Most of you, from the UK at least, will be asking ‘who are they?’ Chamberlin is the biggest band from Vermont that no one there has ever really heard of. As their debut album Bitter Blood (Roll Call/EMI) drops, the eight-month-old act finds themselves criss-crossing the country in the midst of national tours, having played but a handful of shows in their home state.
Last fall, before finishing Bitter Blood, the only people Chamberlin had performed for were close friends and flames during late night whiskey-fueled rehearsals at their mountainside cabin in Goshen, VT (pop. 200). There, last spring, Mark Daly and Ethan West wrote and demoed the nine songs that would make up the record. “We didn’t think much of them at the time — basically rehearsing with a microphone on — but those acoustic tracks had some legs,” says West.
Now Chamberlin are asking fans to vote on the songs they will record for a covers EP – where they’ll take current tracks and “cabinize” them into stripped down acoustic versions in their cozy, Vermont cabin.
The list of possible tracks contain electronic or innovative production and include songs by Kanye West, Cults, Vampire Weekend, Foster The People, Beach House, Neon Indian and Cut Copy. Select the 4 songs you want to hear the band record and in return for voting receive a free copy of the EP when it’s completed, a free track now from the band’s 2011 debut Bitter Blood and a chance to win the Grand Prize – boots, jeans and a button down shirt from Stetson (worth over $400…you can work out the exchange rate). You can vote here.
The band’s giving listeners an early taste of “cabinize” with their version of Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets” Check out the sparse, gently strummed version below.
Chamberlin – Little Secrets by Folk Radio UK