Christmas Layaways: Chicago Indie Rock Band the Layaways to Release Holiday Album

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 1, 2009 -- Chicago, IL, December 3, 2009 -- Indie rockers the Layaways will release "Maybe Next Year," a 10-track holiday album on 12/08/09. The collection features the band's off-kilter arrangements of Yuletide classics such as "O Christmas Tree," "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," and "Silent Night," as well as several holiday-themed original songs.

The new album is an equal mix of vocal and instrumental tracks and expands on a 2006 holiday EP that began as a break from work on the band's previous album of original music. "Coming up with new arrangements for songs we'd been listening to all our lives was a great creative exercise -- and a lot of fun," said guitarist David Harrell, founder of the Layaways. "We tried to preserve elements of the classic melodies while departing from the standard arrangements of the songs." The band's re-imaginings of holiday classics proved popular with its fans and drew praise from music bloggers, with a reviewer at the Free Christmas Music blog declaring the band's take on "Silent Night" to be "...one of the best versions of 'Silent Night' I have ever heard."

Other highlights of the new album include an indie-rock take on "Auld Lang Syne," a noisy, guitar-driven version of "Angels We Have Heard On High" and a piano-with-backwards-guitar arrangement of "Away In A Manger."

As part of a pre-release promotion, the entire album is currently available as a digital download from Bandcamp.com for just $2.99. The album is also available from Amazon.com, Napster, Rhapsody, and Lala.com, and will be coming to iTunes and eMusic shortly.

For more information, or to receive a digital review copy of the album, please contact David Harrell, 312-498-3281 or info@thelayaways.com.

Hi-resolution album art:
http://www.thelayaways.com/images/MNY_cover.gif

Free album MP3s:

O Christmas Tree
http://www.thelayaways.com/sounds/The_Layaways_MNY_O_Christmas_Tree.mp3

Away In A Manger
http://www.thelayaways.com/sounds/The_Layaways_Away_In_A_Manger.mp3

About the Layaways

The Layaways have released three albums of original material on their Mystery Farm Records imprint. The band's 2008 album, "The Space Between" album received coast-to-coast college radio airplay, as well as critical praise for its melancholy pop hooks:

"...their latest disc, The Space Between, is about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute PowerPop

"Their bittersweet, melodramatic indie pop hooks tap into a kind of universal woeful lament that anyone can relate to at some point in time in their lives." -- The Obsessive Compulsive Music Disorder

"Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening. Yes, they're so good that they induce spontaneous neology." -- 3hive

"...the Chicago trio of Nathan Burleson, Mike Porter, and David Harrell make modest, moving, refreshingly un-mentalist guitar pop."
--KDHX Radio Blog

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