Quiet Company

Quiet Company is an American rock band from Austin, Texas, fronted by Taylor Muse.[1] They have released five full-length albums, which includes a re-release of their debut album Shine Honesty, multiple EPs, a live DVD, and Christmas-themed offerings. They were the first band signed by Grooveshark, which folded in 2015, as part of their Artist Development Program.[2] Their latest full-length album Transgressor was released February 24, 2015.[3]

Quiet Company
OriginAustin, Texas, United States
GenresIndie pop, indie rock
Years active2000 (2000)–present
LabelsModern Outsider, Velvet Blue, Northern
Websitequietcompanymusic.com
MembersTaylor Muse
Thomas Blank
Trevor Dowdy
Bill Gryta
Jeff Stringer
Past membersMatt Parmenter
Jeff Weathers
Cody Ackors
Alex Bhore
Jesse Garcia
Tim Robbins
Michael Delaney
Trevor Wiggins
Evan Smoker
Drew d'Entremont
Justin Huling

History

2000 - 2008: Formation and early success

Muse started his musical aspirations as part of the East Texas indie music boom with his participation in several projects at the time, which included Uncle Andrew, Neckpunch, The Lonely Hearts and a short stint as bass fill-in for Eisley.[4] A key contributor in the songwriting process for Eisley's debut album for Warner Bros. Records, Muse also gave the band a new name that, if only in part, would stick, MossEisley.

After an unsuccessful year with the Connotations in Nashville, Muse returned to Austin to begin writing and recording what would become the band's first full-length release Shine Honesty under the name Quiet Company.[4] The record was quickly picked up for online distribution by the boutique Christian label Northern Records.[4] Recording Shine Honesty mostly by himself,[1][5] Muse was in need of band mates to play live shows, providing the pretext for Quiet Company's first permanent addition, Tommy Blank, via a Craigslist ad,[1][6] in 2005. The band embarked on a number of small national tours in the subsequent the years. Shortly after, the band left their label in order to exert more self control over their content.[6]

The band's next offerings were decidedly more festive, with 2007 bringing a recording of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as part of Peace on Earth: A Holiday Album, in which proceeds from sales went to the Toys for Tots charity, as well as their own release A Merry Little Christmas EP.

2009 - Present: New additions and continued success

In 2009, the band recorded and self-released[7] their second full-length album, Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon,[8] with local producers Charlie Vela and Louie Lino of Nada Surf fame, and mixed by Tim Palmer, who had worked previously with U2 and Pearl Jam.[8] Following the release, Jeff Weathers (drums) and Matthew Parmenter (bass guitar) joined the group as permanent members, with Parmenter's addition to the group the result of another Craigslist ad.[1][4] While filming their music video for the single, "On Modern Men", the band added their fifth member, Cody Ackors on trombone.[9]

In 2010, Quiet Company released Songs for Staying In, a 6-song EP, produced by Quiet Company and recorded by bass player Matt Parmenter in his apartment studio, Ice Cream Factory Studios.[10]

Continuing to be recognized, 2011 began with the band being nominated for the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards under the Pop/Rock Song category for "It’s Better To Spend Money Like There’s No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There’s No Money".[11] By mid-2011, Quiet Company joined forces via an Artist Development deal with the former music-streaming service Grooveshark.[2] The band's partnership with the service helped to encourage a global audience by increasing exposure on platforms like Facebook and increasing overall listenership on the steaming site, making the band's offerings available to a wider audience.[12]

The band spent most of 2011 promoting their new album around Texas, in addition to scoring slots at CMJ and DeLuna Festival.[12] Songs from the new album have peaked on popular blog-aggregator websites such as Hype Machine and We Are Hunted (#49 Most Hyped and #5 on Rock Charts, respectively), in addition to receiving attention on websites such as NPR[13] and the TV show Last Call with Carson Daly.[6]

In a dominant showing, Quiet Company and its members won a total of ten awards at the Austin Chronicle's 30th Annual Austin Music Awards in 2012, including Best Band and Album of the Year, with Muse receiving Musician of the Year honors.[14]

Returning to the studio in 2014, Quiet Company recorded its fifth full-length album Transgressor at Orb Recording Studio in Austin, with producer Matt Noveskey.[10] The album was released February 24, 2015 on Modern Outsider Records.

2016 proved to be a year of transitions for the group – with existing members exiting the group and new ones taking their places.[15] The following years have proceeded with three EP-length releases by Quiet Company with themes centering around Muse’s divorce from his wife, which took place after the release of Transgressor.[16]

Religious influences, criticism

Though Muse's Quiet Company was initially signed to a Christian label Northern Records,[4] played the Christian rock oriented Cornerstone Festival and Muse himself repeatedly drawing heavy religious comparisons in his lyrics, he has stated that he is no longer a Christian[4] and has posited that Quiet Company has never been a Christian band: "I've always fallen back on religious imagery as a songwriting tool, just because it was familiar to me and I liked the aesthetic of it," says Muse in a recent interview with the Austin Chronicle.[4]

Early efforts by the band include heavy use of Christian themes and iconography, but have shifted over time, with the meaning behind the metaphor's usage evoking something much different than it did previously for the band. Speaking specifically about the 2011 release We Are All Where We Belong, Muse states, "It's easily the most personal thing I've ever written. It is, essentially, a break up record, only the romance that's ending was between myself and religion."[4]

The album left most of the band's pre-existing Christian fan base confused. Muse says he receives e-mails frequently from fans who "love the record" but are "concerned" about his departure from religion.[4]

Exposure and touring

Quiet Company's music has been and continues to be featured by various Austin rock-oriented radio stations such as KUTX,[17] KSGR, KROX,[18] KUT, KOOP and KLBJ.[12]

Expanding exposure outside the local scene, a sampling of the band's songs have been used in television shows such as E!'s Keeping Up With the Kardashians,[5] MTV's The Real World: New Orleans,[6] The CW’s Hart of Dixie, ABC’s My Generation, USA’s Royal Pains and in The Sims 3: Showtime expansion pack for The Sims 3.[19]

Quiet Company has done several national tours but plays predominantly in and around their home state, Texas. They have played with many notable acts, such as Blue October, Rooney,[12] Stoney, Ghostland Observatory, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Deadbeat Darling, Alpha Rev,[20] The Rocketboys, Dear and the Headlights, Third Eye Blind, Dashboard Confessional,[21] Cheap Trick, Eisley, Evan Dando, Bob Schneider, Old 97's and The Toadies.[19]

Members

Current members
  • Taylor Muse - vocals, guitars, piano/keyboard, extraneous percussion, songwriter
  • Tommy Blank - guitars, keyboard, accordion, melodica, backing vocals
  • Trevor Dowdy - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Jeff Stringer - drums, percussion, backing vocals
  • Bill Gryta - guitars, baritone guitar, keyboard, synthesizers, backing vocals

Other Contributors:

  • Leah Muse - vocals, and ex-wife of Taylor Muse
  • Betsy Aune - vocals, and wife of Thomas Blank
  • Paul Osbon - vocals, and manager

Former members
  • Jesse Garcia (drums)
  • Tim Robbins (drums)
  • Michael Delaney (drums)
  • Jeff Weathers (drums)
  • Evan Smoker (drums)
  • Drew d'Entremont (drums)
  • Justin Huling (drums)
  • Matthew Parmenter (bass)
  • Cody Ackors (horns)
  • Alex Bhore (drums, percussion, bass)

Discography

LPs
  • Shine Honesty – March 7, 2006
  • Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon – March 10, 2009
  • We Are All Where We Belong – October 4, 2011
  • A Dead Man On My Back: Shine Honesty Revisited – April 9, 2013
  • Transgressor – February 24, 2015

EPs
  • A Merry Little Christmas EP - November 14, 2007
  • Songs for Staying In – May 11, 2010
  • Winter Is Coming - November 29, 2012
  • Other People's Hits: Vol 1 - May 6, 2014
  • Regressor - October 21, 2016
  • It's Not Attractive & It Changes Nothing - March 31, 2017
  • Your Husband, The Ghost - August 18, 2017
  • On Corners & Shapes – January 4, 2019
  • Are You a Window? – June 19, 2020

Compilations
  • Scene But Not Herd - Unsigned Band Compilation #3 – 2001
  • Peace on Earth: A Holiday Album – 2007
  • Music For The City, Vol. 1 - 2009

Videography

Music videos
  • "Fashionabel" (2007) (directed By Cameron McCasland)
  • "On Modern Men" (2010) (directed by Justin Kirchhoff)
  • "Fear & Fallacy, Sitting In A Tree" (2011) (directed by Justin Kirchhoff)
  • "You, Me, & the Boatman" (2011) (directed by Josh Sobel)
  • "The Emasculated Man and the City That Swallowed Him" (2013) (directed by Justin Kirchhof and Tommy Blank)
  • "Celebrity Teeth Poacher" (2017) (directed by Quiet Company and Alex Chod)

DVD
  • Live from Studio 6A (2010)
gollark: Or somewhat self-regularizing discrete ones.
gollark: I mean, look at something something continuous chaotic systems.
gollark: Aren't discreteness and small changes causing big differences somewhat separate, though?
gollark: True.
gollark: DNA is sort of kind of a digital storage system, and it gets translated into proteins, which can turn out really differently if you swap out an amino acid.

References
  1. Basham, Tim (2015-02-25). "Quiet Company's Taylor Muse on Transgressor". pastemagazine.com. Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  2. "Grooveshark Partners With Crush Management for Streaming Site's Second Artist Development Deal". PR Newswire. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  3. Steffen, Chris (2015-02-17). "Album Premiere: Quiet Company's Big, Bold 'Transgressor'". allmusic.com. AllMusic. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  4. Solomon, Dan (2012-02-17). "Preaching to the Choir: Quiet Company sets its monster free". austinchronicle.com. Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  5. Willschick, Aaron (2011-11-09). "Interview with Quiet Company vocalist Taylor Muse". puregrainaudio.com. PureGrainAudio. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  6. Harasyn, Pam (2012-10-21). "Quiet Company Looking to Get Loud in Columbus". thelantern.com. The Lantern. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  7. Callaway, Chris (2009-04-30). "Sound Bites: Quiet Company, Death Cab for Cutie, Peter Doherty, the Fratellis, the Life and Times and the View". westword.com. Denver Westword. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  8. Moser, Margaret (2011-10-07). "Quiet Company: We Are All Where We Belong Album Review". austinchronicle.com. Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  9. Grasso, Samantha (2014-01-26). "After a tour with Quiet Company, Cody Ackors returns to UT with a new direction". thedailytexan.com. The Daily Texan. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  10. Bowers, Jared (2015-05-17). "Quiet Company are Powerful Indie Rock". cincymusic.com. CincyMusic. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
  11. Van Pelt, Doug (2011-03-01). "Indepent [sic] Music Awards Nominees announced". hmmagazine.com. HM Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
  12. "Quiet Company Bio". broadwayworld.com. Broadway World. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  13. Burnett, John (2013-12-05). "For An Ex-Christian Rocker, Faith Lost Is A Following Gained". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  14. "Austin Music Awards, 2011-2012, Best of the year". austinchronicle.com. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  15. Willenborg, Shane (2019-03-28). "Quiet Company: On Corners & Shapes EP Review". ktswblog.net. KTSW 89.9. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  16. "SXSW Music Festival 2019 Begins". blogcritics.org. *blogcritics. 2019-03-13. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  17. Levy, Art. "My KUTX: Quiet Company". kutx.org. UT Moody College of Communication. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  18. Pritchard, Sean (2011-10-10). "Deluna Festival: Quiet Company". theblueindian.com. The Blue Indian. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  19. Hill, Jack W. (2013-09-19). "Quiet Company they aren't". arkansasonline.com. Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  20. "KGSR's 20th Anniversary Party". waterloorecords.com. Waterloo Records. 2010-12-17. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  21. Terrell, Clark (2016-07-06). "Third Eye Blind & Dashboard Confessional at Cedar Park Center". staticmagazine.net. Static Magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
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