Timid and soft spoken during early childhood, no one imagined his future interests might include songwriting and stage performance. Attending schools in The West Indies, Japan and various parts of the states, exotic locales like Okinawa and Jamaica helped to shape +Spanx cosmopolitan worldview and love of different cultures and music.
The eldest of three talented siblings, his father remembers the infant +Spanx (too young yet to walk or speak) humming in tune The National Anthem while being coddled during its repeated performance at a theater.
As +Spanx showed great promise, his parents later encouraged him to study the cornet which led to a discovery of numerous instruments. He became proficient on electric bass while performing with Top 40, retro-pop and classic rock groups, also developing a versatile yet powerful vocal that ranges from ballads & barbershop to hip-hop and hard rock… measured experiences which led to +Spanx fronting the Miami-based trio kNiption FiT, an enigmatic power-pop band best described as "The Monkees meet Rush…"
Popularity: 34% [?]
deVries (pro. devreese; Dutch def. from/of the North) is the new band of singer/writer/guitarist Travis DeVries of Seattle band The Turn-ons. The August '09 issue of Spin magazine list The Turn-ons in its 100 "greatest bands you've (probably) never heard." Peter Buck of R.E.M. described them as “…simply my favorite new Seattle band. If I said that their sound was a combination of the Velvets, T. Rex and Spiritualized with a dash of Yo La Tengo, it wouldn’t do them justice [Q Magazine]." The Turn-ons played sold out shows with widely-known indie bands such as The Strokes, BRMC, Interpol, and played their last show with The Jesus & Mary Chain in '08.
White Picket Fence is honest, unadulterated indie rock with a sense of urgency that gives their material absolute credibility… Not because of the way somebody can describe it, but because of the way that it exists intrinsically. Please listen for yourself before continuing, as everything else is secondary to the music.
Githead are Colin Newman (of Wire), Malka Spigel and Max Franken (of Minimal Compact), and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner). But who they are is far less important than what they are: a band, rather than just a collaboration of individuals.
After two woozy, psychedelic, and often–claustrophobic records that touched upon their great potential (2006's Preyers EP and 2007's Hoarse Lords), the Oakland-based Clipd Beaks have birthed something pretty damn amazing. To Realize is a turning-point. A record of personal and artistic growth. Sonically expansive, lyrically profound, and deeply moving. It recalls the societal hangover depicted in the great California rock records of the early 70's, while sitting firmly in the noisy, chaotic present day. It's a tribute to love, to moving forward, to rejecting doom. To Realize places itself as a beacon of sprawling, humanist hope in an increasingly digital world. Anyone who still believes in the transformative power of Rock n' Roll will recognize it in this record.
"If you feel you’ve been going through the motions, take your hands & just let go." 21 year old Tulsa native, Jonathan Van Risseghem sings on his full length release The Motions. The motion of his career has greatly accelerated recently, as he experiences a fast growing following.
