1. Reviews
2. Blog Appearences
3. Radio Play
4. Sonic Bids Press Page (redirected to Sonic Bids Site)
5. Download our "onesheet" (.pdf)
6. View Hi-rez downloads (pictures & posters)
7. Band History / Bio
8. Contact info & Links
reviews
"Our Lady of Bells is quite masterful at creating a dreamlike ambiance with their music. The group clearly enjoys crafting surreal moods, and this ability shined through in the band's performance."
- David Ryan Polgar, Northeast Performer Magazine
"The entire album is divine, from the quiet harmonies ot the plaintive guitar twangs, My heart gets caught in my throat at least once every time; more if I'm really paying attention."
- Kelsey Flynn, DJ, WRSI 93.9 FM
"If you're looking to be spellbound...[this] folk-rock quartet can hush a room with their sparse songs built from cascading acoustic and electric guitars, piano, and male and female vocals."
- Ken Maiuri, (Pedro the Lion, King Radio, School for the Dead, Mark Mulchahy, the Mammals...)
I'll stumble across a hidden gem like Our Lady of Bells ... and be completely blown away."
- Rick Pierik, owner, Nine Mile Records
Our Lady of Bells ... has been garnishing attention recently for its blend of orchestral arrangements with an overarching emphasis on melody and sparseness. ... Our Lady of Bells takes aim at crafting emotional crescendos within its songs.
- David Ryan Polgar, Northeast Performer Magazine
... the standout point here is Jules Gimbrone's tentative, lilting alto; she can swap timid vocals with bandmate Geoff Rice, or carry a crescendo all her own.
- John Vettese, Philadelphia City Paper
... if this music were a person it would lay stone paths to the garden in its yard on the weekends. It would hang the laundry out to dry barefoot in the front yard. It would roll down grassy hills.
- Christopher Wilkey, Northeast Performer Magazine
For Northampton’s Our Lady of Bells, all the right cymbal crashes, piano key pleading, and singing strings evoke heartaches, heartstrings, and other typical heart-related imagery, but the songs rise above clichés and put the folk-pop quintet on a promising path behind Kings of Convenience, Belle and Sebastian, and Okkervil River.
- Michael Walker, Gigtimes
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in the blog-o-sphere
9/27: Yop: Tyler's One (France)
9/03: KristieCat (Best of Myspace) - "Wow these guys are great! I mean, not only do they have the perfect
melodies and harmonizing down but they have this beautiful cello in the
background of some of the songs on their myspace page. They also list
mandolin, harmonium, charango as instruments. From Mass. they have such
a rich sound that feels a little like falling in love at times..."
8/22: kompilieren geht über studieren (Germany)
8/19: Songs: Illinois
8/11: инDИка (Russian Federation?)
7/13: A Blog Soup - "These three are tight. Very singer-songwrite-ish. Melodic. Indie. I will catch them again when I can. I thoroughly enjoyed everything I heard."
7/13: No one is awake - "If you like nice neat labels for your music, then buy Our Lady of Bells' Forgetting the Way Home and place the CD safely in the indie-folk chamber pop section of your library under the sub-category of "Current Favorites.'"
6/05: Lonesome Music
5/22: Fingertips -
"Guitarist and songwriter Jules Gimbrone sings with an air of regret and
entirely without pretense, letting the strength of the timeless,
sea-charged melody pull us along ..."
5/22: Sixeyes
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on the air waves
These stations are spinning our CD
You can help us by contacting them to request our songs!
Most of these stations have a live online stream.
*Charted
**Charted in top 5
Live in-studio performence:
88.1 WMBR "Pipeline!": Cambridge, MA - archived here
USA:
* 91.7 WNEC: Henniker, NH
90.3 FM WMSC: Upper Montclair, NJ
90.3 KDVS: Davis, CA
89.7 / 90.3 / 88.1 FM WEOS: Geneva, NY
89.7 FM WITR: Rochester, NY
89.7 FM KRUI: Iowa City, IA
88.7 FM WJCU: University Heights, OH
90.7 FM KJHK: Lawrence, KS
91.5 FM WTUL: New Orleans, LA
100.1 FM WBRS: Waltham, MA
91.7 FM WKDU: Philadelphia, PA
* 91.1 FM WBOR: Brunswick, ME
88.7 FM WSYC: Shippensburg, PA
* 91.5 FM WRBC: Lewiston, ME
1690 AM KANM: College Station, TX
89.3 FM WHFR: Dearborn, MI
83.9 FM KAOS: Olympia, WA
105.9 FM KNDS: Fargo, ND
91.5 FM CJAM: Dearborn, MI
91.3 FM WUNH: Durham, NC
** 91.5 FM WRPI: Troy, NY
** 91.9 FM WCFM: Williamstown, MA
93.9 WSRI: Northampton, MA
CANADA:
88.3 FM CKXU: Lethbridge, Alberta Canada
90.1 / 93.9 Cable CJSF: Burnaby, BC
88.7 FM CFUR: Prince George, BC
101.9 FM CFUV: Victoria, BC
94.9 FM CHRW: London, Ontario
89.1 FM CHUO: Ottawa, Ontario
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hi-resolution downloads
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band bio
Northampton is a strange place. Strange things happen there. Rednecks sip their coffee with Unitarians. The bearded hippies kiss on the bearded punks, the wiccan soccer moms knit with queer anarchists and the queer anarchists share their popcorn with the chief of police. With all these different people rubbing up against each other, buying the same burritos, it gets hard to remember what you’re supposed to believe, what you’re supposed to listen to and what kind of music you're supposed to play. It all kind of squishes together and comes out every which way. It's really pretty wonderful.
Up from out of this stew pop Our Lady of Bells, bearing a cross-pollinated bouquet of country rock, folk, indie and chamber pop. Their marvelous experiment began in late 2004 when songwriter and guitarist Jules Gimbrone was shopping around for a new sound and found drummer John Berry fresh off the boat from Rhode Island with chops like you read about. They were clicking as a duo but things really started cooking after Jules found singer and guitarist Geoff Rice impersonating Fred Schneider at the local VFW and invited him to come and play. The newly formed trio hunkered down in Jules' moldy country basement, taking a couple of months to get a handful of brand new songs ready for public consumption. They starting playing hometown shows and self produced a four-song EP in the winter of '05. Friends told friends, the crowds started getting bigger and the gig radius started expanding. Cambridge and Boston. Portsmouth New Hampshire and Portland Maine. Triumphant appearances in Manhattan and Brooklyn. New songs were coming fast and furious, and Christmastime '05 saw the band recording once again. In the studio the sound expanded further with Geoff adding to his duties with piano and harmonica, Jules chiming in on mandolin and violin and a handful of friends on bass, cellos, violins, guitars and accordions. To help recreate the fullness of their new sound on stage, the band recruited Gregg Cornish on keyboards. A bigger, better Bells was born.
In April of 2006 the band unveiled their debut full-length album FORGETTING THE WAY HOME. These twelve tracks span the band's range of moods and styles, expanding the band's sound without losing the hauntingly spare quality for which they've become known. It’s an excellent document of the sound of a band in constant motion, and more than likely contains a few clues as to where they're going next.
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