CrankSanatra
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CrankSanatra

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"Four Takes on the Festival's Best"

"There are a lot of great bands this night but, for my tastes, I have to pick CrankSanatra. Theses guys are fresh, technical, progressive, young and like to rock. ....if you like to rock, check out Crank."

Chris Braly
Writer for Chattanooga Pulse
Founder of the CIA
(Chattanooga Independent Artists) - Pulse


"The Second Week's Charm"

"One of my personal faves, Crank Sanatra, will be playing at 11 pm on the UnumProvident stage. By turns loud, goofy, funky, clever, funny and annoying, Crank shows are never dull."

Ted Reynolds
Writer for Chattanooga Pulse
Local DJ for Chattanooga State's 91.5 the Wawl - Pulse


"No More Wasted Opportunities"

No More Wasted Opportunities
Crank Sanatra launches Summer at Midtown

by Ted Reynolds

March 21, 2007

In my stupidly honest opinion, there are only two kinds of bands: those who, believing the world is against them, fall apart, and those who, understanding that the world is against them, shrug, and continue on.

Frequent shruggers Crank Sanatra now have over four years experience being kicked in the teeth behind them, struggling to develop a unique sound while simultaneously weathering disasters as bizarre as the ill-fated leap at last year’s Riverbend and as mundane as an expensively burnt engine in the van.

With a group persona that can abruptly switch from sanctimonious rationality to catastrophic immaturity, the band’s tough-guy eccentricity is a fair mirror of the music they create. Complexly heavy and thoroughly orchestrated, frequently subject to experimentation, their sound has changed drastically since their inception, as evidenced on their new CD, Another Wasted Summer.

Scheduled for an official release this Saturday night at Midtown Music Hall, even this album’s cover art has already won an award for design in Australia, while the tracks themselves are running rampant on music-biz leader MySpace.com: The band is currently rated #1 on uranking.com’s “Top 100 MySpace Bands,” has over 162,000 friends, and received the highly-appreciated March 16 pick by MySpace softcore site Brokendollz for “Band of the Week.”

Frustrated late last year by both an apparent inability to regularly gig here in town and a perceived lack of respect by many of their local peers (despite winning Chattanooga Independent Artists “Best New Act” award in 2005, and “Best Rock Act” in 2006) the band decided to forgo the route usually traveled by local bands, and concentrate on areas outside Chattanooga for shows and new fans. This decision, and the efforts put into reworking a CD initially planned for fall of last year, is now beginning to show signs of paying off.

Their brutally frank attitude is only slightly tempered by a judgment bloodied from both externally caused and self-inflicted damage. Quick to criticize local bands they see as lazy, they are also self-deprecating of their own efforts, and just as quick to point out local bands and artists they respect and admire.

Formed in 2002 when the nascent band, consisting only of guitarist Chris Moree and drummer Josh Cannon, hooked up with the dregs of The Wanton Dynamos, which included guitarist Nate Luttrell, bassist Jake Williams, and recently departed (proofreader please note: not deported) German exchange student Timo on sax. Going through nearly as many lead singers as Spinal Tap has had drummers (often for the same reasons), the group last year finally settled on former Mindchild frontman Mote to handle vocals.

I sat down with the band last week to get caught up with their ever-accelerating career, and came away impressed with the gain in focus and intensity I saw in the band members. More cohesive (and coherent) than ever, this band is finally prepared with the goods to break through.



How was last weekend’s trip to Florida?
We had a really successful trip, which makes us feel better about the tour we’re about to make. We had people there who had driven 50 miles to see the show. We had one show, unannounced, that we just handed out flyers for, that moved $500 in merchandise. We took 75 CDs with us, ran out, and had to burn more. And we sold over 40 t-shirts.



Is it just that it’s a much larger scene there?
Yeah, it’s that, but we also seem to get more respect almost anywhere out of town than here in town, which is really appreciated when we’re wondering why we should keep trying. A lot of bands here bitch and complain, but the fact is, they just don’t work very hard at it. The stuff’s all out there; you’ve just got to do it.



After all the recent successes you’ve had, would you actually consider hanging it up?
Nah, there’s no way. We really can’t now. We’ve burned all our bridges, we’re in debt, we’ve sold pretty much everything we owned, and we’ve got nowhere to go. When you cut off every means of survival, you have to get busy, somehow. Us being out on the road has been great for us. We’ve learned to respect each other more, and we get along better now, which, if you know us, is pretty much the opposite of what you’d expect.



What long term goals does Crank Sanatra have?
We just want to earn a living doing what we love, and see where it takes us. Although it’s always great when our music makes our parents cry.


Crank Sanatra
CD Release Party
With Black Betty
$5
Saturday at 9 p.m.
Midtown Music Hall
820 Georgia Ave.
(423) 752-1977
MidtownMusicHall.com - METRO PULSE by Ted Reynolds


"Crank Sanatra"

Crank Sanatra

BY JESSICA P. WALLIN

When I first set up an interview with the members of CrankSanatra, I started having a panic attack. From what I had heard of their music, it was pretty hardcore and not what I was into at all, and pictures I’d seen portrayed them as menacing and dark. My inner church girl was screaming “Satanists!”, not to mention I basically freak out anytime I meet new people. Nonetheless, I still arranged an interview and drove to meet them in Red Bank. I seemed to find the guys in their element as they, sweaty after a night of band practice, devoured chips and salsa at their favorite restaurant, Amigo. Chris Moree, the lead guitarist, and drummer Josh Cannon greeted Nathan and me like we had known each other our whole lives. They cut up with the wait staff and other diners, and I was immediately put at ease. Guitarist Nate Luttrell, a grown married man, chatted with Nathan about Harry Potter and asked him if he played Magic: The Gathering. Jake Williams, CrankSanatra’s bassist, bleary-eyed and wide-grinned, was hard not to take an immediate liking to, as he divided his time between freestyle rapping and hitting on one of the wait staff who didn’t speak any English.. The band’s fifth member, lead singer Jonathon Mote, exuded a professionalism that let us know that he knew how to work a crowd and market the band’s image.

CrankSanatra’s first released CD, Another Wasted Summer, is a proverbial collage of everything in mainstream music. And looking from left to right at the band’s members, I could see why. I was surprised at first not to see a single Slipknot band T-Shirt on anyone, and the shirts they were wearing ranged from Tom Waits to Jethro Tull. I obviously had preconceived notions about the band and their intentions, notions that were wrong. Each member had dramatically different influences: Tool, The Bad Brains, Tom Waits, Faith No More, Cab Calloway, and Primus being just a few. “If you stick through a whole show, everyone will find something to like,” Mote describes. It can be agreed upon that most new bands are rip-offs of some other band, even though they will try to say that they are doing something completely new. With CrankSanatra, this isn’t the case. “Of course we rip-off bands!” says Moree. “Everyone does. It’s just that we have so many different styles we like, we incorporate everything into our music so you never know what you’re gonna hear.”

Background: CrankSanatra has been together since 2002 and started as a duo collaboration between Moree and Cannon. They have been through several member changes and are currently on their fifth lead singer. As to where their name was derived, “The first singer we had was horrible. So one day Josh's dad was making fun of him and said, ‘sounds like ol' Crank Sinatra's at it again.’ The name stuck. I don't think that guy even knew what it was about,” explains Moree. As far as what they write about, Moree goes on to say, “We try to stay away from being preachy or self-loathing. Josh and I write the music, and I usually just try to convey a particular set of emotions. Sometimes I'll be reading a book (mostly Edward Gorey or Chuck Palahnuik) or watching a movie and I try to recreate the music I'm hearing in my head. It's a weird process, it usually comes together though. I'll bring it in, we'll arrange it and then hammer it out and refine it as a band. As for lyrics Mote usually does his own thing. He's an amazing vocalist. He finds melodies in place most people never would.”

Jonathan Mote, the band heartthrob, feels himself that the band is going places, but he’s not above having a backup plan. He is going to Chattanooga State and is Majoring in Science. “I’d like to know that if things don’t work out, I have a wealth of solo stuff I’m writing, and I’m going to school. So if we don’t make it as rock stars, I can do something less glamorous.” Like cure cancer?

Upon giving Another Wasted Summer a thorough listen, I could see where they could be the next big thing. They receive their professional advice from the manager of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and he’s the reason they have yet to accept one of the record deals from the major labels. They want to make sure they go about things smartly and aren’t starstruck at the thought of being famous and sign a bad contract that will put them in debt in the long run. Their CD was entirely self-produced, yet it sounds just as good or better as anything that would be played on Rock 105.5 FM. Their vegetable medley of rock music is accessible and polished, and having five members with such variant tastes in the end is really their expertise and what makes the band good.

CrankSanatra is having a CD release party on March 24 at Midtown Music Hall. It is a public event and everyone over 21 is invited. Black Betty will open the show at around 9:30 pm. Afterwards CrankSanatra will be playing the whole album (for the first and last time) from beginning to end. They will also be pl - ENIGMA BY JESSICA P. WALLIN


"cd review"

Crank Sanatra
Another Wasted Summer
(ASP Records)

Crank Sanatra has spent the past year building their fan base via out-of-town gigs and the Internet (they have over 34,000 MySpace friends). The quintet is likely to turn heads both here and elsewhere, however, with their latest disc. Another Wasted Summer is a rich and powerful collection of thinking-man’s metal, reminiscent of Mars Volta, Fishbone, and Tool that often flirts with ska, and leaves plenty of room for Timo Reinke’s sax to stand out in the monstrous and melodic mix. An inspired and accomplished effort that deserves to be heard.


-Bill Colrus - Chattanooga Pulse


Discography

albums
----------
"Downtown EP"-2005
"The End Of Summer"-2006
"Another Waster Summer"-2007
"CrankSanatra's Vinegar Works"-early 2008

singles
---------
"FBFA" single-2006-Peaked at #2 on the Chattanooga Local Charts
"Cryonized Reflection" single-2006
"The Locusts" single-2006
"The People's Republic For Conserving Daylight Hours"-single 2007
"Inanimate Tragedy"-single 2007
"Kali Ma"-single 2007
"Dead City Radio" single 2007
"Nightwatch" single 2007

awards
---------
2005 Best New Act
2006 Best Rock Band
2007 Brokendollz.com featured artist March

Photos

Bio

The boys from Chattanooga have brought us conceptual artistry like we've never heard it before. Take styling extremes, put them together side by side, and you've arrived at CrankSanatra. You'll be thrust in one direction, then resurrected into another without warning, much as a great movie leads you into sweeping twists arriving at unexpected swells of unanticipated excitement. Revolutionary without being confrontational, they are like nothing in the music marketplace today.
Daring and unorthodox don't even come close to describing the inventive mix of genres that tastefully explode through the senses and blow your mind. Chris Moree, songwriter/guitarist extraordinare, knows he has to do his homework to compete in this business. "I take nothing for granted. I don't want CrankSanatra to ever be compared to those cardboard clone bands out there." In fact, their CD "Another Wasted Summer" takes you on a progressive musical journey bringing you to an unbelievable climatic ending that definitely stands alone.

Chris, along with precision drummer Josh Cannon, experimented with their impressionistic style of music for a year and a half before adding the incomparable stylings of lead guitarist Nate Luttrell and bassist Jake Williams. After auditioning several singers, Mote, singer, lyricist and frontman got the nod. The double-edged meanings in his lyrics allow the mind of the listener to take them exactly where they want to go. "We want people to think for themselves, instead of listening to mindless music just because it's on the radio."

This band, whose members come from different backgrounds, and who have equally diverse musical interests, came together and allowed this diversity to fire their passion, making for an explosive collaborative effort. Their influences range from Faith No More, Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deftones, Beach Boys, and Cab Calloway to the books of Edward Gorey, Hunter S. Thompson, and Chuck Palahniuk, just to name a few. Rock and roll, heavy metal, swing, R&B, soul, and classical film scores find a magnified new life in CrankSanatra. People feel alive in their music, as if tasting each genre again for the very first time.

In 2005, they were voted "Best New Act" in Chattanooga. And in 2006, a closing night showcase spot at the Atlantis Music Conference in Atlanta propelled them on their explosive musical trip, reaching into the minds of their followers allowing their creative genius to grab hold. Are you ready to experience this unforgettable ride for yourself?

CONTACT
(423) 903-0855
EMAIL:
cranksanatra@yahoo.com
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/cranksanatra

Management:
J.B. Brocato
Intense Artist Management
jb@intense-ventures.com
www.intenseartistmanagement.com