Quiet Company

Quiet Company. Heard these guys?

That's Taylor Muse in the center; you could say he's the voice of Quiet Company, with additional duties on the guitar, keyboards, harmonica, trumpet, and even the saxophone. To the right of Taylor is bass player Matt Parmenter, and to the left you've got another multi-instrumentalist in Tommy Blank (for keyboards, guitar, and vocals). On the far left is drummer Jeff Weathers, and in the opposite corner we've got trombonist Cody Ackors (who ALSO plays a multitude of instruments).

Surely you've read this, or seen this, or heard a derivative of this or this.

No? Well then. Let us crack the ice on this one for you.

We'll start by saying their sound is more mainstream than what we typically cover on this microscopic corner of the internet (we're more into electronic stuff like The Future Process, Texas Microphone Massacre, or Art Versus Industry; though we'll admit that The Bubbles are pretty poppish, but arguably too quirky to hit pop culture in a Gaga-ish manner).

Accessible, vocals- & lyric-driven pop, with nary a strange synth or dark drone in sight. Pop (if we can say this without being sacrilegious) in The Beatles sense of the word. Guitar and keyboard-led pieces; clever, unique-but-familiar melodies; spot-on singing. All wrapped up in crystal-clear, masterfully-mastered productions, likeuntoso:

They are masters of songstering, in possession of an absolute knack for generating instant-anthem numbers like this one:
The scuttlebutt calls Quiet Company "piano rock"; we can only assume they haven't heard this number:

Now you can't really speak of Quiet Company without mentioning how un-quiet they are, socially speaking. Not quiet at all: With a bit of help from social media meister Paul Osbon, the band has managed to pull in quite a few of those jaded Austin-based music fans from the far reaches of the interwebs. (So much so, that Señor Osbon was tapped for a recent "social media & music industry" panel put on by Social Media Club Austin.)

And it's not just all virtual, mind: During this year's SXSW, the guys hit the streets, literally. Decked in these signs, with hugs at the ready:

They've got a new LP coming out in October, and this one will be piloted through the promotional release process with help from GrooveShark and Rocket Science, via their "Artist Focused Partnership" project:

"We think that any band with an audience deserves an opportunity to compete on a national level and we hope this project helps facilitate that.”
-- Jack DeYoung, Grooveshark’s VP of Label Relations

“The amount of exposure & attention that they are dedicating to our release is unprecedented and would rival even the best deal a major label could offer us. It is truly a dream partnership & an ideal situation for Quiet Company.”
-- Paul Osbon

National release? And not on a major label? Sign of things to come, say we.

You've heard a little, and sure, now you want freebies for your iPod. You can get some of their free stuff here.

But really you should splurge and get the excellent "Songs for Staying In" (embedded below). That way, you can say "I was listening to them before they were big".

Find out more about Quiet Company on FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and Home Base.

[Photos by Leah Muse.]

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