Having existed in various incarnations since 1996, over the past few years Rock Plaza Central has solidified into a core five-piece recording group including Chris Eaton (lead vocals, banjo, guitar), Blake Howard (drums), Scott Maynard (bass, guitar), Donald Murray (mandolin, trumpet, guitar) and Fiona Stewart (violin, trombone), with help on the last record from John Whytock and Louis Apicello (trumpets), and Andy Innanen (drums) often joining them on the road.
Past recording members have also included Rob Carson, Casey McGlynn, Jack Breakfast, Doug Tielli, John Tielli, Derek and Pearce Allen, and a grade 3 class.
After years in relative obscurity, their 2006 album, Are We Not Horses (including Rob Carson and John Whytock), was a huge critical success, receiving one of Pitchfork’s best ratings of the year, four stars from Rolling Stone, making countless critics’ top 10s, and being called everything from “a masterpiece” (Exclaim) to “uniquely intoxicating” (The Independent) to “2007’s finest folk/rock find” (Magnet). The literary-styled concept album about robotic horses who think they are real horses was even studied on a graduate English course at the University of South Alabama.
They are currently based in Toronto.
