Kevin Bronson on November 14th, 2011

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Sometimes you have to leave L.A. for greener pastures. Or, of course, for a girl and maybe some cheaper rent. Which is how Colin Ritchie – who until a year ago played for SoCal quintet the Idyllists – has found himself stationed in Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa, 20-below-zero temperatures in the dead of winter and, as it turns out, a pretty robust little music scene. Ritchie’s new project is a five-piece with A.M. Havlin, Amanda Crosby, Rachel Sauter and Matthew Wagner called Emperors Club, who are trading in nimble, exuberant indie rock with a smattering of ’90s influences and enough hooks that the music could have come from any decade. The band’s debut EP “The Castle” is just out, and in the lament “Brooklyn” he sings “All the good ones / are going to Brooklyn.” Which we all know isn’t necessarily true.

||| Download: “The Castle”