JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound Sign With Bloodshot, Prep Album

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound (photo courtesy of Addenda Records)

Local soul revival superstars (and the only band in town who can make our new mayor do this) JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound have signed to insurgent country label Bloodshot Records.

According to a label blog post, they're prepping a new full-length record, their second, for the fall. So is this the album where the Uptown Sound do away with the horns and the fast tempos in favor of gravelly-voiced murder ballads? Somehow, that's doubtful.

Previously, the Uptown Sound have been touring their secondary sex characteristics off, playing Coach House Sounds, starring on Chicago on Broadway, covering Wilco, and issuing singles on fellow local label Addenda.

The Uptown Sound's fall Bloodshot debut is the follow-up to 2009's The Beat Of Our Own Drum. Here's the title track to that set, live in Millennium Park.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jon Graef in Arts & Events on June 6, 2011 2:20 PM

Comments [rss]

jongraef

Which is fair. But I don't think I mentioned that reputation in a particularly negative context -- and I do love those SYGC records, for instance. Their Sub-T show was one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

I think that while the label has certainly made its stride toward being an eclectic, adventurous one, they, for better or worse, are known for that one subset of music. Maybe that's fair, and maybe it isn't. But I do think that's the case. I will be more sensitive in the future -- to both the hard work of people like you, and to my writing.

jongraef

Of course! But that genre of music is arguably what put the label on the map for many listeners. (i.e, with Ryan Adams, Neko Case, Justin Townes Earle, etc). I don't see having some minor fun with that reputation as equivalent to being ignorant about the rest of their label roster. Or, to put it another way: lighten up.

A.V. Club Chicago

As much as I like being told to lighten up, I'm just saying that because, well, I worked there, and lord knows that it's damn hard to get anyone to even think of the label as anything but country, whereas the label hasn't actually defined itself as that for... 10 years? 8 years? That's like calling SubPop "grunge" every time to refer to them just because they made it big on Mudhoney and Nirvana.