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Bishop Allen
Justin Rice (vocals and keyboards) and Christian Rudder (stringed instruments) are the duo that makes up Bishop Allen, the indie rock group from Brooklyn that began in 2003. The two friends met at Harvard where they were DJs for the punk/indie program on WHRB dubbed Record Hospital. After trying to sell concert tickets and albums as a hardcore punk band called The Pissed Officer and a Devo tribute band, the two finally moved to Virginia where they recorded as Bishop Allen, a homage to the street that lived on while at Harvard.
Bishop Allen's first album, Charm School, was recorded over two years, but grew on a song by song basis instead of stuttering and starting out of frustrating. The two played in their spare time and the two musicians laid down the tracks while playing most of the instruments for the recordings on the 13 songs (they used a drum loop because neither plays the drums). The group recruited musicians for a full stage show and took off selling tickets, trying to promote their album.
The album received good reviews from publications like Rolling Stone and programs like NPR's Weekend Edition. In 2006 the group released an EP every month with each release given the name for the month. Rice and Rudder began to use different musicians to fill the holes, giving Bishop Allen a more complete and cohesive sound. The band continued to tour and sell tickets in the meantime, gathering enough live material to put out the August as a 14-song live album.
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Bishop Allen signed with Dead Oceans in 2006 and has since recorded Bishop Allen & the Broken String, the group's first full-length studio album. Rice and Rudder's songs have been featured on television shows like Scrubs and Greek and the two have appeared in their college friend's (Andrew Bujalski) films. The latest album, Grrr… is set to be released on March 10, 2009.
