Entrance

Guy Blakeslee originated the kitschy rock approach that defines Entrance. His style fuses T. Rex glam elements with pop hooks modeled on Big Star and Cheap Trick alongside more rustic acid folk textures, yielding a more concrete result than Blakeslee’s earlier work with the Convocation Of... in Baltimore. While living in Chicago, Entrance became a steady presence at The Hideout, the neighborhood venue that ran a Monday night cabaret featuring Zwan’s Matt Sweeney. Over the course of 18 months there, Entrance refined his soulful indie rock, which drew the attention of Tiger Style and led to a recording contract.

The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken by Storm, Entrance’s first album, surfaced in early 2002, after which tours alongside Devendra Banhart and Cat Power extended through the spring. Honey Moan, an EP, appeared before the end of 2003. In 2004 came both the Careless Love EP and the blues-drenched full-length Wandering Stranger on Fat Possum. For Prayer of Death, issued in fall 2006, Blakeslee moved to Tee Pee and enlisted Paz Lenchantin (Zwan, A Perfect Circle), marking the most ambitious project of his career to that point.

Once the lineup stabilized around Blakeslee, Lenchantin, and drummer Derek James (who had appeared on Prayer of Death), the ensemble adjusted its name and issued Entrance Band under the Entrance Band moniker in 2009 through Ecstatic Peace/Universal. The three-song session Untitled (aka Latitudes) followed in March 2012, five months before the Fine Flow EP arrived on Spiritual Pajamas. Dans la Tempete completed the sequence of EPs in summer 2013, and the full-length Face the Sun appeared that November on Beyond Records. Around the same period, the Spike Jonze film Her screened at festivals ahead of its wider release and 2014 Best Picture Oscar nomination; Entrance’s cover of Skip James’ “I’m So Glad” featured in the movie.

Under his own name, Blakeslee issued the solo albums Ophelia Slowly in 2014 and The Middle Sister in early 2016. Returning to a solo configuration, he delivered his first straightforward Entrance project in ten years with the EP Promises on Thrill Jockey in September 2016; the same label put out the song cycle Book of Changes in early 2017.