BrandsForBands

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.

Ki:Theory (a.k.a. Joel Burleson) is a recording artist and producer who specializes in genres of electronic and alternative rock. He and his band have toured nationwide US, Canada, Japan and Korea including a performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. He's done remixes for Daft Punk/Tron Legacy, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age, Kasabian, MuteMath, Ladytron, Sasha, UNKLE and Brazilian Girls among others. His original music and scoring work has been featured on television including C.S.I., National Geographic Channel, in ads including Converse, Billabong, Audi and in numerous films and videos games. He continues to make music that he likes to hear in hopes of creating something that others might like to hear. The newest Ki:Theory release, Arms For Legs is available as a free download at kitheory.com.

From Austin to San Francisco, from Liverpool to Prague, Canadian songstress Dorine Levy has wowed audiences and scored hits and gained legions of followers.

At the tender age of 16 Dorine wrote and performed the lead track for the ambient ‘9Beach’ compilation ‘La Mort’ and notching up 50,000 sales worldwide.

Major fashion brands sat up and paid attention to her debut ep and the track ‘Falling Star’ was used by H&M and Zara in their promotional soundtracks.

All this was a far cry from when Dorine found herself moving at short notice with her parents from Montreal to Tel Aviv. Despite the upset. she used this as motivation to become a powerful, unique musician, singer and producer who takes her influences from both sides of the world.

She scored success in the southern hemisphere when selected as one of the ‘Top Five International Acts’ in the 2010 MTV Australian Music Awards, even though she’d never visited the country.

Her first full-length album ‘Underwater’ she released the opener ‘There For Me’, which scored thousands of views on YouTube in days, gained a slot on MTV’s boutique playlist, and was used by Forever21 fashion brand’s global advertising campaign and by Quiksilver for their annual worldwide Pro France television recap.

No less than the legendary Tom Robinson played it on the UK’s BBC6 Radio – an accolade few can achieve.

‘Cow boy fest’ the third track released from the album was used by the loved Korean fashion brand Suecomma Bonnie for their trilogy worldwide campaign.

Her first UK single ‘Lenyrose’ was an instant hit, premiered on Indie Shuffle, was shortlisted and ‘Track of the Week’ at ‘It’s All Indie’.

The official video for the track involved fans and volunteers and renowned video masterminds Neil Cohen and Lavie Sharon who also worked with the likes of Beyonce.

Premiered by Wonderland Magazine, Dorine’s video received more than 1,000 shares and was added to the MTV Boutique playlist

After playing incessantly around her home town, Dorine and her band were invited to play a series of key industry events, including shows at Sxsw, Cmj, Indie Week Canada, First Nouvelle Prague Festival,Canadian Music Week and Sound City in Liverpool as well as festivals such as Jamrock in Czech and Culture Collide in LA and San Francisco and supporting acts such as Caldwell, Lucy Rose, Jviewz and many more.

Now continuously playing events and gigs in Tel Aviv, Dorine has spent the year creating and recording new music in her studio, with more than 100 tracks in the bag, the first five will be released this year in the UK and Canada.

Jenna Earle is not your typical singer-songwriter. With a moody yet inviting soundscape that stems from her unique slide and open-tuning guitar techniques, her music couples distinctive lyrics and vibey production with sultry, almost haunting vocals. Born into a gypsy lifestyle, Jenna literally began her life on the road when her mom gave birth to her while traveling and she has been "off the grid" ever since. Spending her youth on a farm devoid of electricity and running water, Jenna's childhood consisted of one-room schoolhouses, bohemian parties and entertaining herself by listening to her parents and their friends play blues and flamenco music.

The product of a musical family spanning many generations, Jenna was fortunate enough to appear as a featured vocalist on a Juno-nominated album by uncle Lenny Graf at the age of 11. Her music education was furthered after watching late-night jam sessions at smoky downtown jazz clubs and attending Selkirk College, where she earned a diploma in music composition. Jenna's latest EP was produced by Bill Bell (Jason Mraz, Justin Nozuka, Tom Cochrane) and reflects her wide-ranging influences from greats such as Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Robert Johnson.

Jess Penner is a cheerful and cheeky, creatively ADD artist from Los Angeles. She's opened for FUN., toured near and far, and her whimsical indie pop songs have been featured in media all over Gods green earth. Raised on a banana farm on Kauai, HI; Jess is also a dinner party throwing, hen raising, people loving, thrift store shopping, self professed tomboy who hates musicals and tilapia but secretly loves painfully slow BBC miniseries and booty dancing alone in her bedroom.

French-American multi-instrumentalist and stunning vocalist Sydney Wayser has emerged with her sophomore album The Colorful, a more lighthearted follow-up to 2007's The Silent Parade. It presents a collection of songs decorated with the playfulness of toy instruments while maintaining 22-year-old Wayser's sense of intimate and serene elegance. Praised by NPR for her "natural gift for melody and musicianship," The Colorful demonstrates a developed maturity that showcases this gift clearly and delicately. Now based in New York, Wayser grew up in LA, spending her summers in Paris. She quickly gleaned much of French culture from her songwriter father, leading her to musical influences that include Edith Piaf, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Jacques Brel, among many others. This European sensibility is evident on both The Silent Parade and The Colorful, each filled with tunes that could easily provide a soundtrack to a Godard film or a playful scene from Jeunet's Amélie. The Colorful, as a whole, feels like a sonic representation of this transition through the earth up towards the light. With an unwavering sense of charm and wit, melody and phrasing, Wayser's latest offering is an irresistible invitation to follow her into the light; an invitation not to be denied.

With GOLD MOTEL, it's always summer, the bags are always packed, and the car is always running. Beneath tight pop hooks and warm melodies, GOLD MOTEL's songs are infused with joyous exuberance as well as sweet melancholy. The ten tracks on GOLD MOTEL's debut album Summer House are snapshots of dreaming, transient youth in constant motion - driving down desert highways, watching fireworks from the boardwalk, wandering the city in an endless summer but, in the end, always searching for the safety of home, friends, and love.

The Chicago-based quintet originated in the warmer climate of Los Angeles during the summer of 2009. Greta Morgan (The Hush Sound) returned from a year in Southern California to her hometown of Chicago, bringing with her what would become the five-song GOLD MOTEL EP. Collaborating with her friend Dan Duzsynzski (This Is Me Smiling), recording began on a set of sharp, sunny pop songs with a decidedly West Coast outlook. Working with Duzsynski, Morgan realized that her pre-conceived solo project could grow into a full band effort.

Through the fall of 2009, GOLD MOTEL transformed into a full-fledged band, adding Chicago music veterans Matt "Minx" Schuessler, Adam Kaltenhauser (both of This is Me Smiling), and Eric Hehr (The Yearbooks). The super group played together live for the first time in December of 2009 with a sold out headlining debut at Chicago's Beat Kitchen, coinciding with the release of the GOLD MOTEL EP.

Since then, GOLD MOTEL has headlined shows from Los Angeles to New York (and most cities in between) in support of Summer House. In November 2010, they released a two song 7" vinyl, Talking Fiction.

The debut release of Kansas City band Capybara is filled to the brim with jangly synth melodies, light falsetto harmonies, and a syncopated percussive style that perpetually threatens to start a raucous party. Try Brother, self-produced in the Spring of 2009 in the mountains of northern New Mexico, blends earnest eyes-wide-open lyrics with delicate multi-instrumental arrangements. Their style draws on many influences, evoking classical chamber pop, down-home banjo folk rock, and soaring indie riffs in equal measures.

"Capybara won't long be an unknown commodity with its jittery, percussive, freakout folk pop. No xylophone is safe when the foursome takes the stage with at least as much pep as Arcade Fire and with songs that are way more fun than anything on Neon Bible." - The Pitch Weekly, Kansas City

Growing up in the American Heartland with a good old-fashioned Midwestern work ethic, their longtime childhood friendships and tightly-knit brotherhood help drive Capybara and fuel their creative fire. While early press reviews of Try Brother have drawn loose comparisons to the work of Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens, and The Flaming Lips, it is clear that Capybara's new album comes straight from the heart.

"Capybara seem to have tapped into the sharpest fragments of the contemporary alt scene with kaleidoscopic expertise. They master every sound they make and never sound like pretenders, always like musicians; original, diverse, vibrant. Not that I mean to gush. Take a tour for yourself." - Monkton VS. Plankton, UK Blog

Look out for Capybara as they embark on their second national tour in Autumn 2009, touring in support of Try Brother, out now on The Record Machine.