Northern State

NORTHERN STATE - Can I Keep This Pen?

The Onion A.V. Club: The group's defiantly loose new disc once again kicks it independent-style, with a sparkling new set that augments signature old-school flows and girlish good humor with electro and new-wave flourishes.

Entertainment Weekly: Northern State has crafted a legitimately thrilling third album. It's an audacious leap forward.

Spin: The trio of ladies are evolving, evoking early Luscious Jackson at their most guileless.

ScenePointBlank: Northern State are a frothy crab bisque for your jaded soul.

BIO

We are Northern State. Our third album, "Can I Keep This Pen?" which features production by Adrock of the Beastie Boys and Chuck Brody of Shitake Monkey, is currently out on Mike Patton's label, Ipecac Recordings.

2007 was a pretty awesome year for us –we toured throughout the U.S. and Canada with our friends Tegan and Sara and will be heading to Europe with them in Feb. 2008. Two songs from "Can I Keep This Pen?" were featured on Grey's Anatomy and a third was featured on the FX series Damages. JD from Le Tigre did a hot remix of our single 'Better Already' and we released it on vinyl. We also contributed our take on Radiohead's 'No Surprises' to Stereogum's 10^th anniversary tribute to OK Computer.

Northern State is Spero, Hesta Prynn, and Sprout. We grew up together in deep suburban Long Island and we've been friends forever. We found ourselves living in NYC after college, hanging out and listening to hip hop off of Hesta Prynn's computer (pre-ipod).

In the fall of 2000, at a party at Hesta Prynn's apartment, we had the idea to start a rap group. So we did.

We have now been a band for seven years. "Can I Keep This Pen?" is our third proper album, following "All City" (Columbia Records, 2004), "Dying in Stereo" (Northern State Records/Startime/Wichita UK, 2003), and our 2002 independent EP "Hip Hop You Haven't Heard", which was supposed to be our demo. We got our start playing gigs all over NYC, and we have had the good fortune of sharing the stage in the US and Europe with the Roots, Le Tigre, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, The Gossip, Gym Class Heroes, Tegan and Sara, and Cake.

After "All City" was released, we became increasingly frustrated with the Columbia/SONY machine and left the label. Finally free, we teamed up with Chuck Brody (Wu-Tang Clan, Yoko Ono) and Adrock and independently recorded "Can I Keep This Pen?", with the help of a few friends like Kaki King and Murray Hill.

This album pushes the limits more than anything we've recorded before in terms of what a hip hop song might sound like, what a rock song might sound like, and what Northern State might sound like. An electro-rock current weaves its way through our classic old-school hip hop sound, creating our most genre-bending effort yet. There are more guitars than ever, and we did an unprecedented amount of singing.

"Can I Keep This Pen?" includes songs about our friendship ('Better Already'), our government ('Cowboy Man'), what may be the first Northern State love song ('Away Away'), and the fan favorite 'Sucka Mofo'.

We are thrilled to be part of the Ipecac family. "Can I Keep This Pen?" is distributed internationally through Fontana and Southern in Europe and by Entak in Japan.