written by Mary McQuain

For more from Mary click here ->  http://www.facebook.com/people/Local-Rock-Showcase/100002678692088

Thee Now Sound

When Thee Now Sound tears onto the stage, you can’t help but ask yourself where the rest of the band is…how quickly you forget that the two members in view – Dustin Rouan on guitar and vocals and Andrew Knopp on drums – complete the entire lineup!

Thee Now Sound followed One Horse Nation, and rocked right out of the gate with 3 to 1 and The Bark and the Bite, bringing a ton of energy to the stage and lighting up the room.  The originals with a punk feel, but reminiscent of Alice in Chains, continued their entire set, including Day After Execution, 2nd Son, Statistic, Pull Out and Sick.  The night ended with Psy, where I heard a hint of Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” and Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want To Be”…so as you can see, it’s really hard to pinpoint Thee Now Sound’s music into a particular genre.

The energy kept going the entire set, and the crowd followed suit!  Definitely worth taking the time to go to a show!  Check out their “Up Syndrome” and “Seize Thee Sound” releases, and follow them on facebook at:

Epik

Review of Zeroking’s   “Kings of Self Destruction”

Mary’s interview with Zach from It Lies Within and Nick from As they Sleep Jan 28,2012 at The Alrosa Villa

Concert Review of Curse Icon, Skekzi, Eyes on Fire and D.E.D.Beat – O’Sheckys December 9, 2011

O’Sheckys recently hosted a night of Industrial Metal featuring Curse Icon, Skekzi, Eyes on Fire and D.E.D.Beat.

“A dark, twisted and harmonious cross breeding of zombies, horror flicks and original stories in the vein of hard rock and metal” is how D.E.D.Beat describes their band on facebook. They started off the evening with a feel of eerie, gothic music, matching their stage attire which included masks and silver makeup.  Each member had his own unique personality, particularly keyboardist Shidoshi who was very animated and energetic.  Their set list included “The End Result” which evolvesAlicein Chains into Metallica and “Devil’s Symphony” which combines a melodic with heavy feel.  D.E.D.Beat also performed “Zombie Apocalypse” which can be found on youtube.

Eyes on Fire is fromIndiana– if they don’t make it back toColumbussoon, definitely take a road trip!!  They came out of the gate immediately addressing the crowd, with great interaction throughout the night, and breaking out into “Set the World on Fire”.  Sahar, the front man, has a smooth voice, while still able to pull off heavy vocals with the best of them!  The set list included, among others, tracks from their CD “Anger to Ashes”.  I heard Iron Maiden andMetalChurchinfluence, particularly in “Riddle”.

Next up was Skekzi, formerly known as System Slave, and let me tell you, these guys have a following!  Both times I have seen them they have packed the place.  Jeremy came out asking the crowd if they were ready as they began with “Sicko” – this video can be found by C-Bus Productions on youtube.  They dubbed this as their Christmas show, donning Santa hats during part of their set.  They performed songs including “Revenge”, “Pray”, “Undead”, as well as “The Withering” which can be found on their reverbnation page.

Enter our headliner, Curse Icon…actually, I shouldn’t say enter, as Kiana, Marco, Jason, Matt and Jim were there the entire night supporting the other bands.  Curse Icon’s shows are packed with energy and leave you exhausted, yet wanting more.  Their set featured selections from both “Paradismal” and “The War Inside”, including “The Death of Everything”, “Broken”, their salute to the troops “Waster Heroes” and the mesmerizing “Down” which is making its way on video around the internet.  You can find all of these bands on facebook and reverbnation.

It was also encouraging to see so much support from other local musicians such as Chris Crum and Rickey Baldwin, Ronni Hunter from The Blitz, Steve Dustcircle from Columbus Music Review and members from Kage and Kirch, 8LB Pressure, Sever, One7One, Speak of the Devil and 7^th Cycle…and that’s just who I saw!!

Noise Auction Interview

Mary:    Hey guys!  I’m here with Noise Auction doing this interview for Loud and Upfront In Columbus.  Can you please introduce yourselves and tell me how you became a part of Noise Auction?

Se7en:  I’m Se7en, they bought me for lots and lots of money…like a mail order bride.

Shorty:   I can’t top that. I’m Shorty and I play bass.   I started the band with Tom about 6 or 7 seven years ago, been in it ever since and picked up some of these guys along the way.

Tom:      I’m Tom and I sing!

Kalen:   I’m the drummer I was kind of in trial by error, just kind of did my thing and got thrown to the wolves.  But, I’m part of the family now so it’s a good thing!  If I would have done badly that one show I wouldn’t be here.

Matt:     I’m Bowden, guitar, and they found me in, what was it, the gutter, the alley, the ditch, something like that.

Mary:    Give me one word to describe Noise Auction’s sound.

Tom:      Rock

Matt:     Powerful

Shorty:   Absolutely rock, powerful rock!

Tom:      That’s two words.  Can’t have two words,

Mary:    We have rules here.

Se7en:  Rules?  We don’t like rules!

Tom:      That’s a hard question, I’ve been asked that before.  It’s hard to sum it all into, is it energetic, is it powerful?

Matt:     Hopefully it’s not just one word. How about new…fresh, that’s good.  We’re fresh dog. (Choruses from group of different ways to say fresh)

Mary:    Tell me about the making of the videos “Mute” and “Beautiful Tragedy” including some of the funny outtakes.

Tom:      That was a crazy day, man, that was a long, long day, actually, it was the first time we did video shoot and set up a scene. It was all day on a Sunday we started at noon.

Se7en:  It was really long.  It was all day on a Sunday, both were on a Sunday.  Mute was longer than Beautiful Tragedy.

Tom:  Mute was longer, we brought in a PA company.  It was a really good time.

Matt:   There was a hell of a lot more equipment to be moved.

Shorty:     They were both shot by Marc Asher with with ZT5 Productions, so he is doing a lot of video work if anyone wants to look him up.

Mary:    OK, good plug there!  What are your most embarrassing or most memorable moments, if I could get something out of everybody.

Kalen:   I know what my combo is…when I got so drunk at Iron Pony Tom had to pick me up and throw me in the van around a bunch of rednecks (Matt says he threw up all the way home, Tom says he threw up in a bag) and I got too drunk I hit on the hottest girl in the county and everyone wanted to beat me up.

Matt:     That’s baby boy for ya’!

Tom:      I think rock on the range was the most memorable (Se7en agrees), and going down to Florida to record with Brett Hestla.  That was a family oriented thing for us to go down to Florida for a week and play and write music together.

Mary:    What was it like working with Brett Hestla and will you be working with him again?

Shorty:   Absolutely, definitely!

Tom:      We were gonna’ go down before Christmas but we decided it was too much.  We gotta get the two new CD’s out so we are going to wait and go down in the spring.   It was very odd for us, we are very gun ho …we get in there and get it done.

Shorty:   There was some down time (laughter)

Tom:      Hestla just works at his own pace so you just go with it, and it just worked out great.  He brought some of the best music we have ever written out of us.

Se7en:  It was actually really comfortable once we got in there and got to know him.  It wasn’t as odd as we thought it was going to be.

Tom:      It was like he became part of the band.

Se7en:  He just became one of us for a whole week.

Tom:      More with Shorty,

Shorty:   It was definitely a bonding moment for me and Kalen.

Se7en:  Maybe even one night I bonded with you guys!

Mary:    What has been your biggest achievement so far as a band?

Matt:     We try to stay busy and shoot for the stars.

Tom:      Actually the process of going out of town to a producer.  Leaving family, going out of town, everything that you have here behind to focus everything on music.  I think that was our biggest accomplishment to take the step and go get it done and write some great music.

Mary:    You were pretty excited about The Blitz airplay.

Tom:      Oh absolutely!

Shorty:   That was huge!  That was worth its weight in gold for the promotion that we did on that stuff, we definitely thank the Blitz for that.  The other radio stations that are kind enough to play us, I know there’s The Wolf in Youngstown 93.3, that’s huge for us, that’s how we get to spread our music across this nation.

Tom:      Those stations are our foundation, the Blitz has always had our back and been really cool everybody at The Blitz has been really cool, they really help us and pimp us and come hang out at shows.

Mary:    Tell me about your next several shows coming  up.

Seven:  The day before Thanksgiving at McGuffey’s in Dayton with Pop Evil.  New Years Eve at the Alriosa – that just in…breaking news!!

Matt:     What?  I had plans!

Mary:    How can someone follow Noise Auction?

Tom:      We have a ton of websites,  our main base is noiseauctionmusic.com, facebook, reverbnation…

Matt:     Reverbnation, you can buy some of the albums on line.

Se7en:    www.noiseauction.bigcartel.com is the official store.

Shorty:   Make sure you like the Noise Auction official on facebook.  We are trying to sell our music on itunes too.  That’s huge, that’s a new era and age in music!

Tom:      That’s where you can get the new EP “Nice Place to Visit” as well as “The Other Side” which has all 14 songs we have recorded in the past.  Then hopefully by the end of the year or the beginning of next year, we will release the next album called “Dead City” that we are recording with Joe Viers at Sonic Lounge Studios in Grove City.  So that’s gonna have 8 or 9 songs so that’s another big thing we are looking forward to, some good music.

Mary:    What can people do to be a part of the Noise Auction street team, actually help promote?

Shorty:   We have a facebook page for that too, and you know people for a lot of our shows do help us go out and pass out fliers.  That’s a dying thing for bands to do now days, but Noise Auction and their fans still do that.

Tom:      Reposting the things that we post on facebook.  We are on myspace too, people forget about that but people are still on there.  Just google Noise Auction.

Se7en:  Any social outlet on the internet.

Matt:     We are the only band in the world with that name.

Mary:    Thanks guys!

Tom:      This is Loud and Upfront in Columbus!
Review of Dexter Wesley & The New Experience.

By the end of the Dexter Wesley and the New Experience mini set we witnessed on Friday night at Screamin’ Willie’s, I was seriously saying, “I’m not worthy!”

Dexter came out on the stage as a mirror image of Jimi Hendrix, with the pink, psychedelic frill trimmed shirt.  Myke Rock was decked out in Patriotic garb and Michael Doskocil complemented perfectly.  The audience was immediately transported to a time gone by.

The majority of the show was a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, starting out with, “Fire”, and doing other popular Hendrix tunes such as, “Foxy Lady”, “Purple Haze” and “Hey Joe”.

However, as an accomplished songwriter, Dexter was able to showcase his original music.  Of course, the night would not have been complete without, “The Star Spangled Banner” which had the entire venue in a trance.

As gifted as Dexter is, he is very humble, as he and his band mingled with the audience after their set.  This speaks volumes to those who have come out in support.

Dexter Wesley and the New Experience will be rocking their “Hyper Spiritual Amplified Blues” at The Dugout, 14952 Broad St., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 on November 19th!!

To connect with the band click here -> http://www.dexterwesley.com/

Review of Paper Thin Disaster’s 12 song CD “Feed The Machine “

Definition of Paper Thin Disaster: Metal / Hardcore / Metalcore. They are not hard rock, glam rock or pop rock – they are exactly what they say they are and don’t try to be anything else. The drumbeat is constant and the guitars are on fire.

Their debut album, “Feed The Machine” proves the above point completely. The music brings you back to the days of Exodus and the lyrics are influenced by Iron Maiden and Anthrax. The majority of the album has wartime connotations.

“Armored Bear Fight” starts out with a sense of anger, but appears to wind up in a peaceful resolution. “Early Grave” begins as more melodic, along the lines of Puddle of Mudd’s “Take It All Away”, but picks up as the enemies meet each other. “Common Ground” has a cool reverb sound at the beginning, almost reminiscent of Tool’s “Sober”, then goes on to harmonize the different vocal styles. “Living Dead” has dark undertones which are conveyed by the use of minor chords. “Chuck Norris With A Bee Bee Gun” has a cool dueling guitar effect, appropriate for a song named after Chuck Norris! “It Takes A Big Dog To Weigh A Ton” begins with a killer guitar solo which quickly adds the pounding of the rhythm section.

Paper Thin Disaster has definitely mastered their genre, and would definitely need a mosh pit anywhere they play!!

Check out their web site http://www.paperthindisaster.com/