Gomez

Short Biography
ATO Records recording artist Gomez has revealed details of their highly-anticipated new album, A New Tide. The eagerly-awaited collection - the band's sixth studio outing and follow-up to 2006's breakthrough How We Operate.

A New Tide marks a return to the always-freewheeling British band's more experimental roots, with songs like "Win Park Slope" and "Airstream Driver" evincing a spirit born of boundless imagination and a longstanding collaborative relationship.

With the band members now scattered across two continents, from Brooklyn to Brighton, England, early tracks were written and recorded individually and then merged online. The process allowed for an open ...

Short Biography
ATO Records recording artist Gomez has revealed details of their highly-anticipated new album, A New Tide. The eagerly-awaited collection - the band's sixth studio outing and follow-up to 2006's breakthrough How We Operate.

A New Tide marks a return to the always-freewheeling British band's more experimental roots, with songs like "Win Park Slope" and "Airstream Driver" evincing a spirit born of boundless imagination and a longstanding collaborative relationship.

With the band members now scattered across two continents, from Brooklyn to Brighton, England, early tracks were written and recorded individually and then merged online. The process allowed for an open and adaptive song-writing approach, the material taking on its ultimate shape when Gomez officially convened in studios in Chicago and Charlottesville, VA, with producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine, Counting Crows).
 
As ever, a wide range of styles is incorporated into Gomez's matchless musical brew. Flavors of delta blues, psychedelia, and krautrock all come into play, resulting in a musically mischievous and remarkably forward-thinking collection. In short, A New Tide is Gomez at their inimitable, incomparable best.

A New Tide also sees Gomez accompanied by a number of illustrious guest musicians, including vocalist Amy Milan (of Stars/Broken Social Scene fame), bassist Josh Abrams (The Roots, Sam Prekop, Godspeed You Black Emperor!), cellist Oliver Krauss (David Gray, Paul Weller, Beth Orton), and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie of Brooklyn's world renowned Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.

Gomez has stood apart from their very beginning just over a decade ago, earning critical praise and an ever-growing fan-base for their eclectic and ambitious musical tack. How We Operate - Gomez's ATO Records debut - proved the venerable band's biggest popular success thus far, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's "Heatseekers" chart upon its May 2006 release. The album's title track - prominently featured on the 2006 season finale of ABC's Grey's Anatomy - drew major airplay at multi-format radio outlets nationwide, including Triple A and Modern Rock. The second single, "See The World," was later featured on a 2007 episode of Fox's House M.D. , and included on the series' "Original Television Soundtrack" album release.

Gomez toured extensively surrounding the album's release, as both headliner and a variety of high profile opening slots, not to mention performances at such annual gatherings as the Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Sasquatch!, Vegoose, Summerfest, and the UK's V Festival. The band also made a number of national TV appearances, including performances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and A&E's Breakfast with the Arts .

In October 2008, Gomez celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Mercury Music Prize-winning debut, "Bring it on", with a special one-off performance of the album at Chicago's Vic Theatre. The concert was highlighted by a second set which included the live premiere of many of the new songs featured on A New Tide.

In addition, the band's Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball have each performed multiple solo tours in both the US and the UK. Gomez will be touring in support of A New Tide throughout 2009.

In-depth Biography
The British band Gomez is a five-piece, consisting of Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar), Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar), Olly Peacock (drums), and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica). Whereas the majority of up-and-coming British bands are either retro-pop (à la Oasis), trip-hop (Portishead), or space rock (the Verve, Radiohead), Gomez is one of the few to contain bluesy elements in their rock. Their debut for Virgin Records, Bring It On, was praised in the rock press on both sides of the Atlantic. They also received the distinguished Mercury Music Prize for 1998 Album of the Year in England, where they edged out such stiff competition as Massive Attack's Mezzanine and the Verve's Urban Hymns. They completed their inaugural U.S. tour opening for Eagle-Eye Cherry in October 1998, while the press still offered praise -- Spin magazine called Bring It On "a damn beautiful album," giving it an eight-out-of-ten rating. Liquid Skin followed in 1999 and the rarities and B-sides compilation Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline was issued a year later. A third studio album, In Our Gun, appeared in spring 2002. Another hiatus saw Ian Ball relocating to Los Angeles, while still working with the band at their new studio in Portslade, England. The dozens of tracks recorded during this time were whittled down and fashioned into Split the Difference, released in May of 2004. By that time, Hut, their original label, had gone under, leaving them signed to Virgin (Hut's distributor). Despite all the critical acclaim, sales were never up to what Virgin was expecting from Gomez, and the two sides parted ways later that year. In 2005, they signed with ATO Records and released Out West, Gomez's first live album, in June of that year. How We Operate arrived in May 2006, and the band rounded out the year by assembling a retrospective collection of singles, rarities, and unreleased tracks for Five Men in a Hut: Singles 1998-2004. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide