Fairmont (band)


Fairmont is an American indie rock band from New Jersey, fronted by Neil Sabatino. They have released ten full-length albums, as well as six EPs, and toured across the United States for over a decade of their existence.

About

Fairmont is a five-piece rock band, based in North Jersey that formed in 2001. That year, after leaving the punk rock band Pencey Prep, Sabatino signed with Reinforcement Records under the moniker Fairmont, a homage to the Minnesota city. Fairmont was initially a solo acoustic project which Sabatino compared to Dashboard Confessional, and over the years the group became a blend of indie rock and pop. They draw comparison to the music of Seattle rock band Say Hi, lo-fi rock band Guided by Voices, and the lead vocalist for Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Gibbard

Early years

The debut sixteen-track album, Pretending Greatness is Awaiting, was released on December 3, 2001. Work on the second album Anomie was delayed in March 2003, as three of the members quit the night before recording began. Shortly after, former Pencey Prep bassist John McGuire joined Fairmont, as did guitarist Kevin Metz. During that year, Fairmont performed at local venues, such as Arlene's Grocery in Manhattan, New York City, with Fighting Gravity and Val Emmich. By 2005, Fairmont made three tours across the United States, in addition to performing locally with Nada Surf and Ted Leo. That same year, they released their third full-length Hell is Other People, an album heavily influenced by McGuire's fondness of bands like the Replacements and Hüsker Dü. The content of the album was conceptually based on Jean Paul Sartre's play, No Exit. It was jointly released by Reinforcement Records and Renfield Records.
Fairmont's fourth full-length Wait & Hope, an up-tempo indie rock album, was released on June 12, 2007. It is the last to feature McGuire. Longtime collaborator Teeter Sperber provided vocals for three of the songs, "Fredo", "Dahlia" and "Yearbook". In an interview with Deborah Draisin in Jersey Beat, Sabatino describes it as a "very minimal album." Wait & Hope is also the last Fairmont album released under its previous indie labels; in 2007 Sabatino founded Mint 400 Records, and retroactively released earlier Fairmont albums.

Mint 400 Records

Keyboardist Christian Kisala joined the group in 2008. After writing songs with a female counterpart in mind, Sabatino contacted friend Teeter Sperber, as well singer of The Narrative Suzie Zeldin. Both would appear on the 2008 release Transcendence, which was produced by Bryan Russell. The album appears at No. 52 in Gary Wien's book Are You Listening?, a comprehensive list of the top 100 albums of a decade, which was compiled from a six-month review of over 2,220 releases. It was followed by a national tour supporting Life of Agony frontman Keith Caputo, starting in August 2008. The six-track EP The Meadow at Dusk was released on 12"-vinyl in 2009, and debuted on CMJ charts at No. 176.
In 2010, Fairmont released their sixth album Destruction Creation, and the following year Mint 400 Records compiled a retrospective collection of Fairmont's first decade of releases. The Grand and Grandiose was released in 2013, followed by a live acoustic EP in 2014. For their 2015 album 8½, Christian Kisala moved from Malletkat to Xylarimba and Vibraphone. Fairmont performed at the 2016 North Jersey Indie Rock Festival. As they finished work on 2017's A Spring Widow, Kisala switched solely to Vibraphone, and the band also saw the addition of Matt Cheplic, a current member of the Bitter Chills and bassist Mike Burns who formerly played with Sabatino in the punk band Little Green Men in the 1990s. Their tenth studio album We Will Burn That Bridge When We Get To It was released in 2018, and features Lisa Grabinski on keyboards and vocals. Kisala moved to drums, while longtime drummer Andy Applegate went on medical leave. In January 2019, We Will Burn That Bridge When We Get To It debuted on the NACC radio charts at No. 143, and climbed to No. 126 in its third week; Fairmont's second release to chart on college radio charts.

Additional work

Sam Carradori, Christian Kisala and Neil Sabatino also record as Ted Dancin!. Christian Kisala records for Mint 400 Records as CK Vibes, and appears as commacommaspacespace on the Mint 400 Records compilation album, At the Movies. Neil Sabatino also records as Shallows, with AJ Tobey & Michael Kundrath, and as Mergers & Acquisitions with Teeter Sperber.

Band members

Current members
Former members
Timeline

Discography

;Albums
;EPs
;Compilations
;Appearing on