Speed The Plough

Speed the Plough is a New Jersey-based chamber pop band that has been playing since 1984. The band rose out of the ashes of The Trypes, a mainstay of the early ’80s Hoboken scene, which included most members of The Feelies, many of whom played with Speed the Plough through the band’s first decade.

The band has released nine full-length albums (on Coyote/Twin-Tone, East Side Digital, Dromedary, and Bar/None Records), a limited edition single on the French label Acetone, and a self-released EP. They have had songs featured in two independent films, Strangest Dreams (1990) and Paradise Park (1993).

Their 2013 release, The Plough & The Stars (Bar/None) is a 30-year retrospective of the band. Their eighth album, Now, marked the relaunch of the groundbreaking label Coyote Records in early 2016. Their ninth and latest release is 2018’s _…And Then”, which features two bonus tracks by the original members of The Trypes.

The current lineup features founding members John Baumgartner (keyboards and vocals) and Toni Baumgartner (woodwinds and vocals), and Ed Seifert (guitar and vocals), Michael Baumgartner (guitar and vocals), James Payne (bass and vocals) and Dave Weckerman (drums).

As the New York Times described them: “…this is no rarefied art music. It’s a garage-band sort of minimalism, with welters of electric guitar sounds and feedback accelerating madly into crashing crescendos, only to subside and begin building again.”