BLACK GOLD RELEASE DEBUT FULL LENGTH ALBUM ‘RUSH’ FEBRUARY 3 //“DETROIT” FEATURED AS iTUNES’ ‘SINGLE OF THE WEEK’

BLACK GOLD
RELEASE DEBUT FULL LENGTH ALBUM
‘RUSH’
FEBRUARY 3

“DETROIT” FEATURED AS iTUNES’ ‘SINGLE OF THE WEEK’ (10/7/08);
RECEIVES OVER 400,000 DOWNLOADS

ON TOUR NOW WITH POLYSICS AND JAGUAR LOVE

                                        —URB.COM, 10/08

From the infectious analog synth strut of “Detroit” to the soaring, alluring charge of “Run,” New York City’s BLACK GOLD have crafted what may be one of the warmest, most charming indie pop offerings in recent memory with their debut album RUSH, due out February 3, 2009. The duo–multi-instrumentalists ERIC RONICK and THAN LUU–first met on the set of “The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn” while working with different bands. From there, they forged the allegiance that reaped the sonic riches found on RUSH, of which Ronick says “No style or genre is off limits. We get a real kick out of taking from different artists, different periods, and putting our spin on it. Somehow we ended up with something cohesive that sounds, undeniably, like us.”

RUSH comes on the heels of their recently released EP Tragedy & Legacy, both of which feature the track “Detroit,” which was recently selected as iTunes’ “Single of the Week” (10/7/08) where it received over 400,000 downloads. The video for the track was directed by Steven Drypolcher of the Ghost Town Media collective and can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkPOCisNl4. BLACK GOLD was also picked as part of URB magazine’s “Next 1000” and is currently winning over fans across the country while on a club tour with Polysics and Jaguar Love.  

Ronick and Luu are veteran performers who have tested their respective wares by logging significant stage time with a variety of acts (Panic At The Disco, M. Ward, Ambulance Ltd., Rachael Yamagata and Adam Franklin of Swervedriver). They formed BLACK GOLD in early 2006 after crossing paths on the road and set up at Ronick’s Thinman Studios in Brooklyn, where they wrote and recorded the bulk of RUSH. After a flood wiped out Thinman, the pair retreated to the Venice, CA studio of the album’s co-producer and mixer Vincenzo LoRusso (Tricky, Cypress Hill, System of a Down, Joan Osborne) and completed the rest of the album.

“The very first time that we went into Eric’s studio together, we ended up writing and recording ‘Run’ in just a few hours,” Luu recalls. “We listened back to what we’d done at the end of the night and realized, ‘This really works!’” Ronick says, “Writing that song with Than was a defining moment.’”

The collective strength on RUSH–a unique listening experience by design–comes from an eagerness to draw on an array of styles and eras. Luu says, “It starts off more produced and dance-y, but it devolves into a more organic sound, just a band playing drums, guitar, piano and singing. The last song, ‘After the Flood,’ is just Eric on the piano, nothing else.” Additional highlights include the keenly constructed and superbly sung “Plans & Reveries,” the stripped-down vintage-Kinks-meets-Spoon vibe of “Silver” and the melodic punch of “Idols.”

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