The Great Shakes
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The Great Shakes

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This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"One Sheet"

“...the singer’s swaggering vocals; fused with those wonderful trashy-but-classy vibes, and you’ve got a bold statement, a seething creation that only the Big Apple could birth... Ballroom embodies the movement, the sound of the new art-punk generation.” – Silent Uproar

“Well, snotty punk with melodic pop intrusions are what the Great Shakes are all about.” – NY Press

“Americana Bebop is a catchy, anthemic melodic modern rock tune. Without wishing to imply that the music is derivative, The Great Shakes' overall sound has a feel of London Calling era Clash, which is certainly no bad thing. Cool band name, cool cover art.” – Shindig Magazine 2/01/05

“The Shakes are the latest, greatest thing to shimmy up from the depths of the “new” New York scene: They’re adept at bringing a
smile to the face with glam-pop riffs, and equally proficient on slapping it off with punky aggression.” – Village Voice

“Their debut is a 5 song kick in the balls that explodes with attitude and the confident/cocky lead vocals of band mouthpiece, Darren.” – The TRIPWIRE

“The Great Shakes exploded out of my stereo speakers with some of the sharpest and most vicious trash and punk rock I’ve heard from a young band in a long time... (They} seem to one-up a lot of their peers, however, because they manage to inject incredible dynamics and sonic depth into work that, all too often, depends solely on the mind-boggling fury of a crunchy two-guitar attack.”
– Delusions of Adequacy

“Imagine, for a frame of reference, if Jon Spencer decided to step up and front Sonic Youth, all the while still hollering that all he wanted to do was get down.”
– D.O.A. Live Show Review - Multiple


Discography

Americana Bebop EP (2005) - CMJ TOP 20 Added Records (#15 week of July 19th) in its first week, including CORE Stations WRUV, WXCI, CKUT, WAWL, KSYM, WSOU, AAA Stations WOUV-AM, KUGS, and has been or is currently in Heavy Rotation on WOXY and The Edge 106.7. Two songs (Americana Bebop / Oh No, Not Me) reached Number 2 on WOXY's top 20 Charts.

The United Shakes of America EP (2003) - Ranked number 79 on WOXY 97X's top 97 Records of 2003. 3 of 5 songs in rotation or received airplay on commercial, satellite and internet radio including KCRW, WOXY and XM Satellite.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Call The Great Shakes political punk prostitutes and they smirk, “Call up the zealots for a fundamental time.” Stand still, staring, arms X’d across your chest, and they groove, “Distortions in the truth, we give it to you.” Laugh, cry, scream at them, and they remind you that they “know you’re never faithful” and they “know they’ve had enough.” The Great Shakes didn’t start out this self-assured, these five distinct people who know Americana is more than the isolated island culture of the 5 boroughs of NYC.

The Great Shakes started out disillusioned and lucky. Their first single, WANT/GOT, somehow found its way onto commercial radio rotation and propelled their independent, internet-distributed debut EP (The United Shakes of America) to several top 100 lists of 2003. However the momentum soon came to a slow dance halt.

Two drummers, one guitarist, much more airplay, a tour of LA, a notorious $12 bed-jumping video, a lot of shows, a few broken toes, and a year and a half later, they finally signed a development deal with Joe Blaney. Joe was part of the making of the pop clang of Combat Rock, the groove of Prince’s Lovesexy, the post disco-punk of NYC icons The Bush Tetras and the pulp garage of The Ravonettes Pretty in Black.

The Great Shakes new EP Americana Bebop follows up their debut with more disillusionment, more airplay and more snotty post post modern rock to curse this style fetished world.

“We do not have a past. We only have a presence.”