Office

Office is a Chicago based rock and roll band which has been in existence in one form or another since 2001. It started off as a "folktronic" project back in the year 2000, with only Scott Masson armed with a drum machine, piano, and an acoustic guitar. Sick of having that much pressure, Scott found comrades Tom Smith, Erica Corniel, Colin DeKuiper, and Jessica Gonyea. The band is known throughout the Chicago indie rock community for their high-quality songwriting, fancy pants bedroom production standards, inspired live performances, neutral positioning within their own musical landscape, and complete disregard for most critical feedback they receive, whether it's positive or negative. They have achieved cult-status in the last few years promoting a sound that has been described by SPIN (magazine) as "handclaps and sunny harmonies", which is ironic, since the lyrics are far from "sunny and fun." Their song "Wound Up" was downloaded over 322,000 times as the Single of the Week on the iTunes Music Store in May 2006, helping their demo album, 'Q&A', reach number 14 on the iTunes album charts, briefly beating out Tom Petty and Neil Young. This was all very bizarre to the band, since they recorded the album in Scott's bedroom. This self-released demo album was released in 2005 on a shoe-string budget, and the group experienced unexpected success following its release. The album held a spot in the iTunes top 100, while the band was performing shows at South by Southwest music festival in 2006 and 2007, CMJ, Mobfest, Midwest Music Conference, Pitchfork after parties, a set at Lollapalooza, and many more high-profile events. In October of 2006 the group signed with New Line Records and Scratchie Records, an independent label owned by James Iha, former guitarist of the Smashing Pumpkins.

The band's first release under the label is entitled A Night At The Ritz and was released on September 25, 2007. The album is an introduction to the band, based on material from the group's extensive catalogue, some new tunes, and a few extra tid-bits thrown in. Since the band has written nearly 100 songs since its inception in 2000, this debut compillation ironically serves as a sort of "greatest hits" collection for people who have never heard of Office before. Masson swears that the "real versions" of the songs can be found on "Q&A", which is long out-of-print. The material has been remastered for official release under Scratchie Records, and the band is almost finished with its next album, which will be quite a change from what the public has heard from this project in the past.

OFFICE prefers working outside the high-pressure, big-budget realm of music business politics and standard marketing models, so they chose to go back to their original methods of recording and conducting their creative lives. The Silent Parade, the band's next album, is a the end result of a year out of the public eye, and the band feels it's a departure in song-writing and pop production. OFFICE plans to release the album when the timing is right. Check the band's MySpace page and website for details re: shows, tours, merchandise, releases, and posted tracks.