Post by stevewire on Mar 16, 2006 12:56:16 GMT -5
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006.
The Brillobox.
4104 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224.
9pm. $5.
The Stock Market Crash (from Oklahoma City),
Foreign Islands (from Brooklyn, NYC)
and Life In Bed
Click Here To View Event
Saturday March 25th, 2006.
Modern Formations.
4919 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
8pm. All Ages. $7.
New London Fire (from Oakland, NJ. On Eyeball Records),
Kiss Kiss (from Purchase, NY. On Eyeball Records)
and Life In Bed.
Click Here To View Event.
NEW LONDON FIRE:
There's a shimmering spark in a snowstorm. Every few beats, it escapes suffocation by a opportune breath and defiantly perseveres until it becomes a glow. From the glow, a white globe of heat. New Jersey's New London Fire became an inferno from a few stray incendiary components blowing in the same direction. Fighting against an uncompromising climate, members David and Jason Debiak, Rich Polatchek, and Jonathan Lam decided to team their creative efforts after years of individual musical endeavors.
The Debiak brothers had spent six toilsome years as members of Sleep Station touring with an unstable roster in a tour van on its deathbed. The stress, in tandem with the regular tornadoes and violent drunks, was more than a few kids from the quiet North Jersey hills could endure. Dave and Jason persisted in creating solid and beloved underground indie records such as "Hang in there Charlie" and "After The War". No matter how many shows were played or records released, luck always seemed to be just beyond reach.
During many of these tempestuous touring spells, childhood friend and "multi-instrumentalist", Rich Polatchek, had been Sleep Station's fill-in drummer. Rich as been playing music his entire life in one capacity or another. As precocious 12 year olds, Rich and Jason used to watch Dave rehearse in his garage - with Dave's permission of course. Ironic that 10 years later, Rich would become the full time drummer in NLF. Jazz trained and proficient in a handful of instruments, Rich has recently been lending his talents on trumpet to other bands, including Eyeball label mates Kiss Kiss.
Soon after Rich's inception, guitarist Jonathan Lam, also of New Jersey, was introduced to the Debiak brothers by Rich during the formation of NLF. Prior to joining the band and building the distinctive wall of sound heard on "I Sing the Body Holographic", Jonathan spent a lot of time after college traveling to Europe and Asia. Spending so much time teaching and practicing turned out to be fortunate for the rest of the band when they found themselves endowed with a "refreshingly brilliant" guitar player.
In Spring 2005, when all four members finally met and recorded the album, the chemistry was undeniable. With the help of producer D. James Goodwin, the band created an album which all of the members felt lived up to their potential. If a young, angsty Michael Jackson produced a Cars song everyday for three weeks, you might get a hint of NLF's elegant urgency. The band's gushing melodies are fused with terse and somber samples to create an aural blueprint of a lustrous distinction. New London Fire's debut album of flawless electro pop consonance, "I Sing the Body Holographic", is to be released in early 2006.
KISS KISS:
Formed in New York State by college friends Josh Benash (synth, guitar, vocals) and Jared Karns (drums) in the fall of 2003, Kiss Kiss began experimenting with both pop and avant-garde/classical song structures in equal measure. Taking their name from a collection of adult stories full of death and revenge by children’s author Roald Dahl, they recruited whatever musicians they could find, including an electric violinist, to make music that was catchy, challenging, and above all, unique. They played shows whenever and wherever they could, and with influences as diverse as Radiohead, Mr. Bungle, Nirvana, and classical composer Igor Stravinsky, began to win over fans with their exciting and unpredictable, yet instantly memorable compositions and live shows.
A revolving door of musicians and a botched Summer 2004 tour followed, but Benash and Karns never lost their determination to bring adventurous, risk-taking music back to the forefront of pop music. This pioneering attitude helped them find a permanent and dedicated bassist in Pat Lamothe. The new and improved Kiss Kiss gave out copies of their self-made, self-titled EP to whoever would listen, one landing in the hands of Astromagnetics co-founder Marc Debiak. Negotiations with the label began immediately after Debiak caught them live.
However, refusing to let label interest go to their heads, Kiss Kiss soldiered on with a rugged DIY ethic, continuing relentlessly to play anytime, anywhere, with anyone. A buzz surrounding their EP abounded in the Tri-State area, and 2,000 copies later it was time to tour with it in the Summer of 2005. James Wolff took over the much-coveted position of electric violinist, and they were off, covering the Northeast and expanding their fan base two-fold. Not only did they gain fans on that trip, they gained a member. In Pittsburgh, guitarist Evan Crow saw them play, and, leaving behind everything he knew as home, hopped in their mini-school bus after they told him they needed a new guitarist.
Now, Kiss Kiss’s debut EP has been re-mastered and is set to be released on Eyeball Records October 11th. Meanwhile, they labor in the studio on their much-anticipated debut full-length, set to be released on AstroMagnetics Recordings in Spring 2006. Until then, catch them on tour throughout late fall and Winter and check out the EP. If you like music that is at once ugly and beautiful, that respects and borrows from pop songwriting without bowing to it, that is intense without being metal, and that marries frenetic punk rock energy to a classical care for craft, then this is the band for you.