Low Man's Joe

Artist Information

Biography

“This is the place where I stand as just a face in the crowd, the whispers that are buried inside are wanting to scream out loud. Feeling a different kind of fire burning in these eyes, taking a stand against the waves and the rise of the tides.” – Where I Stand

Education and experience. Passion and commitment. Discipline and charisma. Method and music.

Low Man’s Joe is a band of seemingly opposing dynamics, a study in rock & roll contrasts.

Singer Bret Gyrich found inspiration in the mountains of Olongapo City in the Philippines. Drummer John Feldmann – affectionately dubbed “the Godfather” – brings a wealth of knowledge amassed at Berklee College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music in jazz performance. Bassist Jason Beard brings the chops and driving bass lines that come from years of experience playing in Houston metal bands, and guitarist Jason Joachim effortlessly constructs his guitar leads with the sensitivity of a veteran stage performer.

Low Man’s Joe is a diverse mix, but together, they put a new spin on the evolution of rock & roll. It’s a journey that hits familiar grooves – dig the echoes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Bon Jovi – yet still mines exciting new sounds.

A strong sense of unity is on display throughout Where I Stand, LMJ’s debut release. It’s a relentlessly catchy listen, from the searing guitar intro of “My World” to the guttural wail of “Temptation” and the hushed brilliance of hidden track “Now or Never.” The lyrics reveal restless, relatable souls – flawed humans searching for acceptance, for redemption, for connection in a harsh world.

Where I Stand has been released to critical acclaim and has generated excitement among fans. The full-length album is available on iTunes, Rhapsody, CD Baby, Amazon, Napster and at record shops throughout the Houston area.

“Bret has the style and confidence of a rock star and the pipes to go with it,” says Jeffery Armstreet, owner/producer at Red Tree Recording Studio, where the band recorded the bulk of the disc. “And John is a rock and a one-take wonder behind the drums.”

But rest assured LMJ is not just a studio band. The band’s roof-raising live shows have earned them a solid following, from riot grrrls and frat boys to soccer moms and old-school rockers. It’s an equal-opportunity sound.

LMJ has left its mark on the Houston music scene with first-place wins in both the House of Blues Battle of the Bands and the VH1 Battle of the Bands, and Where I Stand being named on the Houston Chronicle’s “Top Houston Discs of 2009” list. This was followed by opening slots for such bands as L.A. Guns and King’s X, four sets at the Rock the Bayou festival, performing at the Monster Jam event at Reliant Stadium and being a featured band for the Discovery Green Concert Series.

As for the blue-collar moniker, Gyrich came up with it in high school, inspired by Metallica’s mournful 1997 tune “Low Man’s Lyric.” It was several years before he met his LMJ band mates – but it spotlights the essential LMJ qualities: determination, ambition, perseverance and a true rock spirit.

“Metallica wrote (that song) when I felt that a lot of their members had basically hit rock bottom. It was their turning point. The whole ‘Joe’ thing, I think, is we’re all just average guys who are united in doing something that we feel collectively is better for all of us. We’re all trying to go to the same place.”

Instrumentation

Bret Gyrich - Vocals
John Feldmann - Drums
Jason Joachim - Guitar
Jason Beard - Bass

Discography

Debut CD "Where I Stand" available now on iTunes, cdbaby and more!

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• ReverbNation

Audio

• No Heroes
  Listen  
• Where I Stand
  Listen  
• My World
  Listen  
• I'm Alive
  Listen  
• Trouble Child
  Listen  

Lyrics

• No Heroes
• Where I Stand
• My World
• I'm Alive
• Trouble Child

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• BFE Show Review - 5/18/12 [+ Show ]
  

  [Low Man’s Joe’s] entire set was simply amazing, from beginning to end. They opened with one of the ...[Low Man’s Joe’s] entire set was simply amazing, from beginning to end. They opened with one of the new songs, “Crazy Carnival.” This song has me instantly wanting to buy the album it’s on, the same way I bought the first album (titled “Where I Stand”) for “I’m Alive” back in 2009. If there was any doubt in my mind that the LMJ crew still had their mojo, that doubt was long gone after this set (actually, by the end of “Crazy Carnival”).

• A band from all corners of the globe, including Kansas [+ Show ]
  

  By Joey Guerra The Houston Chronicle Feb. 18, 2009 The road to Low Man’s Joe begins on a farm i...By Joey Guerra
  The Houston Chronicle
  Feb. 18, 2009
  
  The road to Low Man’s Joe begins on a farm in Kansas. At Berklee College of Music in Boston. In war-torn Iraq. In the mountains of Olongapo City in the Philippines.
  
  “The first vehicle I learned to drive was a tractor,” says guitarist Kevin Moeder, who owns an architecture business in Houston. “My career pretty much got me out of Kansas.”
  All points eventually led to Houston, where the rock quartet formed just a year ago.
  
  Singer Bret Gyrich honed his talent via Filipino cover bands and solo acoustic shows. He moved to Houston almost two decades ago and says music was a family staple. The bug bit at 8 years old in an unlikely setting.
  “One of our neighbors was doing her laundry with this waterpump, listening to Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen,” Gyrich remembers. “I’m hearing this lady, who has never been in America, singing like she’s born in the USA. That was her song.
  “I’m thinking, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to create that kind of magic.’ ”
  
  It’s that same sense of fascination — and ambition — that drives each band member. The collective effort is pushing LMJ quickly through the local ranks.
  
  “A lot of bands look at shows as, let’s face it, a chance to just get out and party,” says drummer and Berklee al um John Feldman. He earned a master of jazz performance at Manhattan School of Music and was with Houston band Stalking Chloe from 2004 to 2008. “We like to have fun, too. But first and foremost, it’s a business.”
  
  The band rocked four sets at last summer’s Rock the Bayou festival and — most impressively — cranked out a full-length disc. “Everybody’s had a stroke of genius. We’re all in it together,” says bassist and former Marine Arron Barringer. He moved to Houston in May 2007 after facing the possibility of an unrealized dream.
  
  “I was in Iraq as a security contractor, and we got ambushed pretty good,” Barringer says. “I was pretty sure that we were all done. I remember thinking, ‘I really wish I would have given music a shot.’
  “When I got with these guys, it just worked. I could feel it.”
  
  Where I Stand is a 10-track collection of fist-pumping, sing-along rockers. Gyrich and Barringer are natural songwriters, and it’s an astonishing accomplishment for a first CD. The bulk was assembled over two days at Red Tree Recording Studio with owner/producer Jeffery Armstreet (also a bassist for Houston band Evangeline).
  
  Gyrich possesses a big, booming voice, full of power and emotion. He’s immensely charismatic and works small stages as if he’s playing for 10,000 people. Feldman’s precise drumming gives the title track a simmering, tribalesque groove and turns Temptation into a seductive call to arms. Barringer’s bass provides a sturdy backbone that’s showy when it needs to be, and Moeder, put simply, is a fantastic guitarist. The band’s sturdy sound echoes Bon Jovi, and LMJ plays up the comparisons with a spirited cover of Radio Saved My Life Tonight.
  
  “I’ve never experienced a band as prepared for a recording session. They had their parts worked out and even pulled off several songs with one take,” Armstreet says. “It’s refreshing to see a group that handles itself with their level of professionalism.”
  
  As for the band’s blue-collar moniker, Gyrich says it came to him in high school, a play on Low Man’s Lyric, a 1997 Metallica tune. But it’s Moeder who crystallizes the collective significance.
  
  “Metallica wrote (that song) when I felt that a lot of their members had basically hit rock bottom. It was their turning point,” he says. That’s kind of where I was at. It was something I felt that I wanted to do and I needed to do for me. “The whole ‘Joe’ thing, I think, is we’re all just average guys who are united in doing something that we feel collectively is better for all of us. We’re all trying to go to the same place.”
  
  Low Man’s Joe CD-release party
  When: 10 p.m. Feb. 28.
  With: Dog Men Poets (San Antonio) and Blunt Force (Denton

• Some of Houston's brightest stars bring the shine to Pride Festival [+ Show ]
  

  By Joey Guerra The Houston Chronicle June 24, 2009 LOW MAN’S JOE • Why you need to see them:...By Joey Guerra
  The Houston Chronicle
  June 24, 2009
  
  LOW MAN’S JOE
  
  • Why you need to see them: In just more than a year, LMJ has established itself as one of the city’s hardest-working bands. The group’s debut disc, Where I Stand, is a searing collection of arena rockers, fueled by the powerhouse vocals of Bret Gyrich. The Pride Fest slot caps an impressive run that includes a recent win at the House of Blues battle of the bands. LMJ also plays the Freedom Over Texas July 4 extravaganza.
  
  • Sneak peek: The boys will be playing their disc’s title track. It’s “a crowd favorite,” Gyrich says, “written lyrically from the point of view of the victim and the defeated.” Let’s hope they also include that rock-tastic cover of Bon Jovi’s Radio Saved My Life Tonight.
  
  • Why Pride: Gyrich is pumped “to be involved in one of the biggest events in our hometown and to reach an entirely new audience.” Drummer John Feldmann says “music transcends all boundaries, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. Pride is a chance for people to come together and celebrate.”
  
  • Hear more: lowmansjoe.com
  
  • Set time: 6-7 p.m. on the main stage

• Top Houston Discs of 2009 [+ Show ]
  

  No other Houston record this year sparkled with as much commercial potential as LMJ's debut effort, ...No other Houston record this year sparkled with as much commercial potential as LMJ's debut effort, which managed to both echo (when they were still decent) and outdo (anything within the last several years) Bon Jovi and a slew of other arena-rock bands. LMJ's songs - No Heroes, Evening Rise, the truly searing Temptation - are also bracing and modern without giving in to the indie-hipster posturing that stifles so many Houston bands. Bret Gyrich is one of the city's best male vocalists - no question.

• VH1 Battle of the Bands [+ Show ]
  

  It's obvious [LMJ] is a product of hard work and chemistry. Their frontman steals the crowd's attent...It's obvious [LMJ] is a product of hard work and chemistry. Their frontman steals the crowd's attention. They are all solid musicians and they believe in what they are playing. When you have a band with that type of confidence, they push energy into your soul.
  

• July 4th Freedom Over Texas - Press Release [+ Show ]
  

  Low Man's Joe, of the Heights/Near Town area, will perform on the Patriot Stage at this year's event...Low Man's Joe, of the Heights/Near Town area, will perform on the Patriot Stage at this year's event. They play rock and roll with a mixture of flavors. Combining elements of rock and roll from its glory era with the attitude of modern rock, Low Man's Joe is truly the "evolution of rock and roll!"

• Local Album of the Week: Low Man's Joe's Where I Stand [+ Show ]
  

  By Chris Gray in Only In Houston, Rotation Thursday, May 21 2009 @ 3:30PM Before "Wanted Dead or...By Chris Gray in Only In Houston, Rotation
  Thursday, May 21 2009 @ 3:30PM
  
  Before "Wanted Dead or Alive," before "It's My Life," before Jon Bon Jovi went off to Hollywood and took the Lost Highway through Nashville in 2007, Bon Jovi was a pretty decent hard-rock band. Poppier than most, definitely, but Jon's Springsteenian tales of boardwalk knockabouts and Richie Sambora's streetwise riffs combined to make a denim-clad, working-class alternative to stacked-heel Sunset Strip skirt-chasers like Mötley Crüe.
  
  Judging by its debut CD, Where I Stand (released last year), Houston's Low Man's Joe is quite familiar with pre-Slippery When Wet Jovi - the woman in "No Heroes" even works in a diner. (All day.) Not only is singer Bret Gyrich's voice a dead ringer for Jon, growling the verses and exalting the choruses, but the music clings tightly to the Jersey boys' Thin Lizzy/Journey axis, with just a hint of Jovi's thrashier Garden State neighbors Skid Row.
  
  The lyrics, meanwhile, peer into the lives of people who don't have a lot (except each other) or a lot to lose, people for whom salvation is a Saturday night on the town. The frustrated desire of "Temptation," on-our-own defiance of "No Heroes," last-chance powerdrive of "Radio Saved (My Life Tonight)" - it's all well-trodden territory, to be sure (and was when Jovi got there too), but why fix something that was never really broke?
  
  With King's X, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 30, at Meridian, 1503 Chartres
  
  

• Low Man's Joe - Rocbar Review [+ Show ]
  

  By Hilary Marek Houston Reviews I went with the guys from Glass Intrepid to watch Stompin White ...By Hilary Marek
  Houston Reviews
  
  I went with the guys from Glass Intrepid to watch Stompin White Pony and Soulbound play one night at Roc Bar. I was hanging out back stage doing a photo shoot for my boys when I met Bret. He did not bother us and was kinda in his own world. When we were done and I was packing up to leave he asked if I was going to stay for his show. I said I could stay for one song, I stayed till the bar closed. They give an amazing show. Bret owns the stage while sharing the spotlight with every member of the band. They are original and with songs headed for the charts - you better catch them local while you can. These boys will playing stadiums soon, so get to a show now while you can still get a ticket!
  
  Bret - Lead Vocals
  
  Bret was born in the Philippines and moved here when he was young. He can be found any given day on Facebook messing with his friends' minds. When you see him, ask him to tell you the one about "what color was the bear." He had me on Google for an hour with that one. He is shy but confident. He knows who he is and why he is here and won't let anyone sidetrack him. He is a good friend who goes out of his way to share his passions with others. He knew I loved the cartoon Animaniacs, so he burned me the entire season - how cool is he?!
  
  John - Drums
  
  John is well-traveled and well-versed. He has stories from every corner of the United States, and given the time, will share them with you. He is hard to see behind those drums, but catch him after the show and he always makes time for a fan.

• LMJ Surprises! [+ Show ]
  

  Although Low Man's Joe could be considered a bit on the lighter side of Rock, their stage presence a...Although Low Man's Joe could be considered a bit on the lighter side of Rock, their stage presence alone made them worthy of a Metal bill such as this. I thought I was content to sit at the bar and watch from afar, but I was wrong. These guys had catchy choruses and riffs that dug into your ear and played over and again long after they left the stage. Bret's voice was unmatched in quality and his energy was legendary (and somewhat frustrating when trying capture the energy in pixilated glory). Low Man's Joe is a sure bet.

• Texas Beth - Host, TB Rock Show [+ Show ]
  

  LMJ has a really fresh rock sound with some immediately catchy songs that grab you from the very beg...LMJ has a really fresh rock sound with some immediately catchy songs that grab you from the very beginning and don't let go.
  
  

• Rock the Bayou [+ Show ]
  

  Among the artists performing at Rock the Bayou, Low Man's Joe continuously exhibited great talent a...Among the artists performing at Rock the Bayou, Low Man's Joe
  continuously exhibited great talent and professionalism throughout the
  event. These guys understand what it takes to be a successful band, and
  if their popularity at Rock the Bayou is any indication, they look to
  have a very promising career ahead of them.

Setlist

We tailor our set to the allotted time slot with a selection of songs from the following list:

Originals:

1. My World
2. I'm Alive
3. Where I Stand
4. No Heroes
5. Temptation
6. Trouble Child
7. Third Stone
8. Crazy Carnival
9. Mr. Primetime
10. Hollywood
11. Broken Down
12. Janie She Sings
13. Maria's Bed
14. Cabaret
15. Neon Avenue
16. Twilight Zone
17. Like Thunder

Covers:

1. Radio Saved My Life Tonight (Bon Jovi)
2. She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult)
3. Open Your Eyes (Alter Bridge)
4. Long Way Down (Goo Goo Dolls)

Basic Requirements

Calendar