Thunderegg (band)

Thunderegg is an American rock and roll band (formed as "Larry" in New Haven, Connecticut in 1993) featuring Will Georgantas (guitar, vocals), Jake Fournier (bass), and Keith Woodfin (drums). Eight years after almost moving to Oregon, whose state rock is the thunderegg, the half-Hartford, Connecticut-, half-New York City-based group released its first official album, "A Very Fine Sample of What's Available at the Mine", independently in 2005. That year Georgantas also wrote, recorded, and posted a new song every week to Thunderegg's web site, the best of which were collected for the CD "This Week," which was self-released in early 2007.

Between 1995 and 2004 Georgantas recorded eight limited-distribution albums of four-tracked songs in his various apartments in New York City and his parents' house in Princeton, New Jersey. These albums, from 1995's "Universal Nut" through 2004's "Sweetest One", feature increasingly elaborate (yet persistently low-fi) arrangements of Georgantas's songs. In January 2006, all of these recordings were collected for the unusual anthology "Open Book: The Collected Thunderegg, 1995-2004." The independently produced "Open Book" featured 213 songs (plus 18 bonus tracks) on a single data CD along with a 108-page illustrated lyric book. It was positively received by reviewers and listeners with tastes for underground pop in the vein of Guided by Voices, Daniel Johnston, and R. Stevie Moore.

As a performing band, Thunderegg enlisted three new members in 2005 (Bob Porri, pedal-steel and six-string guitar; Tim Kane, trumpet and French horn; Jonathan Chatfield, keyboards) and for the next three years played cities throughout the Northeast United States. Chatfield left in 2006 and was replaced by Ken Moon, who also plays guitar, in 2007. In January 2008 Woodfin relocated to Hong Kong and Thunderegg effectively went on touring hiatus; Georgantas continues to record at home on his Tascam 424 four-track cassette recorder.

Thunderegg's second full-band album was completed in February 2007. It was engineered by Nathan Gohla at the Shed in Manchester, Connecticut, and Al Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, Cracker) at Sound of Music Studios in Richmond, Virginia. Weatherhead also handled the mixing duties of the ten-track CD, which represented a major step forward in sound and orchestration.

Discography

* "Universal Nut" (Nov. 1995)
* "New England Music" (May 1996)
* "Personnel Envelo-file" (Feb. 1997)
* "Thunderegg" (Nov. 1997)
* "Powder to the People" (Aug. 1998)
* "In Yanistin" (Sept. 2000)
* "The Envelope Pushes Back" (Oct. 2000)
* "Sweetest One" (unreleased except on "Open Book"; 2004)
* "A Very Fine Sample of What's Available at the Mine" (Mar. 2005)
* "Open Book: The Collected Thunderegg, 1995-2004" (Jan. 2006)
* "This Week" (Feb. 2007)
* "Where Are the Cars" (unreleased)
* "Mr. Blue" (unreleased)
* "Thunderegg II" (tent. 2008)

External links

* [http://www.thunderegg.org/ Thunderegg's official website]
* [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=thunderegg Thunderegg's entry in the Trouser Press]
* [http://www.music-news.com/ShowReview.asp?nReviewID=1311&nType=1& Review by Music-news.com (UK)]
* [http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/Music/content?oid=oid:142179 Feature article in New Haven Advocate]