Company (band)
Encyclopedia
The Brooklyn
-based band Company consists of three songwriters and a dynamic drummer. They perform folk
- and country
-based songs with punk
and psychedelic
rock
energy to create a sound that defies ready categories.
Company’s members met at Bard College
, where they collaborated in a variety of punk groups and folk ensembles. After moving to Brooklyn, they formed the band in 2001 as a way of weaving together these distinct musical threads, reworking their acoustically conceived songs and adding improvisational elements and post-punk dynamics to the mix. The resulting songs range from punk-country ballads to intimate folkish mediations to psychedelic epics, but the lyric always remains the focus; the vocal commands the foreground while lush harmonies, psych-inflected guitars, and David Janik's powerful, often mesmerizing rhythms, drive it forward.
Years of modest but consistent shows in small venues like the now-defunct Nine-C Lounge in Manhattan's East Village
and the intimate Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
, earned Company a small but loyal following. In this early period, they recorded two studio albums, which remain unreleased, as well as a live album captured at an early Nine-C show. In 2004, they self-released their third record, Hills (recorded by former Oakley Hall
drummer Will Dyar). Next, they recorded their fourth, Parallel Time, at the rural Kentucky studio of Paul Oldham, and Oneida
's Brah Records picked it up for release in October 2005. Their second CD on Brah, Old Baby, released in February 2008, was produced by Kid Millions of Oneida. Often Company can be found sharing a billing with their label-mates Oakley Hall
(another Nine-C alumnus), Oneida
, Home
, and Dirty Faces.
Adam and Stephanie can also be heard on several Oneida records, while David Janik and Adam also lent their talents to Hold Me, an improvisational ensemble/movie project led by Andrew Deutsch (Home).
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
-based band Company consists of three songwriters and a dynamic drummer. They perform folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
- and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
-based songs with punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and psychedelic
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
energy to create a sound that defies ready categories.
Company’s members met at Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, where they collaborated in a variety of punk groups and folk ensembles. After moving to Brooklyn, they formed the band in 2001 as a way of weaving together these distinct musical threads, reworking their acoustically conceived songs and adding improvisational elements and post-punk dynamics to the mix. The resulting songs range from punk-country ballads to intimate folkish mediations to psychedelic epics, but the lyric always remains the focus; the vocal commands the foreground while lush harmonies, psych-inflected guitars, and David Janik's powerful, often mesmerizing rhythms, drive it forward.
Years of modest but consistent shows in small venues like the now-defunct Nine-C Lounge in Manhattan's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
and the intimate Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, earned Company a small but loyal following. In this early period, they recorded two studio albums, which remain unreleased, as well as a live album captured at an early Nine-C show. In 2004, they self-released their third record, Hills (recorded by former Oakley Hall
Oakley Hall (band)
Oakley Hall is an American folk rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.The group was founded in 2002 and is named for Oakley Hall, an American novelist. The group's songs combine elements of rock, bluegrass, and old-time music, prominently featuring the male-female vocal harmonies of lead vocalists...
drummer Will Dyar). Next, they recorded their fourth, Parallel Time, at the rural Kentucky studio of Paul Oldham, and Oneida
Oneida (band)
Oneida is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their influences include psychedelic rock, krautrock, electronic, noise rock, and minimalism, but the overall structure and intent of their music cannot be easily traced to any of these styles...
's Brah Records picked it up for release in October 2005. Their second CD on Brah, Old Baby, released in February 2008, was produced by Kid Millions of Oneida. Often Company can be found sharing a billing with their label-mates Oakley Hall
Oakley Hall (band)
Oakley Hall is an American folk rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.The group was founded in 2002 and is named for Oakley Hall, an American novelist. The group's songs combine elements of rock, bluegrass, and old-time music, prominently featuring the male-female vocal harmonies of lead vocalists...
(another Nine-C alumnus), Oneida
Oneida (band)
Oneida is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their influences include psychedelic rock, krautrock, electronic, noise rock, and minimalism, but the overall structure and intent of their music cannot be easily traced to any of these styles...
, Home
Home (band)
Home is an experimental pop band formed in Tampa, Florida in the early-1990s, before relocating to New York in 1996. The band released eight self-produced, sequentially-numbered, ultra-low-distribution albums on cheap Radio Shack cassettes before signing to Sony's Relativity Records label, which...
, and Dirty Faces.
Members
- Adam Davison- guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards
- David Janik- drums, percussion, vocals
- Stephanie Rabins- bass, guitar, vocals, violin
- Christopher Teret- guitar, bass, vocals, harmonica, keyboards
Studio albums
- Company (Unreleased - 2002)
- Hadley, MA (Unreleased - 2002)
- Hills (Self-released - 2004)
- Parallel Time (Brah Records - 2005)
- Old Baby (Brah Records - 2008)
- Ice Age (Outtakes & Demos) (Self-released - 2008)
Solo Albums
- Chris and Stephanie Predicted the Whole Civil War (Mountain Collective - 2001)
- Christopher Teret's solo records: Fight Like Hell, Privacy, Enjoy Yourself, Little Guys (with his brother Walker)
- Adam Davison's solo records: as AJ Green: Cemetery Days, On the Wires, Mighty Old Night, and Sleep; as Adam Davison: Borrowed Blues (a covers album) and Natural Love (an EP)
Adam and Stephanie can also be heard on several Oneida records, while David Janik and Adam also lent their talents to Hold Me, an improvisational ensemble/movie project led by Andrew Deutsch (Home).