The Charlie Watts Riots
Label: Soundcheck Republic
Genre: Rock/power-pop
Members: Mike Pauley: bass/vocals; Seth Powell: guitar/vocals; Joe Putrock: drums
The members of guitar-pop band the Charlie Watts Riots don’t agree on all their musical tastes—though they do share an appreciation for snazzy suits. But bassist Mike Pauley, guitarist Seth Powell and drummer Joe Putrock can cite one primary influence that brought the Charlie Watts Riots together in 2008: a love for rock and roll bands that bring a rush of combustible energy to the stage when they play.
Clips from the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus concert film, when the Who started out performing “A Quick One While He’s Away” as an acoustic ditty and ended it with an instrument-bashing, sweat-flying frenzy… a Matthew Sweet gig in Albany when Television’s guitar maestro Richard Lloyd wailed on his guitar strings with a spoon… an A.M.-era Wilco gig at former rock club Saratoga Winners when Jeff Tweedy and his band were on fire….
Those were formative moments that brought Pauley, Powell, Putrock and guitarist Brendan Pendergast (who’s since departed the band) together after realizing they shared an appreciation for the onstage alchemy wrought by energetic rock and roll. For the previous decade, each had been a key player in some of the Capital Region’s most noteworthy pop-rock bands (Bloom, Lughead, the Wait, the Vodkasonics, Coal Palace Kings).
It’s an energy the band strives to recreate today, and their debut album “Long Story Short” contains a dozen original power-pop tunes that balance high-octane rock with the sweetness of carefully crafted pop. Recorded in 2010 at Powell’s Soundcheck Republic studios, the album landed in regular rotation on independent radio station EXT 97.7 and earned the band “best of the year” mentions from Albany’s alt-weekly Metroland to premier Capital Region arts blog Nippertown.
With a batch of new songs already filling out the band’s set-list, the Charlie Watts Riots plan to start recording their next album in the fall of 2011. In the meantime, they’ll continue lighting up the stage where ever they play with the fervent conviction that true rock and roll never goes out of style. And even if it does, it will be back again soon.
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Recent Press:
The Riots are everything we look for in a guitar-pop band: Big choruses with melody to spare, guitars that sound like jet engines, a whip-tight rhythm section, and suits fresh from the cleaners.—Metroland magazine
Building the night to a red-hot climax was the brash and brilliant Charlie Watts Riots, turning up the volume and the onstage energy with a blast of potent skinny-tie power-pop.—Nippertown.com
The Charlie Watts Riots are a power-punk-pop quartet that plays fast and loud, at a breakneck pace the Ramones might have admired. Their songs are catchy and joyous and fun.—Schenectady Daily Gazette
If we were to pop this band into the wayback machine, then drop them into the midst of the 1960’s British Invasion mania, they could give that Liverpool quartet of mop-tops a run.—Albany Times Union
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Praise for “Long Story Short,” the debut album by Charlie Watts Riots
“One of the best albums of the year”—Power Pop Review Blog
“Long Story Short” is the real thing, a testament to music of the past that proves… the future looks just fine.—Albany Times Union
“The urgent yet polished collection of 12 songs captures the band’s trademark mix of teenage-like enthusiasm and club veteran swagger.”—CRUMBs blog
“The debut album of the year from a group of long-tenured musicians on the scene. Power pop to the eleventh degree.”—Nippertown
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More Info:
For booking, label or media requests contact
www.charliewattsriots.com
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