Album Notes

"Timeless ballads full of explosive dynamics, strange instrumentation and ethereal harmonies." - Steve LaBate, Paste Magazine

"On its first step out of the gate, Piñataland has proven itself an incredible musical force. Songs for the Forgotten Future Vol. 1 is nothing less than a masterpiece." - Justin Vellucci, Delusions of Adequacy

"Eclectic...fascinating" - Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker

"The surprise is how melodiously their antique-garde music pulls off the absurdly ambitious historical concept." - Chuck Eddy, The Village Voice

"Lyrically rooted in the bohemian rags of Tom Waits and musically as expansive and lush as any Jon Brion production." - Erik Pepple, Sponic

"Piñataland isn't about rock and roll, it's about time-travel...this is a strange, unexpected and in many ways really wonderful album. Whatever you might be expecting from it, it's likely not to be what you thought it would be." - John Scalzi, Indiecrit

"An artsy blend of ornate chamber-pop orchestration and the woozy ambience of early Tom Waits...a remarkable musical and lyrical depth...adventurous listeners will find them fascinating." - Stewart Mason, Amplifier/All Music Guide

"History music that makes you smarter and a better person for listening to it." - Roctober Magazine

"Refreshingly original...Pinataland's penchant for historical perspective seems to know no bounds...the yearning folksy strum and woozy twang propel it beyond the realm of a tuneful history lesson. In their hands, it becomes a stirring meditation on the definably human theme of promises broken, of being fucked over by uncontrollable forces. That it's done to a searingly lonesome country-inflected twang, augmented by strings, tuba, piano and all manner of vintage instrumentation, is almost besides the point." - Allan Harrison, Splendid Magazine

"Amazing and varied work...nothing less than inspired." - Shredding Paper Magazine

A startling alchemy of strange-but-true history, haunting instrumentation, and sterling songwriting, Piñataland have become experts at conjuring the sad strangeness of history to life with violin, tuba, accordion, guitar and drums. The band's music, lurching from the epic and grandiose to the aching and elegiac, evokes some never-existing strain of pre-WWII chamber-rock.

They have performed in the dark underground of the historic Atlantic Avenue Subway Tunnel (underneath Atlantic Avenue and Court Streets in Brooklyn); on a loading dock at the New York Times Building (where they were celebrating - uninvited - the 5th anniversary of the Time's switch to color printing); the American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Film Festival (in honor of onetime museum resident Ota Benga); the Thomas Edison Historic Site (where they demonstrated wax cylinder recording), and, of course, Coney Island. The band has also been featured on NPR's All Songs Considered, performed on New Jersey's famed WFMU and mounted their own multi-media show in 2001 at HERE Theater in NYC.