PHILIP B. PRICE
Philip B. Price is best known as the lead singer and polymath behind the New England-based melancholic folk/pop band Winterpills, but his CV stretches far back into the late 80s and draws on minimalist/jagged art-rock, lo-fi pop, power pop, dance-noise, post-punk, pre-emo, flowery brit-folk, and hooky shoegaze.
Price’s early years in music were spent partly in collaboration with electronic musician Antony Widoff (who worked with David Bowie, U2, David Torn), a colleague from Bennington College. Price also performed live with Glenn Branca acolyte Jonathan Bepler (Music for Cremaster) while at Bennington and composed several instrumental pieces for dance performances.
Post-Bennington, with Widoff, he formed the upstate NY art-rock quartet Memorial Garage (1986-1989). After recording 2 albums for SF-based Top Records and an unreleased 22 song live album, the band broke up in 1989.
A short-lived collaboration with drummer Jerry Marotta (Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks), bassist Michael Nunziata and keyboardist Harvey Jones (Ellis Paul, Sara Lee) yielded the release of a 4-song EP titled Weatherless. Price then retreated into his home studio where over the next 6 years he self-released 8 albums of diverse and often devastatingly emotional and confessional rock.
Now relocated to New Hampshire, in 1992, bassist and fan Max Germer approached Price about forming a band based largely on this raw pop material, and The Maggies were born. The band endured several line-up changes, but between 1993 and 2002 released 8 albums and 2 EPs of loud, harmony-based shimmering and inspired power pop and became regional stars, signing to Jerry Harrison’s short-lived label (GarageBand Records) though larger success eluded them.
After The Maggies ended, Price released two more solo albums (13 Songs For Right Now in 2002, and Honey In The Chemicals in 2003, both on Brooklyn-based Listen Here! Records) and toured extensively behind them (with John Wesley Harding and others) until the Winterpills came together in late 2003 with Flora Reed, Dennis Crommett and Dave Hower. The band signed to Signature Sounds in 2004, have released 7 critically lauded albums and toured worldwide. The band has made it onto MOJOs Top Ten lists and songs have been featured on many TV shows, including Showtime’s Weeds and NBC’s Grey’s Anatomy.
Currently on a semi-hiatus from Winterpills duties, 2018 saw the release of a huge amount of this wide-ranging back-catalog material (12 albums total) in preparation for an all-new solo album in late 2018, his first solo outing since 2004. A ‘best of’ collection of the unreleased solo material was released as a 2-CD set on Signature Sounds.
Price released his first solo album since 2004, Bone Almanac in November, 2019. After the pandemic hit and tour plans were scuttled, he came out with Oceans Hiding In Oceans in 2021, and then Sloper in 2022, both assembled during lockdown.
Price also has collaborated with author Jonathan Lethem, indie rock legend Walter Salas-Humara, and has been in two bands with Fountains of Wayne frontman Chris Collingwood (including his current project Look Park, on Yep Roc).
“His spare, riveting live shows, with his quavering irish tenor, spidery guitarwork and dense wordplay, manage to make intimacy feel massively anthemic, and grinding rock seem like a close-whispered romantic inside joke.” - Quynlyn Demitrus
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