Folk-Pop beinahe britischer Prägung. Slow bis zum Stillstand beginnt das Album - und bleibt es auch über weite Strecken. Brüchige Stimmen scheinen auf und verwehen, Töne schweben schwerelos, als befänden sie sich unter Wasser oder seien selbst hypnotisiert von suggestiven Hymnen wie "Commander Whatever" oder "Albatross"."Ghost" spukt wie ein Luftgeist umher, in "Only A Mountain" bricht hervor, was bislang unter der Oberfläche brodelte, "Andalusia Sound" gerät gar zum aufgekratzten Landler, ehe das finale "The Lovers, The Drunk, The Mother"erneut in eine Art majestätische Lethargie verfällt. AUSCULTATION OFTHE HEART: sinnlich und sensationell. Nicht weniger. - Musikexpress

PLEASANT GROVE | AUSCULTATION OF THE HEART
CD, Glitterhouse/Munich

In 1999, Dallas natives Pleasant Grove anonymously debuted with their self-titled album on Last Beat Records. When they were discovered at last year's SXSW festival, the European release of their debut album followed very rapidly on the reliable and German alt.country record label Glitterhouse.

The first album is a brief, nearly 40-minute-long collection of six slow-fi beauties, with Neil Young-like electric outbursts and atmospheric, laid-back desert rock arrangements, mostly focused on acoustic instruments and with a very raw and deep melancholy. All of this makes Pleasant Grove's self-titled album one of the very best debut albums that I've heard in a while.

They are fronted by singer and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Striplin, who draws from a wide range of musical influences, but to give you an idea, his vocal abilities meet the likes of Jim James from My Morning Jacket and Robert Pollard from Guided Voices. Pollard especially shines through on the fourth track of the album.

Recently, the brand-new and stunning album 'Auscultation Of The Heart' was released on Glitterhouse, and that gives us even more minutes of shimmering country pop, although Pleasant Grove's line-up has been completely rearranged, with the addition of a new rhythm section, featuring Jeffy Ryan on drums, Tony Hormilosa on bass, and Joe Butcher on pedal steel. Very soon it becomes clear that the new sound of Pleasant Grove chooses a whole different direction. The introverted slow-fi encores took shape into something more bombastic and ambitious, much in the style of Calexico's spaghetti-western soundtracks, proving that Pleasant Grave are on a crusade to welcome the world to their romantic southern gospel music. Weird, unusual instruments, such as bells, omni-chord, pickaxe, moog, rhodes, mellotron, triangle, and - well - copy machines fill up their loving cup of soulful and gut-wrenching country music. Pleasant Grove prove to be unafraid of introducing their new visions, without exorcising the American ghost, and these songs still are bittersweet tales of lost love and misery. What an absolutely stunning and intelligent album this is from a fabulous band. - Insurgent Country

​Pleasant Grove
Kessler Theatre
August 7, 2010

Better than: Ignoring the past.

The trend of bands booking a show for the purpose of playing a seminal album in entirety hit home this past weekend, as the revered, but, for the most part, dormant, local heroes in Pleasant Grove took to the Kessler Theatre on Saturday night to perform their 2002 release, Auscultation of the Heart, in its entirety for a packed house of its most loyal fans.

Indeed, quite the crowd showed at the Kessler on Saturday night--seemingly as many as the newly renovated Oak Cliff performance space has yet seen--for this show. And the crowd, quite predictably was one filled with familiar faces to the band, consisting predominantly of longtime fans eager to hold on to the memory of their favorite local act's finest release.

It was tough not to dwell on the level of adoration and appreciation evident in the room. Eventually, co-frontman Brett Egner could no longer ignore the dumb, reverent looks on his crowd's faces--or their extended moments of loving cheers and applause.

"It's a lovefest out here," Egner remarked about halfway through the band's scheduled ten-song performance. "Did everyone take ecstasy?"

The crowd laughed.

"I did," Egner continued, presumably kidding.

More laughter.

"We did!" exclaimed Egner's partner in lead vocals, Marcus Striplin, in rare high-energy form, his hair grown out with an epic mustache grown in to match.

Again, one assumes, these were nothing but jokes. but they hit home: This crowd was an especially reverent one.

But their appreciation of the moment was merited: At this performance, the band, with its original five-piece of Egner, Striplin, drummer Jeff Ryan, bassist Tony Hormillosa and keys/slide guitar player Joe Butcher, was in fine, top form--a vast improvement over the band's two-hour, somewhat sloppy offering some six months back at Bryan Street Tavern. It was a performance that harkened back to the band's celebratory "last" performance, a couple years back, at Sons of Hermann Hall. They were crisp, clean, and, most important for a band with such a delicate sound, singular.

Which makes this all the more exciting: After the performance, as the band mingled among its fans in the theater's bar room and smoking patio, Hormillosa hinted that, despite rumors to the contrary, he expects his band to perform again in the not-too-distant future.

Big surprise. - Dallas Observer

http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/music-monday-pleasant-grove-returns-with-a-new-album-and-walk-on-lava/ - Texas Monthly