TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR TONIGHT (THURSDAY, 12/4) for $18.00

The Winterpills have released a new record, this one covers. In point of fact, as the website claims, Flora Reed and Philip Price decided to record some songs important to them “while their full band was busy raising kids and committed to various dayjobs.”

The project, which turned out far more voluminous and far less casual than intended, is called “Echolalia.” I looked it up; echolalia is a kind of syndrome in which the sufferer repeats, without awareness, the utterances of others. When toddlers do it they’re learning, once you get older it’s a problem. Armed with this flimsy understanding I listened to the tracks and I’m here to report that Echolalia is something of a misnomer where this record is concerned.

“Aren’t all albums cover albums?” writes Mr. Price in the notes I found online. This is a clever and powerful question, economical in its choice of words and profound in its expression of humility. Most of my friends who write songs say the best songs are more remembered than invented and this would lend credence to Mr. Price’s rhetorical question. But then you listen to the songs and it’s simple to see where ownership comes into play.

Take for example Sharon Van Etten’s “One Day.” No matter how Van Etten plays it – solo, duo, or with a band, the song is plaintive and heartbreaking in a very Van Etten voice: tremulous, uncomfortable, but not querulous. Whether she knows it or not she owes a debt to the Velvet’s “Pale Blue Eyes” and I very much enjoy her song. But listen to Winterpills’ version and the song is transformed. It’s more knowing. More worldly.

I’m not saying it’s better and that’s not the point. It’s different. And wonderful. The harmonies are immaculate and wrenching and the song is anything but timid. It’s not fearful, it’s assertive. Verse by verse the production grows – a tambourine, some drums, and then a growly piano that leads you into a panoply of vocal harmonies. This is not guileless imitation. This is certainly not Echolalia. This is their very own. All albums are not cover albums, not even cover albums.

One of the criteria for the songs, notes Mr. Price, was to “transform them in a way that reignited the songs for us personally…to do something that trumped the simple love of the song.” Well done.
You can find the full track listing at winterpills.com if you click on the Echolalia image.

So on Thursday, December 4, Flora Reed and Philip Price will perform at the Windham Ballroom as a duo, still called Winterpills. It won’t have the luxurious production that we hear on this new and elegant album of tributes to what we do with what we get. But as those of you who frequent the Windham know, the magic is in the details and these are sometimes never heard better than when you’re in a little place like ours.

Tickets are $14.00 in advance and $18.00 on the day of show. You can buy them online now at popolomeanspeople.com or at the restaurant starting the week of October 28th.
Doors open at 8:00pm and the show starts at 8:30pm.

We’re proud to host Winterpills at The Windham Ballroom and are certain you will not be disappointed. You may leave the show repeating what you’ve heard.
That won’t be a problem. It’ll be a blessing.

Some words about Winterpills follow.

“Winterpills fourth LP might be their best. The songs are mists and pastels, dense with instruments and Philip Price and Flora Reed’s harmonies, yet at the same time serene. “We Turned Away”, “Amazing Sky”, and “Feather Blue” as evocative as dreams. -MOJO (FOUR STARS)

“This Massachusetts band [makes] lush, off-kilter pop-rock in which nothing makes sense but everything sounds wondrous.” – USA TODAY

“Glorious dreamscapes…Winterpills’ folk-pop travels a line tracing Simon & Garfunkel, mid-seventies Fleetwood Mac, R.E.M. jangle, and the quiet thunder of Cowboy Junkies.” – Austin Chronicle

” A specimen of near-perfect musical pacing… a well-written group of tunes which doesn’t just deserve your attention, it earns your attention.” – Daytrotter

“Beesting” by Winterpills is one of 12 seductive tracks that are apt to get stuck deep in your bonnet… Like all good things, this is a band that defies easy labeling. “Beesting” is aswirl with voices, guitars and other shimmering delights.“ – Grant- Lee Phillips for MAGNET