VIA PRESS RELEASE | Independent Project Records (IPR) and the New York City three-piece Springhouse announced today that they will reissue the band’s 12-track album, From Now to OK on March 14. Originally released as a limited edition CD in 2008 by Independent Project Records, this edition will be released on vinyl, CD, and digital formats and includes a bonus CD of previously unreleased demos and live tracks. A single and video for the track “Moving Van” is out now. Full album details here.
From Now to OK captures Springhouse exploring a more acoustic, folk rock-indebted sound; still showing their trademark flair for dreamy melodic textures, the ever-Anglophile Springhouse can be heard embracing the late sixties influence of Nick Drake and The Beatles.
All physical formats will be presented in a beautiful package from master designer Bruce Licher. This new LP edition will be made available on black vinyl as well as clear orange vinyl (a super-limited translucent green tint vinyl of only 200 copies was released for RSD Black Friday in November of 2024). The new CD edition has been remastered by Josh Bonati and also includes the second bonus disc of demos and rarities, packaged with a folding insert in an oversized CD pocket folder letterpress-printed by hand at Independent Project Press.
New York trio Springhouse may be best remembered as the first major-signed, nationally touring US shoegaze band of the original era: a 1991 MTV video, “Layers,” a Rolling Stone feature and copious airplay brought notice to two memorable albums on the fabled Virgin Records’ subsidiary Caroline Records. The group started with a hot 1990 debut single for Singles Only (a label founded by Bob Mould, Maxwell’s Steve Fallon, and radio DJ Nick Hill) then signed to Caroline, who released their first two albums, 1991’s Land Falls (featuring superb design by IPR’s Bruce Licher) and 1993’s Postcards From the Arctic.
Springhouse were among the first Americans to cover My Bloody Valentine and share stages across the country with the likes of Ride, House of Love, The Chills, Psychedelic Furs, Belly, and Lemonheads. The three are also fondly recalled for their utterly unique contribution to the original dreampop movement/explosion: singer/songwriter Mitch Friedland exclusively played small, nylon-stringed acoustic guitars, heavily processed through customized pickups with wicked effects, while employing an endless battery of alternate tunings.
Amidst the trio’s melodic guitar-pop prowess, Friedland’s accentuation of latent sixties Britfolk underpinnings made them truly singular in the shoegaze/dreampop era. This, combined with bassist Larry Heinemann and drummer Jack Rabid’s supple yet sometimes more punky, bolstering attack, a crisp sound, exuberant ensemble playing, highly evolved arrangements, and a love of a tune to die for, proved to be their calling card.
All in all, Springhouse were one of New York’s, and the US’s, finest pre-Nirvana indie rock bands—and remain one whenever they choose to come out of retirement again.
