Founded in 1992, when they couldn't find a guitarist
for their college band Grandma Mapplethorpe, then-teenage classical
piano student AJ Strauss was forced to learn the electric guitar,
and the Sutras were born. With the help of two English majors
(Paul Mauceri and Michael Madon) on drums and an anthropologist
(Jarrett Mason, soon to be Derek Tripp, another anthro major)
on bass, this union culminated in 1997's Pox Records release "A
Prize for Whitey." Known then for their high energy and clamorous
Sonic Youth like shows, the guys played Northeast gigs for a while,
got depressed, said their good-byes and chalked it up to a good
time.
After six years of bitter break-ups, divorces,
and cutting edge medications, Gen-X indie rockers the Sutras emerge
from basement hideaways and bi-polar obscurity in rainy Ithaca,
New York, with a new line-up and a new CD. Founding member AJ
Strauss (guitar, vocals, keyboards) and Derek Tripp (bass) enlisted
Jeremy Allen (drums) and Kevin Denton (guitar) for the recording
of "Thousandaire." Produced by Upstate NY studio mastermind
Matt Sacuccimorano and the band at Newfield NY's Electric Wilburland
Studio (a converted 19th Century church), the CD showcases the
band's complex, psychadelic arrangements, harmonic complexity,
and melodic sensibilities without being a simply a rehash of various
classic rock eras. Gone are the days of worshiping Sebadoh and
My Bloody Valentine's approach (as 1997's "Prize for Whitey"
suggests), yet the healthy spirit of indie pop and rock experimentalism
is still somehow very much alive and utterly contemporary in this
slick recording, from its Moogs to its vintage tube amps and phasers,
to sampled Baptist preachers and drum machines, to all night naked
freak outs.
They spend most of their time straddling the
Northeast, with members in Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Ithaca.
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