Rockbites: The Rosebuds sign to Merge Records

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The Rosebuds sign to Merge Records
31 March 2003

Musically and geographically eclectic Merge Records began in 1989 as a little project of Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance to promote their new band and to support some musical friends. The label now counts among its dozens of artists Dunedin, New Zealand’s The Clean, San Francisco’s Imperial Teen, London and Manchester duo Spaceheads, Portland, Oregon’s M. Ward, and Austin’s Spoon.
Earlier this year, though, McCaughan and Ballance found their newest signing in their own backyard—the Triangle area of North Carolina. Wilmington’s The Rosebuds, who formed in 2001, moved to Raleigh last fall and set up shop with a new drummer in the person of Billy Alphin, borrowed from Merge artist Ashley Stove. This past winter Merge signed them for an album tentatively slated to appear this fall.
I’ve had a chance to listen to The Rosebuds’ five song demo EP titled The Rosebuds Make Out (some of whose songs you can find on samplers or in MP3 format), and I’m excited about the forthcoming LP. The trio (front man Ivan Howard, formerly of Reverse; keyboards player Kelly Crisp—who also works as an actress and comedienne; and drummer Alphin) head way back on most of their songs to the Mersey-beat sound, especially as interpreted by The Beatles. Their songs Boys Who Love Girls and My Downtown Friends bring to mind Beatles-interpreters Oasis and The Boo Radleys. But the Mersey sound remains timeless when played with heart, as The Rosebuds do. And they do. | The Rosebuds | | The Rosebuds on MP3.com | | Merge Records | | Pidgeon English Records | | Mersey Beat - the original newspaper | | top of page |

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