We Are The Arsenal - There Will Come Soft Rains
August 16, 2010
We Are The Arsenal In a time when CD sales are down and the music industry’s future is unsure, We Are The Arsenal holds fast. While younger bands are dropping like flies due to economic hardships and market saturation, WATA thrives. What keeps this Orange County rock quartet on the rise as others fade? Hard work and keeping it real. Plain and simple. Oh, and the explosive live show couldn’t hurt.
Following the demise of former international touring acts, the members of We Are The Arsenal joined forces in early 2007 and immediately began writing what came to be known as the “Trees” EP. This five song juggernaut was self-released by the band in a limited 1,000 pressing in February 2008. It has since gone out of print but it quickly gained the attention of major Japanese record label Radtone Records as well as Los Angeles based Authentik Artists. Both of whom took a vested interest in the band and went on to release We Are The Arsenal’s debut full length album entitled “They Worshipped The Trees” in March of 2009. The band has since been touring non-stop in support of the album including stints with Angels And Airwaves, Senses Fail, A Skylit Drive, I Am Ghost, and Amber Pacific. In June of 2009, WATA threw their official Cd Release show at The House of Blues Anaheim pulling in a staggering 500+ of their dedicated fans and friends. Word quickly began spreading throughout the southern California area and We Are The Arsenal was being asked to headline other major venues such as The Grove of Anaheim and The Viper Room in Hollywood.
2009 and 2010 have also brought WATA to the airwaves (both radio and television) with the World Famous KROQ consistently spinning the band’s first single “So Long”. This in addition to multiple other rock stations in Las Vegas, San Diego, and the Inland Empire picking up the band’s cover of Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”. We Are The Arsenal was also featured as KROQ and Bud Light’s “Local Band Spotlight” in May 2010 receiving commercial airplay approximately every half hour throughout the month. To compliment the increasing radio play, MTV began featuring the band’s music on network shows such as “Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins”, “The Hard Times Of RJ Berger”, and “Parental Control.” The band’s music video for 1st single “So Long” enjoyed its world premiere in November 2009 on Fuse.TV and has since been featured on MTVU’s “The Freshman”, VH1.com, and Spike.com. Both of WATA’s videos (including 2nd Single “Like My Body”) are currently being featured around the country in retail stores such as Nordstrom, Macy’s, Tilly’s, Steve Madden, and Journeys. As for other platforms, the band’s track “Sound The Alarms” will be featured in an upcoming MotoCross video game on XBOX 360 and PS3. In a time where labels are having trouble monetizing art, We Are The Arsenal is navigating steady and sure through the uncertainty and exploring new avenues of expression and expansion.
A tireless work ethic and a true love and passion for the art of music is what has kept this group of individuals together for the past 3 years. “We’re at the point in our lives now where if these songs didn’t mean everything to us, we wouldn’t be doing it at all” said the band when questioned for this bio. “We’ve already accomplished more than any kid with a dream could ask for, but this is only the beginning.”
With 2010 moving along swiftly, We Are The Arsenal is ready and planning their attack. Having just completed tracking their new 6 song EP entitled “There Will Come Soft Rains”, WATA kicked off the Summer with a KROQ Locals Only Showcase at The Roxy in Hollywood with Bleed The Dream. The band has spent the scorching Summer months playing regional shows and prepping for their 2nd official release. Fans of the band will find an immediate resemblance to the WATA of old but also a noticeable progression on “There Will Come Soft Rains.” The six tracks on the album still hold firm to the band’s trademark melodic aggression and brutal gang chants, but also introduce more of a calm beauty found in bands like Jimmy Eat World and Death Cab For Cutie. “It’s an exciting time for We Are The Arsenal! We couldn’t be happier with these new songs and we can’t wait to hit the road this Fall to play them for all our amazing friends across the country!” September finds WATA hitting much of the Southwest US with plans of hitting the rest of the country and Europe in the months to come.
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There Will Come Soft Rains EP (Available 09.07.2010)
Download Album Cover Here
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Rag Rag - Fighting Pride (Pacquiao’s Theme)
July 20, 2010
Hailing from the Philippines and the U.K., RAG RAG consists of brothers Glen Ragrag (lead vocals), Michael Ragrag (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Christopher Ragrag (keyboards, backing vocals) and joined by Norbert Ace Gayanilo (lead guitar, backing vocals).
2008 was a breakthrough year for RAG RAG when they were invited by Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Madonna Decena to play for the Pacquiao vs. Cotto after fight party held at the Mandalay Bay Concert Hall in Las Vegas, an event to honor world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao’s seven world titles in different weight divisions.
It was through this meeting and performance that the band was inspired to write the official theme song for Manny, with the aptly titled “Fighting Pride (Pacquiao’s Theme)” featuring a special guest vocal intro by Pacquiao himself.
“FIGHTING PRIDE (Pacquiao’s Theme)” was recorded at Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas and The Record Plant in Los Angeles in the summer of 2010 and features Madonna Decena on vocals. The single will be released worldwide digitally on iTunes and other major online retailers in late 2010 and is currently available as ringtones on mobile carriers now.
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Fighting Pride((Pacquiao’s Theme) - Ringtone (avail now)
Fighting Pride((Pacquiao’s Theme) - Single (Coming Summer 2010)
Fighting Pride ringtone on Thumbplay (Available Now)
Fighting Pride ringtone on Jamster
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
Meeting Of Important People - Quit Music
July 15, 2010
Meeting of Important People is a three-piece garage-pop band from Pittsburgh, PA. The band’s debut single “Mothers Pay More” ignited a media and blogging frenzy in the Summer of 2008, and their 2009 debut album on the Authentik label has been named a top release by several blogs and radio stations, including influential station WYEP-FM. MOIP’s new summer 2010 EP release “Quit Music”, a pleasant little collection of creepy suburban garage-pop songs, now has even more folks listening intently worldwide.
The band has recorded with producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron&Wine), has starred in a heavily-viewed cardboard city music video, traveled extensively, gained airplay on terrestrial and satellite stations, and has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Ok Go, The Secret Machines and Sam Roberts Band. Several of their songs have even been heard in high-profile television shows and films, if you listened closely enough.
MOIP keeps the loud parts loud, the pretty parts pretty, and the people happy.
Meeting of Important People is: Josh Verbanets – Matt Miller – Aaron Bubenheim
Meeting Of Important People on Myspace
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Quit Music (EP)
Quit Music on iTunes (Now Available)
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
Alan Parsons - All Our Yesterdays
June 9, 2010
Alan Parsons had dabbled with live performance in his late teens as a folk/blues acoustic player and as a lead guitarist with a blues band in the late sixties. But as soon as he landed a job at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London at the age of 19, it became clear that the world of sound recording was to dominate his career. He was fortunate enough to work as assistant engineer on the last two albums by The Beatles and after he qualified as a fully-fledged recording engineer, he went on to work with Paul McCartney and The Hollies among many others. But it was his contribution as engineer on Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side Of The Moon that really got him world attention. That soon led to striking successes as a producer – notably with Pilot’s Magic, John Miles’ Highfly and Music and Steve Harley’s (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile.
He also produced the hugely successful Year Of The Cat album with Al Stewart and two albums with American progressive rock band Ambrosia. In 1975 he met Eric Woolfson who not only became his manager, but joined forces with Alan as a songwriting and performing partner for what became known as The Alan Parsons Project. The APP’s debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe paved the way for a signing to Clive Davis’ newly launched Arista label and a string of hit albums, namely I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). A brief venture into musical theatre resulted in Freudiana in 1990.The show ran for over a year in the historic Theater An Der Wien in Vienna. Eric and Alan then went separate ways. Eric devoted his career to the musical theatre while Parsons felt the need to bring his music to the live concert stage and to continue to record conceptual symphonic rock music. With his long-standing previous APP collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson, drummer Stuart Elliott and orchestral arranger Andrew Powell, Alan dropped the “Project” identity for Alan Parsons - Try Anything Once in 1994. The partnership continued for On Air in 1996 and The Time Machine in 1999. During this time the first incarnation of “Alan Parsons Live Project” toured to sell-out audiences throughout the globe.
Following Alan’s relocation to California, a new Live Project band was formed in 2003. The album A Valid Path, Alan’s foray into Electronica was released in 2004 and featured Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, The Crystal Method, Shpongle, Uberzone, PJ Olsson and Alan’s son, Jeremy. 2008 saw the reissue of all the Alan Parsons Project albums in expanded form, containing never-before-heard bonus material and a 2-CD compilation called The Essential Collection. One of the most familiar Project tracks is Sirius, perhaps best known as the Chicago Bulls theme and more recently as walk-on music for The New Orleans Saints at their triumphant Superbowl game in 2010.
Alan’s latest venture is an instructional series about recording called The Art And Science Of Sound Recording. See www.artandscienceofsound.com. All Our Yesterdays, a song written especially for the series, features some of LA’s finest musicians and a rare performance by Alan on lead vocals. Alan lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa and her two daughters, Tabitha and Brittni, four dogs, a lop-eared rabbit, and an 18-hand Clydesdale called Dante.
For more information visit www.alanparsonsmusic.com
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All Our Yesterdays (Single)
All Our Yesterdays on iTunes (Available Now)
The Art and Science of Sound Recording Official Web
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
Michael Lowman - In My Own Words
May 25, 2010
Michael Lowman is a singer songwriter born in Durban, South Africa. He grew up in a home filled with music from iconic artists such as The Beatles and Eric Clapton, and although no one in his family apart from his father played a musical instrument, Michael developed a huge love and appreciation for the art form. When he was just ten years old his father was killed in a car accident and it was around this time that he started to view the world through a different set of eyes. An older set of eyes. The next few years would prove to be some of the hardest of his life. He has often said that these were his “material gathering” years, and although he didn’t know it at the time the songwriter in him was taking shape. He started playing guitar at the age of 17 and started singing and writing songs shortly after. Michael, now just 23, sounds like someone who has been playing all his life.
Growing up in South Africa seems to have grounded this musician and given him a different perspective on how the world works, and it certainly comes across in his personality and in his music.
In July of 2009 Michael sent Scott Austin (CEO of Authentik Artists) an email seeking advice from someone “in the know” - someone who he later described as being relatable and surprisingly approachable - In the email Michael also sent Scott the links to some recently uploaded YouTube videos. The two began emailing back and forth and to the amazement of both men, each had found something worth holding onto. After just a few months of planning, fund raising and songwriting, Michael found himself on a plane to Las Vegas ready to dive head first into his dreams.
Michael arrived in Las Vegas on December 16th 2009 and over the next few days, with the help of producer Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac, The Killers), Scott Austin and some incredibly talented musicians, the “dream team” set out to record six songs in the comfort of the Studio at The Palms - music and lyrics by Michael Lowman.
With his gift for storytelling and an underlying rhythmic and melodic sense on guitar, this young man just might be the next “real deal” to hit the music scene.
Producer Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac, Chris Isaak, The Killers) along with musicians Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction, Alanis Morissette) Dave Palmer (Chris Isaak, Fiona Apple) Robin DiMaggio (Paul Simon, Steve Vai) and Eric Schermerhorn (Seal, Iggy Pop)
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In My Own Words (June 8, 2010)
Purchase the EP on iTunes (Coming June 8, 2010)
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
The Boys Of Summer - What It’s All About
May 25, 2010
The Boys of Summer are and always have been four best friends making music because we love it. We are four-piece rock band from the suburbs of Detroit that have finally found ourselves. After our whole lives spent on making music and being in bands we have found our voice. We have figured out the message that we want to convey to all of you, and the story we want to tell.
In today’s industry things are really hard, money rules everything, and where we are from times are really hard. We are going to be committed to creating an environment, a family, where we can all connect. We have written and recorded 12 songs about certain times in our lives that we all want to share with you. Hopefully through this outlet online, as well as more in the future, you all can send us comments, messages about anything you’d like to hear from us or just to share stories with us. We hope that this record can evoke every emotion possible. You can play a song with the windows down driving around town with your friends, or when your having a bad day just sitting in your room. We want to share those times with all of you. Hopefully our relationship can go beyond just music. We all have big dreams, but we all need each other to make them come true.
The Boys Of Summer are: Kyle Mueller-Drums / Mark Warren - Bass / Jon-Paul Bakaric - Guitar and Vocals / Scab - Guitar and Vocals
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What It’s All About (Avail 06.15)
What It’s All About on iTunes (Available Now)
Physical CD / Shirt Pre-Order (Purchase Now!)
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
The Rendering - Protector
May 25, 2010
The Rendering
Bio coming soon..
Andrew Reid (Bass)
Eric Van Acker (Vocals)
Danny Cook (Drums)
Dan Marinaro (Guitar)
Aaron Nichols (Guitar)
New EP Produced by The Rendering and Mixed/Mastered by Stephan Hawkes (American Me, Across The Sun)
The Rendering on Myspace
The Rendering on iLike
Protector (EP)
Available Soon
Coming soon to iTunes
Coming soon to Amazon MP3
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
The Break Mission - Alpha
May 25, 2010
The Break Mission had humble beginnings—two best friends who heard Pearl Jam’s Ten many years ago and decided they couldn’t both keep playing drums. Matt won out, and Jeff picked up his dad’s guitar and began writing terrible songs. Over the course of nearly twenty years, the sound matured as they began carving out a musical identity. In 2001, they moved to Boston and formed Redletter with their immensely talented friends Dave Murray and Richey Tally on guitar and bass guitar respectively. Redletter released two EP’s, the second of which, entitled “The Spirit and the Chemicals,” received significant press and radio play, earning them a coveted “band to watch” tailwind. In 2005, the band changed their name to The Break Mission, signed a record deal with New York City label RoHo Records, and went into the studio with the masterful Dan McLoughlin (The Push Stars, Buffalo Tom, Weezer) to record their self-titled debut. Shortly after, Matt and Jeff moved to New York City.
In the wake of their debut for RoHo, the song “Hold On” was included in a national compilation for Starbuck’s, and media outlets such as Boston Magazine, SPIN magazine and Clear Channel praised the album. They quickly followed up with As Much Light As It Will Take in 2007, enlisting the help of friend-turned-engineer-turned-new bassist for the band “Wild” Bill Wathen. Critics and fans alike described the album as sublime, anthemic and refreshing, however it was also the last that the four original members of Redletter would make together, and a year after its release, drummer Matt Hershey and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Jeff Knowlton were at a crossroads. Just as the fate of the band felt in jeopardy, Jeff got the good news that his old friend Ben Lindell was moving to New York City from Miami. Ben, a talented musician, producer and engineer brought new life to the band’s dynamic and after the first rehearsal together, there was no question that they had discovered something. In 2009, the trio self-released The Prospect EP, and the accompanying video for the track “Come By,” and introduced a beautiful and inventive new sound.
Here we are in 2010, and Ben, Jeff and Matt have a new record called Alpha. They are also happy to announce that L.A. based label Authentik Artists will be releasing Alpha on June 22. There is an expectation, along with a formidable optimism that their finest days are ahead. Thank you to everyone who has supported The Break Mission since its inception to now. Your love and support is never lost.
The Break Mission are: Matt Hershey-Drums / Jeff Knowlton - Guitar, Piano, Vocals / Ben Lindell - Bass, Keyboards
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Alpha (LP) (Avail 06.15)
Alpha on iTunes (6.22)
Alpha on Amazon.com (6.22)
Download Album Cover Here
Download Press Photo Here
Hands Like Glass - With Unveiled Faces
May 3, 2010
Bringing together two radically different musical styles, Hands Like Glass set out to unite the pulsing and rhythmic beats of trance with the powerful and fierce drive of melodic metal to create a groundbreaking sound soon to captivate the ears of all who hear. Founding members Jimmy Amaya (guitars) and Ces Linares (bass) set out to create a hybrid style of music which brings a fresh edge to the otherwise exhausted post-hardcore scene. After a few unsuccessful vocalists, Jimmy saw promise and potential in the abilities of singer Mason Premo, whose style and flow brought a catchy and powerful attitude to the mix.
The group was then blessed with the addition of synth player/songwriter Jopasety Castillo, which reinforced and solidified the bands trance element. Longing to fill the spots of second guitarist and permanent drummer, the group turned to Eddie Intagliata and Cory McMahan who recently departed from their more traditional metal outfit. With a complete lineup, Hands Like Glass got to work creating an innovative and dynamic blend of ambiance and attack.
Hands Like Glass - EP
Available May 18, 2010 from Authentik INK.
Hands Like Glass EP on iTunes (Coming May 2010)
Come On, Come On - Pop Fiction
May 2, 2010
Come On, Come On formed in October of 2009 when two friends Kelvin Cruz and Justin Powell decided to combine forces once again musically and make a song that would become known as “Life’s Been More Than Fair.” Kelvin and Justin are no strangers to making music with each other. Both are formerly of the Chino Hills, screamo/rock group A Thorn For Every Heart. Cruz and Powell have been making music together for eight years now which makes for no surprise of the chemistry that was quickly found writing for Come On, Come On. Now only six months later the two have written, self recorded, produced and engineered their debut six song EP titled “Pop Fiction.” They have pulled together a vast amount of influences with everything from Queen to Jimmy Eat World to The Black Eyed Peas which has lead to their pop/rock/electronic unique but modern sound. The band has just signed with Authentik Artists and are preparing for a May 2010 release of “Pop Fiction.”
Come On, Come On - Pop Fiction
Available May 11, 2010
Come On, Come On EP on iTunes (Coming May 2010)
Come On, Come On EP on Amazon MP3 (Coming May 2010)
