ToRoxy

Album Title: Take It
Featured Tracks: “Take It From Me” & “Get Out”
Record Label: Unsigned
Website: http://myspace.com/thefederals

Bio: The Federals are a force to be reckoned with we reckon. “Take It From Me” is a rough edgy anthem in the making! Proper thrashy, rowdy, fuzziness. The earliest brattishness of The Who dragged helplessly kicking & screaming into the 21st Century!

Album Title: Extinction EP
Featured Tracks: “Nightlife”
Record Label: Kemado
Website: www.myspace.com/thesoftpack

Bio: For a band whose lineup has only really been cemented this year, The Soft
Pack – formerly known as the Muslims – have already accomplished a breathtaking amount. Born and bred in San Diego but currently based in LA, the quartet, which features Matt Lamkin on vocals, co-founder Matty
McLoughlin on guitar, David Lantzman on bass and Brian Hill on drums, create a fresh, razor-sharp, no-frills sound that draws in influences from acts as varied as the Stooges, Jonathan Richman, Wire and The Velvet Underground, resulting in fiercely infectious, stripped-down songs which have eagle-eyed A&R types and critics alike falling over themselves with praise. Proof that the band have well and truly arrived was their frenzied reception at this year’s CMJ, as they played 11 packed out shows at a range of venues, from intimate places like Pianos and Don Pedro’s to larger venues like Williamsburg Music Hall and the Bowery Ballroom. Adulatory pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Fader and Billboard quickly followed suit, as did hotly coveted support slots with the likes of the Last Shadow Puppets and the Breeders this fall.

In addition, their untitled 12-inch debut EP (which came in one of a kind
jackets with bullet holes shot through by the father of a friend, a former
NYC cop) sold out almost immediately and is being re-pressed this year,
complete with brand new tracks, hand typed inserts and silk screened
sleeves. And excitingly enough, the UK will get their first blast of the Soft Pack’s potent rock and roll when their double A-side, “Nightlife/Bright Side” is released through Caspian Records in February 2009, with their debut UK shows to follow; the very first of which, in fact, is for the famed NME Brats. The perfect opportunity to listen to these perfectly formed mini-classics in waiting and get acquainted with the sound of the Soft Pack before the rest of the world inevitably does…

Album Title: Broken Side of Time
Featured Tracks: “ATX” & “Taking Control”
Record Label: ATO Records
Website: www.myspace.com/albertacross

Bio: More than clever verses and catchy choruses, truly timeless albums offer listeners the keys to another world; they catapult you into another frame of mind and jostle your soul a little bit along the way. Broken Side of Time, Alberta Cross’ ATO Records debut, is one of those albums.

A cathartic, kaleidoscope of influences, from Depeche Mode to The Band, it’s also the sound of Alberta Cross’ two principals—frontman/guitarist-vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee and bassist Terry Wolfers—going for broke and stumbling across the sound of their dreams in the process.

Broken Side of Time took root in an April 2008 jam session, Stakee and Wolfers’ first with three players they would quickly enlist—guitarist Sam Kearney, drummer Austin Beede and keyboardist Alec Higgins. With the aid of a little drink and a little smoke, the five jammed on a group of Stakee’s then-new songs, giving birth to Alberta Cross’ second incarnation almost immediately: “I remember thinking that night, ‘This is gonna be insane,’” remembers Stakee.

It was a time of upheaval for Stakee and Wolfers, ex-pat Brits living in Brooklyn. They had moved to a new, tough city, lost the major-label record deal they had moved there with, and were in the midst of reinventing both their band and their sound, while sleeping on friends’ couches. Their well-received debut EP, 2007’s The Thief & the Heartbreaker, was a modest, folk-minded, acoustic-based disc that garnered glowing reviews. But, for Stakee and Wolfers, it was a baby step.

Broken Side of Time, meanwhile, is a giant stride ahead, one that marks the band’s official introduction to America. Grand in volume and vast in vision, it’s an inspired set of electric songs that finds the intersection of The Verve, My Morning Jacket and Neil Young (with or without Crazy Horse). Recorded in Austin, produced by the band with Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Dead Confederate, Heartless Bastards) and mixed by John O’Mahony (Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Kasabian) at Electric Lady Studios, the album melds propulsive, throbbing bass lines and crashing waves of guitar to a haunting, impassioned voice that can sound ancient and Appalachian.

Something of an about-face from The Thief & the Heartbreaker, the album, says Stakee, bears the influence of years of frustration logged in the shadow of Manhattan: “It’s kind of a desperation album, a darker album; it’s definitely angrier. We’ve been in a crazy place during the whole album, and you can hear that.” Appropriately, Stakee was listening to Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and the grimmer, gospel songs of Depeche Mode while writing the songs of Broken Side of Time. On songs like “Rise From the Shadows” and “Ghost of City Life” he speaks directly of their situation and surroundings.

Despite any struggles, Wolfers and Stakee in many ways have had a charmed career thus far. Born in Sweden—where he spent a childhood on tour and in studios with his musician father before moving to London in his late teens—Stakee and Wolfers—a Brit charmed by everyone from Prince and My Bloody Valentine to Metallica and Ride as a teen—were playing in a guitar-rock band in London’s east end some four years ago, when Stakee brought some new songs and ideas to the band. When all were roundly rejected, Wolfers invited his bandmate to record those humble, acoustic songs on the makeshift equipment in his apartment.

“Right then and there I instantly realized that he was an extremely talented fellow,” Wolfers says. “That’s when I realized I had found someone who I could create some really great music with—after just jamming on a few things.” Those demos would become The Thief & The Heartbreaker—featuring Petter’s brother, John Alexander Ericson, on keyboards—released via Fiction in the U.K. and re-released by popular demand on the bands new U.K. label, Ark Recordings

Bored with the scene in London and in need of a burst of energy, Stakee and Wolfers moved to New York, where they immediately created a buzz, playing spellbinding acoustic shows at venues like The Living Room, en route to capturing a new deal with ATO Records. Seeking to create more of a band vibe—“and we wanted it to be a family,” says Wolfers—they added Beede, Higgins and Kearney and a louder, grittier sound was born. “We had a show at The Mercury Lounge [in New York] like two days after that first jam,” says Wolfers, “and, without really any real time to rehearse, I remember being onstage that night thinking, ‘This is the best I’ve heard the material.’”

Alberta Cross has toured extensively through the U.K., sharing the stage with Oasis, The Shins, Bat for Lashes and Simian Mobile Disco, among others. “If we weren’t playing for people every night, we would be going mad.” Stakee says. Adds Wolfers, “We do it, because we have to.”

“I remember going to see The Verve on the Storm in Heaven tour, and I stood right in front of [guitarist] Nick McCabe the whole night,” the bassist continues. “I remember walking out of that show feeling like I had just seen a group of people pour their heart and soul out, and I felt it. It changed my life. And that’s what we want to do: We want to give people something honest, and move them, make them feel.”

Echoes Stakee, “We’re trying to give people truly soulful music, which is hopefully inspirational. I want to ease their minds and give them a little break from reality.”

Album Title: Young Giant
Featured Tracks: “Uh Huh” & “Nightmarer”
Record Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Website: http://myspace.com/queensclub

Bio: Queens Club, formed in 2008 by ex-members of The Chariot, are unashamedly accessible, with a dash of attitude. Ok, more than a dash. A ton of attitude. In fact, one can’t help but call to mind the energy found in bands like Franz Ferdinand or Bloc Party upon listening, but comparisons aside, QUEENS CLUB brings plenty of originality to the table. With Nightmarer (the band’s debut EP with Tooth & Nail Records), QUEENS CLUB are destined heirs to the rock throne and are ready to rule the hearts of music lovers worldwide.

Skeptical? When the full length releases in 2010 you can borrow my extra pair of dancing shoes. Fans who have already had a chance to hear the band know exactly what I’m talking about, and those who don’t will most assuredly join the Club.