Towncrier

Towncrier does not redefine rock and roll. Rather, Towncrier’s vision of what rock and roll can be is making it better than it has been in a long time.

The band’s latest, The End and Everything After is packed with grizzled rockers, stirring ballads, and everything in between. Led by Jerry Lorenson’s passionate, vocals, steadied by R&B rhythms, electrified by explosive choruses, and filled out with epic keys and deftly placed synths, The End is Towncrier’s most diverse effort to date.

“We have developed our sound over the last couple of years so with this album we set out to make a record that captured that sound and that stands up to our live show,” Lorenson said of the album.

Towncrier got its start when its members were in high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1999. Lorenson and Ryan Plotz started out as a duo, playing mostly covers at their buddies' parties. After recording the “Shine” EP in 2002, the band started building its fanbase.

The band released its first full-length, <I>Without a Trace</I> in November 2004 and has since shifted its lineup. Backing Lorenson’s vocals, guitar and piano are drummer Will Locker, bassist Cory Talbot, and guitarists Ryan Plotz and Mike Staebell. “We have been through quite a few lineup changes for a young band but this one is by far the strongest,” notes Plotz, one of the band’s founding members.

With its most cohesive lineup, Towncrier recorded the fiery rock effort, The End and Everything After. The album opens with “The End,” led by an explosive chorus that propels the trajectory of the entire record.

The dark and driving “Say You Will,” with its pleading chorus, is the song Lorenson says he “connects with most at live shows. Certain music can change lives. This song can change lives. You will find what you need in these songs.”

Anyone who goes to a Towncrier show, or just listens to them on CD, knows that Lorenson's statement extends beyond that song and to The End and Everything After in its entirety. This is a band whose sound is soulful and genuine enough to already be deemed timeless.

Towncrier is currently bringing its captivating live show to a venue near you in support of The End and Everything After.