The Simple Carnival is an orchestral pop recording project created by a guy named Jeff Boller.
Packed with soaring melodies and colorful instrumentation, The Simple Carnival aims to provide perky, darkly humorous, and mildly trippy songs you'll be humming throughout the day.
What does The Simple Carnival sound like?
Well, if the Beach Boys and Harry Nilsson collaborated on Sesame Street... Or if Burt Bacharach wrote songs for Electric Light Orchestra... Or if Billy Joel partied with Esquivel... Or... heck, just listen for yourself!
While The Simple Carnival appears to sound like a band with orchestral embellishments, all the parts are actually performed by one guy. Jeff sings, writes songs, and plays piano, guitar, bass, drums, flute, and a bunch of other toys. In addition to playing all the parts on The Simple Carnival's recordings, he's built some of the instruments too. Some of these projects are described in detail on his Songs and Sonics blog: http://www.songsandsonics.com
If you're new to The Simple Carnival, the best place to start is Girls Aliens Food, the debut album. It's also the most recent release. Girls Aliens Food contains 12 tracks, lots of "la la la" sing-along goodness, and many musical moments sure to put a smile on your face. It received rave reviews and made a number of critics' "Best of 2008" lists. (It even made someone's "Best of 2009" list!)
Currently, Jeff is writing the followup album to Girls Aliens Food and providing regular status updates on The Simple Carnival's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Simple-Carnival/147491852830 Unlike the previous releases, this album will not be a total one-man-band project -- other musicians will be making guest appearances.
