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Office

HistoryThe Band began as a public performance outlet for songwriter Scott Masson while attending Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Masson has maintained the band with various friends and performers as collaborators, preferring to call it a "project" or "hallucination." The latest iteration of the project appeared onstage at SXSW, on MTV, at Lollapalooza and elsewhere dressed as if going to work in "business attire and black mini dresses."Office developed a cult following in the 2000s, particularly in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan and later in Chicago, Illinois, promoting a sound that has been described by Spin as "handclaps and sunny harmonies." Masson recorded a record under his own name called Office and began promoting it in Kalamazoo in 2001. "At its peak, he said people were coming to his house at 2 a.m. asking for a copy."Masson self-produced several other albums with several musician friends after moving to Chicago in 2002, including The Iced Tead Boys and the Lemonade Girls and Glass Corvette. In 2004, Masson recruited guitarist Tom Smith, bassist Alissa Noonan, and drummer Erica Corniel to recreate the band as an indie-pop outfit wrapped in retro business attire pastiche.Their song "Wound Up" was downloaded over 322,000 times as the Single of the Week on the iTunes Music Store in May 2006, helping their 2005 album, Q&A, reach number 14 on the iTunes album charts, briefly beating Tom Petty and Neil Young in the Top 20. Q&A held a spot in the iTunes top 100 in 2006. During this time the band was performing shows at South by Southwest music festival, CMJ, Mobfest, Midwest Music Conference, a set at Lollapalooza in 2006. In October 2006, the group signed with Scratchie Records, an independent label owned by James Iha, former guitarist of the Smashing Pumpkins.The band's first record under the Scratchie label, A Night at the Ritz, was released on September 25, 2007. The album contains both previously unreleased and older material from the group's unreleased records Q&A, which has been remastered and remixed for commercial release. Office produced two music videos from this record for the songs "Oh My" and "Wound Up". "Oh My" was featured on MTV in 2007. In 2007, Chicago-based indie artist Justin Petertil, and longtime friend of Masson's, replaced Noonan as Bassist.Masson moved to the Detroit area in late 2008 following a nervous breakdown in order to be closer to family. This marked the end of Office as a Chicago-based group. He eventually began recording and performing around the mid-west under the name Glossies, as well as producing records for other artists, painting, performing and recording with 800beloved, as well as other bands throughout the Detroit-area. Erica Corniel continues to write songs with Jojo Yang. Justin Petertil continues to write music under various project names.Office signed with Ann Arbor-based media conglomerate Quack!Media in January 2009, releasing "Mecca" on limited-edition vinyl and digital download. For several months, the album was available for free via the internet.Recently, Office's song 'Dominoes' was included on the indie compilation in August 2009. The song "Enter Me, Exit You" was licensed by Abercrombie & Fitch, and Hollister Co. stores across the US and UK.CollaboratorsCollaborators include: Scott Masson, Alissa Noonan, Tom Smith, Jessica Gonyea, Justin Petertil, Erica Corniel, Jamie Harper, John D. Martin III, Brad Miner, Toby Worscheck, Jen Collier, Colin DeKuiper, Jody Weinmann, Thea Nichols, Sara Jean Stevens, Shawn Rios, Jackie Phillips, Kip Donlon, Jeremy Freer and Jeffrey Freer, among others.