Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
New York is known for bringing new music to the masses, and part of what makes the city’s mammoth music scene so special is finding undiscovered gems like 10 Heads High. The band’s sound seems familiar, but it’s hard to put a finger on. It shows they’re not just mimicking their influences, but building off of them. Though Marc Lombardo’s vocals are rock-solid, the guitar hooks are truly addictive. Walking the thin line between catchy sugar pop, punk pop and hard rock, Tommy Kohl creates guitar riffs that stick in the brain. Shining stars on the album include “Stepchild Of A Genius,” “Autofly” and “What It Looks Like, What It Is”. One reason New York is known for it’s music is because of all the good bands hiding just below the radar, and 10 Heads High proves it in ten tracks.
- Jason Janik, Harder Beat
"From Here to Tupelo" isn't another poorly produced album from a local band you've never heard of. This is a solid debut for a band that you'll be proud to say you listened to before they hit it big. With a sound that draws upon the hard rock and alternative sound of the late 90's, you'll hear shades of Stone Temple Pilots and Collective Soul. Strong lyrics and a fresh sound in an age of pop and pre-fabrication give make this a special listen. "From Here to Tupelo" doesn't take multiple-listens to be appreciated, the first time you hear "Mending Wall" and "Sideways by the Ocean" you'll be hooked.
- Matt Godfroy, Over The Limit
I finally got the full length CD titled "From Here To Tupelo". Straight up guitar rock with traces of power pop. While nothing here is original, there is something about the band that their songs stand out from an ever-growing genre. They're all so infectious that you can't help but kick to them. They remind me most of American Hi-Fi, but with much better vocals. Opening track "Evolution Queen" is one of the best songs of the year and is the type of song that rules radios during any given summer (and will no doubt make my next mix CD!). Check out "My Summertime" too. A great album yet oddly enough, I think the band will only get better (imagine the possibilities of them working with Butch Walker!).
- Kurt Torster, Striktly For Konissuers
Any record labels on the lookout for a band with the potential to hit it really BIG...might very well check out 10 Heads High. This Astoria, New York-based band has recorded an album that is bursting at the seams with potential hit singles. The band has amazing energy...but the songs are even more outstanding. Songs like "Evolution Queen," "Arms of December," and "Sideways by the Ocean" are well beyond what one normally hears from a band that has seemingly come out of nowhere. These guys are doing all the right things the right way. Great vocals, kickass rhythms, and mind blowing guitars. Great stuff... (Rating: 5++)
- www.babysue.com
How are you guys not signed?
- Cane - Radio Personality, 92.3 K-Rock New York, VH1 rock show host, ESPN talk show host "Cold Pizza"
Sometimes new talent can be right under the nose of a major record label. Take New York based rockers 10 Heads High for example. The band's bassist Michael Borenstein has a day job in IT at Sony Music, and if the label's A&R reps are looking for a new modern rock band with a real commercial viability and songwriting flair, they could do no worse than put a call in to Borenstein's department. Any label exec with a pair of ears -- from Sony or elsewhere -- can't fail to be impressed by the sheer ferocity, melody and power of opening track "Evolution Queen", which could be a huge hit if given the right opportunity. "Stepchild of a Genius" possesses a similar level of energy thanks to Marc Lombardo's passionate vocal delivery, and "Arms of December" and "My Summertime" are two more promising tunes from a band combining the contemporary swagger of American Hi-Fi, with the melodic bombast of Cheap Trick.
- Andrew Ellis, Popmatters
Comparing 10 Heads High and From Here to Tupelo to Stone Temple Pilots circa Purple begs two questions: were Stone Temple Pilots in their heyday anything more than tightly manufactured desecrations of sacred Seattleness? And does a contemporary band that splices the Pilots' radio-friendly arena-rock with catchier hooks and sprightlier rhythms deserve kudos for the combination? That, of course, depends on what you're after. Within the stultifying confines of modern radio rock, 10 Heads High's ability to slink through a catchy chorus ("Autofly"), grab at the throat of the power ballad and inject into its wasted form slanted, remarkably intelligent lyrics and a renewed emotional attachment ("Lotus"), or offer a turbulent, better-than-average spin on the hit rock single ("Evolution Queen") is, umm, ten heads above the efforts of most of the spiky-haired boys of summer who roll so inconsequentially across the mainstream musical landscape. One of the disc's best songs, "Stepchild of a Genius", succinctly describes 10 Heads High's position in this milieu: "I'm so close, I can taste it / And I'm just shy of making a difference / I gotta work hard to make it look easy / 'Cause I'm the stepchild of a genius." Even if From Here to Tupelo is "just shy of making a difference", it's pleasant enough. The album's few transcendental moments deserve radio play, and not just because the rest of radio would look bad in comparison.
- Matt Pierce, Splendid
Discography
"From Here To Tupelo"
(full length album, October 2002)
"Evolution Queen" b/w "Mending Wall"
(single from From Here To Tupelo, January 2003)
"Evolution Queen" was heard in full rotation on 105.5 WDHA during summmer of 2003. Also, it has been featured on several unsigned band radio shows such as Q104.3's Out Of The Box.
"Evolution Queen" also achieved steady rotation on New Jersey's most listened to rock station, WDHA reaching #2 most played during summer of 2003 on a play list monopolized by major label bands.
The studio recording as well as an acoustic version are still recieving airplay on WDHA.
Press on "Evolution Queen":
"a turbulent, better-than-average spin on the hit rock single.." - Matt Pierce, Splendid
"A song like like "Evolution Queen" is well beyond what one normally hears from a band that has seemingly come out of nowhere." - babysue.com
"Opening track "Evolution Queen" is one of the best songs of the year and is the type of song that rules radios during any given summer (and will no doubt make my next mix CD!). " - Kurt Torster, Striktly For Konissuers
"Two Of I" b/w "Crime"
(single from the upcoming album "Checkin' In," January 2004)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Outside of Luna Lounge, a trendy little live music spot on New York City’s lower East Side, 10 Heads High bassist Michael Borenstein is shivering through his post-gig cigarette while chatting up a gaggle of female friends. A stranger comes up, an older man maybe a bit out of place in the current scene in his fishing hat and corduroy jacket, who offers a congratulatory handshake and a bizarre analogy for the riveting show he just witnessed.
“Man, I was telling your singer – you know that scene in Back To The Future where Michael J. Fox is plays the guitar at the prom and everybody’s jaw kind of drops? It was like that when you guys came on.”
Borenstein just sort of smiles and takes in the compliment. The members of 10 Heads High are used to hearing this kind of thing, maybe not with the Hollywood parallel thrown in, but used to it all the same. For close to 3 years, 10 Heads High has been having this sort of effect on audiences throughout their home states, New York and New Jersey (drummer Brian King being the Garden State native.)
The band’s beginnings can actually be traced to Long Island, where singer Marc Lombardo and guitarist Tommy Kohl were once guitarists in rival bands, and subsequently co-guitarists in the same band. Ultimately that project ran its course, but a friendship and partnership between Lombardo and Kohl rose from the ashes. They began writing songs and auditioning singers, but became frustrated with not being able to find the right voice for the songs. One day, Kohl simply turned to Lombardo, and said “You can sing this stuff, why don’t you be the singer?”
To catch Lombardo on stage now, with his cocky Jagger-like swagger and his strong early-Rod-Stewart-meets-Chris-Cornell set of pipes, you’d think he was born a frontman. He straps on a Fender Strat for a couple of songs, but prefers to leave the bulk of the guitar work these days to Kohl, a Telecaster-wielding classic guitar hero, an expert of textures and stomp-box flavors, like Page to Plant, a stoic icon of cool over on stage left.
Lombardo and Kohl found their bassist and drummer through successive ads in the Village Voice, the same New York weekly through which Kiss originally got together. Having had the common experience of being the standout member in all of their previous bands, the rhythm section of Borenstein and King bonded instantly. They bring a manic energy to the stage, yet a solid musical anchor to hold the songs down.
Which brings us to the songs, the true focus of 10 Heads High. They’re the real deal, a polished yet jagged set of sing-along gems, drawing influence from the arena rock of their youth, borrowing a little bit of growl from yesterday’s grunge, and keeping up to date enough to draw comparisons to some of today’s radio staples. There are 10 such gems on their self-released debut, From Here to Tupelo, the title in part paying homage to a little bar in Astoria, Queens called Tupelo the band frequented, and where they were first approached by the album’s producers, Bart Migal and Claudius Mittendorfer. The partners brought the band in to record during off-hours at New York studios The Hit Factory and Sound On Sound, where as one-time house engineers, they built up a combined pile of credits that reads like a who’s who of music (Britney Spears, Paul Simon, Sting, Jessica Simpson and Tony Bennett, to cite a few examples.)
From Here to Tupelo’s leadoff track, “Evolution Queen” was in heavy rotation on Jersey station WDHA-FM last summer, rising to #2 on the station’s airplay chart, and has also received spins from New York’s Q-104, 93.5 The Beach in Delaware, WLUW in Chicago, and even stations as far as Portugal (Radio 100) and Yugoslavia (Radio Fedra Yu). A listen to the remaining tracks on Tupelo will reveal what many reviewers have already picked up on: 10 Heads High is no mere one-hit wonder. Ranging from the raucous (“Stepchild of a Genius”) to the sublime (“Mending Wall”) to the anthemic (“Celebrated”) to the slow-burn creeper (“Lotus”), the songs show a depth and maturity uncommon in today’s flash-in-the-pan rock bands, an understanding of dynamics and subtle harmonic intricacies, and above all a knack for the crafting of the hook that adheres to the old “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus” aesthetic.
In addition to rave reviews, 10 Heads High received semi-finalist honors this year in both the Discmakers Independent World Music Series competition and the International Songwriting Competition (ISC). They also beat out the area’s best performers to win WDHA-FM’s Battle of the Bands, thus earning the opportunity to play for thousands at the station’s “Rock the Park” concert in July of 2003 at Yogi Berra Stadium, appearing alongside Theory of a Deadman, the Exies, Quiet Riot and the legendary Cheap Trick.
Currently, 10 Heads High is nearing completion of their second full-length, which will feature surefire single “Two Of I,” as well as their blistering workout of Duran
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