Our boys Crobot are about to head to Europe to play some arenas in support of their new album. Monday, Sept. 19th is the official album release party at Saint Vitus. They asked us to open wide for them to get the salty waters a-stormin' & we said yes.
Final NYC Show for 2016.
Crobot
You can't help but feel that your ears are being dipped in nostalgia then taken to another dimension and back again with the songs of Crobot. This Central Pennsylvanian quartet conjures up sonic ghosts and stories that seemingly were interpreted from crop circles with their 2012 self-released debut album, The Legend of the Spaceborne Killer. The Legend of the Spaceborne Killer , recorded before the Figueroa brothers were in the band, seamlessly manages to capture the powerful packed punch of the vocals of lead singer Brandon Yeagley and head bobbing guitar riffs of Chris Bishop. With the crucial additions of Jake Figueroa’s solidity of the low frequencies on bass guitar perfectly accompanying his brother with sticks of thunder, Paul Figueroa on drums Crobot has found the formula to take them into the riff-rock abyss and beyond. Crobot is getting ready to hit the studio with famed producer Machine (Clutch, Lamb of God, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes) to work on their 2014 Wind-up Records debut release.
You might think the band members were all stationed at the same moon base during
the interstellar revolution but the cosmic forces that brought the foursome together
began when Brandon, who hails from the coal-regions of Central Pennsylvania, and
Bishop, from Eastern Tennessee, met through a band audition. After calling it quits only
a month into forming, Brandon and Bishop were left
with merely pieces of a band and
an unsatisfied quench for the elixir of the nomadic life of rock ‘n roll....and thus the
origins of Crobot began. As Brandon transitioned from bass player to full blown front
man he combined his soaring vocals with
Bishop’s
killer guitar riffs and the two set out
to
build a band based on the music they genuinely loved to play.
It was at Bar 46 in Hackettstown, NJ where Paul and Jake, who were living upstairs at
the time, heard the sonic pleasures that would alter time and space forever. “I heard
Brandon's voice,” said Paul. “Even through the muffled din of the bar below, his voice
had so much clarity and presence that I knew I would be foolish if I didn't at least check
them out. Once I heard Bishop shredding nasty riffs and saw Brandon twisting and
gyrating like a possessed astral gypsy my mind melted...I had a new favorite band.”
For Paul and Jake what happened next was somewhat serendipitous. Having grown
tired of the local scene, the brothers were getting ready to leave the East Coast for Los
Angeles to try their luck out there....then the phone rang. Paul remembers, “
about a
week before we were going to move, Bishop called and asked us to join Crobot. Instead
of LA, we moved to PA and haven't looked back (or west...)” Five days later the newly
formed foursome was playing their first gig of many at the very same bar where Paul
first heard those mind-altering riffs. Crobot had officially landed.
According to legend, Crobot got their name from their penchant for jamming “Crobar- esque” riffs with low robotic octave effects, but if you ask Brandon, Crobot has evolved into more than that. “It’s become a counter-culture, so-to-speak. With so much emphasis on manufacturing, in terms of looks, sounds, and sights, Crobot is a collection of like-minded and like-bearded individuals who stand for neither going against the grain or with it, but avoiding shaving all together.”
Crobot’s approach to songwriting has evolved from Brandon and Bishop’s creations into a group effort. Most of the time, Bishop will come to the band with a riff or a loose song structure that they'll jam to, part by part, until they’re feeling it. “I'll improvise some melody lines over the parts usually after the band finds solid ground, enough to jam through,” says Brandon. “We try to take everything to every perspective that we can, whether they’re in fact our perspectives or created ones. The music usually gives me a great sense of the direction of the lyrics. Sometimes influenced by old horror/sci-fi flicks I’ve watched as a child, literary works I have or have not read, or the sheer randomness that happens by simply hanging out with this crazy bunch of bots. Whether it’s into orbit, through a wormhole, or at the bottom of an empty bottle of some sort-of elixir, the music really does the work.”
With killer live shows described by Brandon as “like lighting a quarter stick of dynamite and throwing it in an un-flushed toilet,” what’s next for Crobot? With breakout live performances at SXSW 2013, Milwaukee Summerfest, Jersey Shore Music Festival, Musikfest (Bethlehem, PA), and a national tour with Clutch and The Sword kicking off 2014, the possibilities for Crobot’s interstellar domination are endless.
Wilson
The growl of chain saws making firewood of fifty foot pines. That's WILSON. The howling of a pack of wolves battling a rabid moose. That's WILSON. The panting, gasping breaths of a smoke break "nooner". That's fucking WILSON. The citation for a noise violation… that's just where the party begins. If all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, then all party and no bullshit have made WILSON juggernauts. For the past two years WILSON have transformed shows into parties, and concerts into riots throughout the Midwest. Sharing stages with the likes of Every Time I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Steel Panther, Valient Thorr, Escape The Fate, Between The Buried and Me, Wilson has not only held their own, but raised the bar for how much fun live music can be.
Five dudes growing up in Michigan's post-industrial wasteland, know that
when life gives you lemons, buy a bottle of tequila, chug it, and enjoy
biting into that sour fruit. You can taste that philosophy in the music. A
brutal rhythm section and fret-board wizardry bring the best parts of metal into their hook heavy straight up rock n' roll. Don't be surprised if you see the gnarliest, glowering dude in the bar start dancing like a first grader on a school picnic once the music starts. Rabid demand from a growing fan base has sold out two pressing of their debut EP, "Standing on the Reel".
With a new album in the works and relentless tour schedule, whatever you do, don't go to www.wilsonrock.bandcamp.com, unless you're ready to fucking party!
The Giraffes
The Giraffes have shredded, burned, and leveled every audience from their hometown of Brooklyn, through the Lone Star State, to the Sunset Strip, and back again. Lead singer Aaron Lazar and guitar wizard Damien Paris form the focus of the band supported by the locomotive rhythm section of maniac drummer Andrew Totolos and heavy groove of Josh Taggart on bass. With limited US show dates set for this spring, the Giraffes at St. Vitus will be in celebration and support of the Vinyl release of their EP Usury.
‘To put it simply: The Giraffes are what great rock ‘n’ roll forgot it was. They’re incomparable on CD, and in-your-face The Giraffes live shows deliver time after time, even if you’ve seen them over and over again. The show is dangerous, comical, sinister, raunchy, and over the top all at once – they’ll impress you technically while blowing out your ears, sharing cigs, whiskey, and beer, and of course, truly entertaining you in every sense of the word.’ QRQ Magazine
“A front row seat at a Giraffes show meant getting caught in a beer rainstorm, as the band and audience members alike went flying into the crowd with wild abandon. Beer and bottles of Jameson were passed. Aaron made a noose out of the mic cord, wrapped it around his neck and gave it to the crowd to choke him while he forced lyrics past his collapsing trachea. A Giraffes performance is a spectacle you will never forget’ ~ Brooklyn Vegan
‘As much as the next guy, I’m tough and like to chug whiskey, crack skulls, put cigarettes out on my wrist, and screw chicks. Ok, well, maybe I’m not, but I like bands that are. And seeing the Giraffes’ live show is like getting shanked in the face with a soaring microphone. Booze swilling and all the rest, they display good theatrics, commandeering vocals, artful shreading, and it’s flat out impossible not to listen up’ - L Magazine
"Metallica and Black Sabbath are the obvious touchstones, but the rhythm section clearly owns a copy of The Who's Greatest Hits as well. Drug addiction and soccer riots provide fodder for the lyrics, while the flammable guitar work could have only come from someone that's walked some of life's hard roads."-SpinMagazine.com