Thanks to everyone who made it out to the show at Kelly’s Olympian on Saturday. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we played a stripped down set, and were joined by two other local acts, Alameda and Alina Hardin, who played beautifully. It was a great night.

We wanted to share some exciting news, which is that our forthcoming album is now avaliable for pre-order on our bandcamp page. The pre-order gives you an immediate download of two tracks, Swampy Cree and Shapeshifters, and the rest of the album delivered to your inbox (and mailbox, if you order the hardcopy!) when the CD releases in July. Your support in pre-ordering will allow us to fund the physical production of the CD—a big thanks to those of you who have already pre-ordered!

Speaking of which, we know it’s a ways off, but mark your calendars, because our CD release party has been scheduled for Saturday, July 21st at The Piano Fort. We’ll be joined by Harlowe and the Great North Woods, and other local acts TBA.

Also, two album tracks are up on bandcamp for streaming—give them a listen, let us know what you think, and share widely!

All the best,

Gallop 

Our apologies for being so quiet these last few months. We’ve been very busy at work on the album, which, we’re pleased to announce, is now mixed and mastered. We’re very happy with how it sounds, and eager to share it with you. So, we’ve decided to make the album avaliable for presale on our bandcamp website, which will give early access to a few tracks before it’s officially released. The pre-sale will begin next Saturday, May 19th (we’ll post the link on our facebook page). Oh, and by the way, the album will be self-titled and will be released in mid July. Details soon!

The other piece of news to share is that we’re playing our first show in a dog’s age! It’s in just over a week — Saturday, May 19th at Kelly’s Olympian in downtown Portland (426 SW Washington St). We’re playing with the highly talented Alameda — think lush, chamber folk — and singer-songwriter Alina Hardin. The show starts at 9, costs $5, and we play second. Check out the facebook event, and the flyer, below.

Keep your eye on our facebook page; we’ll be posting a video in the next few days for our song, Shapeshifters, that we shot in the studio. We hope to see you at Kelly’s Olympian next Saturday, and thank you for your continued support of our music.

All the best,

Gallop

Hi Friends,

Gallop has had quite the creative month. Calla, much to our amazement, rolled out two new songs in just two days. We’ve been working them out as a group and are very happy with how they have been sounding. 

A few updates for you all:

Firstly, we’re very happy and honored to have been asked to play a benefit show for a Portland’s Rock’n’Roll Camp for Girls, a 501(c)3 non-profit that builds girls’ self-esteem through music creation and performance. As you may or may not know, the majority of us in Gallop work in the field of education, and so this cause is particularly close to our hearts. The show is this coming Thursday, November 17th at 8:00pm at Backspace (115 NW 5th). It is all ages (!), and there is a suggested donation that goes to GRCA. We really hope you can make it to support this cause.

We’re also pleased to announce that we’ll be joining Christina Cano (who we played with a few months back) and Joel Kraft on Thursday, December 1st at 9pm at the Alberta Street Pub. It’s a really beautiful and intimate little room, and we’re definitely looking forward to playing there.

And finally, an update on our recording progress: the dates have been scheduled, the equipment arranged, the piano tuned and the songs practiced. We’ll be heading into The Immortal Piano on Belmont to record an EP over the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a beautiful and resonant space, and we’ll be tracking live — anyone have a nice video camera we might borrow?

See you at Backspace on Thursday, and thanks for your support.

Love,

Gallop 

Hi Friends, 

It’s been a fun and active few months for Gallop. We played at one of our favorite venues in all of Portland—The Woods—with some really excellent bands (thanks to all who made it out!), and have several new shows and a recording in the works. 

After months of talk, we’ve finally nailed down a recording engineer and location for our upcoming EP, and we’re hoping to release it in early December. We’re pretty excited for our first professional recording… so much so that we recorded demos of some of our new songs in our living room during band practice. This “BP EP” is free for your listening and downloading pleasure here. All we ask in return is that you share it on your facebook wall, which you can do by copying this link into your status bar: http://gallop.bandcamp.com/album/bp-ep 

We’re excited to announce that Sean O’Neill of the Portland trio Otis Heat asked us to join him during his week-long residency at the Crystal Hotel this week. We’ll be playing a lengthy set with some oldies never before heard in Portland! The show is Thursday, Oct. 20th, downstairs at the Crystal in a cool little joint called Al’s Den (303 SW 12th Ave). It’s an early show, starting at 7pm, and it’s *free*. 

Here’s the facebook invitation for the event. Spread it around!: https://www.facebook.com/events/145855842179130/ 

That’s about all for now — there’s a moment of fleeting sun, and so it’s time to head outside. Also, 8 new harmonicas and an electric guitar just came into our world. This could get interesting… 

Love,
Gallop

Hi Friends

It’s been a quiet month in the world of Gallop, spent exploring the great outdoors of Oregon, visiting family on both coasts, and gearing up for a fall which will be full music. Special thanks to everyone who made it out to our show at Valentine’s - it was a great evening!

A few exciting dates to announce:

Our next show will be in just over a week at the Someday Lounge (125 NW 5th Ave) on Tuesday, September 13th, for Folk’N’Roll night. There will be five folk-inspired artists on the bill, ranging from singer-songwriters to rock outfits. Gallop is playing first - at 9pm - and we hope to see you there! Here’s a link to the facebook event.

We’re also super stoked to be joining our good friends Petoskey at their CD-release show at the Woods, a funeral-parlor-turned-venue, recently featured in the New York Times and one of our very favorite places to hear music in town. The show is Saturday, October 8th. We’ll send out more details about this one as the date gets closer.

Recently, we realized that a lot of our friends are musicians. Most of them are in bands. What’s more, a lot of them are good bands. So we figured, why not organize an event that features all of our friends and all of our bands? So Friend Fest NW was born. The event is still in the works, but look forward to an all-day, outdoor, booze barbecue and music-filled epic time.

Finally, you might have noticed that the Gallop facebook page got a little sprucing up with a new Welcome Page. To celebrate, fans can now stream our cover of R. Kelly’s World’s Greatest, a b-side from our live album. Check it out.

Enjoy these dog days of September, and we’ll see you at the Someday Lounge on Tuesday the 13th.

Love,
Gallop

Hi Friends,

Happy Summer! Thanks to all who made it out to hear Gallop at Ella St. last weekend. After a month break, it was especially great to be out performing again.

We’re really excited to be joining singer-songwriter Lindsay Clark for a show on her west coast tour next Monday, August 1st at Valentine’s. The show starts at 9pm and is *free*. Brooklyn-based Great Republic of Rough and Ready will also be performing. Valentine’s (232 SW Ankeny) is an excellently intimate little venue (and they pour a mean whiskey sour). This is going to be a night of incredible music, so we hope you and your friends can make it out — spread the word!

In other news, Gallop continues to experiment with new sounds and songs. Our cellist, Lauren Vidal, who also happens to tear up the drums in the rock outfit Steelhymen, has been introducing some gentle percussion into a few songs, and it’s made a world of difference. We’re hoping to try it out live at Valentine’s, so let us know what you think!

That’s all for now. We’re finalizing a few more dates for the rest of summer and will keep you posted as they come together.

See you next Monday at Valentine’s!

Love, Gallop

Exciting things are happening in the world of Gallop. First and foremost, our good friend Haley has begun singing harmony with Calla and they sound absolutely beautiful together! Haley intuitively finds melodies that bring out the depth and richness of Calla’s songwriting; it’s like a whole new world.

Speaking of whole new world, we also have a whole crop of new songs, and are looking forward to debuting them at upcoming shows. Our next show is Sunday, June 5th at Mississippi Pizza Pub. The show starts at 9pm, and we’ll be playing second. It should be a great night of *free* music, organized by our friend Zach Zaitlin and his band. A solo act, Ethiopiate, will be opening up the evening. We hope to see you there!

We’re hoping to perform a whole lot this summer. To keep track of upcoming shows, check out our tour page.

Love,
Gallop

PS. The other exciting thing is that we have a new kitten named Scout. Unspeakably adorable.