Apex Manor

"a strong blend of power pop, blue-eyed soul and bar rock" --BLURT! MAGAZINE

"an album that might seem superficially bright and shiny, but the edges are sharper than they appear." --THE AV CLUB

"Flournoy's Apex Manor debut eclipses his previous band's work in energy, enthusiasm, and power pop effervescence." --UNDER THE RADAR

"it's catchy, it's happy, it's nostalgic." --BUST MAGAZINE

"You might catch yourself tapping a toe upon first listen, as if you already know the song" --BUST MAGAZINE

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ross Flournoy spent a lot of afternoons in 2009 staring at the San Gabriel Mountains, trying to find the peak where Leonard Cohen had lived during his time as a monk. He never found it.

Having relocated from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles to Pasadena, Flournoy was enjoying suburban tranquility, but his car wouldn’t start and he found himself isolated from the people and places he was familiar with. His band, The Broken West, was on the rocks, eventually breaking up in mid-2009. He whiled away the days cleaning the house, sitting on the porch, and splitting tallboys with the gardeners who worked nearby. And battling a case of writer’s block.

Enter an unlikely source of inspiration: an online songwriting contest. NPR’s Monitor Mix was soliciting original songs from readers, giving the prospective songwriter one weekend to write, record, and submit. Flournoy decided to give it a go and set about writing and recording at home. At least he would be doing something with his time. The song, “Under the Gun,” turned out to be about the process itself.

Feeling inspired for the first time in months, Flournoy teamed up with former Broken West bandmate Brian Whelan to record some proper demos, and Apex Manor was born. Named after his Los Angeles “zen place,” Apex Manor was the idyllic apartment of his close friend and long-time collaborator Adam Vine.

“The Apex Manor songs definitely feel a lot more honest than what I have written before. Though it might not be apparent to the listener, every word makes sense to me, every song feels like an expression of my feelings. That’s an accomplishment I have never been able to lay claim to before.”

Flournoy headed for the studio in the spring of 2010 to lay down the tracks for what would become The Year of Magical Drinking. Recorded at three different studios around and about LA, the album was produced by Dan Long and Whelan, with engineering assistance from Vine. Flournoy and Whelan handled most of the instrumental duties, with Andy Creighton, Derek Brown (Everest) and Rob Douglass (Everest) chipping in as needed. Dan Iead of the Broken West offered up a guitar track on one song (“I Know These Waters Well”), while Merge labelmates Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds) and Annie Hayden (Spent, Annie Hayden) chimed in with vocal tracks.

“Once the basics had been recorded, Brian and I set about discussing, deliberating, drinking, discussing some more, arranging, and finally overdubbing. As the songs began to take shape, an arc—a narrative, of sorts—started to make itself clear; a sequence emerged.”

The Year of Magical Drinking is, in the best possible sense of the word, a songwriter’s album. Flournoy deftly marries self-reflective lyrics with buoyant melodies to muster up the bright illumination of redemption.

The record closes with a song called “Coming To,” about which Flournoy says, “In some sense it’s literally about coming to—coming to one’s senses, coming to some kind of understanding or acknowledgment of one’s life and one’s faults. That’s the hopeful part—what remains to be seen is whether or not that newfound understanding is put to use, so to speak.”

Apex Manor is Ross Flournoy, Adam Vine, Brian Whelan, and Andy Creighton.

"a strong blend of power pop, blue-eyed soul and bar rock" --BLURT! MAGAZINE

"an album that might seem superficially bright and shiny, but the edges are sharper than they appear." --THE AV CLUB

"Flournoy's Apex Manor debut eclipses his previous band's work in energy, enthusiasm, and power pop effervescence." --UNDER THE RADAR

"it's catchy, it's happy, it's nostalgic." --BUST MAGAZINE

"You might catch yourself tapping a toe upon first listen, as if you already know the song" --BUST MAGAZINE

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ross Flournoy spent a lot of afternoons in 2009 staring at the San Gabriel Mountains, trying to find the peak where Leonard Cohen had lived during his time as a monk. He never found it.

Having relocated from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles to Pasadena, Flournoy was enjoying suburban tranquility, but his car wouldn’t start and he found himself isolated from the people and places he was familiar with. His band, The Broken West, was on the rocks, eventually breaking up in mid-2009. He whiled away the days cleaning the house, sitting on the porch, and splitting tallboys with the gardeners who worked nearby. And battling a case of writer’s block.

Enter an unlikely source of inspiration: an online songwriting contest. NPR’s Monitor Mix was soliciting original songs from readers, giving the prospective songwriter one weekend to write, record, and submit. Flournoy decided to give it a go and set about writing and recording at home. At least he would be doing something with his time. The song, “Under the Gun,” turned out to be about the process itself.

Feeling inspired for the first time in months, Flournoy teamed up with former Broken West bandmate Brian Whelan to record some proper demos, and Apex Manor was born. Named after his Los Angeles “zen place,” Apex Manor was the idyllic apartment of his close friend and long-time collaborator Adam Vine.

“The Apex Manor songs definitely feel a lot more honest than what I have written before. Though it might not be apparent to the listener, every word makes sense to me, every song feels like an expression of my feelings. That’s an accomplishment I have never been able to lay claim to before.”

Flournoy headed for the studio in the spring of 2010 to lay down the tracks for what would become The Year of Magical Drinking. Recorded at three different studios around and about LA, the album was produced by Dan Long and Whelan, with engineering assistance from Vine. Flournoy and Whelan handled most of the instrumental duties, with Andy Creighton, Derek Brown (Everest) and Rob Douglass (Everest) chipping in as needed. Dan Iead of the Broken West offered up a guitar track on one song (“I Know These Waters Well”), while Merge labelmates Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds) and Annie Hayden (Spent, Annie Hayden) chimed in with vocal tracks.

“Once the basics had been recorded, Brian and I set about discussing, deliberating, drinking, discussing some more, arranging, and finally overdubbing. As the songs began to take shape, an arc—a narrative, of sorts—started to make itself clear; a sequence emerged.”

The Year of Magical Drinking is, in the best possible sense of the word, a songwriter’s album. Flournoy deftly marries self-reflective lyrics with buoyant melodies to muster up the bright illumination of redemption.

The record closes with a song called “Coming To,” about which Flournoy says, “In some sense it’s literally about coming to—coming to one’s senses, coming to some kind of understanding or acknowledgment of one’s life and one’s faults. That’s the hopeful part—what remains to be seen is whether or not that newfound understanding is put to use, so to speak.”

Apex Manor is Ross Flournoy, Adam Vine, Brian Whelan, and Andy Creighton.

"a strong blend of power pop, blue-eyed soul and bar rock" --BLURT! MAGAZINE

"an album that might seem superficially bright and shiny, but the edges are sharper than they appear." --THE AV CLUB

"Flournoy's Apex Manor debut eclipses his previous band's work in energy, enthusiasm, and power pop effervescence." --UNDER THE RADAR

"it's catchy, it's happy, it's nostalgic." --BUST MAGAZINE

"You might catch yourself tapping a toe upon first listen, as if you already know the song" --BUST MAGAZINE

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ross Flournoy spent a lot of afternoons in 2009 staring at the San Gabriel Mountains, trying to find the peak where Leonard Cohen had lived during his time as a monk. He never found it.

Having relocated from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles to Pasadena, Flournoy was enjoying suburban tranquility, but his car wouldn’t start and he found himself isolated from the people and places he was familiar with. His band, The Broken West, was on the rocks, eventually breaking up in mid-2009. He whiled away the days cleaning the house, sitting on the porch, and splitting tallboys with the gardeners who worked nearby. And battling a case of writer’s block.

Enter an unlikely source of inspiration: an online songwriting contest. NPR’s Monitor Mix was soliciting original songs from readers, giving the prospective songwriter one weekend to write, record, and submit. Flournoy decided to give it a go and set about writing and recording at home. At least he would be doing something with his time. The song, “Under the Gun,” turned out to be about the process itself.

Feeling inspired for the first time in months, Flournoy teamed up with former Broken West bandmate Brian Whelan to record some proper demos, and Apex Manor was born. Named after his Los Angeles “zen place,” Apex Manor was the idyllic apartment of his close friend and long-time collaborator Adam Vine.

“The Apex Manor songs definitely feel a lot more honest than what I have written before. Though it might not be apparent to the listener, every word makes sense to me, every song feels like an expression of my feelings. That’s an accomplishment I have never been able to lay claim to before.”

Flournoy headed for the studio in the spring of 2010 to lay down the tracks for what would become The Year of Magical Drinking. Recorded at three different studios around and about LA, the album was produced by Dan Long and Whelan, with engineering assistance from Vine. Flournoy and Whelan handled most of the instrumental duties, with Andy Creighton, Derek Brown (Everest) and Rob Douglass (Everest) chipping in as needed. Dan Iead of the Broken West offered up a guitar track on one song (“I Know These Waters Well”), while Merge labelmates Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds) and Annie Hayden (Spent, Annie Hayden) chimed in with vocal tracks.

“Once the basics had been recorded, Brian and I set about discussing, deliberating, drinking, discussing some more, arranging, and finally overdubbing. As the songs began to take shape, an arc—a narrative, of sorts—started to make itself clear; a sequence emerged.”

The Year of Magical Drinking is, in the best possible sense of the word, a songwriter’s album. Flournoy deftly marries self-reflective lyrics with buoyant melodies to muster up the bright illumination of redemption.

The record closes with a song called “Coming To,” about which Flournoy says, “In some sense it’s literally about coming to—coming to one’s senses, coming to some kind of understanding or acknowledgment of one’s life and one’s faults. That’s the hopeful part—what remains to be seen is whether or not that newfound understanding is put to use, so to speak.”

Apex Manor is Ross Flournoy, Adam Vine, Brian Whelan, and Andy Creighton.