Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“Raleigh’s Squeezetoy seems to have discovered their genre’s missing link - the ability to write a song. “Voices” is a great song regardless of what genre it’s tagged as:
the band throws down rapid fire rhymes one minute and melds into a smooth bridge with acoustic guitar the next, and the whole song is held together with an irresistibly funky guitar part.”
- Dan Cook, Colombia Free Times
“Their music is energizing, upbeat, and interesting to the point that you could listen to it over and over, getting a different aspect of a song each time.” - Whitney Russell, The East Carolinian
“Squeezetoy really jumped out from the pack—they really know how to jam.
I think they are the hottest new band around.”
- -Actress Pamela Anderson
"their sound - a blissful marriage of 311's beats with the edge of Linkin Park....What separates Squeezetoy from the "TRL" staples is the quintet's live sound and energy...
All this energy confirms Squeezetoy's reputation as a credible live act...
Pay attention - this Raleigh outfit is worth watching."
- -Lynda-Marie Taurasi, MusicToday.com
“Squeezetoy seems to have a bright future; The North Carolina band has hit upon a hybrid of rock and rap that actually works, a miracle in a sub genre that seemed played out a couple of years ago.”
- -Ken Oliver, Colombia Free Times
“Squeezetoy’s song “Right Now” caught the attention of fans. Fusing crunch, funk, classical guitar, and hip-hop beats to create their unique sound
which draws hints of 311, Rage Against the Machine, and Outkast.” - -Canada Newswire
“Squeezetoy, which regularly draws hundreds of people to its Raleigh shows and whose mix of heavy rock and hip-hop, is appealing to listeners who like
G105 favorite Linkin Park.”
- -Spectator, March 2002
Discography
2001-Squeezetoy "When You're Here...You're There"
2004-Squeezetoy "Contact"
The song Right Now of "When You're Here...You're There" won the Beer.com Unsigned Band of the Year 2001 Contest and still has airplay.
The song Voices, Contact, and Settle The Score of "Contact" has received airplay thus far.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Formed in 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina, the members of Squeezetoy spent their early years playing high school parties and opening for larger acts at small local venues. After parting a year for college, Jason Martin (vocals), Brian and Daniel Dickerson (twin guitar and bass players), and Zack Johnson (drums) reunited to play local fraternity shows as well as headlining medium-sized venues. In 2000, the guys graduated from N.C. State and UNC respectively and also added a second vocalist to the group named Omotade Adeniyi. “O” was a rising local hip-hop star from the group Lower Thirds. Shortly thereafter, the band secured an opening slot on a date at the Vans Warped Tour 2000. Squeezetoy’s exposure to the tour, the bands, and the fans encouraged the guys to stick with their new lineup and focus on writing and performing.
Fusing hip-hop, reggae, rock, and classical guitar, Squeezetoy quickly became known as a “high- energy” live act with the ability to captivate rock, hip-hop, pop, and jam rock audiences alike. “It’s all about the synergy between the audience and the band,” states Omotade “we expect full crowd participation from beginning to end,” he says. Word quickly spread locally among rock fans about these “high synergy” shows and the bands unique ability to perform unrehearsed “freestyle” sessions, which had immediate appeal to hip-hop and jam band fans as well.
In 2001, Squeezetoy was picked by Pamela Anderson as “Unsigned band of the year” out of 2000 bands in North America in a contest sponsored by Beer.com. After playing another date at the Vans Warped Tour, the band was flown to Latrobe, Pennsylvania to open the main stage at the Rolling Rock Town Fair playing alongside Stone Temple Pilots, Incubus, Staind, Live, and the Deftones. Only a month later, the band spent two weeks in Los Angeles hanging with Pamela and Kid Rock and recording their 2001 release “When you’re here…you’re there” at the notorious Westlake Studios (Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other”). By the fall of 2001, the band returned to the east coast with press in Spin, on CNN, Entertainment Tonight, and at AOL.com, which helped the band begin distributing thousands of the 10,000 complimentary copies of the new EP.
In 2002, Squeezetoy secured a booking agent and began touring North Carolina and the southeast circuit playing small venues with the support of Budweiser and their True Music campaign. The band also got the opportunity to open for national acts such as Aerosmith/Kid Rock, Chili Peppers/Snoop Dogg, Filter, Cowboy Mouth, The Exies, Jimmies Chicken Shack, 2 Skinnee Js, Outkast, The Roots, Busta Rhymes, Phunk Junkeez, and Slightly Stoopid. During this time the band distributed 6000+ copies of their EP and began getting airtime at 96 Rock in Raleigh, 106.5 The END in Charlotte, 107.5 The Wave in Wilmington, and 99X in Atlanta.
During 2003, the band continued its grassroots touring playing over 100 shows on the east coast from Michigan to Florida. The band took time out in August to record their new EP “Contact” produced by Eddie Eyeball of the 2 Skinnee Js.
2004 was a year that Squeezetoy performed 120+ shows, released a successful EP, performed for troops overseas in the Middle East (Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Djibouti, Kuwait, Iraq), toured with national headliner Afroman for 50+ shows, continued as a Budweiser True Music representative, and are having major sales in Japan.
Mixing the working musician mentality with innovative music and a remarkable live set, Squeezetoy is making the fans one person, state, and country at a time.
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