The Gregory Brothers

The Gregory Brothers are a musical group who characterize their music as "Country & Soul, Folk & Roll." Members include Michael Gregory on drums and vocals, Andrew Rose Gregory on guitar and vocals, Evan Gregory on keys and vocals, and Sarah Fullen Gregory (Evan's wife) on bass and vocals. They are most famous for their creation of musical viral videos, most notably the Auto-Tune the News series, which includes the Bed Intruder Song. The three brothers, originally from Radford, VA, moved to Brooklyn, NY in the mid-2000s and met Sarah in the local music scene. The four formed a band in 2007.

The group released their first EP, Meet the Gregory Brothers!, on May 29, 2009. Village Voice music writer Ben Westhoff characterized the effort as "a lounge-y, refreshingly sincere slice of blue-eyed soul", and Jake Frazier of PopSense praised the work, claiming that it "[brought] more to the table than the other 1000+ songs [in his music library]". Westhoff opined that "unfortunately, many of the Brothers' new fans have no patience for anything that's not 'Auto-Tune the News'", though the group itself takes a broader view of its fans' tastes, believing that "there will definitely be some fans who found us through our videos, and who will be disappointed when they hear our records and they're not a bunch of hip-hop political parodies… most people get that we are capable of creating music in different styles, and can appreciate our folky soul jams for what they are."

For the period of July 15–22 2009, 47–54 days after its release, the EP was ranked as the top-selling album on Amie Street in the category of "Soul / R&B".

Contributing musicians on the album include Doug Hulin (bass) and Justin Keller (saxophone). The album was recorded at the Mission Sound Recording facility in Brooklyn, New York, and was produced, engineered, and mixed by Zach McNees. The recording was mastered by Ricardo Gutierrez. The cover art photographer was Denny Renshaw, and Morgan King is credited with its design.

The Gregory Brothers appear as members of the Welcome Wagon Choir on The Welcome Wagon's 2009 debut album Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, produced by Sufjan Stevens. The Welcome Wagon is a project headed by Presbyterian minister Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique.

The Gregory Brothers first became well known for a series of YouTube videos, Auto-Tune the News, in which recorded voices of politicians, news anchors, and political pundits were digitally manipulated to conform to a melody, making the figures appear to sing.

National television networks featured the Gregory Brothers' early political satires as early as the spring of 2009, but the group did not achieve mainstream recognition until the summer of 2010, when they released episode 12b of Auto-Tune the News, titled "Bed Intruder Song". "Bed Intruder Song," which featured excerpts from an interview with alleged crime victims Kelly Dodson and her brother Antoine Dodson, was viewed approximately 50 million times during its first six months online, making it the most-viewed YouTube video of 2010 (excluding major label music videos). Being largely non-political in content, it marked a departure from the Gregory Brothers' roots in political material.

Following the mainstream success of that music video, the Gregory Brothers have generally produced a mixture of both political and non-political videos. The Auto-Tune the News series has continued to focus primarily on political material, while many of the non-political videos have been given the new branding Songify This.

Michael, who graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in music and a concentration in recording and production, first created a "debate musical" using footage of the first presidential election debate of 2008 titled "Debate Highlights—in song and dance." This early effort did not utilize the Auto-Tune software to manipulate the voices of the presidential candidates in the video. Evan encouraged Michael, who had prior experience with Auto-Tune, to attempt to use the software in his next video in order to make the political figures appear to sing along with the music. Michael used footage from the vice-presidential debate of 2008 as the basis for the Auto-Tune experiment, and the resulting creation, "VP Debate in Song and Dance,"became the prototype which the Auto-Tune the News videos would expand upon. As the concept began to attract notice, Michael recruited the rest of the Gregory Brothers to collaboratively develop the Auto-Tune the News series.

Because it draws its source material primarily from news footage, the Auto-Tune the News series has covered myriad topical issues including Arctic shrinkage, health care reform debate in the United States, texting while driving, tobacco regulation, and the alleged sexual assault of Kelly Dodson. Andrew Rose Gregory believes that focusing on unusual or obscure topics is a source of strength for the series, asserting that "people are frustrated with pop music because it's all the same over and over again, in terms of being love songs or a song about someone going away. These are songs that aren't about anything you've ever heard a song about."

In the videos, the Gregory Brothers perform alongside TV news clips altered with the Auto-Tune effect. One recurring element is a closing in which special recognition is given to the "Best Unintentional Singer" or other ad-hoc awards such as "Best Fictional Bromance" (awarded to Paul Krugman and David Brooks).

In addition, it is common for the Gregory Brothers to alter footage by superimposing their own mouths or arms onto individuals who were in the original video clip. This effect is often used to make those individuals appear to be singing along or enthusiastically getting into the music. The Gregory Brothers sometimes use this technique to make people appear to play percussion (such as drums, the tambourine and the cowbell) or other instruments (such as the theremin) along with the music.

Some recurring public figures and characters featured in the videos include:

CBS anchor Katie Couric, usually referred to as "Shawty" in the videos, whom the Gregory Brothers describe as "outstanding" in her suitability for auto-tuning. As of September 2010, she has appeared in more videos than any non-Gregory character, appearing in every Auto-Tune The News video except Auto-Tune the News. Her best known "hook" is the phrase "very thin ice", originally uttered by Couric as a black-humor pun during a news story covering the diminishing ice levels in the Arctic. This phrase was used by the Gregory Brothers to construct a duet between Couric and Andrew in "Auto-Tune the News: pirates. drugs. gay marriage." This sample has also been used in and (which included a duet between Couric and T-Pain).

The "Angry Gorilla" (variably identified as, e.g., "Frank McGee" or "Angry Gorilla (R—South Dakota)"), who is one of the brothers wearing a gorilla suit handed down by their grandfather. In one interview, the Gregory Brothers stated that this character serves to "act as a foil for the commentators and talking heads that use anger as a calling card, or at least fabricate cheap ire to chase viewers."

Senator Junkie Einstein (R—South Dakota), who continually appears when any reference to drugs in the news comes up. Notably, in, he is seen attempting to smoke lettuce (his "leafy green fetish"), satirising comments made by Congressman Steve Buyer in the video asserting that smoking dried and rolled lettuce would cause "similar problems" compared to smoking tobacco.

Bølverk, a Scandinavian Viking character, whose dialogue is entirely sung in an Opera-esque fashion. His most notable appearances come in, discussing the Nobel Peace Prize with Katie Couric; and in, arguing with the Angry Gorilla on the side of Herman van Rompuy. Bølverk was also described as a "Nobel War Prize Laureate".

Many of the costumed characters played by the Gregory Brothers are designated as "R—South Dakota" (i.e., Republicans representing South Dakota). Characters who have been labeled as such include Senator Junkie Einstein, Olga Barth, Bølverk, and Angry Gorilla.

Auto-Tune the News has spread virally, accumulating millions of viewings. The series' subject matter and its explosion in popularity yielded an interview on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on 1 May 2009, and sustained media attention left the Gregory Brothers "fielding a number of inquiries" regarding turning the series into a full-time occupation for the group (see commercialization below).

Representative Michele Bachmann (Republican-Minnesota 6th) was auto-tuned in "Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin.", the sixth episode of the series. In the video, she makes a speech regarding her thoughts on the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Bachmann said of the video that her children "think it's really funny to watch it...it's a riot" and that "it is really clever, really funny."

Episode 12b, "Bed Intruder Song", spread virally much faster than any previous episode, ultimately becoming the most-viewed YouTube video of 2010 (excluding major label music videos). Dedicated solely to the news story of an alleged sexual assault, the episode gave a musical treatment to interview footage of the victim, Kelly Dodson, and her brother, Antoine Dodson. The episode was released on 10 July 2010 and was viewed 7.1 million times over the course of its first month online. The Gregory Brothers subsequently remade the song and video as episode 12c, "iTunes Version - Bed Intruder Song", and released the accompanying song on the iTunes music store. Within days, the song had reached on iTunes' R&B/Soul song chart and on iTunes' Top 100 song chart. It also made an entry to the Billboard Hot 100 at and debuted at on Heatseekers Songs chart. The Gregory Brothers pledged half of the song's earnings to the Dodson family.

In an interview with Barry, the Gregory Brothers reported that they had sold over 100,000 copies of The Bed Intruder Song on iTunes.

The Gregory Brothers' work on the Auto-Tune the News series has led to them being called upon by other outfits to assist in the production of videos.

The Gregory Brothers assisted Comedy Central television show Tosh.0 in the production of a remix and music video for artist Reh Dogg's song "Why Must I Cry". The Auto-Tune the News signature shout of "shawtay!" can be heard in the video. The segment aired on the show on July 30, 2009, showing an abbreviated cut, while the full video is available online.

They also assisted ABC's late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the production of a video segment in which T-Pain performs with an auto-tuned President Obama to promote his new iPhone app, I Am T-Pain (the same reason he appeared in Auto-Tune the News). The segment aired on the show on September 30, 2009.

They also worked alongside popular YouTube comedian Ray William Johnson to make an episode for his webshow Equals Three (=3). The episode is called 'Sunny-D and Rum', and references a viral video of a woman singing about sunny-d and rum. The Gregory brothers auto-tuned the episode, and included previous elements from his previous =3 episodes. The word "Shorty" can be heard in the background throughout the song.

Michael Gregory has done various projects in the vein of Auto-Tune the News with comedy website and video producer, Barely Political, home of Obama Girl. He wrote and starred in "Election Memory Dance Off!", posted on November 2, 2008. He wrote and mixed the song for "Obama Girl + Obama Duet!" posted on January 18, 2009, and he wrote and performed in "Obama Girl Stimulus Bill Song (ft Michael Gregory!!)" posted on February 18, 2009. This relationship has continued as Barely Political has reposted each episode of the Auto-Tune the News series, occasionally altered slightly for running time.

The Gregory Brothers partnered with Sony to create a viral marketing campaign for the 2009–2010 holiday season based on their "Auto-Tune the News" series. One offering in this campaign is the video entitled "Auto-Tune the Ads: Sony. Justin Timberlake. Peyton Manning."

When asked about a possible backlash by fans due to client integration in Auto Tune The News, Michael Gregory said "The audience gets it. It used to be where any type of sponsorship you might have fans say ‘they sold out’ but nowadays if you can do it on your own terms, your fans are rooting for you."

In an interview with Wired, the band said they are going to be working with Comedy Central to produce a TV pilot for a television series to be aired sometime in 2011.

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