The debut album,
30 years late.
Recorded at Fort Apache and Water Music 1988-93. Tapes stored in cardboard boxes 1993-2023. Baked, digitized and mastered in 2023.
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“Some lost albums should stay lost. Others you’re excited they were found, like uncovered time capsules discovered in attics or basements. Whomever preserved and baked these tapes did us a service.”
— Jack Rabid, Editor-in-Chief, The Big Takeover (full review here)
Falling Stairs was a band from Flushing, Queens in the late 80s/early 90s.
We played a couple of hundred shows, recorded at Fort Apache in Cambridge, MA (with producer Tim O’Heir: Buffalo Tom, Sebadoh, Superdrag, Come) and Water Music in Hoboken, NJ (with producer Rich Grula: Rage to Live, Freedy Johnston, Big Happy Crowd), we got some airplay around the country, a bunch of good press, then promptly imploded.
Fast, noisy, and melodic in the tradition of The Replacements, Gang of Four, The Feelies, The Stooges, R.E.M, and Soul Asylum, this collection of songs are a time capsule of a pre-digital recording era of American indie rock: anthemic, noisy, angry, poppy, and insistent.
Twelve songs were recorded and mixed on 2”, 1”—and even a VHS tape. We found a studio that could bake the magnetic recording tapes (so the ferric oxide particles containing all the music wouldn’t get scraped off the recordings) and digitized.
Upon hearing the songs for the first time in decades, we realized maybe this quad of misfits quit too soon.
So, 30 years later, we present the debut album by Falling Stairs.
THANKS FOR LISTENING!
—Charlie, John, John and John
"The list of Falling Stairs' influences could fill a page. Their self-pressed EP goes from 60s acoustic sound to some serious rave ups. And it covers a lot of bases in between. Someone could mistake it for a complilation, the way it jumps from style to style."
—Eric Flaum, The Bob, 1989
ALBUM CREDITS
Charles McEnerney: guitar and vocals (solo stuff on Soundcloud)
John McGrath: bass and vocals (solo stuff on Bandcamp)
John McLoughlin: drums
John Rice: lead guitar and vocals on 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12
Marc Silvert: lead guitar on 6, 10
Rich Grula: vocals on 3, 4, 5 and melodica on 3
© All songs by Falling Stairs except “Pills” by Ellas McDaniel, by way of The New York Dolls
Produced and engineered by Tim O’Heir at Fort Apache in Cambridge, MA in 1992-1993: 1, 2, 3.
Produced by Rich Grula at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ and Calliope Studios in NYC in 1988 and 1991: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Engineered by John Siket at Water Music: 3, 6, 10
Baked and digitized by Mark Donohue at Soundmirror in Jamaica Plain, MA
Mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound
Album Photography: John McGrath
Band Photography: Claire Cummins and Stefani Marnon
Album and website design: Adam Larson
Dedicated to Eric Flaum
THANK YOU
Rich Grula for giving us so much of your time and wisdom. Thanks for being a part of this, too.
Carole Rice, Maureen McGrath, Kathy McLoughlin, Stacey McEnerney for putting up with all kinds of craziness and giving us your support.
Stefani Marnon, Claire Cummins, Maureen McGrath, Stacey McEnerney, Kathy McLoughlin, and Carole Rice (and anyone else who ever helped us) for helping carrying equipment in and out of clubs, up and down stairs, and everywhere else.
Patricia, Eleanor & Eugene McEnerney and Marie & John McGrath Sr. for letting us rehearse so very loudly in their basements so many nights and all their neighbors who never called the cops on us.
John McGrath Sr. for letting us use the Vertical Elevator vans to drive to many a show all over metro New York and beyond.
Thank you to Stefani Marnon (nee Feller) for all her design expertise with our EP and show flyers.
Thank you to Stefani Marnon (nee Feller) Claire Cummins for the excellent band photography.
All our family and friends who came to see us live, bought our records, bought us beers, and generally encouraged us.
All the bars and clubs that booked us, including Brownie’s, CBGB’s, Downtown Beirut, The El-n-Gee, King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut, Lauterbach’s, Lismar Lounge, Maxwell’s, Nightingale’s, The Pool Bar, The Pyramid, The Right Track Inn, The Space at Chase, Tramps, and others we have long forgotten.
Adam Larson for helping with the design for “Life is a Kick Trial” and for encouraging Charlie to revisit Falling Stairs.
"I've played Falling Stairs' "That and a Quarter" EP continuously for days without realizing it. Have hummed the songs mindlessly in my head, paused to figure out who's tune it is, and be surprised it's Falling Stairs. This is infectious, raucous pop and I haven't been this excited over an EP in a long time."
—Jetlag, St. Louis, MO, 1987
"Six real fine originals and a raucous cover of "Pills" offer up a wide variety of sounds. There's a good deal of full-guitar, hard-pop rocking, an occasional flex of muscle, and a pleasant glimpse of acoustic lyricism."
—The Bob, Wilmington, DE, 1988
“We were slightly obsessed with independent music coming from Minneapolis, Hoboken, Athens, Boston, Melbourne, Washington, D.C., Austin, Sydney, Detroit, Amherst, Seattle, and our hometown of New York. It inspired us to pick up guitars, a bass, and drums and make our own kind of noise.”
- Charles Mcenerney
STREAM HERE
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ALBUM PHOTOGRAPHY BY OUR OWN JOHN McGRATH.
See more of John’s photography at johnmcgrathphotography.com.
