Electric Needle Room's official website

Download now for $3 or wait until Presidents Day (February 18th) and get it for free!

http://electricneedleroom.bandcamp.com/album/the-presidents-of-the-united-states-of-america-volume-3

Today is the official release date for our album "The Presidents of the United States of America (Volume 2)." You can download it for free or "name your price" on Bandcamp, through Itunes, through Amazon, or through CD Baby. The choice is yours.

In case you haven't kept up with Electric Needle Room, here's the description for this album:

By day, Matt Beat is a middle school social studies teacher. By night, the multi-instrumentalist writes and records songs about dead Presidents. Actual dead Presidents. Not the rap duo. He is recording them chronologically, and these songs are about Presidents 15-31, from Abraham Lincoln (I'm sure you've heard of him and like him) to Herbert Hoover (I'm sure you've heard of him and don't like him). Didn’t know anything about Chester Arthur? Now you do. These songs are educational and catchy.

I hope you enjoy these President songs. I'm currently working on FDR and Harry Truman, simultaneously.

Happy Presidents Day!

-Matt

"The Colic Song" by Electric Needle Room

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyG1SxIbKSw

http://inkkc.com/content/talkers-american-history-has-a-musical-champion/

American history has a musical champion

{ special to ink } brianne pfannenstiel

Most musicians sing about relationships, raging parties, love, life. But not Matt Beat.

Matt Beat sings about dead presidents.

Actual dead presidents. Like George Washington and Millard Fillmore.

His one-man band, Electric Needle Room (bonus points if you can name the “Simpsons” reference), recently released its album “The Presidents of the United States of America, Volume 1,” which recounts the lives of the first 15 U.S. presidents in order of their service.

With a poppy, synth sound matched to quirky lyrics, the songs are catchy — and educational.

The album starts with a rousing song called “George Washington”: “He never liked politics, never liked to play that game, but the new country needed a president, so they just forced him in.”

“It’s pretty dorky,” Beat said. “But it’s fun.”

The album mirrors Beat’s passion for history. When he’s not moonlighting as a musician, Beat teaches history at Blue Valley High School. He said he likes to keep his life as a rocker separate from his role as a teacher, but the two tend to intersect.

Like most teachers, Beat hoped his students wouldn’t Google his name. But like most students, they did and asked about his music in class. “You can’t hide,” he said. “They found my Twitter, too.”

During last period on a recent Friday, Beat tried to teach his world history class about the timeline of events in World War II through a Jeopardy-style trivia game. He read from Winston Churchill’s famous speech before the commons, hoping to rally his own troops. Of course, most of his students don’t find history as exciting as he does, especially on a Friday afternoon. One girl threw a pen at another’s head while a boy in the back closed his eyes in apparent weariness.

Unimpeded, Beat pushed through the lesson. At 29, he’s been teaching only about a year and half. The presidents project started long before, he said, when indie pop musician Sufjan Stevens announced his intent to write albums dedicated to each of the 50 U.S. states. “I saw that and I thought, ‘This is so cool. I want to do something like this,’ ” Beat said.

An obvious fit: Beat’s longstanding fascination with the presidents. He memorized them in order while in grade school.

“I was just fascinated that one person that was just kind of thrust into that position wasn’t necessarily that significant before,” he said.

Beat’s musical forays aren’t limited to analyzing commanders-in-chief. He has been writing music about all kinds of topics — the perils of high school, the necessity of dental hygiene — since middle school. A few years ago he teamed up with Paul Santos, creator of the Felt Show in Lawrence, to help write for Santos’ popular adult puppet show.

“His lyrics really just kind of stuck out and he seemed like somebody who has a good sense of humor,” Santos said.

Beat’s songs start as melodies recorded on his phone. He adds lyrics and instrumentation later with his laptop. Beat doesn’t perform much, but when he does, Santos said he’s good at engaging the audience.

“He’s a very lively performer,” Santos said. “I could see him performing in a room with five people and have the same energy as if he were playing in front of 500. He’s doing it because he believes in it.”

Quiz: Better know a president

Match the song lyrics to the president. (Answers in the box at right)

1. He died his second year in office / Of not poison but stomach flu. / He was too non-political. / Hey, isn’t that a good thing?

2. A military hero of the War of 1812 / Defied the odds in the Battle of New Orleans. / Invaded Spanish Florida, captured Pensacola / Was the first “common man” to win the presidency.

3. Who helped write the Declaration of Independence? Who negotiated a peace treaty with Britain? Who spent eight years behind Washington to learn the ropes? Who would someday get his own HBO TV show?

4. He was Virginia’s governor. / Built a mansion called Monticello. / He was a Renaissance man. / There wasn’t much he could not do.

5. Another dough face. Only President to never marry. / Elected five times to the House of Representatives. / Minister to Russia, a decade in the Senate. / and Secretary of State / in politics too long.

6. From Tennessee and a lawyer, he smelled just like Jackson. / Speaker of the House and governor, he hated taxes. / A dark horse candidate, his campaign stood for expansion. / He wanted Texas, Oregon, California — yeah all of it!

7. The Fox of Kinderhook / Played things by the book. / Opportunities, he took / And yes, he had the look.

Answers

 1. Zachary Taylor. 2. Andrew Jackson. 3. John Adams. 4. Thomas Jefferson. 5. James Buchanan. 6. James Polk. 7. Martin Van Buren.

Read more: http://inkkc.com/content/talkers-american-history-has-a-musical-champion/#ixzz1M5B976wR

Here is a wonderfully written article in the Blue Valley High School paper about Electric Needle Room.  BVH student Emily Brown did a fantastic job!

Here you can see Electric Needle Room on TV on the Blue Valley High School TV station.

See, I told you they were famous...at Blue Valley High School!

Blue Valley's Tiger TV March 2011 from Tiger TV on Vimeo.

Here is a link to the review.

Stupid questions

The Electric Needle Room tackles the presidency -- in song

By Luke X. Martin, Thu., Feb. 24 2011 @ 7:35AM

​Chances are, you're not quite who you set out to be when you were in high school. Making it as a professional athlete takes more dedication and genetic predisposition than most people have, and those dreams of touring the country with your band are long gone.

But this is America: land of the free, home of the brave. A place where anyone can grow up to be president. Right?

The fact is, the U.S. presidency is one of the most elite and elusive clubs out there, with a total membership of exactly 43 in nearly 222 years. So, with his prospects for becoming the leader of the free world getting dimmer and dimmer by the day, Overland Park musician and part-time history teacher Matt Beat is doing the next best thing: He's writing a song about each president.

The Kansas native's band, Electric Needle Room, has been making quirky indie pop under one name or another since the mid-'90s. Their latest effort, The Presidents of the United States of America, Volume 1, is a lo-fi chronicling of the careers of the first 15 presidents. (Expect the second volume next year.)

"I've always been fascinated with presidents for some reason," Beat admitted recently during a phone interview. "I memorized the presidents in order when I was, like, 10," he said. "It was extremely dorky."

The same can be said of the new album, officially released on Presidents Day, Feb. 21 (go figure). It's filled with delightful melodies and easy-to-remember hooks that split the difference between Ween and the theme song to Home Movies with some synthesizer thrown in for good measure.

"The songs are really about the legacy of each president," Beat said, "the good things and the bad things." He means that literally. Can't seem to remember who the last Whig president was, or which was the first to be born an American citizen? Look no further than "Millard Fillmore," a bouncy summer jam, and the delicate "Martin Van Buren," respectively. The album might be the perfect companion to your next game of Trivial Pursuit.

Despite the esoteric subject matter and the obviously low recording budget, if not taken too seriously, The Presidents of the United States of America is intensely accessible. The album runs the gamut, from the straight-up indie-pop opener "George Washington" to the synth-heavy "Thomas Jefferson."

Ultimately, the album is a labor of love. "It's something I've always wanted to do, I just now got around to doing it," Beat said. As for his own presidential aspirations, Beat seems to have put them on hold. For now, he'll stick to what he does best: making smart, slightly off-center pop music.

Download the album here for free.

Get it here on Bandcamp, and pay whatever you want for it. You can have it for free, or you can have it for $1 million, but nothing in between! Just kidding! But I wasn't kidding about downloading it! Download it now!

Here's a nice review of the album...

http://lukexmartin.tumblr.com/post/3384715160/enrpotus1

Chances are you’re not quite who you set out to be when you were in high school. Making it as a professional athlete takes more dedication and genetic predisposition than most people have and those dreams of touring the country with your band are long gone.

But this is America, land of the free, home of the brave. A place where anyone can grow up to be president. Right?

The fact is, the U.S. presidency is one of the most elite and elusive clubs out there, with a total membership of exactly 43 in nearly 222 years. So, with his prospects for becoming the leader of the free world getting dimmer and dimmer by the day, Overland Park musician and part-time history teacher Matt Beat is doing the next best thing; He’s writing a song about each president.

The Kansas-native’s band, Electric Needle Room, has been making quirky indie pop under one name or another since the mid-90s. The latest effort, “The Presidents of the United States of America, Volume 1,” is a lo-fi chronicling of the careers of the first 15 presidents (expect a second volume next year).

“I’ve always been fascinated with presidents for some reason,” Beat admitted recently during a phone interview. “I memorized the presidents in order when I was like ten,” he said. “It was extremely dorky.”

The same can be said of the new album, which will be officially released on Presidents Day, Feb. 21 — go figure. It’s filled with delightful melodies and easy-to-remember hooks that split the difference between Ween and the “Home Movies” theme song with some synthesizer thrown in for good measure.

“The songs are really about the legacy of each president,” Beat said, “the good things and the bad things,” and he means that literally. Can’t seem to remember who the last Whig president was, or which was the first to be born an American citizen? Look no further than “Millard Fillmore,” a bouncy summer jam (and my personal favorite), and the delicate “Martin Van Buren,” respectively. The album might just be the perfect companion to your next game of Trivial Pursuit.

Despite the esoteric subject matter and the obviously low recording budget, if not taken too seriously, “The Presidents of the United States of America” is intensely accessible. The album runs the gamut, from the straight-up indie-pop opener “George Washington” to the synth-heavy “Thomas Jefferson.”

Ultimately, the album is a labor of love. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I just now got around to doing it,” Beat said. As for his own presidential aspirations, Beat seems to have put them on hold. For now, he’ll stick to what he does best; making smart, slightly off-center pop music.

You can catch Electric Needle Room at 7p tonight at the Black Dog Coffeehouse in Lenexa, or check out the official CD release show on Feb. 21, at The Riot Room. Cover is $5 and includes a copy of “The Presidents of the United States of America, Volume 1.” You can also download the album from ENR’s bandcamp website.

First of all, here is another great review of the President album featured in Luke Martin's "Upstanding downstyle" blog.

The time is near! Presidents Day is Monday! That is also the official release date for our album about the first 15 Presidents of the United States of America. "The Presidents of the U.S.A. (Volume 1)" will be available on Bandcamp, Amazon, Itunes, CD Baby, and many more places.

To celebrate, we are playing two CD release shows. The first one will be at the Black Dog Coffeehouse in Lenexa, KS at 7pm on tonight. The second one will be at the Riot Room in Kansas City, MO at 9pm on Monday with Panda Circus and Fire in the Churchyard. Compact discs of the album will be available at both shows. Come to both of them! It will be fun!

If you live out of the Kansas City metropolitan area, then you can still purchase the album for "name your price" RIGHT NOW through bandcamp. Click here to download it for free or download it for $1 billion, or even a price in between!

Ever wanted to learn more about Martin Van Buren? WELL NOW HERE'S YOUR CHANCE.

Here is a link to the review

Electric Needle Room

The Presidents of the Unites States of America (Vol . 1)

Released: 2011

Kansas indie posters Electric Needle room do a concept album? That’s one way of looking at. Another way would be to assume that their former – and no doubt psychotic – history teacher had tracked them down and made them write songs at gunpoint about the first fifteen American presidents and they had better make it educational while they were at it. Or it would be brains on the wallpaper.

Low budget is the best way of describing the production values with little sign that any of these fifteen songs cost any more to record than, say, a cinema ticket. Oddly enough, that adds to the charm (if that’s the word to use) of this earnest little project and, as a bonus, I felt so much smarter after listening too for I now know that George Washington is the only president to receive 100% of the electoral votes. Not that there isn’t a bit of subversion hiding in there too with a recalcitrant reappropriation of a dance floor riff taking place in “Andrew Jackson”. Nearly forgot – Martin Van Buren was the first president to be born an American citizen. See, my synapses are now crackling with pub quiz knowledge.

There’s a point of view that would suggest that if the creative muse takes you back to school then you aren’t spending nearly enough time with strippers. Writing songs about the first fifteen presidents of the Unites States is the dumbest idea for an album that I’ve heard this year (but it is only February…) but it gave me a laugh and I’m already waiting for the hardcore club remixes that must surely follow this release.

Review by: Bluesbunny

Volume 1 of The Presidents of the United States of America will be available everywhere on February 21st. We will be playing two CD release shows to celebrate- one at Blackdog Coffeehouse in Lenexa on Feb. 19th, and one at The Riot Room in KCMO on Feb. 21st (Presidents Day!). The album will feature 15 songs about American Presidents, from George Washington to James Buchanan. More details to follow soon!