The Music
Kent Lambert is multi talented and this blog is my little homage to him. I’ve seen him live with his band Roommate and have all his records in multiple formats. For those new to Kent I’ll give a little run down to some of his music. But before I do that it’s worth noting that Kent has achieved some other things I’ve forgotten to mention elsewhere on the blog. He did an original soundtrack for Vampyr which I believe is by Carl Dreyer (Kent performed this live in many cities). He also did the musical score for the “runaways San Fransisco” film. As well as Roommate and Swim Team Kent has performed with Kasper Hauser and the Devin Davis band. He also formed the band Woolen in addition to roommate. Roommate’s line up tends to rotate but usually consists of bells, banjo, drums, bass, guitar, bass and violin.
Celebs was his first released recording, he self released it in 2001 it was an EP.
Songs The Animals Taught Us was the next record again self released in July 2005 followed by a wider release by Plug Research in 2006.
New Steam Ep was next which was released as a download in February 2007 by Plug Research again. It was released on vinyl several months later by Shrug Records.
We Were Enchanted is their second fully fledged album and was released April 2008 again by Plug Research, the vinyl was released at the same time.
That’s the catalogue so far but I’ll give some snippets of information and a flavor of what people have said about some of the tracks. His style has been called many things but on of my favorites is coll bedroom space pop. I’m not sure what the hell that means but I like it.
Kent himself talked about the inspiration for Celebs. He wrote it when he lived in New York and was working for an Indie Film distributor. The obsession with celebrity and their personal lives came sharply into focus when he was in New York particularly because he was involved in the film business. he particularly noted that many films were sold not on merit but on the fame of the participants or because of some words uttered by a famous critic. So it was not just the public who were obsessed by celebrities but the industry itself who self perpetuated this strange phenomena. The tracks on Celebs were born out his experience of the world as a consumer and a kind of insider. Kent remarked it was doubtful that he would have ever penned these songs if he had not been living in New York. He says he became obsessed himself with the celebrities world and at the same time angry and irritated with them and himself for his obsession.
I’ll post another page detailing some more insights into Roommate’s music soon.