Category: Thrift Store Ransom
Eric Ott – In Lieu Of Flowers
75OL-235 Eric Ott – In Lieu Of Flowers
$10.00 S&H Included
Track Listing
1. Consciousness
2. Little Wars
3. Old
4. Epiphany (feeling)
5. Pop Starlet
6. Felt
7. If You Were Thinking
8. Medicine Cabinet
9. These Pills
10. Crumble Your Bones
11. Our Dear Catherine
12. Under The Bed
13. Free
Remember a time when you would sit on the floor, put your headphones on and listen to a record from start to finish? It took you to a place, perhaps under a sonic wave of angst, romance, sadness, or happiness. With new technology, it took the 45, or later the cassette singles too far, and we started cherry picking our favorite songs off these records. We were just choosing snapshots from a vacation rather than enjoying the entire experience.
In Lieu of Flowers is a throwback to the Long Playing Format. The LP. It touches on mortality, struggle, aging, suicide and ultimately death. At first it may seem as an arduous listen but pays off in the end as you will be taken to a different place. Like a movie or a book, or like the LP that you might have rolled your first cigarette on.
In Lieu of Flowers will not be available digitally. It will not be on iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, Google Play etc. It is only available on CD. Some have said that I am crazy for rolling out a project that took me over 3 years to write and record. The answer, of course I am, I am an artist. Enjoy the trip and thank you for listening.
– Eric Ott
Seacoast Online names Thrift Store Ransom and Nate Laban & Sam Hill among their top local albums of 2014
Thrift Store Ransom – “Thrift Store Ransom”
Thrift Store Ransom started as an RPM project, and turned into a full-fledged “thing” that wound up being picked up by Rhode Island-based record label, “75-or-Less.” Not too shabby. My favorite part of this project is the collaboration between frontman Eric Ott and his teenaged daughter, Lindsay. She wrote several of the songs included on the effort, including “Moonshine,” one of the year’s finest penned tunes, hands down.
Nate Laban & Sam Hill – “Nate Laban & Sam Hill”
Nate Laban is simply the best punk-folker on the planet. His brand of music is somewhere in the vein of Elvis Costello hanging with the Clash – pumping out jam after jam. “Nate Laban & Sam Hill” does not venture away from that recipe at all. And why would one want to? So good. So aggressive. So feisty.
All 19 of the 2014 Releases
Thrift Store Ransom review at The Sound
File under: Folk, Americana, Pop, Rock
Sounds like: Impromptu jams from The Byrds, Electric Light Orchestra, Elvis Costello, and
Roy Orbison
Thrift Store Ransom was born out of the annual RPM Challenge. As many RPM alumni know, to write and record an entire album in the year’s shortest month is a journey best experienced with friends. The studio project that began with songwriter Eric Ott and Sean Yadisernia quickly grew to a gathering of 10, including Guy Capecelatro, producer Chris Decato and even Ott’s daughter, Lindsay, who contributed the majority, and the best, of the albums’ lyrics.
The band’s name is, in a sense, literal, as if Ott, Yadisernia, and company have raided a thrift store and plucked out gems from the past. The songs travel from decade to decade, employing the best sounds of their respective eras. The ’60s are well represented in the pop hooks on the album’s standout track, “Moonshine,” and the slow psychedelic sounds of “Cold Blue.” The ’70s “Crazy Horse”-inspired sounds of “The Mill Song #2” give way to the ’80s Costello-esque ender, “Crescent Palms.” The transitions are seamless, and combined with Ott’s resonant vocals, make for traveled-time well spent.
Ott is recording new solo material and playing with Nate Laban in Bear, Brook and The Elephant. Let’s hope he finds an occasion to bring Thrift Store Ransom together again. It would be interesting to see what they could do with more time, literally and figuratively.
Thrift Store Ransom – Self Titled
75OL-202 Thrift Store Ransom – Self Titled CD
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Bottles 2:08
2. Cold Blue 3:59
3. Shafts 1:06
4. Please 1:03
5. Moonshine 5:12
6. Mill Song #1 (Cornet Band) 2:43
7. Mill Song #2 (The Strike) 3:37
8. How Can You Love a Dying Man 4:30
9. Middlebrook Road 3:00
10. Crescent Palms 2:45
What began as an RPM (Write and Record an album in the month of February) project, turned into a collaborative effort by Eric Ott, Sean Yadisernia, Lindsay Walls-Ott and a bunch of friends. We’ll list out some of the sound influences and inspirations on this record rather than what it sounds like: Granddaddy, ELO, The Shins, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac (TUSK-era), etc. This is a strange little record that was a labor of love. We hope you enjoy it.