Singer-songwriter Ernie Halter went through a real “shit storm” this year.
“The new record is called ‘Starting Over’ for a reason,” says Halter. “I wanted the title to be direct, simple, and set the tone for the album. In this past year, I experienced the ending of a marriage and the birth of my first son. It was during this year that I wrote the material for the new record and performed over 150 shows.”
“More than ever I think it’s important to be as open and honest as possible, both as a songwriter and as a person,” Halter continues. “One positive side to the tumultuous year I’ve had is this new-found freedom to say it as it is, to admit who I am and where I’ve been. I feel this is a total crossroads for me.”
Since signing on the dotted line with ICON MES in September of 2006, THE GRADUATE have gone from virtual unknowns to gracing the cover of CMJ magazine in a matter of just a few short months. After several years of heavy touring with previous bands, these Springfield, IL natives have created quite a buzz and amassed a following that feels more like a family than a fan base.
THE GRADUATE eagerly awaits hitting the road and sharing the new material with fans. Best described as solid, mature pop-rock showered with sincerity and honesty, ANHEDONIA, a name chosen for its reference to ‘lack of emotion’, reflects the idea of just existing. Singer Corey Warning notes that the guys came into their own during the recording process and the finished product encompasses everything they were striving to achieve.
“I think that the people who liked the EP are going to like the full-length [album], I’m pretty confident about that. I think it’s progressive for us. I feel like we’re really starting to define our sound and what we’re trying to do as a band with our music.”
KaiserCartel are the dynamic duo of Courtney Kaiser & Benjamin Cartel. Each previously leaders of their own indie bands, they met on March 4th four years ago and formed KaiserCartel when they joined forces to tour the country that summer. They self-released an EP (Double Standard) and toured throughout the US and UK on their own before signing to bluhammock music late last year. March Forth, their debut album – was produced by Matt Hales (aka aqualung) and mixed by Matt and Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros) - and is full of low-fi, harmony-heavy, bittersweet songs full of charm. KaiserCartel is currently on tour and intend to stay there until they’ve played for all of you. Here’s what 411mania.com has to say about the duo: “While KaiserCartel look like a couple of emo kids who have lost their way don’t be deceived, they certainly bring their own brand sunshine with them and that reflected light is as warm and inviting as anything you’ll find.. A fantastic collection of songs from two people that know how to play with each other and for each other. My album of the year so far.”
Afterwords (El Music Group) is the new studio album from Collective Soul. It is the seventh studio album by the hard-rocking band from the tiny town of Stockbridge, GA that’s gone on to become multi-platinum hit-makers playing all over the world.
Bright as California sunshine, the first single “Hollywood” features an undeniable melody with tinges of ’80s pop. Singer/ songwriter Ed Roland puts a bouncy energy to his sly lyrics that compare Tinsel Town to a naughty girl (or is it the other way around?): “Yeah, Hollywood/ You know I love you more than one man should/ Yeah, Hollywood/ kiss me, kiss me good.”
While “Hollywood” may strike listeners as the perfect top-down summer song, much of the rest of Afterwords captures Collective Soul at a time when Roland is writing from a hard-won, much more mature perspective, and his band mates are contributing from equally strong musical directions. “The theme of this one is love.” Roland says of Afterwords. “It sounds corny saying that but we’ve been blessed with success and with that comes the confidence to do things. I always liked writing positive songs and although a whole love record is different for me it’s an important step.”
What do you do when “Perfect”, your first national radio single peaks at number 46, your record label goes chapter 11, your band mates can’t tour and you come home to find your personal life in shambles? Well, if you’re Don Miggs, you hole up in your living room, document the past year on “tape” and release it to the world before you even understand what was happening. Then you call an old friend from your hometown in New York and ask if he’ll cross the country with his bass guitar to join a band that is starting over. And what would 2007 be without a Myspace.com story? Your drummer would answer an ad on the “friend” site and fill the big shoes of the guy called the “future of drumming” in some circles. You go on to decide that four was one too many and set about to reinvent the look and sound of the band, hitting the road harder than ever before as a three piece.
So now what? Once singled out by the San Francisco Herald as “the next big thing outta the San Francisco Bay Area,” MIGGS appear to have moved out of the shadow of expectations and overcome intense odds to right things for the band. And if the reviews and growing crowds are any indication, this lineup appears ready for it’s close up.
Breaking new ground within the exploration of pure-styled rock & roll, Ike Reilly unveils an unusual ability as a songwriter, venturing to assault the ruggedness of hard rock tones and forwarding crude and fierce lyrics within his songs. Born in the little town of Libertyville, IL, Reilly follows a separated trail of most of the singer/songwriters of the late ’90s. Unlike other artists, Reilly prefers the harshness of intrepid rocking riffs, sustained by ingenious melodies and exalting words. Ike’s first record features his signature gritty yet soothing voice and brutally honest lyrics (though he claims that none of his songs are really about him). “Last time, I couldn’t make you come,” blurts the opening line, proving that making music, for Ike, isn’t about impressing anyone. Backed up by Tinley’s catchy and innovative guitar and keyboard riffs and a tight cast of band members, “Salesmen and Racists” showed that garage band rock revival music can become a well mastered art form. Despite the success of his recorded material, Ike’s main draw will always be his raucous, driving live performances. Packed full of energy and, usually, a lot of alcohol, his concerts bring the phrase “rowdy bar band” to a whole new level. Ike continues to play frequently around the Twin Cities, and he tends to favor venues that have a bar and plenty of room to dance/jump up and down/make a fool out of yourself, especially the Varsity Theater and the 7th Street Entry.
Ernie Halter also has an ongoing cover video series on YouTube.com (http://www.youtube.com/erniehalter), popular with his fans who submit requests on an ongoing basis. It was this, as much as Halter’s penchant for performing covers during his live shows, that prompted him to include three covers on the album: “Just Friends” (Musiq Soulchild), “Pretty Girl” (David Ryan Harris – a song that Halter wishes he had written himself and calls it “the most beautiful song ever”), and “Cyclone” (Baby Bash). Halter explains: “‘Cyclone’ is a hip-hop song, you hear it in clubs, and it’s not the kind of song you’d hear an acoustic songwriter singing. I basically flipped it – added some chords and arrangements that weren’t there, rather than just trying to copy it. There’s no skill in that. Incidentally, I noticed it was getting a lot of traffic on YouTube. One night, I was looking on MySpace and Baby Bash had written me a message there just to tell me he dug it. And I found out later that a radio station in Phoenix had picked up the song and had put it in rotation. People were telling me they heard it on the radio. I just decided have some fun with it.”
For an artist four albums, one dvd, a handful of live records into his career, having had songs placed in several prime time TV shows, (including the critically acclaimed ABC series, Brothers and Sisters and NBC’s Friday Night Lights) and having shared the stage with everyone from *NSYNC to Marc Anthony, Joss Stone to Chris Whitley, you would think Tony Lucca might be a household name by now. Instead, Lucca manages to stroll casually under the radar, patient though persistent and seemingly content with his place in today’s ever-evolving music business.
The formation of The Band of Heathens is as natural and organic as the music they create. In early spring 2006, the three principle songwriters, Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist, were sharing the bill every Wednesday night at the venerable Austin club Momo’s. Originally, it started as each songwriter performing his own set. But in a short time they started sharing the stage equally and collaborating on each other’s songs, with bassist Seth Whitney as the anchor of the rhythm section. The Wednesday night series was billed as “The Good Time Supper Club.” Largely improvised and unrehearsed, the shows quickly gained in popularity and word spread throughout Austin that if you wanted live music on Wednesday night, Momo’s was the place to be.
“15,” the blockbuster third album from Eleven Seven/Atlantic recording group Buckcherry, has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales exceeding 1 million units. Released April 11, 2006, the Los Angeles-based hard rock outfit’s “15” kick-started the rock revolution with a remarkable 91-weeks-and-counting on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, powered by four enormously successful multi-format hit singles: “Crazy Bitch,” “Next 2 You,” “Everything,” and “Sorry.” Accolades for the band’s success through real music are pouring in, lauding the band for bringing rock back despite the music industry’s failed focus on manufactured hip-hop and pop. Said fellow Eleven Seven Music label mate, Sixx: A.M. and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, “Few bands are savvy enough to write hit songs that aren’t just the flavor of the week. Buckcherry have stood the test of time and overcome adversity – which allows them to not only make rock history, but pave the road going forward, too.” Or, as Jed Gottleib at the Boston Herald put it, “Hundreds of bands score gold records. Hundreds more have Top 40 singles. Yet only a handful of lucky and brilliant artists. . . become part of the American experience.”
Ike Reilly’s “Poison The Hit Parade” is a collection of songs taken from demos from his brilliant debut “Salesmen and Racists” and alternate versions of songs from the blistering “Sparkle In The Finish” and 2007’s “We Belong To The Staggering Evening,” as well as the previously unreleased title track and the massive and poignant cancer anthem, “Dragonflies.” ”Poison” showcases Reilly and his bandmate Ed Tinley as producers unencumbered by the major label system and willing to frame a song in any vibe needed to hold the melodies and tales of Reilly’s unique vision. Beginning with the title track, “Poison The Hit Parade” continues Reilly’s prolific assault with images of characters in a conflicted middle America: patriotic doubt, the celebration of life and death, high school girls in summer dresses and more theoretical assassination attempts.
Echovalve. To their fans, the band is a refreshing anecdote to over-processed, cookie-cutter rock music. Mainstream in their own right, they have managed to take a distinctively original approach to a familiar genre. With searing and melodic riffs, tasty bass lines, pounding beats, and intensely haunting, hook-laden vocals, Echovalve has honed a sound that sets them apart. Through the challenges of the highly competitive, ever-changing world of the music industry, Echovalve has remained steadfast. What kills most has given life time and time again to a band that has refused to go away. Though the band is clean now, members have been plagued with drug and alcohol addictions and one band member was declared clinically dead following a drug overdose (he lived to tell the tale). The band has toured the country with no money, sleeping on park benches as they went from town to town. One band member was actually homeless and living on the streets for a while. That which did not break them only made them stronger and has made the successes that have come their way even sweeter.
Here are this week’s GHIDRAH songs:
SONG 1: Buckcherry - “Sorry”
SONG 2: Ike Reilly - “Poison The Hit Parade”
SONG 3: Echovalve - “Dirty Little Secret”
On a particularly nasty night at the Cleveland Music Festival in 2003, two Midwestern bands (Bridge and Outspoken) performed on the Agora stage to a rowdy rock ‘n’ roll crowd. After the show, Geo Teubl (Bridge) and Frank Green (Outspoken) drunkenly fought in the parking lot, solidifying a friendship in only the way excessive amounts of Southern Comfort and rock star antics can. Two years later, Outspoken broke up and Outspoken guitarist Kevin McCreery joined platinum-selling band Tantric for three years, touring with such acts as 3 Doors Down, Godsmack and Default. McCreery then contacted Teubl after hearing Bridge had parted ways. The two began writing immediately and after their first jam session with Donnie Highland (drums, Outspoken) and Green (bass guitar), the band Ugly was formed. Front man Teubl says, “We had an immediate chemistry, mutual admiration for each other’s sound, and, most importantly, we all wanted to put the art back in party with raw rock!”
“I made the transition from doing beats to producing and writing songs because I’d started to feel I couldn’t rely on anyone else; I was very protective of my music, and I guess I just hadn’t found the right person to help me take it to the next level,” reveals Jupiter Rising founder Spencer Nezey. “Then I started working with Jessie. She is a genuine artist, with killer instincts. I can count on her to bring her A game to whatever we’re doing and to be straight with me about what she thinks. Bottom line: I know I can trust Jessie. Without her, there would be no Electropop.” Spencer pays Jessie Payo, the L.A. outfit’s other half, perhaps the ultimate collaborator’s compliment when he says, “Working with Jessie is easy.” And “Electropop,” the title cut and first single from Jupiter Rising’s debut album (on Chime Entertainment) is a prime example of the pair’s carefree attitude.
In the club’s early 90’s heyday, the versatile GEE kept delirious audiences going through spinning at Limelight’s “Future Shock” dance/techno nights and performing with his live band as well as spinning at the club’s “Rock And Roll Church” metal/rock/industrial nights. The crowds kept coming back to Limelight, just like they did in Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Austria, Hungary and Belgium to name a few. GEE is a recurring headliner at Sensation, Thunderdome, Mysteryland, and Love Parade, where GEE played before one million people. His diverse appeal keeps him performing weekly at all types of musical events and concerts. GEE has shared the stage with everyone from Hatebreed and Biohazard to Crystal Method, Busta Rhymes, Kurtis Blow, and Afrika Bambaataa. His GEEness has also has spun at many Slipknot and Korn after parties with his good friend, DJ Starscream a.k.a. #0 of Slipknot.
Here are this week’s GHIDRAH songs:
SONG 1: Ugly - “Sex, Drugs, and Rock N Roll”
SONG 2: Jupiter Rising - “Electropop”
SONG 3: Rob GEE - “P.F.U.”
A quartet of dedicated rockers, Article A is primed to make their big splash with the debut album Stay Now, due out in early 2008. Hailing from North Jersey, the band has grown from a local band, who earned their stripes performing around their hometowns, to a true touring band. Their unique blend of power-pop and alternative rock has garnered interest in the industry since their inception in 2000.
Austin, TX-based four-piece 54 Seconds has inked a deal with Rock Ridge Music. The band will see its new album, “Postcards from California,” released on August 7th. 54 Seconds was born in Southern England but burst out as a musical force in Austin, TX in the late 1990’s. Best described as psychedelic-pop headphone music with swirling guitar textures and freakish keyboards, the band renders excellent melodies, heartening lyrics and eerie, otherworldly atmospheres that wrench the gut of the listener. “We’re very excited about signing with Rock Ridge,” says band vocalist Spencer Gibb. “Tom [Derr] and his team understand better than most where this industry is heading and we are proud to be part of such a forward-thinking and creative family.”
Stroke 9, the band that made little black backpacks infamous back in the day, are back with more of their brand of sunny, slightly quirky, California rock music. “Last Of The International Playboys,” the new album, follows on the heels of “Café Cuts,” the acoustic record the band released last year on Rock Ridge Music. The album, which is decorated with drawings of the band in jaunty garb created by a friend of the band, afforded the band the opportunity to really embrace the DIY mentality. It was recorded in their home studios (in Los Angeles and San Francisco) with the band emailing parts of songs to each other and writing and recording the entire album long distance. “The four of us were technically never in the studio together recording on this album,” says lead singer Luke Esterkyn. “But it worked for us with the band split in half geographically between LA and San Francisco.” You’d never know it to listen to the seamless results.
Here are this week’s GHIDRAH songs:
SONG 1: Article A – “Don’t Change”
SONG 2: 54 Seconds – “Dirty Little Secret”
SONG 3: Stroke 9 – “The One”
Cantinero is back, and we are offering a sneak preview of “My House” from an upcoming album. Cantinero’s debut “Championship Boxing” received rave reviews, and coverage that included an 11 minute interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition, video play on MTV’s Subterranean, and a Top 50 record at the AAA radio format.
“We Belong To The Staggering Evening” is the natural yet alarming evolution for The Ike Reilly Assassination. Sounding furious and maniacal and on top of the world at the outset, “The Staggering Evening” is performed with something to prove and nothing to lose. Handclaps and tambourines, the call-and-response, twisted-gospel vocals, and driving NYC-underground guitars are all part of Reilly’s American portrayal of rock ‘n’ roll in this lost new era. Produced by Reilly, “The Staggering Evening” is an album that should be blasted on a hectic Friday night from jukeboxes in bars that haven’t banned smoking, from college dorm rooms, from economy cars in shit traffic, and stuck in the ears of iPod-listening subway riders. It’s a “Cops” episode; it’s Lenny Bruce after being the celebrity judge on “American Idol;” it’s a night full of lust and regret, blood and anarchy, and a blind date with the disaffected — a hilarious night that begins with a swill and ends with a tender kiss.
For some, living the rock ’n’ roll dream means fame, fortune and all the excess that comes with it. The Marble Index are living a different dream. It involves the proverbial blood, sweat and tears. It involves perseverance and effort. It involves working like sons of bitches and making the most of opportunity. If this dream doesn’t sound as sexy, you’ve read too many magazines. This is good, old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll spirit, with nothing airbrushed, steroid-pumped or collagen-enhanced – but sexy indeed. In fact, if you compare The Marble Index’s self-titled debut and their latest, “Watch Your Candles, Watch Your Knives,” you’ll hear a band who haven’t lost an ounce of muscle, but have gained a remarkable amount of finesse. Even as their album was landing on new shelves in new countries, the Index had regrouped at home to record “Watch Your Candles, Watch Your Knives.” They hunkered down for several weeks at Hamilton, Ontario’s Catharine North Studios, with producer Scott Shields (the Mescaleros, G.U.N.) at the helm.
Here are this week’s GHIDRAH songs:
SONG 1: Cantinero – “My House”
SONG 2: Ike Reilly Assassination – “When Irish Eyes Are Burning”
SONG 3: The Marble Index – “All That I Know”
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