The Simple Carnival

Pittsburgh, PA, USA (SANEPR.com) October 1, 2008 -- The Simple Carnival, a one-man-band recording project, today announced the release of its full-length debut album, Girls Aliens Food. The album can be purchased through CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon, and www.simplecarnival.com.

Jeff Boller, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist behind The Simple Carnival, describes the album's sound as "what might happen if The Beach Boys and Harry Nilsson collaborated on Sesame Street." Reviewers of The Simple Carnival’s previous EP release, Me and My Arrow, not only agreed, but heaped lavish praise: IndiePages declared every track as "A-side material," Bill’s Music Forum characterized the EP as "infectious," and Russell’s Reviews christened Boller "a Nilsson for the modern generation."

Girls Aliens Food's twelve tracks sparkle with a late-seventies AM pop radio feel: sunshine pop-influenced harmonies, soaring melodies, tack piano, handclaps, and vintage keyboards dominate. Jangly guitars make several appearances, but any angst-ridden rock influences are curiously absent.

Beneath the bubbly songs about college campus alien invasions, lovesick joggers, and the joys of trespassing is a surprising amount of emotional resonance: "I wanted to make an album that was both fun and serious at the same time," Boller says. "I like the idea of something that can be enjoyed for what it is on a surface level, but carries some weight for those willing to dig a little deeper."

The opening track on Girls Aliens Food, "Really Really Weird," has been making the rounds on YouTube with a humorously low-budget animated video, and has been viewed over 6,000 times as of this writing. Boller says: "I used construction paper, glue, and some free computer programs to piece the cartoon together. Because the reaction to the video has been so good, I'm now holding a remix contest, where the grand prize is one of the keyboards I used on the song."

While The Simple Carnival's recordings often sound like a live band with orchestral embellishments, in reality Boller plays all thirty or so featured instruments himself, layering their sounds one at a time in his basement studio. Even the party chatter in "Cocktails" is all Boller’s voice.

"I used to create productions for other people where I had technology simulating the sound of live instruments," he explains. "Eventually I realized that most of my favorite records didn't use those techniques, so I sold everything and started over. I began acquiring various instruments and learned to play them so I could match the sounds I was hearing in my head."

The things Boller discovered on his journey to becoming a one-man-band are reflected in his musician-centric blog, Songs and Sonics (www.songsandsonics.com). "I’ve been fortunate to interview some of my influences, like Sean O’Hagan from The High Llamas, as well as other artists whose work I admire. I get them to talk in-depth about areas of songwriting and recording that most music magazines don’t touch. Their answers are often inspiring to read, so now I have all kinds of ideas I want to try on my next album."