Biography

Playing catchy, slightly naïve pop that suggests a stripped-down American variation on the C-86 sounds of decades past, Pants Yell! is a trio from Cambridge, MA, who began making music together in 2003. Andrew Churchman and Sterling Bryant were both studying art in Boston when they began writing and recording songs in dorm rooms and basements. With Churchman on guitar and vocals, Bryant on bass, keyboards, and backing vocals, and Carly Smith on drums and backing vocals, Pants Yell! made their recorded debut in the summer on an Asuras Records compilation called Watermelon Should Last Forever with the memorably titled track "Electroclash Is the Noose Around My Neck." A cassette-only album, Our Horse Calls, followed shortly afterward from the Italian label Best Kept Secret, who found out about the band when Churchman sent them a CD-R demo along with a mail order. After releasing several homemade recordings, Pants Yell!'s debut album, 2004's Songs for Siblings, was recorded in a 16-track analog studio and earned a wealth of enthusiastic notices from the indie music press in America and overseas. In 2005, Pants Yell! released a 7" vinyl EP, '83 in '05, and in 2006, with the group's members finally done with college, they took on a more aggressive touring schedule, playing in the United States, Europe, Sweden, and Iceland in support of their third album, Recent Drama. In 2007, Casey Keenan, formerly with Major Stars, signed on as Pants Yell!'s new drummer, and the group recorded their fourth album, Alison Statton, released by Soft Abuse Records at the end of the year. Received Pronunciation appeared in 2009. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi