Curses

    After several false starts and blunders, post-hardcore band, Curses were fed up and decided their musical ventures were cursed, hence the name. The band feels the name is also fitting because they believe that everyone has a curse. "Everyone has their cross to carry, their struggles, and things holding them back but, like us, you've gotta overcome it." Says the band. "We want to help people believe in themselves. These kinds of attitudes are what turn heads around, attract attention and get everyone speaking."
    This Coachella Valley band has been dormant for about two years. The band has not played a show since 2009 due to their lack of a vocalist. Their vocalist, Rocky Thunders, lives in San Diego and both David Ceballos(bass) and Emmanuel Beltran(guitar) live in Coachella Valley. The band is slowly, but surely working on their new EP. Once it's complete they will focus on playing shows to try and get their name out there.

    Coachella Valley's music scene is fairly active, with many bands of many genres including indie, psychobilly/rockabilly, punk, and alternative, but according to the band, metal is lacking. "With Curses we are thinking big. We really believe in our songs and in the impact that we could have. As far as being involved in the scene of the valley, we are. Since is not a big scene, we know most people involved in music. We help planning shows and sometimes we even let borrow our gear. I am really interested in recording and producing, so after our EP is done I would like to help other upcoming bands from the valley record their music." Says Ceballos.
    Emmanuel and David met through David's cousin and quickly hit it off because they shared music taste. "We liked Glam/Hair/Sleazy metal like Motley Crue, Faster Pussycat, La Guns, etc. but Mani and I were also into the new wave
metalcore/post-hardcore music so we started jamming." Says Ceballos. The band searched for a vocalist for a long time and finally met Rocky at a party. "I noticed he had a motley crue shirt and cowboy boots on so I asked what he played; after he said he was a vocalist we agreed to practice. The funny thing is that in that party everybody hated Mani because he was wearing sunglasses at night. Rocky was one of those people, and he showed up to practice not knowing he was the guitarist." Recalls Ceballos.

    The band describes their sound as dark and raw, with glam and 80's influences. "Powerful lyrics that are about real and relate-able themes. We don’t have a specific recurring theme as a band, but we have a personal experience or a personal feeling embedded in each song. We like to keep lyrics as close to us
as possible because as an audience, you could feel when the lyrics were
written with some passion or feeling behind them"
    With the band's upcoming EP, The Beginning of Something, the band hopes to better polish up their sound, aiming for a better dynamic with a wide variety of sound. "In this EP we have everything from
straight forward songs and structures, to complex songs with tempo and
key changes; from super heavy songs to a new age power ballad; from feel-good kind of songs, to fast tempo head-banging songs, and even with all this variety you can still tell is Curses material." Says the band. After the release of the EP, the band hopes to play more shows to promote the release.

MyOhMy

    Taking their name from the famous Disney song,"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", post-hardcore band, MyOhMy has been playing shows across Dekalb, Rochelle, Dixon, and beyond. This Midwest 5-piece enjoys the camaraderie of their small local scene, but also enjoy getting out of safe waters when they can. "We come from a very small area, which has its negative effects on the scene, but a certain plus side is the sense of community. I know when I play a show near us that chances are I'll know most of the musicians in each band by name, which isn't Always what you want but it's nice to share the stage with friends and get to hear them play new music.” Says band guitarist, Matt Smith.
    After the split of his not-so-serious band in late 2007, Tim Hernandez (drums) decided he wasn't through with music. He soon called up Matt, who had been in the previous band with him, and he quickly agreed. High school friend, Nate Butler, joined up as the second guitarist and Tim's brother joined on bass in mid 2009. The band began playing shows in early 2010 without a vocalist and at one of the shows they saw Jesse Floto screaming in another band. About a month later Jesse messaged the band on Myspace about being their vocalist and the band was complete.

    Some of the several musical influences include Korn, A Day To Remember, and Of Mice and Men. When making music, the band tries to keep an equal balance of melody and aggression. "We're kinda heavy if you know what I mean. We try to write about overcoming lifetime struggles and prospering in personal gain." Says Jesse.
    Even in the midst of what the band calls a "Zombie Crowd," the band gives the show all they've got. "We just want our fans to have as much fun at our shows as we do. So always expect high energy and pits." Says Tim. The band has played all over, Bars, churches and everything in between. "We play wherever we can fit our equipment. You can expect a very lively performance from us for we don't mess around when we are performing. We get lost into our own world we illustrate for the general public." Says Jesse.

    The band has played with several national touring acts such as Ice Nine Kills, Corpus Christy, The Plot in You, Where The Ocean Meets The Sky, and Another Hero Dies. "Playing with Ice Nine Kills was one of our favorite shows. They were amazing performers as well as individuals. They showed us an attitude we never knew existed. We learn something new every time we play with signed bands." Says the band.
    Soon, the band will release their song,"We've Missed The Waves" which is part of a 5-6 song EP that the band hopes to release once they have the necessary funds. “We are just gonna continue to do what we do. We are going to try to make music that people will come to relate to and take into their hearts. That's what we always wanted to do and we're just gonna keep at it.”
    Check out the band on Facebook and check out their new song "We've Missed The Wave" on October 12th. You can check out the song early on October 6th at midnight on MFN.Heavy.

Steady Hands

      The post-hardcore band, Steady Hands, has quite the noble message for their listeners. "When we thought about what we wanted to express, given the passion we pour into our music, we wanted to show other people that life isn't about the drugs you use to forget, or the violence you inflict on yourself or others to cope or the thoughts of suicide you may allow to repress in order to escape. There is hope out there for every person. All we want to say to people is don't give up on hope. Find yours, it is out there. You have worth in this world, no matter what the world will tell you. There's no concrete answer, but I think the name 'Steady Hands' represents that hope. It implies that when everything is against you, steady hands will guide you to a better place. Steady hands will lead you home. I always encourage people to interpret it in their own way, but that's how I see it coming from what our message speaks."

      The Rockford, IL band formed when band, Oh So Secret's last lineup disbanded. Chris Galvez (vocals), Mike Honson (guitar) and Brent Morning (bass) had played in bands together since high school and recruited Nick Berg (formerly of Milosny) on the guitar and Sam Cambell on the drums. The band's first show consisted of playing music from an EP Chris wrote while still in Oh So Secret. Kristian Ratliff replaced Sam on the drums and Alex Gaspar replaced Nick on guitars. Krisian left the band because of differences and the band is currently using Jimmy Martinez as a fill-in drummer.

      The band's sound is very intense, yet melodic. The band has several hardcore influence, but aren't a hardcore band by proper definition. "a lot of people always pigeonhole every band into a genre/sub-genre or some type of category, but I just like to think of ourselves as a band that plays music. It's heartfelt, passionate and completely honest. There are no scrims, or lights or farfetched stage theatrics, it's just honesty. We probably get grouped into post-hardcore more than anything else because that's the genre we most accurately represent, which, honestly, is cool. But, at the end of the day, we're just a bunch of punk kids playing punk music that no one wants to hear but kids like us." Says the band.

      The band takes influence from all kinds of bands, including Verse, Modern Life is War, and The Carrier, just to name a few. "Bands like Moving Mountains, This Will Destroy You, Explosions In The Sky in the post-rock genre have a lot of influence on us because they provide the landscape for what we feel sets us apart. Incorporating one incredibly emotional genre with another really makes for what we feel is a very passionate, raw and dark sound. We're not trying to invent anything else, but to re-invent it and re-interpret it is what we try to do."

      Stage presence is an important key element for the band. "People come to a show to see a band play on stage, they don't wanna see a band copy their own record straight up with no movement. At least that's the way we see it. If I want to listen to a record, I'll stay home and listen to the record. But I go to a show to be a part of the show, with the band and the rest of the crowd. Essentially, we're punk kids, so we're going to act like it on stage. Knowing the songs back and forth is a big help so playing well and being involved can go hand in hand. But I'd hope for people to go to our shows to feel it and not just see it."

      The band hopes to release their first EP in August. They're currently focused on writing a solid amount of music. "Steady Hands is a very serious band. We don't do this just for fun on the weekends or when we have time. We believe in our band so much along with the reasons as to why we do this, we want to take it all the way. Our long term goals are to play as long as we can until some greater force stops us, which we don't foresee will happen soon at all. We never want to stop playing intimate shows and never stop moving. We just want to hop in the van, tour, hang out, play as many shows as possible, meet tons of people, maybe reach out to a few who ask for it, and just connect and hopefully along the way, someone will hear what we're trying to say and feel it just as much as we do."

Finding Eden

Finding Eden
(Did you take this photo? Let me know!)

      In less than a year, Marysville, the small Michigan town 45 minutes northeast of Detroit, home of Every Avenue, has revived it's music scene and is bigger than ever! One key component to the revival is the amazing support of the local music enthusiasts. Finding Eden, local post-hardcore band, is very glad to have helped rebuild the scene and says they couldn't ask for a better local fanbase.

      The band consists of Dave Kessler (vocals), Mike Obdziejewski (keyboard), Brendan Tunrbull (rhythm guitar), Erik Steele (lead guitar), Pat Ulrich (bass) and Brent Gates (drums).

      Finding Eden released their debut EP, Lies Lead To Heartache, on March 26, 2010 and have plans to release their next EP, Autonomy, next month. The band insists that their latest EP is far better than there first attempt. "Our new E.P. Autonomy is 10 times better in my opinion. We have grown so much as a band over the last year. I dont think one song on the Lies Lead to Heartache EP is half as good as our new songs." Says Brendan Turnbull, the band's rhythm guitarist.

      Most of the band has been friends for years. They all have much love for music and take pride in their 'outside-the box' sound. "We have a lot of faith in each other." Says the Band.

      A friend of the band introduced the band to online radio DJ, DJ Deadboy, who put them on regular rotation on his radio show and because of the band's buzz in Michigan, 89X Radio Detroit contacted the band and put them on regular rotation. Also, New York City based e-magazine, Rockhard Magazine, featured the band in the e-zine ln March 29th, 2010, a day after they released their first EP. Give the band great exposure. In the same month, the band won a contest hosted by AlternativeAddiction.com which the band won in a landslide. The same site also featured the band as the 'Spotlight Band' for that month. "It was pretty awesome we got a lot of new fans from all over the US, UK & Canada."

Finding Eden

      Apart from the long and impressive resume comes the band's stage performance, which is equally impressive. With close to 200-300 people showing up to local shows, The band must be doing something right. "We go all out, everytime we touch the stage. Always have, always will! We try to give the fans their money's worth. its important to us to make sure everyone has a great time." The band opened for Hawthorne Heights last summer in Mt. Clemens, MI at The Hayloft and the show was sold out. "The line seemed to go on for days. So after we loaded our equipment, we went out to meet and greet people. After all, we all know what its like standing outside trying to get into a show in the Summer!"

      Don't forget to like the band on Facebook and keep an eye out for their EP, Autonomy, which should be out next month! They will be booking shows out of state to try and boost their fanbase. Look for them around the Midwest! And of course, vote the band to play warped tour this summer!

~joeEFFINGmayo

Joemayo91@gmail.com

Finding Eden - "From Rags to Riches" - Autonomy EP

Luna Stella

Luna Stella
Photo: Rocky Morgan

      In the summer of '09, Ian McLaughlin began writing songs on the guitar, these instrumental songs would later become the basis for band, Luna Stella.

      Joe Mitchell would join on the drums in the following December after leaving his previous band. Death Will Ensue. Before they could play any shows, they needed a bassist. Joe asked a friend of his, Taylor Cleveland, to play for them. agreed and a few weeks later they began playing as a three piece instrumental band. This would be Ian's first band.

      Their first show was at Swilligan's Pub in Rockford and the band remembers everything going well. They used the name Luna Stella, meaning moon and stars in Latin. They played instrumentally for several months before hearing from friend, Doug Warriner, who was drumming for Oh So Secret (now Steady Hands), that band mate Alex Meinert left the band. They met Alex in June of 2010 and several weeks later, he joined the line-up as lead vocalist.

      Things started getting a little tricky and drummer, Joe Mitchell, left the band due to personal matters. The band turned to former Another Hero Dies drummer, Matt Barker, to record a song and play a very large show with Dance Gavin Dance. unfortunately, he was unable to stay with the band, and the band looked for a replacement drummer for the DGD show.

      They, again, turned to friend Doug Warriner for help and he played drums for the band's show. After he left his band, Oh So Secret, he became a permanent member.

      The band has 2 songs recorded at Rock Valley College, the local community college. They also have a five song EP that they recorded themselves. They will be professionally recording in late summer.

      What began as a progressive, math based, instrumental band has slowly transformed into a progressive rock band with melodic and pop elements. To date, they have played about fifty shows and say they would like to play in Tokyo like Cheap Trick, although, it is uncertain as to how serious the statement was. The band is very silly when it comes to interviews, but they are definitely a treat to talk to.

      Like them on Facebook and don't forget to see them May 13th with At The Uproar and Alone City Streets at the ELB in Rockford!

~joeEFFINGmayo

Joemayo91@gmail.com

(Originally posted on Examiner)

Alanas Mark

Alanas Mark playing a show
Photo: Courtesy of the band

      With over 100 shows, each considered an accomplishment, Alanas Mark hopes to record their first professionally put together album in June with Joel W. at JTW Studios. The band consists of Kevin Lindlau (vocals), Adam Kraus (guitar), Ian Strasburg (guitar), Brody Hofer (bass), and Dustin Helgestad (drums).

      The band is far from inexperienced, all of the members have had previous band experience, and not only do they each play their respective instruments well, but they can all sing, too! On top of that, their drummer was the Wisconsin winner of the Guitar Center drum off in 2009 and nearly went to nationals. "We are proud to have Dustin Helgestad as our drummer." Says the band.

      They are a christian band, therefore they relay strong religious messages in their songs. "We are out to help this world be a better place." Says band guitarist, Ian. Brody, the bassist, adds, "We respect what everyone believes and never force our message on anyone."

      The christian post-hardcore band played for about 150 "of the best people ever" at The Oasis Youth Center in Grayslake, IL. They will be opening for Dr. Acula (Victory Records) at the Old Armory in Whitewater, WI, a little over 50 miles north of the greater Rockford area, on May 16th. They will be playing at the Bethesda Covenant Church in Rockford on April 29th.

      How is Alanas Mark unique? "We are known for our crazy, energetic stage performance (Climbing things, Spinning guitars, handstands on the keyboards, destroying our set after our performance, etc.)" Says the band, collectively. The band hopes to record their first professional album this summer. They hope to sign with a label and tour their hearts out very soon. The band says they have been talking to a few labels, but would rather keep us in the dark about it. "We can tell everyone to get excited for whats coming in the next year, a lot of good news!"

      Like the band on Facebook and show your support by voting for them to play Warped Tour 2011.

"We would like to thank our manager, Will Wight, and The Sights Set North Agency for all they have done for us. We would also like to thank everyone who has supported us and continues to support us! We couldn't ask for more! God Bless you!" - Alanas Mark

~joeEFFINGmayo

Joemayo91@gmail.com

(Originally posted on Examiner)