Figure Eight Publicity

VIRGIN FOREST - IFC video premiere for "Don't Be Afraid" from their album "Easy Way Out" out 1/31/12 on Partisan Records

Check out the New York set video for VIRGIN FOREST’s track “Don’t Be Afraid,” filmed in St. Marks and at frontman Scott Stapleton’s home (the opening scene is shot in Scott’s bedroom). We went to St. Mark’s so it would have an uber NYC vibe, and we also wanted it to be where kids still hang out,” Stapleton said. “We have some awesome Goth kids in the video and wonderful people we met on the street — I want to give a shout out to “Batisha!!” (the African American woman throwing a goat in the video). None of it was planned out, just the basic idea and the neighborhoods. The Satanic shit is my room; that’s my bedroom.”

Virgin Forest talk to the Village Voice - check out their "Doom Folk" track "Don't Be Afraid"

The guys have a chat with Christopher Weingarten about music, breakfast tacos, their new single and their most memorable show to date (it involves their pals and labelmates Deer Tick).

Brooklyn’s Virgin Forest is stick-to-your-ribs indie rock courtesy of 80% of Phosphorescent, fueled on Townes Van Zandt and heavy metal thunder. Their sophomore album (and first for Partisan), Easy Way Out (due January 31), mines similar Neil Youngish territory as Phospho, but is more Ragged Glory than Gold Rush, the restraint jettisoned over for some unrestrained rockers. “Don’t Be Afraid” is a mix of shadow-staring doom-folk, Eagles-gone-loftpunk guitar shimmer and an irresistible splatter of fuzz bass.

Download: Virgin Forest, “Don’t Be Afraid”

Q&A: Virgin Forest on “Don’t Be Afraid”

What is “Don’t be Afraid” about?

Scott Stapleton, vocals/keyboards: The song is about refusal to let fear control you. And it’s about love. The lyrics speak for themselves.

How did you get this excellent bass sound?

Stapleton: Jeff Bailey is responsible for that. He is the best.

Jeff Bailey, bass: The bass sound comes from a Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver. Also it comes from a bass played by alternating fingers, played with feeling.

You recently opened Whirlybird, a breakfast taco and coffee spot in Williamsburg. How is it going? What’s the hardest part about the taco business so far?

Bailey: Whirlybird is going great. Better than I figured even. It’s had a great response and has been growing organically. I’m learning as I go how to make it work, but if I had to compare it to a crossword puzzle, it would be a Monday. Also, the featured record label project [featuring a label’s records displayed on the wall as art] has been really fun. It has created a lot of conversation about Partisan during their feature and a slew of other record labels are interested. I’m going to feature No Quarter next, in early February. The tacos keep getting better, and Jesse [Ainslie, guitar] has been working there from time to time.

What was the most memorable show you played in New York City?

Stapleton: New Year’s Eve show with Deer Tick was by far the most memorable. With Phosphorescent we performed the To Willie record front to back, and sold that bitch out.

What’s your favorite place to eat in Brooklyn?

Stapleton: Whirlybird!

Bailey: My favorite place to eat is a tie between Nha-Toi, a Vietnamese pho spot on Havemeyer, and Miller’s Tavern on Hope Street. Both places just kill it with the delicious.

Virgin Forest - one of John McCauley's Top 10 favorite things, along with the Replacements and cocaine

Spin talks to Deer Tick’s John McCauley, who gives props to labelmates VIRGIN FOREST as his fave band.

VIRGIN FOREST - Partisan records; debut out January 31, 2012

New York, NY - November 2, 2011: VIRGIN FOREST, formerly of Castanets and currently 4/5 of Phosphorescent, have logged more miles together than some bands twice their age. Countless tours, drinks, laughs, drugs, fisticuffs, stories and friends made and forgotten in service of something larger have resulted in hard-won chemistry and fluidity. So when it came time to record their first album for Partisan Records (Deer Tick, Middle Brother, Mountain Man), Easy Way Out (January 31, 2012), no rehearsals were necessary. The band had lived and breathed these songs.

Virgin Forest and Phosphorescent both offer a unique take on traditionally “American” music, but the similarities end there. Easy Way Out is a balls-out rock record made by guys who make no bones about who they are and where they’re coming from: people ill-suited for the “straight” world and often at odds with it. Guys who learned their craft in front of a live audience, not laptop-jockey rock warriors celebrating their first legal drink simultaneously on Twitter, Facebook and the bar they’re actually in.

The album was recorded in Brooklyn, produced by the band and engineered by Alex Lipsen (Nada Surf, Santigold, Okkervil River), who added keys; Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent) helped out on production and mixing and Christoph Hahn of Swans laid down pedal steel to “AntiChrist Blues” and “Different Blues.” Wes Jones, part of production/songwriting team 1984, assisted on production/engineering.

Where Virgin Forest’s self-recorded debut LP, Joy Atrophy, was the sound of the band being eaten from inside, Easy Way Out finds the band getting cozy with their demons. With nothing to lose and less to gain, frontman Scott Stapleton performs each song as if it’s his last. There is nothing held back, no promise left unfulfilled. His multi-octave vocals and edgy, Jeffrey Lee Pierce-esque vibrato gives these raw rock songs a sense of urgency — Stapleton sounds gleefully unglued on some of these tracks. There’s a vocal force and control and a sense of dynamics that makes him a rare bird in the “indie” world.

Musically, on songs like the epic, heavy track “Don’t Be Afraid,” seemingly disparate aesthetics are effortlessly corralled by VF’s expert musical wrangling. Townes Van Zandt, Dire Straits, The Band, and fistfuls of Metal are all valid points of entry to understand where VF is coming from; where they end up is a place distinctly their own.

Leaving behind any traces of genre, Virgin Forest’s ambition and ability reveals itself casually at first; waiting patiently to be discovered. The full heft of their potential is gradually revealed when you measure Easy Way Out against what passes as “great records” in these times.

Fresh off an East Coast tour with labelmates/pals Deer Tick, Virgin Forest will be announcing 2012 tour dates soon. Stay tuned to this space for updates: http://www.partisanrecords.com/artists/virgin-forest.

VIRGIN FOREST:

Scott Stapleton (vocals, guitar)

Jesse Anderson Ainslie (guitar)

Jeffrey Bailey (bass)

Christopher Marine (drums):

Fader “Open Bar” session with Virgin Forest:

http://www.thefader.com/2011/01/26/open-bar-with-virgin-forest/

Virgin Forest on the web:

http://virginforest.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virgin-Forest/150878038302414

http://twitter.com/#!/antichristblues

VIRGIN FOREST New track premiering today at Paste Magazine Catch the band on tour now with Deer Tick! Partisan Records re-issuing “Joy Atrophy” this week

New York, NY - October 14, 2011: VIRGIN FOREST, now signed to Partisan Records, are gearing up to join their buddies/labelmates Deer Tick for the first leg of their national tour. With Virgin Forest’s 2010 release Joy Atrophy now being re-issued through all digital outlets, the band is giving us a taste of what to expect from their January 31, 2012 Partisan records debut, Easy Way Out, with their track “Don’t Be Afraid.“ Listen to the premiere HERE at Paste Magazine online.

A formidable group in their own right, Phosphorescent fans might recognize the foursome as Matthew Houck’s longtime backing band. While Virgin Forest and Phosphorescent both offer a unique take on traditionally “American” music, the similarities end there. Lyricist/frontman Scott Stapleton is a frontman cut from the old cloth - he connects and feeds off the audience and live, he commands the stage. This is a guy who will die with his boots on; he’s as apt to channel the gods of metal as the ghost of Townes Van Zandt, blurring all notions of genre with his incredible, expressive vocals.