Money & King

Formed in 2010, the Brooklyn pop outfit Money & King originated with guitarist James Sparber and drummer Brandon Goldstein, who divide songwriting and vocal responsibilities between them. The pair, longtime friends who first played music together while growing up in Vienna, Virginia, later went separate ways to pursue individual paths on opposite coasts. Sparber settled into Brooklyn’s indie circles, whereas Goldstein logged ten years in Los Angeles performing with various groups and handling session work. Once back together in Brooklyn, they added bassist John Loggins, and the three musicians started performing regularly throughout New York while shaping a style anchored in 1960s and 1970s country and pop traditions. Their approach combined Harry Nilsson’s wry sensibilities with the ringing guitars and vocal harmonies of Americana predecessors such as the Byrds and CSN&Y. At Sparber’s Brooklyn studio they tracked their first album, Across the Cul-De-Sac, bringing in assorted friends and additional players; among them were guitarist Jeff Mensch and keyboardist Brady Bagger, both prior bandmates of Sparber’s, who subsequently became full-time members of Money & King. The record appeared in early 2013. Over the following years, work on a second album proceeded intermittently while Goldstein resided in Indiana and Sparber remained in New York. Eventually the songwriters combined their material, and the complete lineup returned to Sparber’s Brooklyn studio to cut the follow-up, There Are So Many Ways To Be Alone, issued in June 2018. As a natural extension of the debut, the album further developed the group’s layered arrangements and command of vintage pop forms, yet proved even more immediately approachable than its predecessor.