We're excited to let you know that Flat People received a glowing feature article in the Jan/Feb. 2009 issue of Modern Luxury Dallas magazine.  It will be on the shelvs for the next 2 months.
Thank you, Steve Carter, for the kind words, and thank you Dallas for your continued support of the music of Flat People!  Stay tuned for our upcoming shows...
 And if you would like to join our gig announcement email list... please email Bob directly at bobgmusic@yahoo.com.   And go to www.CDbaby.com to buy the hard copy of the CD!
Thanks!   -Bob Guittard
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A ROUND OF APPLAUSE
For Flat People, whose brilliant new self-titled album earns
a standing ovation and heavy rotation until further notice
By Steve Carter
If there’s any justice in the world of popular music, and I’d be hard-pressed to prove that there is, then just maybe 2009 will turn out to be the year that Flat People, one of the city’s most under-appreciated bands finally gets its due. The group’s eponymous first album is one of the strongest debut efforts this music scene has heard in quite some time, a 12 song alt-rock outing with scarcely a weak moment or false step. While principal songwriter, guitarist, vocalist Bob Guittard’s tunesmithing may bear the influence of The Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, Jeff Buckley, Beck, Radiohead, Dylan and numerous other lions, he’s his own man, and Flat People stands as incontrovertible proof. Produced by Salim Nourallah, arguably the region’s preeminent George Martin doppelganger, the album sings volumes about Guittard’s psyche, but doesn’t stop there—while the songs are personal, a loose-knit thematic contiguity and rueful insightfulness addresses the universal as well. “It’s not a super upbeat album,” the 30-year-old Guittard acknowledges. “It kind of feels that way, but the lyrics don’t always portray that. There was a lot of discontent at the time I was writing these songs—wondering what’s going on, watching life fly by, and ‘what do you do now?’, and sadness, and moving toward insanity…but typically what inspires me is just life generally.”
Flat People’s Bob Guittard grew up in a musical family in Dallas; maternally, a history of piano and string players, paternally a tradition of brass players, and a guitarist older brother who introduced him to The Beatles and on whose guitars Bob cut his musical eyeteeth. After high school, Bob attended UT Austin for four years, majoring in film and playing in bands. Then the siren song of Los Angeles lured him westward. “I was on a two-tiered starving artist path,” Guittard says with a laugh. “One was trying to be a director-producer-filmmaker, using my major in Hollywood, and the other was trying to do the musician thing, with all the labels out there and tons of clubs. So I joined up with a couple of bands just trying to network, hoping eventually to get my own band going, but I was only there for a year. It was good, but it was a hard year, a weird town.” Moving back to Dallas in 2002, Bob and his longtime girlfriend Candace reunited and eventually married; they have an almost-year-old son, Miles, named after one of Guittard’s musical heroes. Flat People as a band has been in existence for a couple of years now, and the steady lineup of Warren Barry, keyboards, bassist Rich Williams and drummer Graham Cathey, buttressing Guittard, is a rock-solid, potent unit that fleshes out the songs with equal parts aggression and sensitivity.
The production on Flat People is one of its strongest suits, and in Nourallah, Guittard has found a true kindred spirit; the two share an oversized appreciation of The Beatles, and particularly the band’s adventurous later years. Traces of signature Fab Four-isms pop up in the Lennonesque stacks of vocals, guest Rick Nelson’s eastern-yearning string parts, and Mellotron flute voicings that evoke a visit to Strawberry Fields. Other guest artists, including Chris Holt, James Driscoll, John Dufilho, and Ward Williams also lend their musical mots justes to the proceedings. “ReTool,” the album’s fourth song is a particular standout. Even with its wafts of Beatles and Pink Floyd, it’s a wholly original journey to a wonderwall of existential introspection. Keep your eyes and ears open for great things from Flat People—there’s nothing flat about this mix of tunefulness, intelligence, and heart.
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Don’t miss Flat People’s next local appearance at Opening Bell Coffee, Saturday, February 7th, at 8 p.m. The venue is located in the basement of Southside on Lamar, 1409 S. Lamar, Suite #012 Dallas, 75215, phone 214.565.0383, openingbellcoffee. com. And check out the band’s MySpace, www. myspace. com/flatpeoplemusic, for lots, lots more.