Thursday, August 19, 2010

Greg Thomas Drops Atlantic/Pacific


Full disclosure, Greg Thomas is a long time friend and supporter of Stark. That does little, though, to take away from the pure song-writing talent and natural vocal intonation, of someone who is quickly becoming a rising player in the highly competitive New York singer songwriter market. Just ask Idolator. Yet, Greg is not just some crooner with a guitar. At a full-to-capacity CD release show last night at The Living Room, he showed off his more than capable band, featuring a talented atmospheric lead guitar player, and a tightly in-the-pocket rhythm section.

Admittedly, Greg has pushed our tastes a little bit outside the box. He wears his influences proudly on his sleeve, and counts John Mayer, Sigur Ros, and Wilco as some of his heros. Funnily, that's a very apt description of Greg's music. He flirts with a mainstream, major-label friendly sound, yet manages to keep up his "cred" with a dark undercurrent to his songs, and a fantastically hazy production to some tunes on his new record Atlantic/Pacific, available now. Buy HERE. While we would like to see Greg get after it a little bit more vocally on the choruses (belt it out dude!) - he had a table full of crusty indie rock bloggers head bobbing, toe-tapping and proudly singing along (Karp).

The full room was a testament, not only to Greg's rock solid character, but to the recognition of a new talent that puts all those whiney dudes and chicks with acoustic guitars at places like The Living Room and Rockwood to shame.

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