3 Balls Of Fire
Mike Vernon
3 Balls Of Fire

3 BALLS OF FIRE, "The Men With The Buring Guitars" a band somewhat akin to the Marfa Lights in their marvelously esoteric song selection, exquisite execution and all around out of this world mysterioso appeal. Led by the ferociously gifted guitar slinger Burnin’ Mike Vernon, these guys churn out a gloriously rendered combination of technical perfection, soulful involvement and well-chilled, good old fashioned American pop music. Great Balls of Fire, verily!

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Aceyalone
Decon Records
Aceyalone

For legendary emcee Aceyalone, being out of the norm has paradoxically always been the norm. The Los Angeles rapper and founding member of Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku D'Etat and Project Blowed returns with Aceyalone & The Lonely Ones, an album that draws on Phil Spector, 60s girl groups, the J.B.s and a slew of raw, dirty funk for sonic inspiration.

ADMIRALS
Idol Records
ADMIRALS

Believe it or not, Indie rock's best kept secret is the small close knit community of bands and artists from Oklahoma. In the wake of bands like The Flaming Lips, Other Lives, Starlight Mints, and Colourmusic, ADMIRALS is emerging as one of the premiere bands in this region of the country. Hailing from Stillwater Oklahoma, home of Big XII's Oklahoma State University. 

Drawing comparisons from Radiohead, The Verve, and Arcade Fire, ADMIRALS bring elements of new wave, folk, blues, jazz and industrial, as well as classic influences in to their repertoire. With melodic guitar and keyboard lines paired with sweeping synths and driving drums and bass, ADMIRALS create an ethereal performance both sonically and visually in a live setting. 

Produced by Trent Bell (Flaming Lips, Chemical Brothers, Dressy Bessy, Starlight Mints, Chainsaw Kittens)

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Adult Books
Polyvinyl Records, LLC
Adult Books

Adult Books post-punk sound draws on the melancholy melodies of New Order, the shimmering guitar work of The Smiths and the nervy urgency of The Wipers. Alternating between sardonic and sincere, the tightly crafted lyrics strive for an emotional honesty even at their most ambiguous.

AEGES
Ghost Town, Inc.
AEGES

With the decline of Western civilization comes a new pilgrimage of musicians looking to carve out their fates from the wreckage of the past. ÆGES are the new breed of California's creative drifters.

Founded by former Seattleite Mark Holcomb (Undertow, Shift) and Chicago-raised Larry Herweg (Pelican, Tusk), ÆGES grew out of a temporary hiatus for their other band, San Angelus. Holcomb and Herweg continued writing new material and forging into heavier terrain. Another transplant, Kemble Walters (The Rise, The Blank Faces, Juliette and the Licks), who grew up in Indonesia, had met Herweg while on tour in Chicago. With both Herweg and Walters now living in LA, they began to play music together. Herweg noticed the similarities between Holcomb and Walters playing and writing and knew the two had to meet each other. Holcomb and Walters hit it off instantly in person and in the rehearsal space. The final piece to the puzzle was the sole California native, bassist Tony Baumeister (16, Cutthroats 9).

Converging in Southern California across state lines and international waters, ÆGES use their world-wise musical expertise to rebuild the archetype of the heavy rock band. There's a definite element of desert rock in ÆGES sound--the low-tuned guitars, the sludgy sun-baked riffs, the deceptive pop hook buried in the molasses-thick instrumentation. Yet the diverse backgrounds of the band members create a unique blend of perspectives and a resultantly fresh sound. The common sonic thread between the four individuals in ÆGES--their tenure in bands that explored the darker side of hardcore-manifests itself in the aggressive tonalities of their sound. But their divergent paths, both geographical and musical, broadened the emotional palette beyond the angst of their earlier bands. Their debut EP, "Roaches", is set for release via Hawthorne Street Records (Pelican, The Life and Times, Sweet Cobra) on April 19th, 2011. Their live debut is slated for April 16th, Record Store Day.

The new millennium ushered in a new, revitalized era of artistic integrity for LA. We saw it in the age of the acid-hazed '60s, the age of the nihilistic Regan-era punks, and the current age of abandoned archetypes of a failed economy. It's creative optimism in a time of hopelessness. It's the music of ÆGES.

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Amerikan Bear
Rebel America Inc.
Amerikan Bear

California rock & roll with a 60's tone. A true pearl pulled from the depths of a psychedelic time warp. Powered by a mixture of psychedelia, garage and R&b. Fueled and fronted by a wild man's haunted soul!

All Hail Bright Futures could be taken as both an ethos for the album and the band at this point in time. There is a new color scheme in place: new textures, emotions, sounds and voices. The 12-track, 43 minute album is dominated by a sunnier disposition, a positive uplift that more closely matches the euphoria the Northern Ireland trio has been instilling in audiences through their music in a live setting for the last five years.

There are moments of tropical guitar pop ("Rats On Rock"), percussive bleeping song foundations paired with infectious vocals ("The Stay Golden"), a trumpet arrangement ("Young Brave Minds"), an orchestral interlude ("Trails"), singalong mantras ("Big Things Do Remarkable"), harmonic hooks ("Like A Mouse"), a flute melody ("Mend And Make Safe") along with cutup vocals and handclaps ("Ka Ba Ta Bo Da Ka"). All of these new additions to the ASIWYFA sound are underpinned by their trademark guitar riffs that bliss the musical brain, complemented by the colossal and increasingly expressive rhythm section that comforts as much as it bludgeons.

Continuing the unparalleled pace at which they've been touring for over five years now, ASIWYFA have taken their uplifting sound to places other bands could only imagine. Since the release of 2011's second album Gangs (also on Sargent House), the band have added China, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to their already considerably stamped passports. As well as these far-flung, seldom played places, the band have gigged all over North America and Europe, bringing their total show tally close to 500.

A band can't play 500 shows worldwide without a fanbase and ASIWYFA have a legion. And you can't build a legion of fans across the world without great songs. Gangs earned the band a second Choice Music Prize nomination for Irish Album of The Year 2012 and they recently signed to Sargent House worldwide (home to Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Boris, Fang Island, Chelsea Wolfe and more) for management and label -- which will release the band's third album All Hail Bright Futures in March 2013.

All Hail Bright Futures is ASIWYFA's first recording done as a three-piece following the departure of Tony Wright. The band will head back out on the road as a four piece with their new full time member Niall Kennedy. The album was recorded with Rocky O' Reilly at Start Together Studio in Belfast. It is their boldest statement yet, an album bursting with a positive vigor that states a renewed case for a magnetizing band at their best.

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And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Century Media Records / Lonely Planet Productions
And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

Formed in late 1994 by singers/guitarists/drummers Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, Trail of Dead has evolved over the years expanding their line-up while still being creatively driven by the core founding members. Friends since childhood, Keely and Reece started playing music in the indie rock town of Olympia, WA and eventually relocated to Austin, TX where they started ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Their first release was a self-titled album that came out on Trance Records in 1998 and was succeeded by Madonna in 1999 on Merge records. ...Trail of Dead toured the US with Superchunk shortly after and in 2002 they released Source Tags and Codes on Interscope Records. Over the next four years the band released two additional albums on Interscope Records – World's Apart and So Divided before parting ways with the label in the fall of 2007. In the Spring of 2008, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead launched their Richter Scale Imprint and thanks to a partnership in the US with Justice Records and in Europe with Superball Music, their sixth studio album The Century of Self was released in February 2009. In the Spring of 2010 the band entered a worldwide deal with Superball Music and their Richter Scale Records Imprint and they released TAO OF THE DEAD in February 2011. In the summer of 2012 the band headed over to Hannover, Germany to record their eight full-length studio album Lost Songs – due out October 22nd on Richter Scale/Superball Music. Currently, Jason and Autry are based in Austin, TX, Conrad is based in Cambodia and Jamie lives in LA. FACTS ON LOST SONGS: Hello, we are ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. This is our eighth album, it was recorded this summer in Hannover, Germany. The music was partly inspired by the apathy to real world events that has plagued the independent music scene now for over a decade. It was also inspired by artists such as the Cure, KARP, Ros Sereysothea, Human League, Hildegard von Bingen, and a few others. We feel that because the lyrics can say more about the album than we could, we would simply share them with you. We would like to dedicate our efforts to Pussy Riot, and any and all artists who have attempted to exercise their creativity under the oppression of government, as well as the endemic oppression of an indifference to passion present in our mainstream culture. - Conrad Keely, Phnom Penh 2012 INFLUENCES INCLUDE: Fugazi, Melvins, Bikini Kill, KARP, Unwound, Sonic Youth, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Public Enemy, Yes, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, etc. TOURED/PERFORMED WITH... Superchunk, Secret Machines, Blood Brothers, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Doves, Audio Slave, Foo Fighters, U2, The Sex Pistols, The Sword, Mogwai, Dinosaur Jr., Queens of the Stone Age, Explosions in the Sky, Peaches, Spoon, My Bloody Valentine, Dethcock, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Sleighbells, Surfer Blood, Rival Schools RANDOM FACTS: - Source Tags & Codes - Received highest possible score of 10.0 on Pitchfork. - Conrad and Jason met in high school in Hawaii - Went to college together at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA - Moved to Austin, TX and started playing as a guitar and drums duo under the name You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Conrad has done album artwork for band's albums as well as others including The Sword, Fugo, Amanda Palmer and Eagle Claw and has showed his work at galleries across the world.

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Auction for the Promise Club
Auction For The Promise Club
Auction for the Promise Club

"Their best to date." ~ Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music

“This is great, one of those songs that builds into something of a crescendo, it's really good.” ~ Charlie Ashcroft, Amazing Radio

“Dynamic, punchy and all the things that make you want to pogo around your living room.” ~ Pete Donaldson, Absolute Radio

"Their debut EP, recorded at London's famed Abbey Road Studios, received recognition across the country and now, Auction For The Promise Club return with their latest release 'This May Hurt' - a single that expects to get a very similar response. Musically inspired by the likes of Bjork, Radiohead and Muse; the Cornwall three piece wear their influences on their sleeves with this offering, if not through sound, through context. Zoe White Chambers (singer/guitarist), Toby White Chambers (drums) and Perran Tremewan (guitars/keys) make up this indie-rock three piece and straight off the bat, the trio began garnering support in all the right places. BBC and 6Music, NME Radio, XFM, Absolute and Amazing Radio have all backed the band's past pursuits while Rolling Stone, Classic Rock, Loaded and MTV Hive have all featured them on their sites. Auction For The Promise Club have already graced the stages of Bestival, Boardmasters, Y Not, Lodestar, Leopallooza, headlined theEmerging Icons stage in the Olympic Park on the opening day of London 2012 and were subsequently asked back to play again the following week. The band intend to cover just as much ground in 2015 (The Great Escape and the BBC Introducing stage at the Looe Music Festival) but this time off the back of their new material and what is arguably their best to date." ~ Wareen Morris, The Playground

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Automatic Static
Gas Can Music
Automatic Static

Z Rokk, singer/songwriter, guitarist for Automatic Static was the guitar player for Simon Says on Hollywood Records back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. After the disbanding of Simon Says in 2002, Z pursued his education and earned a BA in Political Science from CSU Sacramento. He pursued Law school and was accepted to McGeorge Law School in Sacramento. After realizing that music was where he wanted to be and not the law, Z started Automatic Static by himself as a project in a small one-bedroom apartment in downtown Sacramento. After recording and writing for a year or so, Z started to play live shows with friends and musicians around Sacramento filling in the line up. Being a huge Nirvana fan Z decided that a simple 3 piece would be a great tight group to rock with as he was handling both guitar and vocals himself. He recruited friends and long time local Sacramento musicians Matt (tone factory) on Bass and Kevin, drums. Together they form the wall of sound that is Automatic Static. Z Rokk has contributed music to soundtracks as "Varsity Blues", "Johnny Tsunami" and National Lampoon's "Beerfest". Z Rokk has toured with bands from the likes of Filter, Staind, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Deftones, and Far, Type O Negative, Sevendust and many more. Musical philosophy is "Less is more!" Z Rokk owns and operates a music School in Sacramento, where he has taught music lessons for over seven years. He also owns a small recording studio recording his own music as well as other local bands around Sacramento and Northern California.

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