PreCore

Darby Smith Morning D.J. at WVUB 91.1 f.m. "The Blazer" Vincennes, IN. said:

"Hey guys! You are officially on the
web with Blazer, and on the air!
Great work! I look forward to teaming up more with you guys ...welcome to Darby's World!"

DJ D.J. at WISU 89.7 f.m. in Terre Haute, IN. said:

"Not only are we playing three of their song on our station but they're really amazing performers Live. They put on a really good show."

D.J. Locust at WVUB 90.7 f.m. "The Monkey" said:

"We're spinning three of Precore's songs on our station and they're really good live."

Lowell Torres, writer and Features Editor for The Indiana Statesman said:

"Jeremy... "belts out a tune" and "shreds on his guitar."

- I'm Amazed Productions

Rock and Roll Dreams Usually Don't Lead to Shelburn Indiana

West-coast Band Makes Sullivan Home for Sound Reason

Precore Came to Indiana for Cedar Rock Studios

By Mark Bennett
Tribune-Star
Published: Sights and Sounds, Friday, February 16, 2007

Rock 'n' Roll dreams usually don't lead musicians to leave Seattle - a hotbed that produced Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana - for Sullivan.

Jeremy Kuykendall understands the head-scratching responses when people find out that he and his brothers Jon and Joe moved from Seattle to form a rock band in Sullivan.

Why would anyone do such a thing?

"That's what everybody wants to know," Jeremy said, laughing. "I usually say something about the van breaking down."

Actually, their group - called PRECORE - came to the Wabash Valley for quite a valid reason. Back in Washington State, a band manager told Jeremy that Cedar Rock Studios in Shelburn, Ind., was ranked among the top 20 new recordings facilities in the country by an industry publication and recommended it to the Kuykendall's. They met, and studio owner Alan Drake offered Jeremy a job at Cedar Rock doing session and sound work.

Jeremy, 29, rented a house in Sullivan, and started corresponding with Joe, 27, and Jon, 28, about reuniting there, more than a decade after they'd played together in church and local functions.

"We settled on the idea that we wanted to come back [to Sullivan] and start playing again," Jon said.

They did, and by the end of 2006, Precore recorded their debut album "Analog Daydreams" in Cedar Rock Studios. Jeremy handles the lead guitar and vocals, with a voice reminiscent of a smooth Alice Cooper, while Jon plays bass and Joe drums. They released the album independently last month, and it's now available on www.cdbaby.com and their website www.precoreband.com.

The 12-song disc leads off with the title track, an infectious tune with lyrics questioning whether the country is too busy to contemplate anything more serious than the latest episode of "American Idol".

As with several of the album's other songs, "Analog Daydreams" features retro keyboards. Some of the vintage instruments came from the studio. One classic keyboard - a Hammond B3 organ - was found by Jeremy in an old Sullivan County farm shed.

"It had turned into a rat's nest," Jeremy said.

Its rich sound helped give their compilation "an early '70s-late '60s kind of vibe." They also quickly realized the logistical reasons why those old organs eventually got replaced by sleek, light computerized keyboards. Hammond B3s are heavy.

"It's like moving the first atom bomb," Jeremy quipped.

Their interest in classic rock isn't faddish. The brothers' dad - Paul Kuykendall - played in popular local bands around their original hometown, Ogden, Utah.

"A lot of the classic rock, we got exposed to at an early age," Jon said. "During the 'hair-band' era, we were sitting around listening to a lot of old classic rock, which is unusual for teenagers."

Besides the sound, the albums lyrics have family roots. While Jeremy wrote all of the music, he wound up collaborating on the words with Joe, who was serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq at the time. When Jeremy got stuck on a verse, he'd send Joe and MP3 version of the song via e-mail, and Joe would send back lyrical passages. Those collaborations include "Analog Daydreams", "Warm Beer '97", "Dream You Made", and "No Way Home."

"You can tell from the lyric that Joe was not real crazy about being there," Jeremy said.

"It was definitely a way for him to release what he'd seen over there," Jon added.

After two years in Iraq and Afghanistan, Joe completed his Army stint. "He came from Iraq to Virginia, and then got a moving van and went to Sullivan," Jon explained.

Like Joe, Jon also completed military duty before reuniting with his brothers in the band, serving in both the Army and the Coast Guard.

Now they're making music together again, the Kuykendalls wouldn't mind having PRECORE land a record deal with a label. But first, they're just hoping people look up their tunes on www.myspace.com/precore and spread the word.

"We're trying to get a little bit of a grassroots following before we take that step," Jon said.
- Tribstar, Sights and Sounds Feature

Published: February 01, 2007 09:58 pm

All-ages community show in Linton set

The Tribune-Star

Linton — Precore and Voxt Revolution will appear on Feb. 10 in the Roy Clark Community Building in Linton. Show time is 8 p.m., and doors open at 7:30.

Precore, which has been transplanted in Terre Haute from Washington state, will be promoting its latest album, “Analog Daydreams.”

Voxt Revolution of Sullivan will set out to show off some serious young talent to the Linton area.

Admission will be $5 at the door. Concessions will be available, and some CDs given away.

The Roy Clark Community Building is just north of the city park in Linton. Follow Indiana 54 and look for the big brown building next to the swimming pool.

For more info, e-mail jared.albright@gmail.com - The Tribune-Star

The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — The show “Metal vs. Music” will combine new sculptures by Indiana State University student Mark Nicklasch and new music by the rock band PRECORE at 8 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Brewhaus at 401 S. Ninth St. in Terre Haute.

Nicklasch will display five of his latest sculptures at the show, and PRECORE will be releasing their debut CD “Analog Daydreams.” PRECORE will also perform all 12 tracks from the new album that night.

Nicklasch recently helped restore the zinc-plated statue of the mythological god Mercury for the Vigo County Historical Museum.

The Brewhaus event marks the first Terre Haute shows for both Nicklasch and PRECORE.

The event is open to the public, those over 21. Tickets are $4 at the door, and $2 for ISU students with a student ID.
- TribStar

Metal takes on Music
By Lowell Torres
Issue date: 1/22/07 Section: Campus


Saturday night, the show "Metal vs. Music" took over the large confines of the Brewhaus. The show was a mixture of music and art as ISU senior Mark Nicklasch premiered four new sculptures and the rock band PRECORE debuted their new CD, "Analog Daydreams"....

The band is made up of the Kuykendall brothers, Jeremy, lead vocals, guitar and keyboards, Joe, drums and Jon, bass guitar. They consider their music to be a mixture of progressive and classic rock, with such influences as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to George Clinton and James Brown.

The Brothers, originally from Washington, moved to the Midwest for the music scene and to record their album.

The band approached Cedar Rock Studios, in Shelburn Ind., after it was profiled as a top 10 studio in Mix Magazine. Jeremy was hired as an assistant at the studio, and it went from there, Joe said....

According to the website, "The Kuykendall boys share a competitive bond, both as musicians and family members, challenging one another to come up with the next "Big Idea."
Joe said he's satisfied with the move to the Midwest.

"The West Coast doesn't have that great of a music scene," Joe said in reference to why they moved out here. The band played at clubs and coffee houses in Portland, Seattle and other locations thoughout Washington.

"Out there, bands have to pay venues to be able to play," Kuykendall said. "You'll have five bands vying to be able to play, the scene is so clogged up."
The Midwest, Kuykendall said, is just waiting to take off.

"There are all these cities nearby that are hubs for good music, he said.

PRECORE has plans to play shows all around the Midwest with goals of soon hitting the south east coast. A sample of their songs can be found on their Myspace page at www.myspace.com/precore. - Indiana Statesman

1/1/2007

PRECORE Set To Release Ground Breaking New Album ‘ANALOG DAYDREAMS’ January 2007

( I’m Amazed! Productions January 1, 2007)

Terre Haute, IN - The Progressive Classic Rock Band PRECORE announced the launch of their new album this week after 10 months of recording in the trenches at Cedar Rock Studios with renowned sound engineer Alan Drake .

Boasting 12 new tracks exploding with vintage keyboards the likes of the Mellotron, Mini-Moog, Hammond B3 and Fender Rhodes ’Analog Daydreams’ reignites the flame of PRECORE’s most influential predecessors with the band’s flare for classic rock experimentation.
With scathingly personal lyrics, finely crafted tones and classic rock instrumentation, PRECORE’s newest achievement proves to be a solid album chock full of surprises from the pop culture retrospective and title track “Analog Daydreams” and the sexually charged singles “Innuendo” and “Warm Beer ‘97” to the psychedelic vintage synthesizer track “Nightmare” .

Groomed to be musicians from birth, brothers Jeremy, Joe and Jon Kuykendall put old sibling rivalries aside and donned their instruments for what had originally promised to be a massive undertaking. “Analog Daydreams started with the idea that recorded music used to be distributed on vinyl or magnetic tape, the original sound wave unbroken from recording to playback, these days recordings are converted to zeros and ones and reassembled for the listener digitally, the end result seems like a Daydream of real sound. Each song is a real event shaped into a memory through music leaving it a daydream.” says Jeremy, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for PRECORE.

PRECORE is: Jeremy Kuykendall - Lead Vocals, Guitars and Keyboards. Joe Kuykendall - Drums and Backing Vocals. Jon Kuykendall - Bass Guitar.

“Analog Daydreams” copyright 2007.
Track List:

1. Warm Beer ‘97 3:13
2. Analog Daydreams 3:18
3. Needle 3:04
4. Innuendo 3:16
5. Really Not You 3:21
6. Abyss 3:43
7. Cruel Casualty 3:06
8. Fabulous 3:30
9. Dream You Made 4:56
10. No Way Home 3:20
11. Nightmare 1:54
12. Warm Beer ‘77 (reprise) 3:28

Tour Dates, Radio Promotion and Distribution are in the works for 2007. PRECORE is Unsigned and proud of it. Contact PRECORE at precore@precoreband.com www.myspace.com/precore
or 360-601-4807.
- I'm amazed! Productions

'Where magic can happen': Cedar Rock Studio in Shelburn could be a recording hot spot in Nashville or L.A.

By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — Alan Drake sees the music unfold from an idyllic vantage point.

Seated behind a massive recording console, Drake peers through the control room window at Joe Kuykendall, drummer of the rock band Precore. The lights are down in the “live room,” the cavernous heart of Cedar Rock Studio. A window just beyond Kuykendall’s shoulder lets in a glimpse of the rural scenery outside and just enough sunshine to silhouette his movements. The other two members of the group — Kuykendall’s brothers Jeremy and Jon — sit in the control room beside Drake, playing their electric and bass guitars.

They’re building the first layer of a new song “Change You, Change Me.”

From this initial performance, only Joe’s drumming — recorded with him isolated in the live room — will be saved. Jeremy and Jon are playing just to give Joe accompaniment, for now. Later, Drake will record their bass and lead guitar work, keyboards, and lead and harmony vocals, mix all of those sounds together and turn it into a compact disc.

But this first step — the “scratch track” — can be the most creative in the recording process.

“The interaction between them, at that point in time, that’s where magic can happen,” Drake says.

Such moments helped motivate Drake and his wife Dawn to build their unique Cedar Rock Studio next to their home, where they live with their two young sons.

Drake’s own musical background fuels the studio’s concept. The 45-year-old Sullivan County native is an accomplished, veteran guitarist, who also studied at the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio. So Drake not only can play those classic sounds that artists long to re-create, but he also has the technical skills to capture them on a recording.

And he’s got the right equipment. It’s a mix of vintage and high-tech that earned Cedar Rock a place on the Mix Magazine Class of 2004 — the 10 hottest recording rooms to open that year in the United States.

Take that console, for example. It’s a Trident Series 80 crafted especially for Drake by English recording icon John Oram, who created similar devices for legendary bands such as Queen. That board is an analog system, the same style used in the 1970s and ’80s. It arrived in a shipping box the size of a car, Dawn recalls.

Alan wanted that 48-track Trident “for its warmth, because it was the sound I grew up hearing,” he says. “It gives it that British rock ’n’ roll feeling. It was a big purchase for us, but it helps bring in clients.”

The Trident is surrounded by classic amplifiers, guitars and keyboards. In the corner of the live room awaits a well-worn but sweet-sounding Hammond B3 organ, just like those used by The Doors or Booker T. and The MG’s.

But sitting right next to that retro Trident soundboard are a computer and a long bank of digital recording pieces.

“Now everybody wants the best of both worlds,” Drake explains. “They want the new technology, but they also want that older, vintage sound. That’s what sets you apart from other smaller in-home studios. That and our room.”

Big room, big sound

That live room is immense. The cathedral ceiling stretches 32 feet above the hardwood floor, which runs 34 feet in length. Its surface is a “floating floor,” built over a layer of neoprene rubber to control the sound. Its exposed cedar beams set off the custom woodwork. Along with the adjoining rooms for tracking the vocals and amplifiers, the control room and an overnight-stay apartment, Cedar Rock has 4,000 square feet committed to its visiting artists.

But that spacious, wooden live room is the centerpiece. It runs counter to the old stereotype of studios with low ceilings, foam-covered walls and carpet.

Musicians get a natural reverberation while recording at Cedar Rock.

“Blues and the old rock, the thing that was great about it was the big sound,” says Joe Kuykendall, spreading his arms wide for emphasis. “And that’s what this room really does.”

Its design didn’t happen by accident.

Drake had operated recording studios in Robinson, Ill., where Dawn was an art teacher, and in Sullivan. Before they started building Cedar Rock, the Drakes visited studios on Nashville’s Music Row and along the West Coast.

“I just wanted to see how they were constructed and just check that out and the gear they were using,” Alan recalls.

He encountered some well-known pros along the way. At Treasure Isle Recordings in Nashville, Drake met Oram, whom he calls “the father of EQ.” (EQ is studio lingo for “equalization” or the alteration of sound.) Drake also became acquainted with decorated Nashville producer Warren Peterson, whose credits include albums by country and pop singers Amy Grant, Shania Twain and Ryan Adams.

Peterson, who worked in the fabled Javelina Studio run by Chet Atkins, “just kind of took me under his wing. Me and - Mark Bennett - The Tribune Star

Wednesday, March 28, 2007


MyReviews: PreCore
Current mood: calm

While sitting at the library today, I decided to continue up on the MyReviews column that I recently started in my blog here at Myspace. Randomly, I clicked on one of the bands that were already in my friends list, and to my surprise I found another group that was awesome. Precore, a band that started up in the Northwest, has recently come to the Midwest to share their musical gifts. I assume they are putting on great shows as their music gives a different sound for the ear to listen to. Their vocals are unlike any other, being as many bands these days always seem to sound like someone else, and their instrumentals are just so relaxing but at the same time energetic. Listening to their music on Myspace gave me a calm, peaceful feeling probably generated by the whacky sounds from the different styles of piano, and rhythm that just made me want to bob my head. Not to mention, the lyrics of each song are very cleverly written and keep the listener wishing to here more or rather sing along at the top of their lungs. Myself, I look forward to getting an opportunity to go see these guys live if they come around my area, just to witness what they might sound like live, which is probably amazing considering the quality of production of their online tracks. I wish good luck to this band, Precore, in their journey to accomplish their goals in the music world, and even though my opinion isn't worth squat in that world, I believe they have the talent to be a well-known band in the future. Go check out their music, www.myspace.com/precore - Tall Corey from IU Bloomington