Absinthe Junk

Absinthe Junk’s ethereal melodies are fused with eclectic musical influences and textures from around the world and darkened by an edgy army of harmonizing and melodic guitars—all of which forge a hard hitting progressive alliance. Absinthe Junk breaking out wide in 2010 after signing to Severe Records, has been the winner of ReverbNation's Playlist 7 contest, featured by Windows Media Weekly and distributed on a compilation disc at SXSW. Drawing on frontwoman Blair’s wide ranging imagination as a trained jazz saxophonist, orchestral composer and—would you believe?— successful comic book visual artist, the band mixes everything from progressive to alt metal and goth rock. Their innovative approach to songwriting finds critics drawing comparisons to other female led rock units Evanescence and Garbage and also to genre-bending frontrunners Abney Park and Portishead.

They’re not for the timid listener or rock fan whose tastes are easily boxed in—each song sports unique instrumentation ranging from violin to Turkish saz all the way to a fully orchestrated symphony. All of that lays the foundation for a sharply crafted assault of metaphorical undertones which saturate the moment, leaving each tune as complex and unique as the instrumentation before it. The freewheeling spirit of the band completely parallels the unique era of French history that inspired their name. Absinthe became the world's most maligned beverage by 1916 with a near world-wide ban after claims were made based on junk science that the drink caused blindness and even insanity.

Their debut album "crashes in with actual Living Substance" according Skope Entertainment (March 2010). Living Ghosts speaks of the ominous, yet unavoidable fits the world finds itself in. “You can’t avoid it. Which is not to be misinterpreted as the extreme negative, either. The fact is we’re all caught in this web. How we handle, reconcile and move through our lives is the real story.” A few tracks key in perfectly on these themes, most specifically the fiery, percussive jam “Commercialized Waste” (a not so subtle knock on the cookie cutter mentality of the corporate side of the music industry which Blair calls “a tango-ized dance with the devil”) and the hypnotic, Eastern flavored, heavily orchestrated “Assassin (Someday),” whose politically charged lyrics lament the demise of sanctity and civility in the world. "Living Ghosts" charted at 157 on radio charts the week of its release and tracks thereon have been licensed to MTV's Parental Control, Nitro Circus, Fantasy Factory, Warren the Ape, and Fox Sports.

The band has achieved a fast and dedicated global fanbase thanks to lead singer, Blair's previous success as an award-winning comic book writer and illustrator. “I’ve had the chance to travel extensively with my comic book career, and I am looking forward to visiting these people and places again as part of a whole new artistic medium,” says Blair. “As a unit, Absinthe Junk is dedicated to forging a path of original independent music featuring songs that listeners can apply to their own lives. The most amazing thing is walking offstage and having people come up and hug us and say they can see past our metaphors and fully connect with what we are singing about up there. It’s a big sound, but there’s an intimacy to these songs as well and we love the way they inspire empathy between us and those who get where we are coming from.”