July 19th, 2010
Singer/songwriter Lamar Holley joins Nick and Chris on theicepodcast this week. The guys get to chill out and listen to Lamar's terrific new release 'Confessions of a College Student' an autobiographical pop-musical album.
Lamar discusses his developing passion for music, from being a young boy writing his favourite lyrics beside the family radio to writing about the 'pretty girl in class'. Lamar tells the guys about his love of musical theatre, his previous work, his classroom pop album and about the musical he's in the process of scripting.
Lamar's music is played throughout the show and his latest album; 'Confessions of a College Student' has received much praise (and we're sure after hearing this interview you'll know exactly why!).
Listen to the podcast here: http://theicepodcast.podbean.com/2010/01/19/the-ice-theicepodcast-meets-lamar-holley-057/
December 8th, 2009
Lamar Holley is a man clearly in control of his instruments, if not his emotions. Emotional, but never angsty, Holley bares his soul in a stylized tale of college life that is equal parts auto-biography and romanticized indie sensibility.
That's not to say that it's all high-concept hipster irony at play here. Confessions of a College Student stands out not just as a debut album with a clever theme, but also as the first sign of an artist that I'm sure we'll all hear more from in the future. This is one slickly produced album, and Lamar Holley is quite a talent. This album is being billed as a "one-man pop-musical", and indeed, the range of instrument proficiency shown is staggering. Every note comes across crisp and clean, and his choir background really comes through not only in his chipper stylings but also in the narrative nature of the lyrics.
But these are no tired show-tunes. Every track seems to contain it's own gem of a well executed pop influence. "Forgotten Friends" wears it's Beach Boys and Beatles influences on it's tear soaked sleeves, and "Slow Dance" would not sound out of place in a play-list of downbeat Queen B-sides. Holley's stylistic callbacks will pepper your entire vinyl collection like a shotgun blast, and his range of influences manage to keep every song fresh without ever straining the albums continuity.
While Confessions of a College Student may frighten some off with it's stylings as a soundtrack to a non-existent musical, I defy anyone to try out a track like "Biology" and not find themselves taken in by Lamar Holley's enthusiasm and talent. He's similar to the likes of Math The Band, Harry and the Potters, Ben Folds, and Lemon Demon but he's got a Beatle-esque poppy feel to him that pretty much anybody can enjoy!
September 14th, 2009
Classes are back in session, which gives us the perfect reason to tell you about Lamar Holley's newest album. Confessions of a College Student is an "autobiographical one-man pop-musical" according to its album cover. If Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman had ever reteamed for a followup to their 1970 masterpiece, and made a concept album about higher education, it might have sounded something like Holley's record. It has Newman's love of ragtime and bittersweet melody, and intertwined vocal arrangements like Nilsson.
After a tiny "Overture" comes "Biology," perfectly capturing the atmosphere of a giant lecture hall as you suffer through a core requirement course. You're sitting there bored when suddenly across the room you see a certain girl, and your science class takes on a whole new meaning: "Her body is beautiful biology/but there's no chemistry in this experiment./I'm waiting to see if she'll be nice to me, but she won't." The wistful lyrics are brought to life with multitracked vocals, Beatlesque guitars (and sitar!), violin, and harmonica. It's a formula that could easily turn cloying, but there's a sincerity that instantly banishes any cynicism with well-trained blasts of melodic sunshine.
The songs cycle through every stage of love, from that first glance to infatuation ("Secretly"), dating ("Flower"), uncertainty ("Slow Dance"), impatience ("Madame Shamrock"), breakup ("Lovesick") and disillusionment ("Pretend That She's Ugly") with irresistible sweetness. "This Is True" is typical of the album's charms: the lead vocal plays a game of tag with an earworm piano riff, a barbershop quartet, and a clarinet that wandered in from a Benny Goodman cut like "Bei Mir Bist du Schön." There are also a few numbers about the drifting apart from childhood friends that comes with going off to college. "I remember randomly--/like a flash of memory--/different faces/I let disappear/along with places" he sings in "Forgotten Friends," and we daresay it gave us a lump in the throat the first time we heard it.
Holley went to college at the University of Colorado at Boulder and now lives in Utah, where he's a sixth-grade schoolteacher. It's hard to say whether he could be persuaded to tour behind the album but one of its tracks has already earned a spot on iTune's Absolute Powerpop's Best of 2009 mix. Go to Holley's website to hear more. There's no catchier way to live through collegiate confusion and love limbo than Holley's hummable songs.
July 27th, 2009
Utah native Lamar Holley emerges like a bolt out of the blue, and it's clear he has a love of Broadway, Brill Building era songwriting style and dramatic power pop (Beach Boys, Beatles, Jellyfish, Queen, XTC). Confessions.. is like the soundtrack to an uber-nerd musical, on par with Paul Steele's "April & I," only at a higher grade level.
Read More: http://www.powerpopaholic.com
July 18th, 2009
Lamar Holley's song "Forgotten Friends" just appeared on the iTunes iMix, Absolute Powerpop's Best of 2009 (2nd quarter).
July 17th, 2009
Absolute Powerpop, a popular power pop blog, recently published a review of Confessions of a College Student:
One of these days, I'm going to compile a "United States of Power Pop" that references power pop artists in each state of the country. Off the top of my head, I can think of several states that are unrepresented, but I can now cross Utah off the list thanks to SLC's Lamar Holley.
-http://absolutepowerpop.blogspot.com/2009/07/quirky-pop-tuesday.html
July 15th, 2009
Lamar was recently contacted by Bruce Brodeen of Not Lame Records, which specializes in power pop/melodic rock releases. Not Lame will soon feature and release Confessions of a College Student on its site: www.notlame.com
-Matthew Ames
June 30th, 2009
Confessions of a College Student: the autobiographical one-man pop-musical began as love songs dedicated to objects of the artist's unrequited affection.
Lines like, "What's this love I say I'm waiting for?" and "This is a love song, I think," underscore the songwriter's confusion--so common to college courtship--trying to figure out what love is. Lamar Holley's lyrics also savor "fleeting moments", such as flashbacks of "Forgotten Friends" or a "Slow Dance" with someone with whom he'll "never be together".
Best of all, Lamar's lyrics take us painfully and humorously into the psychology and "Biology" of rejection--where one has to "Pretend That She's Ugly" or suffer the pain of being "Lovesick".
Lamar Holley recorded Confessions of a College Student in the small spare bedroom of his duplex during holiday breaks and late nights. One big break came on January 1 of 2009, when he received an email from one of his idols, Grammy-winning producer Jack Joseph Puig (John Mayer, The Grays), who was interested in mixing the record. Lamar scrambled to finish the album and raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund the mix, but ultimately replaced Puig with Ryan Freeland (Colbie Caillat, Ingrid Michaelson). Lamar admits: "Jack thought the music needed to go in a more commercial direction, while I was interested in making it as original as possible. I lost a lot of money, but I had to follow my instincts. Ryan captured what I was going for."
Lamar took the project beyond downloads and singer-songwriter appearances by crafting a dramatic story line around the songs, now performed as a stage musical at college campuses.
"I'm just a college student. I'm like in limbo: somewhere between what I used to be and what I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be working on becoming what I want to be when I grow up. But I don't think I'm growing up."
So begins the musical's first monologue. And what's the obstacle to his anticipated adulthood? You'll have to see the musical to find out. But listening to the songs paints a pretty obvious picture. And, like all good songs, each "confession" on the album is a story all by itself.
-Matthew Ames
|
