Club Red: The Record Company, 8/16

08 Aug Club Red: The Record Company, 8/16

Beyond the Groove is pleased to announce The Record Company on Tuesday, August 16. The event takes place at Club Red in Telluride Conference Center, Mountain Village. Doors open at 8 p.m.; show time is 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-30 in advance. Tickets here. (All ages.)

All shows at Club Red are produced by Denise Mongan of Beyond the Groove Productions, with major support from Telluride Ski & Golf, the Telluride Conference Center, Inn at Lost Creek, and the Peaks Resort and Spa. For more information, go here.

And please scroll down to the bottom of the story to listen to a podcast featuring The Record Company’s Chris Vos.

CREDIT: Jacob Blickenstaff – Brooklyn, NY – October 5, 2015 – The Record Company (Alex Stiff, Chris Voss, Marc Carzorla)

Pies were a leitmotif in the early life of Chris Vos.

Cow pies on the family dairy farm he grew up on in New Munster, a Norman Rockwell kind of town about 50-minutes outside Milwaukee.

And what at the time was a pie-in-the-sky dream of fame and fortune.

“My mom has this old video of me with a Wiffle ball bat, but instead of hitting baseballs with it, I ran around the house in my diapers pretending it was a microphone. I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t the center of joy in my life, other than my family,” Chris explained to the Tap Milwaukee/Journal Sentinel.

Now Vos is pie-eyed with success – or should be. He is now one-third of the trending L.A.-based band, The Record Company, whose latest release, Give It Back to You, first with their label, met with hosannahs.

“Absolutely love this CD, these guys ROCK! From the very first song it’s clean pure three piece hard driving rock and roll! Just had the opportunity to see them “Live” and everyone LOVED them too! People came and listened to the entire performance dancing and loving their music! The talk at the venue was a lot about how everyone loved them! “Off the Ground” is a fabulous song, just listen you’ll be moved to dance and rock along! Buy the CD! Rock on! These guys are headed for stardom! They are nice guys too!,” a fan review on Amazon.

“These guys are AMAZING. They’ve got some Zeppelin & Thorogood going on. Their live show (I saw it in San Francisco) was FANTASTIC. I predict these guys are going to be BIGGGGGG!!! And I have excellent taste in music 😉……,” another fan on Amazon.

All Music weighs in:

“…Give It Back To You boasts a casual but muscular tone that’s part Southern groove (think Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo) and part Chess Records bite (Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Bo Diddley), with a dash of the Black Keys’ rootsy modernism thrown in for good measure. The Record Company know good music from bad, and they have chops to go along with their taste — Chris Vos’ guitar work is strong and well focused, while his voice is well suited to the material, and bassist Alex Stiff and drummer Marc Cazorla are an admirably tight and hard-grooving rhythm section who know how to make this kind of music move…”

Give It Back also cracked Top 10 on Billboard’s AAA radio charts.

A critic for earbuddy.com suggested Give It Back works like a “gateway drug”: listening makes you crave more of The Record Company’s growling vocals and bluesy rock.

Well then, Tuesday, August 16, is your lucky day, that is if you happen to be in the Telluride region. That evening The Record Company is live at Club Red.

In case you missed the buzz, The Record Company is the rock/roots trio of Chris Vos, (lead vocals, also guitar, harmonica); Alex Stiff (bass, guitar, vocals); and Marc Cazorla (drums, piano, vocals).

“Making bluesy music that would sound more at home in a sweaty, backwoods Mississippi juke joint,” raved LA Weekly.

“Reminiscent of some of the best acts of the ’50s and ’60s—like if John Lee Hooker and The Stooges had a well-behaved love child,” said Time Out Los Angeles.

Such comparisons are apt: the band tips its hat to The Stooges, as well as blues legends like Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed, plus Canned Heat and The Stones. And while The Record Company’s fresh take on classic rock ‘n’ roll has growing appeal, well ahead of their record deal with the Concord Music Group, Record Company dirty, sweaty sounds provided a colorful sonic backdrop to about 30 commercial, film, and television placements, including the theatrical trailer for “Last Vegas” and ads for Coors Light, Subaru, Miller Lite, Showtime’s “Shameless,” ABC’s “Nashville,” CBS’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

CREDIT: Jacob Blickenstaff – Brooklyn, NY – October 5, 2015 – The Record Company (Alex Stiff, Chris Voss, Marc Carzorla)

It all began in 2010, when Vos left his apple pie Wisconsin life to follow his wife Val to Silver Lake, California, and a job on the Los Angeles Times. (Val now works for Ellen DeGeneres.)

Later that year, Stiff responded to a message Vos posted on Craigslist about needing bandmates.

By 2011, Vos, Stiff, and Cazorla, now bonded over vintage blues, bbq, and beer, were making music together, writing and recording what became the groups first major release in a living room with low to no expectations except making great music to share with friends and family.

The first club gig was in January 2012. Two months later, it was at South by Southwest. And just a few months after that, The Record Company had a slot at the prestigious Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Vos, Stiff, and Cazorla soon developed a reputation as a trio worthy of sharing the stage with such top attractions as B.B. King, Grace Potter, Trombone Shorty, Buddy Guy, Charles Bradley, Robert Randolph, The Wood Brothers, Social Distortion, and Blackberry Smoke (with whom they toured the U.K. and Europe).

On the strength of two EPs (Superdead, 2012, and Feels So Good, 2013), the band received strong college and AAA radio format airplay and performed, as mentioned, in Montreal, plus Milwaukee’s Summerfest, NAPA Valley’s Bottlerock, Ottawa Folkfest, Quebec City International Summer Festival, and the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival.

Concord, which signed the group in 2015, wound up releasing Give It Back To You without messing with the trio’s infectious, raw, open, honest sound.

But making records notwithstanding, it is the trio’s live sets that really fuel the word of mouth – and The Record Company’s rocketing success:

“I always think of a performance as one less time on stage–not one more,” Vos concludes. “Nobody can say how many shows you get to play in your life. So we try to play our guts out, leave it all on the table, and have fun doing it.”

In Telluride, we say at least one more please.

CREDIT: Jacob Blickenstaff – Brooklyn, NY – October 5, 2015 – The Record Company (Alex Stiff, Chris Voss, Marc Carzorla)

For more on The Record Company, listen to Chris Vos’ podcast.

About Club Red:

Located within the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village, Club Red is Telluride’s newest music venue. The club is decorated with plush lounge décor and soft ambient lighting to create an intimate music experience for nationally touring acts. With close proximity to the artists, the guest experience is reminiscent of the speakeasies of old or jazz clubs. VIP seating available.

About Beyond the Groove:

Beyond the Groove is Denise Mongan’s music production company. Her goal is to bring quality live music to Telluride, Colorado, primarily at the new Club Red at Telluride Conference Center. Past produced shows include Blitzen Trapper, Deer Tick, Matisyahu, Cash’d Out, Justin Townes Earle, Dirty Dozen brass Band, The Motet, Elephant Revival, Lucero, New Mastersounds, Tanya Tucker, Jenny Lewis, Dawes, Jackie Greene.