Gentleman Auction House

Gentleman Auction House doesn’t subscribe to “less is more.” Initially starting out as a seven-piece, the St. Louis-based band has packed in three EPs and one full-length in under three years. The band continues to hit the road, winning over audiences with its dual-drummer rhythms, ebullient choruses and instinctive pop hooks. Such big thinking has won the band press in the pages of Spin, led to a Daytrotter.com session, a WOXY.com lounge act (and a #50 spot on their “97 Best of ’08”), and propelled the debut full-length, Alphabet Graveyard, to #31 on the CMJ Radio charts.

Led by singer and guitarist Eric Enger, the group first hit the stage in late 2005. Word quickly spread of the band’s magnetic live shows, and the group’s sound continued to evolve. Two years later, the quaint, melodic chamber-folk of their first EP had fused with a bolder sound that combined buoyant pop with rock’s raw energy and modern R&B’s use of heavy percussion and buzzing keyboards. GAH’s first two releases of 2008 (on Emergency Umbrella Records), The Book of Matches EP and Alphabet Graveyard, proved that a group of white Midwestern 20-somethings could corral rhythm and soul into something palpable and powerful.

To cap off an already overstuffed 2008, Gentleman Auction House released the Christmas in Love EP, featuring five original songs and a sleighful of holiday merriment. The success of the self-produced disc emboldened the band (now trimmed down to a sextet) to record its next full-length itself, a process that will begin in the summer of 2009. Until then, Gentleman Auction House will continue to think big and move forward, touring the land and writing songs that match modesty with big pop dreams in the way that only a group of affable young folk from St. Louis can.

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