Berry has been recording and releasing music since 2002. Our Albums are listed below, with buttons for purchase and download.
To stream our music in Spotify, click on the button above.
To stream our music in Spotify, click on the button above.
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An Unanswerable Question: After eighteen years and more than a dozen albums together, how does a band continue to innovate?
An Image: In an abandoned bank vault, four dandelions grow and bloom and wilt and by some miracle scatter themselves as far east as the Atlantic and as far west as the Rockies. A Metaphor: A Vault of Light is a mischievous ladder that for every rung climbed extends itself two new rungs. In 2016, the four members of Berry gathered in Nashville, TN where they quite literally locked themselves into an abandoned bank vault that their long-time collaborator Paul Klimson (John Legend, Erykah Badu, Kirk Douglas of The Roots) had converted into a makeshift studio. It was there that Berry began their most recent batch of songs, songs that found their origin in words. Months before, they had reinvented an old surrealist word game as a way to continue their creative collaboration while living in different cities. From these fragments, the band pieced together live recordings based on a collection of questions, images, and metaphors that draw inspiration from science, nature, and domestic life with its ever-present undertone of existential dread. Released on Joyful Noise Recordings t in September of 2021 as part of their Grey Area Cassette Series. After completing their 2010 LP, Blue Sky, Raging Sun (Joyful Noise Recordings), Berry parted ways from their home together in Chicago and made new homes as far west as Arizona and as far east as New York. Meeting weekly by phone and yearly in person for a sort of “musical vacation” together, Berry has never stopped pursuing the unique musical vision that has bonded them together for nearly fifteen years. Berry laid the foundation for Everything, Compromised on one of these vacations in Wichita, Kansas where Joey Lemon, the band’s lead singer, built a small recording studio with his father-in-law in an old pole barn. Live tracks were written and recorded in just four days, but the album really only began to take shape when Lemon handed over production reigns to Paul Klimson — a producer who has worked modestly alongside John Legend, Erykah Badu, and Kirk Douglas of The Roots. The result is an eclectic mix of carefully structured songs, where pop melodies soar over shifting time signatures, dissonant harmonies, and a heavier-than-usual dose of diminished-seventh chords. Lemon’s off kilter lyrics find meaning as they juxtapose such disparate characters as literary heros like Henry David Thoreau with pop culture villains like Martin Shkreli.
Vinyl Release January 12, 2018 |
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Berry recorded the live tracks to these songs in a pole barn in Wichita, KS.
Released October 30, 2012 |
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Songs from this record date to when Joey and Paul were about to attend a music school on Martha's Vineyard and go on to form Berry in the Summer of 2002.
Joey spent the summer working at Durley Camp. Paul spent the summer working for Conference Services at Greenville College. Joey had an idea to record some stuff, so that he wasn't heading into the semester on Martha's Vineyard empty-handed. The concept was simple: write, record, and mix down a song a day. The album was completed mostly by Joey, with an assist going to Paul Goodenough (and Chris Kavanaugh gets another assist). The result is an album filled with urgency that really hangs together. For anybody who enjoys Berry, the Pre-V Sessions (in spite of a somewhat disgraceful spoken word lyric) give an illuminating look at the development of one of the most critically-appreciated and commercially-ignored Greenville bands of the post-For All The Drifters-era. Released October 30, 2012 |
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The album draws its inspiration from the band's "Amtrak Tour 2008," in which Berry decided to scrap their trusty 15-passenger van and tour by train. They packed only the essentials - what fit in their arms and on their backs - but returned home with an exciting new sound. Contrarily, they also found the gloomy reality of the American music scene, but with it, a renewed vigilance to create. This is the dynamic force at the heart of this album..
Blue Sky, Raging Sun tumbles across twelve tracks of blurry musical terrain. Stark melodies pierce brooding arrangements. Cascading keyboards wash out into oceanic cymbal crashes. Sweat, love, experience, and disillusionment meld into an array of post-modern indie epics. Released January 1, 2010 |
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This 11 song EP is a pre-side of sorts for the full-length album "Blue Sky, Raging Sun." All of the songs both on the EP and on the LP are lyrical musings of a month long tour we took via Amtrak in 2008. Over the next two years we polished these songs, brought on a new bass player and slowly worked our way into the recording process.
All songs were tracked live (drums, bass, guitar, piano/keys) on an 8 track tape machine at our home in Chicago. They were then mixed down to a stereo track and built up from that grounding with vocals, additional percussion, guitars, keys and various other noises. The "21" pieces are parts of a larger work (if you add them together instead of listening in their album spaces you will have a closer idea) that we recorded at the end of each day of work on this album. We considered it part of the process of working and learning together as a group seeing how we could build a simple phrase (the "ceiling web") amidst different instrumentation 21 times. Released February 2, 2010 |
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Worker Bee will be your first wtf moment for this set of songs. Don't worry, it won't be your last! Just clap along and enjoy it!
It was our intention for this to be our 'children's album' and so, as you would expect, we wanted to swear about as inappropriately as possible. Hence, the F@!kin' Worms! I once saw Joey play this song on an acoustic guitar at an open mic...I started cracking up! ...but I don't think anyone else got it...Lighten up! The Birds is what I like to call 'Hitchcockian'. I think it could very well be one of the slowest songs in our ever-expanding catalogue. I keep sayin'...man, I was in punk/ska bands...I can't do this 'slow' thing... If you haven't listened yet, Kitty Kat is crazy. I am not sure where it came from. The idea was that we each got to make our own part...and then we schmush them together. Can you guess who created which section? It is probably obvious. I think I made this really hard for Joey. FATADITR gets the prestigious honor (redundant?) of being the longest berry song title ever. Don't worry. It's good. It may be the only song that makes sense! Released February 1, 2008 |
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Hope is the first song that Joey says he ever wrote with a theme in mind. That theme being Christmas/Advent. I think it was some what of a frustrating experience for him.
Peace is Paul's fairly depressing and, very appropriately, December sounding song. I think it has elements of Charlie Brown's Christmas and that really appeals to me. How about you? Joy...well, this is the very first song I have ever written. True story! I told myself I wouldn't write a 'song' until I could write a 'happy' song. And I kind of did that...so now that it is out of the way, expect my true self to shine--or the opposite thereof--through the next song I write...which may never happen. Anyway, I like to think this song is kind of a cross between Vanessa Carlton and Gustav Holst with some Animal Collective/'Pottymouth'/Kim Gordon elements. What do you think? Love is a song that made very little sense, in a sense, to me at first. But when it was all done it was very cool. And then we come home one day and Joey totally turned it into a Paper Route song! ...Jesus Train anybody? Unity/Christmas: Eerie at times. Rather lengthy. If you manage to download it and listen all the way through, I will personally buy you a smile from McDonalds. ...and a slice of cheese. Hope you enjoy our Advent creation. We very nearly came to blows a number of times over various things...but we survived. Released December 1, 2007 |
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Floundering is our punk rock song. Not that I believe punk is a sound or is characterized by a certain drum beat or bass distortion; but that is what makes this song punk. duh.
Running (aka Runnin' from Place to Place) has one of my favorite, most Grandaddy-influenced parts. Can you tell? Spitting (aka Spit on the Map) is another song written by Paul. This means that Joey played drums. Singing (aka Sing Out) is a pretty sweet tune that I got to make lots of feedback on. I like feedback. Swimming (aka ok) probably has its Student Film moments. If you haven't listened to them yet, you are a damned fool! Released November 1, 2007 |
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This is the first installment in our series of just doing things and accomplishing stuff. This set of songs which may or may not be an 'EP' contains collections of sounds made by people in a room with a computer and other electronic devices...If you find yourself still reading, you will discover that I am letting you know some background behind--as opposed to before--these songs. For the most part, these are songs that we started to work on a long time ago--before we lost another bass player--and never really got to record. There are a couple that we have played live quite a bit--Recov, Al Mat, a Paul song--Kisssing Sssnakesss, an old one--Newspaper, and another one. We'll see how it goes.'
Released October 1, 2007 |
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'Fusing abrasive indie minimalism with rock urgency and Beatles-esque melodic sense, Berry seeks beauty and power in the unlikely and uncomfortable. Since 2002, Paul Goodenough, Joey Lemon, and Matt Aufrecht have been writing, performing and recording their innovative indie rock, culminating with last year's acclaimed Marraige LP.
With the recent additions of Kit Hamon on the bass, the release of 2007's Empathy EP, a tireless work ethic, and a mesmerising live performance, Berry is poised to spread their growing vision of the divine, the strange, and the unexplainable to an eager, growing, and devoted nationwide audience.' Released April 15, 2007 |
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'...a heartbreakingly sad record.'
Released April 15, 2005 |
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Released April 15, 2004
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Released January 1, 2003
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