Gaucho Gil
"Jerry Giddens, the singing, songwriting former Baptist youth minister from North Louisiana and former Austin denizen, has been calling the Hollywood area home for a couple of years.
With fellow folk rockers Michael Packard, Luis Ruiz, Dale Daniels and young steel guitar ace Chris Lawrence, Giddens formed a band called Gaucho Gil, named for an iconic gaucho outlaw-turned-saint from Argentina.
The band has released a new CD, "The Ballad of Gaucho Gil."
Prayer :
“Oh! Gauchito Gil, I ask you humbly in an interval before God. The miracle that I ask you, and I promise you that I complied with my promise and before God you are here to see, and I offered you my faithful gratitude and demonstration of faith in God and in you Gauchito Gil... Amen...”
Geoff Pearlman
Originally from Omaha, NE, songwriter, singer, guitarist, producer and engineer Geoff Pearlman began his musical journey by starting guitar lessons at age 9. After years of lessons and practice, Geoff attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating in 1991.
Since leaving Boston, Geoff has toured as a guitarist with Grammy winner Shelby Lynne and producer/songwriter Linda Perry. Relocating from Sand Francisco to Los Angeles in 2000, Geoff currently plays with many of LA's local favorites including Quincy Coleman, AM, Acadamy Award® nominee Bird York, Buck Johnson, Jill Sobule, Walk the Line co-star Waylon Payne, Dead Rock West, Zack Hexum and Heather Waters to name but a few, and has even jammed with Laurie Morgan, Norah Jones and John Waite.
In the studio, Geoff’s guitar playing has appeared on the multi-platinum records Disney’s “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana” as well as recordings by Island recording artist Jon Mclaughlin, and singer Joan Osborne.
Geoff is also a busy studio engineer/producer/composer having worked on various projects for television and music. He has composed for the Travel Channel, the Food Network and Mattel and several independent projects and his own original songs have been used on television programs such as Jag.
As an independent artist, Geoff has released a full length CD "Anything at All" and an EP entitled "Someplace Like Nowhere", containing the songs "The Man with the Unbreakable Heart", “Caroline and "Nightmare Waiting to Happen". Working with a cast of fabulous musicians (including drummer Bryan Head, keyboardist Michael Bluestein, bassists Dave Meshell and Jon Evans), Geoff has self-produced this new EP in the sonic shadows of classic records such as Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" and the Beatles' "Rubber Soul", once again mixing and co-producing with Tori Amos' bassist Jon Evans at his studio San Pablo Recorders in Oakland, CA.
Gerry Beckley
Gerry Beckley is a founding member of the rock band America. Born in Fort Worth, Texas on September 12, 1952 to an American father and an English mother. He began playing the piano at age 3 and the guitar a few years later. By 1962 he was playing guitar in The Vanguards an instrumental surf music band in Virginia. He spent every summer in England and soon discovered British invasion music.
In 1967 Beckley's father became the commander at the U.S. Air Force Base at West Ruislip, near London. Gerry attended Central High School in Hartfordshire where he played in various school bands and met his soon to be band members, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek.
Gerry has continued success with the rock band America as well as his solo releases Van Go Gan , Go Man Go (a re-mix of Van Go Gan) and the brand new album Horizontal Fall.
Gerry has worked with a wide variety of musicians on many projects. One of the most notable is the recording Like a Brother done with Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys and Robert Lamm of Chicago. Beckley-Lamm-Wilson released Like a Brother in2001.
Ghost Town Trio
Andy Cook, Garyn Jones and Ryan Tyhulski make up the earnest, hard working punk-rock band, Ghost Town Trio.
Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, Ghost Town Trio has been making their way into people’s hearts across the Midwest and East Coast through months of recent touring and have left a lasting impression in southern California after spending a year out there perfecting their craft.
The Trio has played big venues, small venues, bars, basements, art galleries and just want to play wherever someone is willing to listen to their blend of music.
There’s no need to dive into their past or tell you where they came from, just listen to their songs and you should be able to figure it out.
Hans York
German-born, Seattle-based, Award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hans York has quickly made himself a name as an extraordinary DADGAD player and strong, engaging performer with a distinctive style and an irrepressibly delightful and approachable manner.
His intimate and distinctive voice draws comparisons to Sting, Paul Simon, Kenny Rankin or Michael Franks and captures the audience instantly with its honesty and clearness.
Hans accompanied Robert Palmer on German TV, toured as bassist with the New York Broadway Ensemble, played throughout Europe with master harp player Rüdiger Oppermann, and performed a Concerto as Soloist on fretless bass with the "Ars Quittilinga" Chamber Orchestra (Concerto written by contemporary East German composer Thomas König). Hans York co- founded the German Worldmusic cult band Moka Efti and recorded three CDs with them. The third album, “Fata Morgana” features US saxophonist Charlie Mariano and producer/saxophonist Heinrich von Kalnein (Vienna Art Orchestra).
Hans spent six months in Rio de Janeiro where he studied Samba, Bossa Nova and popular Brazilian music, an experience that upon his return to Germany, inspired his first solo album Hazzazar.
With his first American album “Inside Out” York breaks down the walls between world, pop, folk, jazz and acoustic music, by blending these styles with elegance and grace, resulting in a refreshingly original and intriguing work that shines with imagery and a joyful celebration of life and love.
Hans York is a world musician in the true sense of the term, drawing most of his present day inspiration from his vast eclectic background.
Holiday & The Adventure Pop Collective
Performing regularly throughout the west, Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective (HATAPCO) is co-fronted by two vocal front men, Derric Oliver and Louis Caverly, accompanying themselves on fiddle, guitar, tuba, trumpet and piano, featuring Michael Taylor Hahn on drums; genre-swingin country, rock, pop, R&B, experimental jazz, jam; originals & covers.
The colorfully-monikered, California-based ensemble has already won enthusiastic acclaim for its "Adventure Pop" sound, displayed on indie releases and in their notoriously crazed live performances.
On their latest release, ‘Songs for Feeling Strong’, they recorded on 24-track analog tape in front of a live audience at Al Jardine's (Beach Boys) Red Barn Studios in Big Sur, CA. "We knew we wanted our next album to reflect the spirit of the band's past two years on the road," explains Derric Oliver, the band's primary singer/songwriter, "so we decided to throw a party for some of our closest friends and record the basic tracks."
The 13-song album features 11 original songs and two covers including the Beach Boys' hit, "Surfer Girl", featuring guest vocals by Beach Boys co-founder, Al Jardine.
HATAPCO's prior musical excursions have already won considerable praise from critics and fans around the country. They are truly, as Damon Orion from the Santa Cruz Good Times puts it, "a true band for the new millennium."
Hayward Williams
Hayward Williams’ “Another Sailor’s Dream” is a freewheeling, shotgun wedding of folk, blues and rootsy country rock, all filled with a gorgeous blend of ache, gristle and whiskey-toned gruffness.
The album is comprised of songs that walk a perfect line between the sweet and bitter, and the sentimental and cynical, and is perfectly bookended by the opening track, “The Ballad of Benson Creek,” and the finale, Williams’ own earnest version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.”
The eleven performances are carried out by an impressive trio of multi-instrumentalists, including accomplished singer/songwriter and co-producer Peter Mulvey (Signature Sounds Recording), Dan McMahon (Wandering Sons), along with Williams on vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar and piano.
www.myspace.com/haywardwilliams
Henrik Af Ugglas
Background
“The music was always there, even from the very beginning..... First impression: The Beatles’ ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’..... Over and over again..... The love for popular music was born..... Songwriting started at nights, just to keep the fear of dark away….. Came home 11 years old..... First gig as a drummer, 12 years old.....
Youth was spent playing in bands….. With people from Weeping Willows, Bob Manning, Maryland Cookies, etc.... Away from the music scene for a couple of years….. Some session work / gigging with Thåström, Micke Herrström, Eve, and so on.....
Work with the first album has been going on for as long as I can remember..... On and on and on and on..... It hasn’t been easy all of the time..... But it’s been neccessary….. Telling my story..... Tony Thorén is producing….. It’s mostly me playing, but I’ve had some help from a couple of important friends…..
I hope you’ll enjoy the ride.....”
Hey Negrita
Following the release of the critically acclaimed debut 'We Are Catfish' and a UK headline tour, Hey Negrita are releasing their second album 'The Buzz Above' in July 2006. Having already gained strong support from both national and regional press, radio and TV, and having been remixed by the likes of Chris Coco and Lemon Jelly, this London four-piece is rapidly building a dedicated fan-base across Europe.
After the band's debut album crossed over the Atlantic, gaining strong support from key radio stations across the US, Hey Negrita signed with US booking agency, PGA. The band embarked on their first US tour in March 2006, including a headline slot at Buffalo Billiards at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas..
Hey Negrita is a product of the aftermath of a five-year, drug-induced nightmare, endured by Felix, the singer and songwriter of the band. It was his excursions into the bitter depths of addiction that inspired much of this groundbreaking album, nearly killing him in the process.
After the deaths of two of his closest friends, it became clear which way Felix was heading, so he made the inspired decision to pack up and leave for the States to kick the poisons once and for all.
Felix wrote a large portion of the album whilst living in Florida, where he spent his nights jamming with one of Ray Charles' backing singers and a fifty-five year-old cowboy junky who had worked with Gram Parsons and Little Feat. Within a few months of arriving in Delray Beach, Felix secured a residency at the bohemian Da Da Lounge. The rest of the album was written on Felix's return to London, with many of the songs focusing on the complex challenges of dealing with a post-heroin relationship whilst trying to come to terms with the death of his uncle, Captain Lou, who had lived on a boat in Florida. It was Lou who convinced Felix to move to the States to get clean, and the two became closer than ever, with
Felix supporting Lou through the mayhem left by his second divorce, and Lou carrying Felix through the trials and tribulations of early sobriety. Lou passed away in September 2003 of a heart attack.
Having left London with nothing but the clothes on his back and his record collection, consisting mainly of Stones, Animals and Pretty Things, Felix returned from the States clean, determined and armed to the teeth with the music of The Band, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers and over fifty original songs.
As soon as he arrived in London, Felix teamed up with his old partner in crime, the multi-instrumentalist Hugo '3 Horse' Heimann, and Hey Negrita was born. Hugo's skill on almost any instrument and, more importantly, his ability to dive deep inside a tune and reconfigure its inner workings with a note, a chord or a simple sound, enabled him to colour-in the black and white sketches that Felix presented him with. In the studio Hugo takes on the role of an entire band, playing keys, guitars, bass and banjo.
Holy Sons
"Decline of the West" represents a vital intersection of style and method in Emil Amos' songwriting and production. The record combines his genre-hopping tendencies and no-rules mixing methods with the more hook-driven, straight-to-the-jugular phrasing that he has been honing over the last several albums. This makes "Decline.." his most stylistically varied effort to date while balancing a perfect mix of his more challenging sentiments with bigger hooks.
HolySons has existed in obscurity for 15 years now. Listeners have only heard of the project through word of mouth. Any and all attempts to make HolySons a more palatable, commodifiable 'music act' for a larger audience have been foiled by one hurtling asteroid or another. Most of the asteroids have been thrown by it's creator. The project remains to be a wormhole into the inner world of E.Amos who produces and plays all holysons music. Each HolySons album has a different sonic identity; experimenting with mutiple genres and recording formats. Each record meditates on a different aspect of a mind immersed in the attempt to appreciate life and the obsession with the failure to do so. E.Amos began home recording at the end of the 80's with his high-school hardcore band. Hardcore's commitment to it's own language of individualism, freedom, inner-strength, rebellion and radical no-rules expressionism formed the basis of HolySons' artistic template.
"Decline of the West" is named after and conceptually began with Oswald Spengler's pessimistic assessment that the Western culture is revealing the classic signs of a societies' decay and end. The record was recorded at Amos' home studio in late-night recording sessions that stretched over 3 years where he played every instrument and then mixed and re-mixed each track. Influenced by the avant German bands of the 70's he used nature recordings, radio transmissions and old Halloween tapes as source material to create slabs of musique concrete-style texture to surround and inhabit the songs. The basic message is an apocalyptic one, with the songs investigating the tensions between 'human nature', capitalistic culture, conformism, the inner self and the inevitable destiny of a society that has values such as ours. The record's production takes Holy Sons' minimalist avant-folk sound and journeys through formats as varied as dub, church-hymn, slow-jam, tape-collage and paranoid beats over-run by obtuse banjo-sitar runs... all performed with an inspired punk spirit.
The Honeydogs
The story of the Honeydogs begins in Minneapolis in the early 1990’s with two combative yet musically harmonious brothers, songwriter/guitarist Adam and drummer Noah Levy who wanted a band in which their favorite music--soul, American roots music, British pop, and punk--could coexist.
The band name has it’s origins in the Levy brothers’ Dickensian childhood. Mrs. Levy grew tired of caring for the demanding, precocious younger brother, Noah. He spent much of his lonely toddler-hood being babysat by the bee farm in their backyard and watching elder brother Adam play cardboard guitar to KISS records. Noah's earliest friends were bees—and what was the bee hive rack called in which those buzzing surrogate nannies made their home?...A honeydog.
The Levy brothers found a kindred spirit in bassist Trent Norton who had recently returned from a couple years touring the former Soviet Union and Western Europe in various bands. Together with John Fields and a few guests, Trent, Adam and Noah made the exuberant, eponymous debut, The Honeydogs (1995).
The band toured extensively in those early years, with the brothers Levy beating the fraternal crap out of each other across the Lower 48.
Guitarist Tommy Borscheid’s union with the band in 1995 helped fashion the band’s rough-and-tumble early signature sound on Everything, I Bet You (1996) for which Billboard magazine hailed them as “Alt Country’s Next Big Thing” in the mid 1990’s. “But Country was only one facet of what we are doing or interested in,” Adam says. “We liked Bowie and Jobim as much as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Merle Haggard.”
In the early days, Levy penned tunes like “Miriam,” a tribute to his late grandmother and her life immersed in social justice work. In “John Brown” Levy imagines how the abolitionist, if still alive, would view our current state of race relations. “Freak Show at the Fair” tapped into the alienation of people with disabilities and reflects on the society which excludes them.
Courted and signed by the majors, The Honeydogs produced Seen A Ghost (1997), their largest selling record. They were strange halcyon days, recalls bassist Norton “We toured with INXS weeks before Michael Hutchence’s death. We were feted and flown around the country and promised the moon.”
But their creative wanderlust and Levy’s ever-expanding songwriting and stylistic vocabulary led them down more obscure, albeit fertile, musical paths. The follow up to Seen a Ghost was Here’s Luck (2000), recorded immediately following two tragedies in the band—the departure of guitarist Borscheid and Trent Norton’s near death seizure. With howling guitars, soaring strings, melotrons, and dark psychedelia, Here’s Luck was a paean to the music business sausage grinder and the band’s indefatigable spirit.
With the addition of the angular, modernist/minimalist guitar work of Brian Halverson and the colorful, unfettered genius of Jeff Victor’s keyboard playing, the band’s live and recorded sound began to evolve.
Their 2003 release, 10,000 Years, received widespread critical accolades as “the Sgt Pepper of the new millennium, “Levy’s masterpiece” and “a rock opera that would make Peter Townsend cry”. Its conception and creation in 1999 predated 9/11 and eerily anticipated terrorist attacks on the West. Inspired by Levy’s 17 years of work with youth offenders, welfare-to-work participants and immigrant populations, 10,000 Years created a fan in Aimee Mann who released the record on her label and brought the band out on tour.
On their newest effort, Amygdala (pronounced uh mig’ dull uh), the band again teamed up with long time friend, collaborator and producer, John Fields, recording a marathon 5 day session in Minneapolis in fall of 2005. Guitarist Brian Halverson describes the session as “more raw and organic than the last few records.”
The amygdalae are almond-shaped groups of neurons in the brain which regulate emotions, specifically fear. All of Levy’s songs on Amygdala explore fear, obsession, addiction, and the idea that emotional experience forms human memory.
Amygdala continues the Honeydogs’ expansion of their sonic and stylistic palette record-to-record and features a revitalized lineup, including keyboardist and sonic wizard Peter J Sands and Minneapolis veteran drummer Peter Anderson. Halverson, along with Sands, create an eerie Stockhausen/Eno-esque sonic backdrop for Levy’s acidic lyrics and undulating melodies. Drummer Anderson brings a combination of rock raggedness and artful cadence to Amygdala.
Among the guests on the new album are Aimee Mann and Dan Wilson (Semisonic).The journey for the Honeydogs from one-time American roots music torch bearers to contemporary art rockers has been a long and fruitful one and Amygdala is the Honeydogs’ most experimental yet accessible work to date.
Gaucho Gil
Geoff Pearlman
Gerry Beckley
Ghost Town Trio
Hans York
HATAPCO
Hayward Williams
Henrik Af Ugglas
Hey Negrita
Holy Sons
Honeydogs
