we're four guys and we formed a band.
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Also DOWNLOAD VIVA OLE' FROM itunes.
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Press:
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"There is no more reliable source for mild-mannered, up-lifting hymns of longing and reflection than The Contingencies. ["Simone"] is another example of how heartache, talent, and electricity combine to make music that is at once elegiac and cutting edge." - localistmagazine.com
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"The first notes of Viva Ole hit the ear with promise, clearing the way for Dan Johnson’s fluid vocals. The Contingencies come in the wake of a pop tradition that has lately grown more reverent of its late 70s-early 80s ancestors, but they are noticeably more comfortable with a broader reservoir of sound. The artistic elements of the album remained precisely balanced throughout, a fact acutely illustrated by “A Love”. Here the politely driving guitar and brooding bass prop up the excellently produced vocals, never overshadowing them. “Up in the Clouds” is a euphoric ode to joy that seems almost youthful compared to the rest of these songs. The Contingencies distinguish themselves from their peers in the pop world by allowing their sound more breadth than a lot of major record companies would be comfortable with. The last track, “Window Unit (Head Mix)”, leaves us in a pulpy setting more sparse than we might have expected from the beginning. Imagine dusty roads and windblown locals all equally beaten down, day after day, by an excruciating, dry desert heat. At risk of beating a metaphor senseless, I can’t decide if this album is a cool drink or a bucket-in-the-face of ice water for the current rhythm rock establishment. After the last track fades away, though, either one is welcome; so I just start the album over." - localist magazine
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"The Contingencies debut album has this amazing ability to pull me back some fifteen years, dropping me back into my freshman year at college when the world was a little sharper, brighter, and I felt eager to jump into each day. Viva Ole, in a crisp set of fourteen tracks, wrap[s] up into a tidy package much of the music I was introduced to at the time when I work the over night at the college radio station. There are elements of Sugar, Dinosaur Jr., The Bog Men, and even glimpses of The Pretenders and the 70's work of Elvis Costello, all of which the band's label admits might be considered a touch anachronistic in todays indie-rock scene. That aside, the album is a nice backward-leaning yet forward-moving album that mines the best of the college rock scene that defined the Alternative genre in the late 80's and early 90's.
Dead center in the album are the best examples of The Contingencies brand of bright, shimmering rock with reverb damp guitars and chorus soaked vocals. "Up In The Clouds" presents a tight guitar line that struts about the song like a hopped up folk riff shinning in all its sharp angularness. Towards the end of the song the direction shifts to a more sprawling and slightly grittier feel that alludes to how the band might come off as a live act: loose and largely unconcerned with conventional structures, instead opting to play to the mood of the audience. "Nameless" follows, offering moody vocals that drift outside of the composition buoyed on waves [of] guitar with the treble boosted to the point of sounding like a series of shattered mirrors. "Ruthless Prix" sees them shift up to a sound reminiscent of The Bogmen circa "Closed Captioned Radio" with grit beginning to push aside the brighter tones.
While I'm not as well informed as my partners in crime here at CP headquarters, I have a decent handle on what makes my heart race and this album does. For the sheer nostalgia factor, Viva Ole easily makes my Best of 2006 list. [With] its shimmering guitars and crisp production, the album tosses me back to those days when almost everything I was listening to was new, exciting, and important. [To] spice up your next mix, throw "Proud As Punch" onto it and impress your friends and family with your taste." - candiedpop.com http://www.candiedpop.com/2006/09/26/the-contingencies-viva-ole/
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"In the last year as a fan of the Contingencies, I've seen them grow well past my initial expectations. At first, I found their sound extremely refreshing. Theirs is a style just recently forgotten, but sorely missed by many a music fan. They move with the mid-tempo likes of Yo la Tengo, and attack with similar fierce sonic hooks of those early to mid-nineties Matador, Teen Beat, and Simple Machines bands. Now, when I hear the Contingencies, I am still constantly refreshed by their original innovations of this as-yet-to-be-revisited sound, and even more everyday I grow impressed with their heart, eagerness, and their gradual appreciation for their own uniqueness." - Localist Magazine
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". The Contingencies play multi-faceted rock, at times evoking angular Television, mid-era Kinks, and the dreamy Jesus and the Mary Chain." - Little Rock Monthly
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"The Little Rock Quartet makes a huge investment in the tone of its dual guitar attack - clean and buzzy with dark overtones - and it pays off. You'll keep your ear attached to the band's debut waiting for a hook to bloom as it does with 'Proud As Punch'. The Contingencies come off more like an art project instead of a rock band. Give us a bit more red meat, chorus-verse-chorus songs and we're ready to follow where ever those guitars want to go." - Werner Trieschmann, Arkansas Democrat Gazette
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". A little bit sad, a little bit angry, a lot good. The Contingencies have a local, deserved, following. Get yourself a PBR, put on your best, heartbreak t-shirt and go brood in your slavery for the man" - the arkansas times' 'night on the prowl' http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/prowl/
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