Music
Press
Power-pop trio the Vinyl Clouds' Dec. 17 performance at Matteo's inside the Boulder Dam Hotel was a special one, despite a horrendous opening act and technical glitches galore.
Why would a show in a glorified basement be special? Well, whenever a super-producer like, say, Rob St. Germain (Soundgarden, Tool, 311) drops in, you can bet that things are a little more significant than usual. Especially for a Vegas band.
The only thing sadder than the fact that Las Vegas bands are now playing for label scouts in Boulder City (due to Vegas' dearth of rock clubs) is that the all-girl punk trio Cute in Face still sucks a big one. When I saw this band mangling "Crimson and Clover" a year and a half ago, I chalked it up to beginner's bad luck. Yet the band still hasn't dropped the two-chord song from its set ... and still manages to screw it up.
Amazingly, Germain withstood the onslaught and stuck around for the Clouds (singer/guitarist Warren Duprey, bassist Kurt Hackman and drummer Johnny Fedevich), who didn't take the stage until midnight. Although hampered by feedback and a broken guitar string, the band blasted through nearly a dozen originals, including the infectious "New Girl" -- which is clearly the Clouds' "Mr. Brightside" (if you catch my meaning).
Duprey was disappointed with his band's performance, but still giddy that Germain conferred with them the following day.
"We met at Vinnie Castaldo's studio," Duprey revealed a few days later, "and [Germain] offered ideas and thoughts on arrangements. He also suggested a lead guitarist." Paging ex-Expert on October member Ted Sablay!
With any luck, the Clouds will join Germain in New York in late winter/early spring -- after the producer knocks out ex-Creed frontman Scott Stapp's debut album.
The Vinyl Clouds' next show is Jan. 14 at Matteo's in Boulder City.
JARRET KEENE
KEENE@LVPRESS.COM
- Las Vegas City Life
The Vinyl Clouds are winning fans everywhere with their dynamic shows and insanely catchy tunes. The industry seems to be catching on also. This month alone the band announced that they have been one of twelve bands selected from several hundred submissions from California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada to compete in this years Hard Rock Cabo Wabo Battle of the Bands at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
They have also been choosen as featured artist on Song And Film, a music for TV and film placement agency. Check it out at www.songandfilm.com. - ***
Discography
1:Song "Like In The Movies" currently being played on Las Vegas's 92.3 KOMP FM homegrown show.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
HOMETOWN: Las Vegas
E-MAIL: liftoffmusic@aim.com
WEB: www.myspace.com/thevinylclouds
CLOUDLAND
they
float
drift
sail on the wind
don’t need anchors
know tempest and calm
hide moon and stars
rain on our parade
enhance sunrise and sunset
depress us
inspire us
make us want to see beyond.
© Ann Brodziak 2007
I thought that this poem would be a great way for me to to begin. You see, it sums up beautifully the many moods you experience when listening to The Vinyl Clouds. Their music can sound like dreams floating just out of reach through an open sky, but can also flicker and bounce like the hypnotic neon lights of their home town otherwise known as Sin City.
The Vinyl Clouds have been together in some form for about three years now, but this current incarnation, consisting of Dennis Osinski, Warren Duprey and Chris Nichols have only been making music together since the top of 2007 and let me say, as someone who's seen them through the lows and the highs, the the good and the bad, that this line up is the strongest to date.
You see, great bands are always comprised of these key elements;
A unique voice, catchy songs, and musicians that are not only great individually, but who also play together like the wheels and gears of a finely made swedish time piece.
This is now...
Realizing this, they hastily retreated in to the unconcious of the public mind and started to record some demos.
Warren Duprey states that “we knew that we’d finally hit upon something with this line up, so we broke out some gear and proceded to cut these tracks in a few days between our drummers rehearsal room and my bedroom.”
Needless to say, creativity flowed like wine at a kings feast.
The songs varied in mood and content. A few samples from these sessions can be found right here on Myspace. From “How Long”, a song about longing for some thing more and the insufferable wait which sometimes undermines the joy of the journey, to “You Will Follow Her” a song about the misguided sexual and emotional longings for another person from a stalkers point of view.
While blue skies can be beautiful and invigorating, it can be said that it is the occasional whisp, or billowy cotton creeping over it’s openess that gives it it’s beauty and maybe even represents a revolution of sorts.. Change amidst the banality of the blue-skies.
That’s what The Vinyl Clouds are among a largely lifeless and otherwise lethargic music scene.
They’ll be starting their first CD this summer with well known producer/engineer Ron Saint Germain (311, Creed, The Cure, Soundgarden, and many more) and are shooting for an official release date of sometime in September 2007.
Folks, the simple concept of great songs is making a comeback....
Introducing The Vinyl Couds
2007
Pat Hirch
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