The 757s

The 757s: Can you really record two albums worth of material just a week after forming a band? For the four members of Twin Cities-based The 757s, the answer is ?yes.? The 757s departed from the norm by recording their debut album after their very first practice session?with no written songs or extensive rehearsals. ?Our model quickly became writing songs in the 10 minutes prior to recording them,? says the band's founder, Seth Zimmerman. ?The idea was to put together a group of friends that could play and get along, which seemed reasonable at the time.?

?Our model quickly became writing songs in the 10 minutes prior to recording them,? says the band's founder, Seth Zimmerman. ?The idea was to put together a group of friends that could play and get along, which seemed reasonable at the time.?

Zimmerman (Tangletown) was able to convince Twin Cities guitar denizen Jimmy Peterson (Bellwether, Missing Numbers) to join the effort. Together, they enlisted drummer Steve Sutherland (Grant Hart/Nova Mob) to work the drum kit, and Paul Pirner (Mosquito Ranch) to play bass.

The initial meeting of The 757s produced a sound that was immediately fierce, combustive and messy. ?Our first and only real rehearsal was in some awful warehouse space?, says Peterson, ?It was so loud and fast, I thought they were joking. Everyone felt like letting it fly and fly we did.?

A week later, The 757s showed up at Mike Wisti's Albatross Studios and rolled tape, the first shot at what ultimately resulted in two records worth of spontaneous and frenetic songs. ?We made the decision to avoid our sophomore slump and released our second album first,? jokes Zimmerman, ?We called it ?Tell the Pilgrims It's a Potluck,' which is a lyric from the yet-to-be-released first album.?

Subsequently mixed and mastered at now-defunct Third Ear Recording, The 757s released their debut ?second? album. ?It could very well be the best rock record ever made,? says drummer Sutherland.

With two records recorded there was still the problem of finding a band name. A furious three-day email barrage ensued generating exactly 757 names. ?No one could agree,? says Zimmerman. ?We decided...why start thinking now??

Fast forward > 2009

Following a plethora of critical and popular acclaim surrounding ?Tell the Pilgrims It's a Potluck,? The 757s returned to Albatross Studios for more sonic catharsis. The resulting ?Freeway Surrender? is set for release on Eclectone Records in early spring, shortly after returning from their SXSW showcase.

While recording the follow up to ?Tell the Pilgrims It's a Potluck?, the band was able to simultaneously record both their double live and greatest hits records. Not bad for a band of idiots.

?Tell the Pilgrims It's a Potluck?: Automatic Recordings. Release date: 2008
?Freeway Surrender?: Eclectone Records. Release date: Spring 2009


For more information on The 757s:
http://www.the757s.com
http://www.myspace.com/the757s
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-757s/7311072038
http://twitter.com/the757s
http://www.youtube.com/the757s