New York, NY (Top40 Charts) New Jersey-based alternative rock/power pop band
Little Falls Trophy is set to release its album, Dutch Motel, digitally on July 21, 2023 via Rock Ridge Music. (A limited edition 180-gram vinyl pressing will also be available exclusively on the
Little Falls Trophy website and at upcoming shows.) Every one of this galvanizing album's 11 songs are no mere dress rehearsals — they are all visceral chronicles of modern life being lived to the fullest.
Produced by the mastermind behind the music, Doug Albregts, Dutch Motel was recorded and edited at Hapgood Studios in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. It was mixed by noted engineer Josh Tyrrell (Mark Ronson, The Who, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Christine McVie,
James Morrison, Mark Knopfler) at Supervox Studios in London, and mastered by Joe Lambert at JLM (Joe Lambert Mastering) in Cortlandt Manor, New York. All guitars and lead vocals are by Albregts, while all the drumming comes courtesy of
Aaron Shafer-Haiss in Nashville, with the exception being the drums on "Autumn Audio," which were played and recorded by Dan Konopka of OK Go in Los Angeles.
The first single, "Thursday's Friday," was released on March 10, 2023, and the track premiered earlier that week at Glide Magazine, who praised the song, writing, "Tapping into the infectious qualities of many '90s rock acts, the song feels like it would be a radio hit in another era with its relatable lyrics, crashing guitars, and arena-ready drumming." The second single, "Autumn Audio" - a tender track that looks at the inevitable transitions that occur with the changing of the seasons - was released on May 12, 2023, and the track premiered two days prior at Chorus.fm, who wrote of the song, "On... 'Autumn Audio,'
Little Falls Trophy channels [Doug Albregts'] love of The
Beatles and great song arrangements in an electric hit."
From the high anxiety of being wrapped up in an endless loop of doomscrolling and day drinking that is the aforementioned "Thursday's Friday," to the modern upbeat club lilt meshed with feel-good '80s vibes in "Project 6636," to the plaintive widescreen jangle of "Universal," to the sneering disdain of mutual disrespect in "Irreverent," to the Replacements-esque lurch of album closer "Janie and Jimmy," Dutch Motel checks in as the fertile brainchild of a singer/songwriter/guitarist whose artistic maturation is coming to full fruition at the exact right time.
While the band name
Little Falls Trophy is a direct homage to a well-loved, family-owned trophy shop located in Albregts' home state of New Jersey, it's also meant to encompass the evocative broad-stroke ruminations of a 21st century American songwriter wholly in touch with the life-pulse of the cultural here and now. "Yeah, I'd say the name refers to Anywheretown, USA," admits Albregts.
Albregts traveled quite a long developmental road to get to where
Little Falls Trophy is today, taking his time to find his songwriting stride. "I started out as a bass player in my college band, and I've only been playing guitar seriously for the past 10 or 15 years," he explains. "Everyone I've played with since the late-1980s on into the early-2000s scene had a big influence on what I'm doing now, and that's where a lot of these songs are coming from. I always thought I had great ideas, and I finally had a songwriting breakthrough during Covid when I began writing about all the angst around us and the world we had become. Once that happened, all these new creative avenues opened up for me."
Albregts is happy to pursue the mysteries of the songwriting muse, and he's along for wherever the ride takes him. "This is something I always wanted to do, but I don't know where it all comes from — I really don't," he concedes, "and it's still coming. I've already been working on at least three more songs, because I can't stop doing it. As I get older and wiser and smarter and more creative, I think
Little Falls Trophy has taken on a life of its own. It's my passion, and all I want to do is keep writing music."
https://www.lftmusic.com/
