We’re excited to announce that The Restoration is releasing a triple EP in 2012! The first single from the project will be released on the Scene SC 2012 Sampler, out March 9.  The sampler release party (also on March 9) at Conundrum Music Hall in West Columbia, SC will feature performances by ourselves, Elonzo, and Co.

The 2012 release date for our triple EP will be announced in the coming months. In the meantime we are pleased to report that writing is nearly complete and our production team has been confirmed.

Each of the 3 EPs will tell a story from a different era of Lexington, South Carolina—the same fictionalized version of our hometown that served as the setting for our debut concept album, Constance. Though the project is not a sequel or direct continuation of Constance, one of the stories sheds more light on Reverend Samuel Harper, exploring his journey to the Lutheran Seminary in the 1850s, the burning of St. Stephens church, and the aftermath that bridges the gap between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The other two stories introduce new characters inhabiting eras stretching from the 1940s to present day. One focuses on a mysterious 1950s family living deep in the Lexington woods. Though gossip circulates among Christians in the town that the family participates in strange Pagan rituals, a grisly crime and highly publicized trial reveal the true nature of the family’s activities. The final story introduces Jim, a man living in 2012, and recounts his 1960s youth and long path to self-acceptance.

Stephen Russ, producer of Constance, will return to produce the project with The Restoration. Collin Derrick returns as engineer and mixer, along with Cory Plaugh. Each EP will be produced, recorded, and mixed to evoke the time period of its respective narrative. To prepare for these sessions, we’ve spent most of 2010 and 2011 recording live demos of our new material. The final versions of the songs on these EPs will feature mostly live performances and a combination of historical and contemporary recording techniques.

We can’t thank you enough for the words of support you’ve given us at shows, in emails, and Facebook and YouTube messages regarding Constance. When our day jobs and other responsibilities have worn on us, your support has helped energize our efforts. For those who have asked when our next project will be finished, we’ve appreciated your patience—since we’re fortunate to not have financial pressure from a record label or other third party, we’ve taken as much time as we felt we needed to write a followup that met our expectations and those of our production team.

Now that the project is in full swing, we’re excited to be able to check in often with our progress. Expect more videos, blog posts and tweets. Please leave questions or comments about the project below.

Thank you for your support and talk soon,

The Restoration

Sat., Jan. 21, 2012 in Anderson, SC we’re playing a show with The Fire Tonight at McGee’s Irish Pub.

We’ve been through a lot with The Fire Tonight. Their own Collin Derrick and Stephen Russ produced, engineered and mixed our debut album, Constance. Before that they rescued and looked after Daniel for three days when his car broke down after a gig at McGee’s—the very venue that will see our bands reunite on stage for the first time in years.

This show will be The Fire Tonight’s first down south since releasing their harrowing and sonically experimental new EP, And Then You Were Gone… in October 2011. Recorded in mono, mastered in analog, and comprised of stripped down a cappella numbers and piano duets, the EP is a interesting break from the band’s distortion-fueled prior releases.

Of possible interest to our readers, our own Daniel Machado contributed the cover design for the EP and traveled to Atlanta, GA to record several vocal tracks. The lyrics of And Then You Were Gone… explore profound personal loss, and Daniel took great care to carry the weight of the content as faithfully as possible in the look of the art and the delivery of his vocals. The result was a rewarding and emotional experience.

For our money, The Fire Tonight have accomplished a rare feat with this EP by exploring loss in a way that is distinctly mature and propelled by true musical and lyrical proficiency. We love plenty of teenage angst-ridden rock albums that tackle melancholy but the tone and execution of this collection of songs transcends the flaws that cause so many albums to age poorly with the listener. And Then You Were Gone… is what it sounds like for an adult to mourn. We commend The Fire Tonight on their accomplishment.

We are very excited to join them again on stage next week and hope you’ll join us. Check the shows page for full details and RSVP on Facebook.

By Patrick Wall

In the same way that Yoknapatawpha was the locus for William Faulkner’s most acclaimed and revered works, Lexington County is the postage stamp for The Restoration’s literate chamber-folk opuses, with the Vales and Owens and Palmers the band’s equivalent of Faulkner’s Sartoris clan. That The Restoration is often mentioned in the same breath as Faulkner is no coincidence — the noted author is a pronounced influence on Daniel Machado — it’s also high praise: What Faulker did for Southern literature, The Restoration does, too, for local pop.

[Original Post]

We spent two magical nights with the Explorers Club during the 2011 hurricane season playing shows in our respective hometowns. There seemed to be chemistry; even sparks in the air (it may have been the category 1 winds). As we set off to play our second two-nighter with them this Friday and Saturday we can’t help but think our relationship is growing into something grand.

It’s rare to meet another band with a such an obsessive desire for detail—theirs: pitch perfect 4-part harmonies and songs that painstakingly capture the greatness of mid-20th-century music (while feeling energetically contemporary)—ours: a penchant for performing in period clothing and killing off scores of fictional characters in the name of social commentary.

We’ve found it to be a match made in heaven. And if there isn’t a big enough matzo ball hanging out already, we’re going to say it—we love the Explorers Club.

Don’t take our work for it though. Here’s a track from the Explorers Club’s debut album, dubbed by Pitchfork as worthy of a long lost Beach Boys track:

And here’s a preview of their upcoming album, Grand Hotel:

Finally, we want to tell you how excited we are to be playing with new friends and fellow Columbia band The Sea Wolf Mutiny. We had the pleasure of playing with them at the 2011 Free Times Music Crawl and were blown away. This is absolutely one of our favorite regional bands and we feel lucky to have them in town, let alone on the bill for our show this Friday.

Please give them a listen:

For more details about each show, please visit the show page.
RSVP on Facebook for Fri., Dec. 9
RSVP on Facebook for Sat., Dec. 10

See you this weekend!

The Free Times Music Crawl in Columbia, SC is always a sustained adrenaline rush. First there’s the sheer number of bands—many your friends—performing overlapping sets in five clubs within walking distance of each other; a rare occurrence in our college football-centric home town. This year 41 bands are performing and there is absolutely no way we’ll be able to see everyone we want to. That frenzied festival vibe is an exciting thing to have at your doorstep and we couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.

Ah, we’re gushing. But we can’t help it—the Music Crawl is simply one of our favorite nights of the year and one that makes us proud to be Columbians.

This year we’re thrilled with the honor of headlining the Art Bar indoor stage at 1 am. The night starts on Saturday, November 5 and we’ll be taking it into the AM. We’ve done our best to pull out all of the stops for our set. We’ve enlisted Catherine Allgrim and Alan Davis, on trombone and trumpet respectively, for “You Know What to Do” and “The Last One”, two of our newer songs that we’ll be playing at the Crawl. This will be the closest live preview yet of the sounds that will appear on our next recordings.

Meanwhile, earlier in the evening, Adam and Daniel will be joining the golden-piped Marshall Brown on a variety of instruments at the Tin Roof at 8:40pm. Marshall has one of the most unique voices we’ve ever heard, combined with chops on a telecaster that evoke George Harrison and songwriting skill that is contemporary while inspired by the best of the 1960s. Finally, Marshall may be one of the only musicians in the area who has bigger man-crush on Brian Wilson than Daniel has. The jury is out on that.

While not playing we’ll all be jumping from venue to venue trying to catch as much music as we can. We’d suggest using Free Time’s handy map and schedule to plan your evening:

Finally, we’re honored to have been included in wonderfully kind write-ups and podcasts covering the Music Crawl. Check them out here:

Free Times:
Official coverage: “Sometimes I’m convinced The Restoration isn’t even really real.”

Scene SC:
Music Crawl Preview: Q&A and a tidbit about the story from our upcoming release(s).

The Weekly Monitor podcast:
Daniel does an interview, talks about underwear, grits vs. oatmeal, and performs a song.

We’re so excited for this weekend. We hope you are too!

This Saturday (Oct. 1) in West Columbia, SC we’re playing main support for Atlanta’s Larkin Poe, a great Americana band comprised of Rebecca & Megan Lovell (formerly of The Lovell Sisters). The Lovells have played Bonnaroo, toured with Elvis Costello and released several solid EPs since their inception in 2010.

Larkin Poe will be playing with a full band and will be taking the stage immediately after The Restoration. We’ll be unveiling a new song and will play a few that didn’t make the set list last time we were in town.

Sat. Oct. 1, 2011 | 8pm | West Columbia, SC | $10
New Brookland Tavern w/ Larkin Poe, The Restoration,
The Cover of Afternoon, Jade Blocker
[More Info/RSVP]

See you Saturday!

Died
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Biography
Wife to Alexander Poole (descendent of Jacob Owen’s Confederate company-mate Daniel Poole), once unsuccessfully courted by Thomas Vale, attendee of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church

Died
1909 Lexington, South Carolina

Biography
Orphaned slave under the ownership of John Gilead Palmer, employed as a “spinner” in Lexington Cotton Mill after Emancipation.

Died
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Biography
Former reverend of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, owner of largest classical wax cylinder and record collection in Lexington, hired by Judith Owen to train her daugher in music theory and composition.