About Molasses

There are several artists who use the name Molasses: a.) a musical collective from Montreal, Quebec (see picture) b.) a pop band from San Francisco, California c.) a noisy female two-piece from Cambridge/ London, UK a.) The Canadian post-rock band is a collective of up to sixteen musicians built around songwriter Scott Chernoff. Members are involved with other ventures such as Fly Pan Am, the Boxhead Ensemble, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the Shalabi Effect, and Codeine. They play folk-actuelle, a genre fusing traditional North American folk aesthetics with the free ethos of musique actuelle. Molasses' influences include electro-acoustics, rural country and blues, hobo composition, contemporary noise, trash punk, abstract jazz and street poetry. Their first recording was You'll Never Be Well No More in 2000, quickly followed by the release of Trilogie: Toil & Peaceful Life in the same year, Slow Messe in 2003 and Trouble at Jinx Hotel in 2004. Molasses has become well-known locally in their hometown over the past few years for intimate, elaborate live performances, with seven core members playing more than a dozen instruments: guitars, banjos, oud, organs, piano, upright bass, cello, violin, drums, scrap-metal, saws, accordion and harmonica. Shows are eerily candlelit and often include silent film or slide projections. An ongoing free concert series, one which included a midnight mass and soup kitchen on Christmas Day 1998, consistently drew over-capacity crowds to Montreal's infamous Bar Miami. b.) The members of the Californian band - Brooks Lundy (Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar), Johnny Venus (Drums), Jason Goodman (Keyboards, Vocals), Shin Hirose (Bass), Jeffrey Suffin (Rhythm Guitar, Vocals) - began writing and recording together in 1998. With the addition of longtime collaborator Jeffrey Suffin (Holy Mother of Pearl) and local drummer David Fuller (Unity 5) began playing live. They claim to be influenced by WHAM!, Air Supply, Loverboy, Gypsy Kings, and Slayer. c.) Lifting their moniker from the ingredients list of a box of crunchy nut cereal, Alessia and Katie, a pair of old friends, found one another again during converging studies in London and formed guitar/drums duo Molasses at the tail-end of 2011, bonding over their mutual, unbridled passion for noise, hooks and sugar. To date, they have released a couple of early demos and two EPs; "Whiskerbiscuit" and "Hasty Pudding". They have also been fortunate enough to play on some eclectic bills since 2012 in such places as London, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge and Belgium with the likes of Aeroplane Flies High, I'm Being Good, Sweet Williams, Shield Your Eyes, Screen Wives, Mothers of the Third Reich, Olanza, H.Grimace, Motek, Cursed Heart, Sky: Lark!, Lady Elect and more. Current plans are to continue their boisterous onslaught at venues near and far and record their next EP. Listen at: www.molassesuk.bandcamp.com