Man, what happened to you last year? These songs are incredible." -- Chris Collingwood, Fountains of Wayne.
"...Some of the most mature, innovative pop melodies around." -- David Bash, founder of the International Pop Overthrow Festival
Within one year of his critically acclaimed band The Maggies’ ‘extended hiatus,’ lead singer/songwriter Philip Price has released not just one but two ‘debut’ solo albums: 2002’s “13 Songs For Right Now” and 2003's, “Honey In The Chemicals (a screenplay),” now released on Listen Here! Records and distributed by Redeye. Don’t expect the full-on powerpop sheen of the Maggies in these songs––this is Philip opening up his sound into an acoustic-based palette, with softer colors, darker hues, and a different, lusher kind of narrative.
Always an ironically detached romantic, this time he has plunged into it and committed himself fully to the terrors of the lovestruck heart. There’s less irony in these songs, but plenty of darkness. The same knack for hooks and melody that made the Maggies a disturbingly infectious kind of modern-rock band are fully present here, as are the richly layered harmonies and deceptively simple arrangements. The whole affair was recorded in a very demo-ey fashion right in Philip’s home studio; many rough edges are present, and the production is minimal. There is nothing like a well-placed mike.
Philip got his true start as a songwriter in the 80s upstate New York avante-pop band Memorial Garage (whose other members included Antony Widoff who went on to work extensively with U2 and David Bowie and who now fronts his own band, Weak). After this he spent several years self-releasing his songs under the moniker Feet Wet, which produced 8 albums of moody Beatle-esque pop that was light-years from Memorial Garage's angular dissonance before morphing into the powerpop glory that was the Maggies.
It wasn't long after the Maggies' split that all the darker, softer colors began pouring out; years of listening to Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Grant Hart, Elliott Smith and early Elton John got the better of him and set the stage in his mind for the songs on 'Honey'.
in his songs, there are narratives, but no actual characters; more like floating and recurring personality traits. The best songs are a trifle scary. He invites comparisons to: Simon & Garfunkel, Elliott Smith, Joe Pernice, Jeff Buckley, Beatles, XTC, X, David Bowie, Radiohead, and many popular Christmas carols.
a small dumb faq
q: so who is philip price and where did he come from?
a: philip has been writing and singing his unique and beautiful songs for a long time. he fronted/fronts (on occasion) a critically lauded powerpop band called the maggies, who have gone on hiatus as of late. Currently he has a new band called Winterpills.
he decided to write songs perhaps because of a laziness when it came to really writing poetry or fiction (songs are quicker and faster and the payoff is more immediate), plus he has a pretty voice. once he sang in a madrigal group with forrest whitaker. he also has on occasion collaborated with award-winning author jonathan lethem.
q: what's the music like?
a: the music right now that he is making is lovely and sad and a little scary. lovely haunting melodies, simple harmonies. not really folk and not really pop, its just songs. he tends to write about hopeless things (they are the most interesting by far) but in a very upbeat and catchy way. how is this allowed? there are no actual characters in the songs, but many floating and recurring personality traits. the best songs are a trifle scary. sounds like: simon & garfunkel, elliott smith, jeff buckley, beatles, xtc, X, david bowie, radiohead, and most christmas carols.
q: some history?
a: philip really wanted to be a filmmaker at first, as a teen, but all his equipment got stolen while he was out one night and somehow he never really bounced back from that. also, once his movie camera fell into a stream while shooting on location. he cried. these setbacks were just too much. so, there were always guitars and songs and pianos and singing and the like in the house so he wrote songs and never thought twice about what it all meant. finally in college, studying painting, he began recording and arranging with his friend Tony Widoff some of these silly orphaned songs. his paintings rapidly dimmed. a partnership was formed that later evolved into the late '80s musical anomaly called Memorial Garage. there philip flexed his writing and singing muscles with a macho/wimpy glee, as talking heads, the minutemen, roxy music, the cowsills, the beatles, X, fred frith and popular christmas carols all jostled for prime seating in his tortured brain's balcony seats. no one won. they all died in a fall. memorial garage faded too, and philip then formed a proxy pseudo-group called Feet Wet. Feet Wet (formed in the early '90s) was like XTC or Brian Wilson in that 'they' never toured but padded about a mansion in bathrobe and just wrote and recorded piles of songs. From this heap of material was born The Maggies. You can read about them over there on that website.
q: where has he played? with whom?
a: Philip has played all over the country, with The Maggies and some solo. Artists he has played with include: Freedy Johnston, Squeeze, the Innocence Mission, Juliana Hatfield, John Wesley Harding, The Silos, Aloha Steamtrain, Ware River Club, Fountains of Wayne, Pat DiNizio (The Smithereens), Jules Verdone, Chick Graning (Scarce), the Lemonheads, firehose, Dennis Brennan, Overwhelming Colourfast, Cordelia's Dad, the Gravel Pit, Trona, Semisonic, Live, among others.