Flogging Molly
May 8, 2009
Artist Bio:
What makes a band truly remarkable? Insightful lyrics? Memorable melodies? Blow-your-mind live performances? The truth is that it takes all of those things along with a boundless enthusiasm, an infectious energy and a supreme devotion to the fans. With this rare combination, a band may ascend past good, or even the record industry’s Holy Grail, marketable, and reach sublime. Drawing on the hardships and joys of their own lives and a musical history ranging from old world Celtic to modern day punk rock, the seven members of Flogging Molly do just that, and they do it with a charm and an ease that makes them one of the most accessible bands performing today.
We’re not a traditional band, explains Dublin born singer/songwriter, Dave King. We are influenced by traditional music and inspired by it, and we put our own little twist on it.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by the expatriate King, Flogging Molly got its start and its name from a local bar called Molly Malone’s where the band played and grew and laid down the blueprint for its eventual success. As every member of Flogging Molly will emphatically explain, there were no predetermined expectations for the band’s sound. From night to night playing to a packed house at Molly Malone’s, the sound evolved organically. Traditional Celtic instruments like violin, mandolin and accordion blended seamlessly with grinding guitars and pounding drums. Without consciously attempting it, Flogging Molly merged the music of King’s childhood in Dublin with the music of his adulthood in L.A.
If it didn’t have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn’t have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music, King admits.
With a sound anchored in such diverse influences and with band members ranging in age from their 20s to their 40s a decidedly non-MTV-friendly demographical mix, Flogging Molly was not embraced by the mainstream music industry. The band simply didn’t fit any preconceived notions of what a successful band was. Not deterred in the least, Flogging Molly embraced a DIY philosophy. Their amazing work ethic and rapidly growing fan base led them to DIY-style record label, Side One Dummy, and the two fit hand in glove.
Flogging Molly’s latest album, Float, recorded in King’s native Ireland, delivers still another iteration of the band’s sonic evolution. More mature yet retaining the immediacy that marks all of their work, Float may find the widest audience acceptance of any Flogging Molly album. Hard charging tunes Paddy’s Lament and You Won’t Make a Fool Out of Me give way, as listeners have come to expect, to more sober ruminations on tracks like Float. The overall effect is a symphonic layering of sound that possesses a unique rhythmic flow from boisterous to bereaved and back again. Long time fans and new discoverers will be equally astounded.
Flogging Molly isn’t a mere band, they’re a seven member nuclear family. They are as devoted to one another as they are to the music they create. It’s no wonder their extended family the legion of loyal Flogging Molly fans keeps growing every day.
Radio Strategy:
Take their single “Float” to the targets of Modern Rock/Rock/Alternative radio nationally. Focus will be on achieving maximum spins at stations while also looking for opportunities around their upcoming Canadian tours to partner with stations through interviews, contesting, and performances.
MeatDraw
May 1, 2009
Artist Bio:
MeatDraw’s second release “Fin Du Monophone” was birthed in the early spring of 2008, the temperature just above freezing point, in a one-room barn on an old Vancouver Island commune. Recorded by Colin Stuart (Black Mountain, Veda Hille), this sophomore undertaking is a catchy, hand-clapping hallelujah, a worthy follow up to MeatDraw’s 2006 self-titled debut heralded as a “flamboyant expression of the musically bizarre”.
With any project the band has its dirty hands in, be it a new video or its infectious, barely keeping it on the rails live show, an underlying theme ties the whole experience together. MeatDraw’s lean, mean pop-alyptic “Fin du Monophone” is no exception. Thematically, lyricist Marco Bozenich draws from Russel Hoban’s 1980 novel “Riddley Walker,” a story set in a post-Apocalyptic world and told through the broken language of a young boy. “The whole language is drawn from all these random books that the author decided to integrate into the story, so the language is so bizarre,” Bozenich describes. “There are little bits from the Bible and little bits from random novels that together create their own version of history.”
The record’s sense of urgency and impending attack imbues tracks with the coercive rhythm section driving “Are We Gonna Die”, “A Very Evil Villain” and the adorably infectious “Old World”. With offerings “Like A Wounded Animal”, “Voodoo Don’t Work” and “Black License Plates” the band exorcises its ghosts with spirited keys and significant vocal harmonies. Clear-cut ukulele, guitars and united melodies drive tracks “Crazy”, “In The Afterlife”, and “Roy (Bomb Shelter Romance)”. The last track emphatically answers the first with a united “We Are Not All Gonna Die” fading out with the arrestingly ominous horn section field call. All in a shit-hot album that clocks in at under 35 minutes. “Fin du Monophone’s” MeatDraw is the Brothers Bozenich Marco and Stefan, Lily Fawn, Megan Boddy, Will Koltai, Grayson Walker and Marek Tyler with contributions from The Lusty Man-Boy Choir of Thomas Shields, Matt Skilling, Lindy Gerrard and Michael Collinge. In the spring of 2008 on an old hippy commune on a West Coast island, dogs barked, neighbours visited, drinks were poured and the stove religiously stoked. Adorned in scarves and toques and surrounded by a romanticized setting, MeatDraw and Colin Stuart warmed their hands, stood tall and recorded a blazing self-help audio book about the end of the world.
Radio Strategy:
Take their album “Fin Du Monophone” to campus radio, setting up interviews / performances at stations during their tour.
