My Cousin, The Emperor Play The Rock Shop on Feb. 16th // New Disc, "The Subway EPs", Out March 29th

DOWNLOAD: My Cousin The Emperor - "Nothing Left for Us to Find"

Alt-country Brooklynites My Cousin, The Emperor release their single disc, double EP entitled, THE SUBWAY EPs on March 29, 2011. Next week, they begin a string of shows with Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas as The Small Ponds. The two groups will head down to Austin, TX for SXSW and back, hitting Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville, Knoxville, Little Rock and Houston before turning around to come back through Atlanta, with more dates to be added. Before they head out, both acts will be playing a kickoff show at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Feb 16th. Tickets are $10 and the show is 21+.

My Cousin, The Emperor’s SUBWAY EPs are separated into two volumes; Volume I being the acoustic PROSPECT PARK WEST and Volume II, the electric BROADWAY-LAFAYETTE, named after lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Jason Reischel’s two main stops between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Think of it as the mirrored counterpart to Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home.

The Small Ponds was born when veteran alt-songstress Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas) asked pop-raconteur Matt Douglas (The Proclivities) to partner with her for Raleigh, NC’s longstanding post-Valentine’s day tradition The Love Hangover, for which they learned to sing each other’s favorite songs relevant to love and/or its lacking. Upon discovering a kindred sensibility on this subject and many others, and finding they sang well and laughed easily together, they decided they’d better make it a band.

As 2011 dawns, we find Matt and Caitlin preparing songs for their third Love Hangover, celebrating the release of their five-song EP (Last Chance Records), and building up a head of steam to power a full-band Small Ponds tour en route to an official showcase and a lot of hooplah in Austin at this year’s South by Southwest music festival.

Dubbing it "really sweet Americana," No Depression calls My Cousin, The Emperor’s upcoming release, "notably clean and well-imagined. This might be a good springtime roadtrip album. Good crisp air and sunshine music.”

The title track from their debut album A Long Way From Home won the Independent Music Award‘Best Alternative Country Song of the Year’ and the quartet grabbed the crown for Brooklyn in WNYC’s “Battle Of The Boroughs.” for

On the horizon in 2011, My Cousin, The Emperor is contributing music to the film Jeremy Fink & The Meaning Of Life, based on the book by Wendy Mass, due out this summer and starring Mira Sorvino and Joey Pantoliano. They’ve also recorded a rockabilly cover of "More Than Words" for Guilt By Association 3, set for release in April via Engine Room Recordings.

MY COUSIN, THE EMPEROR & THE SMALL PONDS TOUR DATES:
Wed, Feb 16 – Brooklyn, NY – The Rock Shop
Thurs, Feb 24 – New York, NY – LES Film Festival **
Tues, March 1 – Allentown, PA - VIP Elite Lounge @ Crocodile Rock **
Thurs, March 3 – New York, NY – The Living Room **
Tues, March 8 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fire **
Wed, March 9 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House
Thurs, March 10 – Charlotte, NC – Evening Muse
Fri, March 11 – Asheville, NC – The Emerald Lounge
Sat, March 12 – Knoxville, TN – Patrick Sullivans
Sun, March 13 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern
Mon, March 14 – Denton, TX – Dan’s Silver Leaf
Tues, March 15 – Houston, TX – Big Star Bar
Wed, March 16 – Austin, TX – The Ale House ##
Fri, March 18 – Austin, TX – Red Eyed Fly**
Fri, March 18 – Austin, TX – Maria’s Tacos ##
Sat, March 19 – Carrollton, GA – TBA
Sun, March 20 – Atlanta, GA – TBA

** - MCTE only
## - The Small Ponds only

Links:
My Cousin, The Emperor

My Cousin, The Emperor Play the 'Ultimate Battle of the Boroughs' @ WNYC's The Greene Space on June 18th

DOWNLOAD: My Cousin, The Emperor - Live Acoustic Set @ Rockwood Music Hall, Jan. 5, 2010
DOWNLOAD: My Cousin, The Emperor - "Montevideo"

Brooklyn-based Americana band, My Cousin, The Emperor is playing WNYC's Battle of the Boroughs this Friday at The Greene Space, 44 Charlton Street (on the corner of Charlton and Varick).

My Cousin, The Emperor is the latest project of North Carolina-to-Brooklyn transplant singer/songwriter Jason Reischel. Jason has joined forces with guitarist Terry Quire, bassist Chris Gogan and drummer Alex Wyatt and the band released their debut CD A Long Way From Home this past October. This new disc caught my ear right away as the band captures some musical styles that are atypical to indie alt-country. The disc starts with some 'Country R&B' tunes that are stylistically similar to work from Jools Holland and similar artists. From there, Jason Reischel takes the band into reverb-heavy melancholy that is very comparable to songs from artists like Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison. One of the real standout tracks on the disc is "Regalo La Flor" which is an old-school Sun Studio's style rockabilly rave-up.

Tickets for the show are $15 and the show starts at 7PM. The show is scheduled to run two hours and beer, wine and snacks are on the house.

Links:
My Cousin, The Emperor

My Cousin, The Emperor - A Long Way Home CD Review (Country R&B)

My Cousin, The Emperor is the latest project of North Carolina-to-Brooklyn transplant singer/songwriter Jason Reischel.

In My Cousin, The Emperor, Jason has joined forces with guitarist Terry Quire, bassist Chris Gogan and drummer Alex Wyatt and the band has their debut CD coming out on October 20th. This disc caught my ear right away as the band captures some musical styles that are atypical to indie alt-country. The disc starts with some 'Country R&B' tunes that are stylistically similar to work from Jools Holland and similar artists. From there, Jason Reischel takes the band into reverb-heavy melancholy that is very comparable to songs from artists like Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison. One of the real standout tracks on the disc is "Regalo La Flor" which is an old-school Sun Studio's style rockabilly rave-up. All-in-all, the stylistic changes across this disc keep it fresh after repeated listening.

The first three cuts from this forthcoming disc are streaming on the band's MySpace page (link below) and these tracks are good representation of the overall disc. "A Long Way From Home" and "Broken Bottle Blues No. 2" are different takes on the band's 'Country R&B' sound and "Montevideo" is a slice of Roy Orbison/Dion-style melancholia.

My Cousin, The Emperor's next live show is a CD release party at Joe's Pub on October 16th.

Links:
My Cousin, The Emperor's MySpace Profile