Pawnshop: Open for Business

Please return your trays and seatbacks to the upright position: Three Brass Balls, the debut album by East Village alterna-rockers Pawnshop, is wheeling through our airspace on wings of glorious sound. In a world of the tiresome and ephemeral, Pawnshop goes back to simple roots of melody, heart and personality, and makes an easy solid music that will set up house in your head if you let it.

Pawnshop is an indie rock/pop band from New York's East Village, centered here at Home Office Records and bringing the good noise step by step to the world. Picture if you will Joe Strummer after dinner at Lou Reed's place, talking with the guys from Buffalo Tom about whether Pete Yorn has got the chops; that would be Pawnshop playing in the background. If that rings your chimes (and those are fine chimes, where'd you get them?), then give a listen to some of our digital downloads and join the Pawnshop mailing list for e-lerts on what's coming down the pike. And let us know your thoughts.

Pawnshop's sound is trim and powerful, shaping jangle and jounce around the solid core of Sean Smith's honest, direct lyrics and soulful signature vocals. Nimble bass and hard-hitting potent percussion round their music into a strong, melodic package, full of impulse and drive and pared down to the barest bones of waste-not want-not rock. The band's roots run direct to the sweet ground of Lou Reed, The Clash, Iggy Pop and vintage David Bowie, but the fruits of the vine are all Pawnshop's own.

Pawnshop is currently performing in support of their debut album, Three Brass Balls. Nine months in the making like any healthy offspring, the CD is a full-length 12-track album packed with a music that is dynamic and new. Three Brass Balls covers Pawnshop's material from the early days on forward. In the time since the album's release, the band has forged ahead and is writing new material, putting all the pieces in place for coming new recordings.

Whazzup at Pawnshop Central: The band is making a comfortable home these days at the wild far edge of the East Village at Micky's Blue Room, where Pawnshop is a regular feature on the select Wednesday music series. With songs placed in the full-length independent film release Harwood and other indie film projects, with the Napster Featured Artist track "Who's to Blame" now spinning on the streaming radio shows at Label Free Radio, and with snippets to be heard here and there on ESPN's "The Life," there's always a bit of Pawnshop out and about in the world.

That Was Then, in a Nutshell: You're most likely to catch a Pawnshop show here in New York City or up in Newport, Rhode Island, where the band is a periodic pleasure amid friends old and new. Residencies in the City have included months at The Collins and at Micky's Blue Room (of course!), and the last time up in chilly wintry Newport RI the band opened for The Dictators, who still kick as much butt as they did back in the day (don't doubt it). After a feature spash and interview on the dear departed ROCKBAND.COM site, Pawnshop joined a summer promo mini-tour with other New York indie artists, playing shows in New Jersey and Pennsylvania solo and with a round-robin of road buddies. Their bassy bouncy tune "Who's to Blame" was a Featured Artist selection on Napster before that candy got taken away, sharing a promo page with cuts by Chuck D's Concentration Camp and Primitive Radio Gods, and a regional radio campaign following the release of Three Brass Balls had dozens of college and community stations throughout the northeast playing tracks for the masses. It's all good.

To stay abreast in the happening Home Office world, join up on the Pawnshop email news list and we'll keep you up to the latest.