Cherch

Brian Cherchiglia’s music, whether it’s the stuff that he does with his band The Bottom Dollars or all that he does under a truncated version of his last name, goes something like this: It’s showing up for church on Sunday mornings. It’s showing up for church on Sunday mornings with the taste of Saturday night still on their tongues. It’s showing up for church on Sunday mornings, with the sunlight feeling too damned bright. It’s showing up with mud caking the back tires and the lower half of the truck body. It’s having a flask tucked, at all times, in the inside pocket of any coat that would ever be worn. It’s keeping that flask healthily full with something that coats. It’s keeping every photograph of grandma, grandpa, mom and dad that are still around. It’s looking at them and being reminded of how much you look like all of them and wonder if they were feeling the same ways that they are currently feeling, at the same stages in their lives. It’s feeling time get washed completely the fuck away. It’s feeling helpless and not drunk enough. It’s feeling too drunk, but having it still feel like not being drunk enough. It’s love and it’s a sore throat after a great night with old friends. It’s a sore throat after a night of arguing, of losing. It’s sadness and it’s happiness, in equal measures. - Paste Magazine

This Saturday night, emerging Brooklyn rock darlings the Bottom Dollars play a late night show at Mercury Lounge with brothers-in-rock the Nuclears. Known for the party-marathon atmosphere of their performances, the Bottom Dollars have amassed a following dedicated enough to effectively crowd-source funding for a van and put together an upcoming nationwide tour, all without a manager. We spoke to guitarist and lead vocalist Brian Cherchiglia, surrounded by his bandmates, to find out how they're pulling off being entirely DIY in NYC.


Given that your band has a reputation for turning shows into all-out parties, how do you present that style of performance to a crowd and still connect with them?
I like to perform a show the way I like to see a show, and the whole 30-45 minute set-"thing" that New York, and a lot of the clubs on the east coast try to adopt, never really worked for me. I warm-up at 20-30 minutes in the first place [just] to get into the groove. We like playing longer shows, which I think people enjoy because they're getting their money's worth. They're not paying 10 bucks for 40 minutes, they're paying 10 bucks for a three-hour show with us playing 90 minutes. When doing shows at [the band's Operahouse parties] there's no curfew. We would just play all night and make the first couple rounds of drinks on the house so people were already having a good time. At that point, as long as we don't suck, everyone's gonna walk away having a pretty good evening.

Speaking of connecting with a crowd, your band acquired your van through crowd-sourcing and reaching out through social media. How did you manage that?
Back when [Bottom Dollars drummer] Evan and I ran TK421, an independent music publishing company, we experimented with crowd-sourcing and realized how much bullshit and loopholes come with it today. Like, how [Kickstarter] take a cut outright. So, we figured, if we're going to raise money, we're going to spend the money wisely and not going to give any of it away. We all had PayPals and we made a Tumblr with a short little funny video, and the next thing you knew, we had a car. It's not completely DIY because we didn't create PayPal or Tumblr, but we utilized actual free resources that don't tax the user and we contacted people saying any amount of money you could give would help us. We raised about $1,800, which got us a van, which is going to make going on tour pretty wonderful.

When did it feel right to start taking shows outside of New York?
It was all kind of an accident. We recorded [the band's debut] The Halcyon Days in 2011 and, a week later, got an offer to go play SXSW. We'd never been, and were like "Fuck it, let's go." We were only there for two days. We drove 36 hours, played a show at noon and drove back. I got fired for going, which gave me more free time to write music, but after we played SXSW, we got the idea of touring and booked it like we were booking someone else and put a tour together. Next thing you know, we were getting the guarantees to sustain ourselves, and touring was relatively easy. At that point, why not?


With Bottom Dollars sharing some, but not all, members with your other band Deathrow Tull, is there ever a conflict of interest dividing attention between the two bands?
We're on the same calendar. It's the same thing to us. It's a beautiful thing, actually, because the dual-band existence forces each band to work on a timeline, which most bands don't realize that they need to do. We always think about three-to-six months ahead, just out of courtesy with the scheduling. That in itself forces each band to be productive based on what's on the calendar.

You've played the Mercury Lounge before with both Bottom Dollars and Deathrow Tull. With each band, do you prepare for the show differently?
We've done a couple late night things with Bowery Presents already. Preparing for the shows is the same kind of deal. We turn up the heat on rehearsals the week of the show, come up with fresh covers, new transitions, ideas, it's really the same thing.

Why do you think you've caught on with the New York audience, often accused of being fickle and short-attention spanned, in such a way?
Honestly, I don't know. We're very fortunate and very lucky that people are willing to give our music a shot, and we appreciate that. I don't know. I don't think these songs are very good when I write them and, I guess, it must be a vibe thing. We never said no to a show and were always down to come and play. I think we just put the work in and were lucky enough that people were receptive. - Village Voice

"Members of the band The Bottom Dollars play on the street in Austin, Texas, during the opening night of the South by Southwest music festival." - NPR: All Things Considered

The Bottom Dollars brought their best game to Bowery Ballroom on Friday night for two sets that included covers, guest guitarists, singers, and even an LED hula hooper. It’s rare these days to see a rock band whose music is self conscious well informed of their musical choices, but this isn’t another indie rock band from Brooklyn. This is a rock and roll band whose reverence for classics like The Clash and The Band made their concert an appealing fusion of garage and punk tropes playing off whiskey drenched southern rock licks.

Sitting down with the band before the show, I found that the band started as a side-project in 2011 with drummer Evan Berg, guitarist and lead singer Brian Cherchiglia, and bassist Chris Urriola all of whom attended Berklee School of Music in Boston together. They decided to make The Bottom Dollars their main priority after moving to Brooklyn and their first E.P. Halcyon Days garnered a lot of buzz in the local rock scene.

Since 2011, The Bottom Dollars have gone through a few lineup changes, but have settled as a quartet adding Sean Spada on keys. The band has kept a completely DIY status, skirting record labels and recording everything themselves. They admit this route has hindered publicity but, Cherchiglia notes, he’s “taking the Allman Brothers route” which he clarifies as being “in it for the long haul” and not dying in a plane accident. Their “lifer” status mixes with a humble self-effacement that’s fresh and admirable in today’s rock and roll landscape.

One of my favorite tunes off of their first full length Meet Me in Cognito (released in February of 2014) is “The Devil’s Night,” which features Spada’s rollicking boogie woogie piano licks and Cherchiglia rapping in a Brian Setzer-like patter. When probed about the song’s inspiration, Cherchiglia says that it was written as a Tom Waits inspired run on about a guy tripping on acid in Park Slope who’s running away from the devil. During the show, the song had everyone on their feet dancing and spontaneously spinning their neighbors.

Meet Me in Cognito was also recorded by one of their favorite producers John Siket who’s known for his work with Sonic Youth, Phish, and The Replacements. It was recorded over a short inspiration burst of five days and then took 5 months to mix and master.

Cherchiglia also revealed that the band knows a “wedding band’s” worth of cover songs which spans from the expected classic rock like Waits, Bruce Springsteen and The Who to heavier and less expected influences like Iron Maiden or Nine Inch Nails.

The band played two covers at the Bowery Ballroom. In the first set they played “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones, and saw guest guitarist Mick Maverick of the Nuclears and female vocalist Skurt Vonnegut Jr. of Deathrow Tull come up and play along. The second set saw the cover of the Clash’s “Clampdown” with Maverick coming back to reprise his role as a second guitar, and also had one of Boston’s “self proclaimed rock star” Mick Greenwood come up to sing a verse or two.

In the interview we went over a sprawling amount of somewhat random conversations. We managed to connect on having been ten feet away from each other at the same Phish show at Bonnaroo in 2009, swapped stories about hearing life changing records for the first time, and other things that were laughed about and prefaced with “don’t print this…” so I won’t. Oh and of course, in partial honor of Pancakes and Whiskey, a bottle of Jameson magically showed up and we all took shots before the show.

Other highlights of the show was the faux-country ballad “Pieces” and their showstopper encore “Prizefighter.” “Prizefighter” rocked the socks off the few of us who made it to nearly 1am, with some of us hangbanging and flailing around the dancefloor in fits of personal abandonment. It was a great way to end the show and I suggest checking out The Bottom Dollars if you get a chance.

Article by: Steven Klett

Photos by: Nicholas Fallon - Pancakes & Whiskey

With lush harmonies layered over a booming rhythm section, the Bottom Dollars play the kind of blues- and soul-infused rock that’s best experienced live. The Brooklyn five-piece’s second album, Good News, Everyone!, comes out on 9/18. (Listen to their new single, “Pieces” and its B-side, “Work,” below.) And in support of it, they’re getting ready to launch a cross-country tour, which kicks off on Saturday at Mercury Lounge with the Nuclears and the Naked Heroes. Ahead of the show, we caught up with Brian Cherchiglia (vocals, guitar), who answered Five Questions for The House List.

Which New York City musician—past or present—would you most like to play with?
Wow, that’s a pretty intense question. I’d love to collaborate with the guys from TV on the Radio, a cowrite with Tunde Adebimpe would be a dream come true. Lou Reed...and then there’s the whole Bob Dylan thing. David Byrne, Method Man, Eugene Hütz...

When it comes to new songs, do you always work them out first in the studio? Or do they sometimes come together live onstage?
You know, we’ve been really fortunate to receive such great praise on our recordings but none of our songs are ever composed in a studio setting. They kind of teleport between my bedroom and our rehearsals. Normally, I’ll write these songs acoustically and just mess with them until I can present them to the band once they’ve evolved into more of a complete thought. That way, we can work on the arrangement as a group and let them take shape into something that’s more “big picture,” and that’s really where Evan [Berg, drums and vocals] shines as a composer. He’ll subconsciously understand where the song needs to go, and within one or two runs through it’s there.

And does new material ever continue to evolve when played live so that it becomes something different than the recorded version?
One of the best things about the Bottom Dollars is that we’re very much a “live band.” Each show is different. Set lists vary. The arrangements are fairly elastic and purposefully so, because when you’re performing, and a great transition or segue presents itself, it’s really important to capitalize on that and put yourself in that zone where it’s up to the collective rather than the individual. Improvisation is really important to accentuate a particular performance of a song (if the arrangement calls for it), and guitar solos are fucking badass. Plain and simple.

Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song? Do you have to be in love to write a love song? Is a song better when it really happened to you?
Wow, hmm. Every songwriter is different, so I can really only speak for myself here, but yes and no? I think it’s more important to be cognitive and pay attention to what’s actually happening around you (and to you), absorb what’s truly going down and then remember it in a way that makes you comfortable. I think it’s really important to just let yourself be happy, let yourself be sad and know what that’s actually like so when you write about it, it isn’t too abstract that someone can’t connect to it.

—R. Zizmor - The Bowery Presents House List

You better believe it. After bursting onto the scene in 2011 with their breakthrough EP, “The Halcyon Days,” The Bottom Dollars made it their mission to become one of the most captivating bands in American rock and roll, winning over audiences and gaining accolades in NPR: All Things Considered, KEXP, Daytrotter, ScoutMob, Village Voice, Relix Magazine, CMJ, NME, The Wild Honey Pie (Best of SXSW 2013) as well as features in countless other publications all unanimously in consent of their absolutely explosive (and notoriously unpredictable) live performances. - L Magazine

SXSW was in full swing on Wednesday for the first full day of music. While we tried to get to as many sets as possible, we were holding down the fort at our own party at Side Bar with Wildcat! Wildcat!, The Bottom Dollars, Ski Lodge, Lucius, Snowmine, SW/MM/NG, PAPA, Ex-cops, MO, and Vacationer. - The Wild Honey Pie

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of a new song by the Bottom Dollars.

The track, "Smoker," is from their new album, Meet Me In Cognito, which will be released February 25.

The official New York City release party for the album, which was produced by John Siket, David Brandwein and the Bottom Dollars, will take place February 22 at the Mercury Lounge.

After that, they're heading out on a huge cross-country tour. You can check out all the dates below the Soundcloud player. - Guitar World