Office music video Wound Up
Office is a Chicago-based pop band that formed in 2000. The band began as a public performance outlet for songwriter Scott Masson while attending Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Masson has maintained the band as a collaborative musical project since, with various friends and performers as collaborators.
Office has developed a cult following in the last decade, particularly in the Chicago community, promoting a sound that has been described by Spin as “handclaps and sunny harmonies”, which is ironically the opposite of what the band writes about. Their song “Wound Up” was downloaded over 322,000 times as the Single of the Week on the iTunes Music Store in May 2006, helping their 2005 album, Q&A, reach number 14 on the iTunes album charts, briefly beating Tom Petty and Neil Young in the Top 20. Q&A held a spot in the iTunes top 100, while the band was performing shows at South by Southwest music festival in 2006 and 2007, CMJ, Mobfest, Midwest Music Conference, a set at Lollapalooza, and many more high-profile showcases. In October 2006, the group signed with Scratchie Records, an independent label owned by James Iha, former guitarist of the Smashing Pumpkins.
The band’s first record under the Scratchie label, A Night at the Ritz, was released on September 25, 2007. The album contains both previously unreleased and older material from the group’s extensive catalogue, which has been remastered and remixed for commercial release.
Masson moved back to the Detroit-area in late 2008, and is currently recording and performing around the mid-west under the name Glossies, as well as producing records for other artists, painting, performing and recording with 800beloved, as well as other bands throughout the Detroit-area. Erica Corniel continues to write songs with Jojo Yang, and Justin Petertil writes music for the band Love Raid. On July 20th, 2011, Glossies released their debut album for free on Bandcamp. Erica Corniel is on many of the album’s tracks.
Office signed with Ann Arbor-based media conglomerate Quack!Media in January 2009, releasing “Mecca” on limited-edition vinyl and digital download. For several months, the album was available for free via the internet.
Recently, Office’s song ‘Dominoes’ was included on the indie compilation Indiecater Volume IV in August 2009. The song “Enter Me, Exit You” was licensed by Abercrombie & Fitch, and Hollister Co. stores across the US and UK.
Past and present collaborators include: Scott Masson, Alissa Noonan, Tom Smith, Jessica Gonyea, Justin Petertil, Erica Corniel, Jamie Harper, John Martin, Brad Minor, Toby Worscheck, Jen Collier, Colin DeKuiper, Jody Weinmann, Thea Nichols, Sarah Jean Stevens, Shawn Rios, Jackie Phillips, Kip Donlon, Jeremy Freer, Jeffrey Freer, and more.
