'Underwater Country Club' Hits Fair as part of Whirlwind Summer Tour

Sometimes the most interesting acts at an event are the ones added latest to the program. Certainly that’s what the members of Underwater County Club are hoping for when they appear at this year’s Middlesex County Fair today.

“This is our first appearance, we got on the bill a little late,” said Skip Robinson, one of the band’s founders. “But we're excited to be performing at the festival.”

And for fairgoers who tend to shy away from the fair’s more standard music, they may also be excited to see the Underwater Country Club. As a recent article in The Fairfield University Mirror News Paper raved (one band member is a Fairfield student), "With their unique take on alternative rock, Underwater Country Club presents themselves as a formidable group with inventive style.

“Robinson and the other members of Underwater Country Club seem to center their songs around one character’s experience within the influences of an environment that he or she feels trapped in or incapable of fully connecting with. From this, we find a musical expression that presents the simplicity of human emotions while at the same time advocating their complexity and multidimensionality.”

Certainly the phrase "unique take on alternative rock" doesn’t narrow the band’s style down too much, but the musicians themselves list their primary musical influences as Paul Simon, Belle & Sebastian, The Beach Boys, and Wilco.

Not unlike the Beach Boys, the band traces its history back to brothers, in this case Skip and Andrew Robinson.

“We rotated a series of bass players till we decided to utilize our childhood friend Tom Dalzell, who lived down the road and would car pool to Christian Brothers Academy prep school with us,” said Robinson. “We recently added Catherine and Anna Wolk (sisters) from Bridgeport, Connecticut this year. The sisters met Andrew while studying music at Fairfield University.”

The name of the band doesn’t relate to any one event, but ties to all of the band members in one way or another. ”Underwater Country Club as a name is mysterious in its origin,” Robinson said. “Stories say the Wolk sisters crashed a golf cart into a golf course lake, Skip lifeguards at a country club that is going bankrupt, and Andrew spends most his time underwater on the swim team at Fairfield University.”

Names are names, however: Robinson would rather talk about the band’s music.

“Andrew is the primary songwriter,” he says, noting that he occasionally writes both on his own and with his brother. “The Wolk sisters have also begun to write songs for the band as well in recent months. Writing is done on our time, and the material and arrangements are always complete before entering any studio or recording session. We have a good idea of what we want things to be for UWCC.”

They’ve written enough, in fact, to populate a CD. “Pantones,” the band’s debut album, is available via iTunes. “The CD is one-hundred percent ours,” Robinson said. “We are unsigned, putting out the record on our own dollar. We completed the record in two six-hour days.”  The band recorded the CD at Lakehouse Music in Asbury Park in the fall of 2010, and released it in February of 2011. 

This Middlesex County Fair is just the latest stop in a whirlwind tour the band has been making over the past few months. “We’ve played over 45 shows this summer,” Robinson said. “Expect more next summer, and some more over the spring months. Listeners will be surprised for what the future holds for UWCC and will have something new to listen to, whatever that may be, in their stereos, iPods, and computers by Christmas.”

Underwater Country Club plays at the Middlesex County Fair on Sunday, Aug. 7, from 2 to 4 PM.

For more on the band, visit http://www.underwatercountryclub.com/.