Churches is the new recording project of Caleb Nichols, the frontman of Oakland’s Grand Lake, former bassist of Port O’Brien, and touring member of WATERS and Release The Sunbird.  On his first single, ‘SAVE ME’, Nichols teams up with WATERS frontman Van Pierszalowski and Rogue Wave drummer Pat Spurgeon.  Oslo-based WATERS guitarist Nikolai Haukeland also plays.  The result is two and a half minutes of melancholic, fuzzed-out power-pop, with obvious nods to heroes Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr. and contemporaries such as Wye Oak.

‘SAVE ME’ by Churches will is being self-released on bandcamp today.  The track will be accompanied by remixes and the original demo, and will be sold by the band using a ‘pay what you want’ model.  Additionally, 50% of digital proceeds will go directly to 826 Seattle,  a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping youth, ages six to 18, improve their creative and expository writing skills.  This is part of the wider idea behind Churches, which is to not only release music but to raise money for various awesome non-profits and charities – from the very beginning.

‘SAVE ME’ was recorded and mixed by Ian Pellicci (Deerhoof, Rogue Wave, Yann Tiersen) at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco.  Produced by Van Pierszalowski.  Written by Caleb Nichols.  Performed by Pat Spurgeon, Nikolai Haukeland, Van Pierszalowski and Caleb Nichols.

Head over to the Churches bandcamp site right now to download the track and to make a donation to a great cause while supporting independent music.

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Check out the official Churches Bandcamp site: http://churchescalifornia.bandcamp.com/

Follow them on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ChurchesBand

Check out Caleb’s other project Grand Lake and their recent EP “Leaves Ellipse” (it’s great)