Rotary Downs

Rotary Downs:

Rotary Downs is currently rolling out its spanking new collection of songs, Cracked Maps & Blue Reports , with a nationwide release date of March 9, 2010. The band is currently booking West Coast dates for the early summer, after its 4th Jazz & Heritage Festival appearance. In the late summer and fall, Rotary Downs will tour the East Coast, including stops in New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Previous to Cracked Maps & Blue Reports , the band has released four albums: Chained to the Chariot , Quitters EP, Long After the Thrill , and Rotary Downs. NPR described Rotary Downs' last album, Chained to the Chariot , as "a stunning collection of psychedelic art pop songs that plays like a brilliant mash up of Neutral Milk Hotel and Odelay-era Beck." When one imagines music from New Orleans, brass bands, R&B singers, and jazz pianists may come to mind, but Rotary Downs delivers an unlikely sound of noisy, fuzzy, psychedelic song-craft that is simultaneously original and intrinsically New Orleans.

In 2007, Rotary Downs had its television debut with a Current TV episode about the band's music and history. In 2008, Rotary Downs appeared on the Sundance Channel with a performance of its popular song “Sing Like the Sun” filmed live for an episode of “Architecture School” – a series about students building houses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The band continued to build momentum in 2009, showcasing at the MIDEM World Music Conference in Cannes, France and was named “Best Rock Band” for the 2nd year in a row at Gambit Weekly 's Big Easy Awards. Rotary Downs took on the 2009 festival season with gusto, starting with its second showcasing year at SXSW in Austin, TX, where the group played three showcases in two days for PASTE Magazine, reapandsow, and NOLA Soul. Rotary Downs also played its third consecutive year at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and performed as a main act at Le Carnival Stage at the 11th Annual Voodoo Music Experience, the South's largest rock festival.

Rotary Downs is James Marler (lead vocal/guitar), Chris Colombo (lead guitar), Jason Rhein (bass/vocal), Zack Smith (drums), Michael Girardot (trumpet/keys/guitar), and, occasionally, Tif Lamson (vocal/percussion).

"Cracked Maps & Blue Reports . . . perfectly New Orleanian: both high and low, in and out, joyous and mournful." - Filter Magazine, March 2010

"The New Orleans rock group Rotary Downs has released a stunning collection of psychedelic art-pop songs that play like brilliant mashups of Neutral Milk Hotel and Odelay-era Beck." - NPR Music (#2 on the Top 10 Great Unknown Artists of 2007 list)

"Singer James Marler sounds like he has been taking double shots of thesaurus, unraveling densely packed rhymes in his abstracted lyrics. Too lo-fi to be baroque, too catchy to be experimental, songs like "G-7 Hit!" and "A Feast in Squalor" swerve into woozy grooves but don't stay for long." – Rhapsody.com

"4 Stars" - Alternative Press

"[Chained To The Chariot] is a diverse album that ricochets from roots-tinged psychedelia to edgier synth-pop to excursions along the spaceways, but with a sure hand on the wheel." - Gambit Weekly