Sonic Graffiti

Artist: Sonic Graffiti
Album: Friendly Unit Creation Kit
Location: St.Petersburg, FL
Facebook & Bandcamp



St.Pete locals, Sonic Graffiti have been all over the place since coming together early this year. Friendly Unit Creation Kit, their first 6 song EP, has a nice blend of punk, rock, blues, and garage. Each song is like a firework, brash and enthralling. Even when they tone it down for their acoustic song, “Victoria” you can hear the raw intensity of Drew’s voice. If you like it loud and fast you will definitely love Friendly Unit Creation Kit. You can download the album for free on bandcamp or get a physical copy of the cd at Daddy Kool Records.



Next Show: Saturday October 5th – Don’t Stop St.Petersburg Music Fest - State Media

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LISTEN: Sonic Graffiti – Friendly Unit Creation Kit EP

Posted by Ray Roa on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 · Leave a Comment

2013_09Sept_15_SonicGraffiti

A set from St. Pete’s Sonic Graffiti – led by twin brothers Drew and Dane Anthony — usually involves amps being turned way the fuck up while the outfit finds their way through a brand of firebrand blues (just call it rock & roll okay?) that we’d see over and over and over again.

A recent show opening for The Tontons, however, found the band going in a more quiet direction, and evidence of that little wrinkle found its way onto Sonic Graffiti’s new EP – Friendly Unit Creation Kit – which saw release back in June.

“Victoria” — anchors the five-song effort and is definitely the subdued cool down following four cuts of call-back chorus, sprawling, soulful, absolutely head-banging rock & roll.

Have a listen to it all below, then see the band when they perform at the Don’t Stop St. Pete festival on October 5. More information on the show is available at our calendar page. Grab a free download (pay-what-you-want, but you should throw some bucks at ‘em) at Bandcamp. - Ray Roa of Suburban Apologist

The first one was a total surprise. New St. Pete trio Sonic Graffiti (Aug. 13, Will’s Pub), of whom I was completely unaware, played Orlando for the first time. The twin brother-fronted band rips a wild, freewheeling kind of traditional rock & roll that, sadly, isn’t in particular favor right now. But for me, it’s always in season. And these cats are straight in my book, because they crank it up, kick it out and shoot for the rafters with real abandon. Channeling the almighty MC5, their garage-scraped, blues-licked proto-punk is some primal-howl, true-believer stuff. It’s raw but big, with just enough guitar heroics to rock, not wank. And it’s one sweet bomb of grease, cacophony and thickness. Until they make it down I-4 again to sweat it out, check their new EP for free on their Bandcamp page (sonicgraffiti.bandcamp.com) and start getting amped. - Bao Le-Huu of the Orlando Weekly

Sonic Graffiti, who released an EP this past June called Friendly Unit Creation Kit, are a loud rock and roll band with a ’77 punk sound and a groovy bluesy feel––It’s like screaming razor blades that you can feel bleeding your ears with angry guitar leads and crashing drums, splashing rhythms, jumping skin crawling hooks, and badass lyrics. On the track “Head In The Clouds,” lead singer / guitar player Drew Anthony wails, “When I fall down, I think it’s the drugs; and I get up, and I feel tough; I’m all black and blue and I don’t know why, I’m so lonely what am I to die?” The song “Whiskey Punch No Love Sucka” is particularly tough; it starts off with this cool spoken word verse that would fit in nicely at a Thursday night poetry slam at the 16th St. BART station in San Francisco’s Mission District:::::::With this cool bebop beatnik croon, Drew raps, “I’m a mover and a shaker, I’m a hopeless romantic and a reeaal heartbreaka, I’m a lover and a fighter, I’m good at bein’ bad, I’m a craaaaazy mothuh fuckuh, but sometimes, I get Whiskey Punch No Lovvveee, Sucka––” and CRASH! . . . guitars and drums, a wailing scream queen glad-to-meet-her-killer scream, and in comes this hopping riff, and the band explodes. Listening to Sonic Graffiti, one is left with a boldly lined truth: This band has balls. - Mike Tokars of the DONT STOP ST PETE blog

sonic graffiti out of st. petersburg, florida deliver a wild, loud blast of rock that's reminiscent mainly of the MC5...a good rhythm section, persuasive singing and gonzo guitars and psych/blues riffs that do recall the work of brother wayne kramer and sonic smith. this brief EP is a full on assault, but it leaves you feeling like you might not mind being assaulted for a little longer.

a lyric i noticed was 'i'm a weirdo, i'm a creep, my own leader, my own sheep'. i get the feeling sonic graffiti would be a fun band to catch live. learn more about them, including album releases and show dates, here and here. - The Modern Folk Music of America

Street walking what, with a handful of who? Sonic reducers, sonic pollution, SONIC GRAFFITI!

When I fall down I think it’s the what? Had then pegged as just another bunch of stooges at first but hell no! Let them flow at you, they say they’re good at being bad, not bad at being good either, and yeah, so what if we’ve heard it before, they nailed it and they nailed it good, they rawk, louder! They don’t feel like no apparition, this four track EP is going to be playing at neigbour-sharing volume for days and days and days (and days), suck on this one Hackney beard-growers!

“Hey guys, just wanted to send you some links to our music and to where you can check us out more…Our band is called Sonic Graffiti and is made up of brothers: twins Drew(vocals, guitar) and Dane( Bass, backing vocals) and younger brother Trevor on the drums. We are from Saint Petersburg, Florida”

Here’s the good, the orange coloured links are up there, they rock, you need bands that rock, I love’em, you love ‘em, the three brothers Anthony, gawd bless Mrs Anthony!!! (photo credit: Nicole C Kibert – elawgrrl.com) - The Organ (UK)

Rock band Sonic Graffiti hails from St. Petersburg, Florida. They’re probably Florida’s most anti-hipster rock band who still accidentally look like hipsters. Make no mistake though, Sonic Graffiti are no hipsters. For jam sessions, harmonicas and mandolins are not in a hipsters arsenal. Friendly Unit Creation Kit is a powerful entry into rock n’ roll. These guys get it. One listen to this band and you’ll be saying “Wow, these guys DESERVE the attention the Strokes got a few years, NOW”. Solid, catchy and soulful. - Chuck Livid of TUFF GNARL

When: 01/06/2013
Where: Self-Released
Like/Love: LOVE

Sonic Graffiti is a three piece punk band from Florida, and this is the Friendly Unit Creation Kit EP. An EP that since it's release last year has created quite a bit of buzz from around the sunny state, has landed the “Best Punk Album” accolade on Philmaq's Best Albums of 2013, and has us bend the rules a little bit to add to our Love List 2014. This six song EP connects all of the fast, energetic joy of punk music with elements of blues, folk and everything else that makes this a pretty fucking cool listen.

The Morning Electric kicks off the EP with an intense flurry of sick shredding skills that makes way for some heavy guitar riffs and passionate vocals. Before the listener can even begin to wrap their head they've already been stuck into the song, forced to stick around by the catchy backing vocals and the constant sense that something's gonna destroy itself. There's all kinds of hot licks thrown all over the airwaves as if Jack White just exploded all over the floor, and it makes for an awesome start to an EP that gets us wetter than Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and she's a pretty lady.

Head In The Clouds combines a catchy guitar riff with some harmonica and perform it with the aggression of punk music to ensure some pretty original sounds man. The vocals as always remain as passionate and borderline-insane as ever, and just when the song couldn't sound better, it hits into some pretty funky breakdown that gets our dicks shaking so hard. It's a very nice surprise and just made us love this EP more.

Whiskey Punch No Love Sucka pulls out a boastful display of manly testosterone as a sole vocal intro reveals how somebody is a “crazy motherfucker” before kicking the instruments into gear with arguably the heaviest sound on Friendly Unit Creation Kit. This song just kicks the listener in the dick and continues to kick until there's nothing but human satisfaction left behind. The vocal hook is intense, but it is awesome.

Victoria is the quietest song on the EP as Sonic Graffiti throw aside the electric and pick up the acoustic guitar to deliver a bluesy riff that goes down just as good as the rest of the material around. Once again the vocals are on top form as the lyrics seem to detail about a touch of heartbreak, which sometimes turns into a smidge of hatred which only makes Sonic Graffiti very relatable at this point.

Friendly Unit Creation Kit is probably the best thing we've heard this year. This punk record is like a whole new level of punk. It's the band's freedom to be as loud as they want, whether it be through means of guitars, drums, or vocals that just makes this record so exciting to listen to, and definitely one of the best EPs around. - Exploding Head Syndrome(UK)

SONIC GRAFFITI – The Mandarin Hide, 11PM Day Two – What can I say about these guys? Until you go see them live, I can do little with my words to express the energy of one of their shows. The performance on stage is equal parts improvised, thrashing solos and perfectly planned and synchronized structures. The twin front men are bafflingly fast and furious guitar and bass players and their drummer plays in what looks like a trance. It’s rock n roll to its core. It’s sweaty and fun and angry and disruptive and loving all at once. The crowd at a Sonic Graffiti show is as much a part of the performance as the musicians. The crowd dances. I mean, they really dance. They also mosh. They thrash about and hug each other at the same time. This was one of the livelier shows I’ve seen them play. It even ended with Drew smashing his guitar into the drum set. We were all shocked, but we were all thankful for such a memorable ending to such a great weekend. - Corin Atchinson of The Burger

Sonic Graffiti is a high balling ferocious rock and roll hurricane of loud screaming buzz-saw electric guitar and super thumping devastating crashing chop drums, bellowing soulful anger sex vocals and a million bass notes that run up and down the fretboard all humming and buzzing and slurring—horrifying your father and making your sister the opposite of whatever she was yesterday.



The trio comes from St. Petersburg. They are one-hundred percent D.I.Y.



When I met them last fall, Sonic Graffiti was operating out of an old mansion in Roser Park Historical District, downtown, where they lived and rehearsed and produced their own merchandise among a colony of millennial bohemians—artists, writers, musicians and students, punk hipsters: all good freaks; and now, the band does this in the house next door, which they recently moved in to. There are good things happening in Roser Park.



Here, they write & record their music and screen press Sonic Graffiti t-shirts and albums, and market the band via digital media. This is the modus operandi of good rock and roll—There is no compromising sound and style for commercial success, or some manager/producer type telling anybody what to do. Sonic Graffiti’s product, the music, is totally honest, and good—on its own terms. And it’s among the best stuff I’ve heard in years.


Inside, a good mob was assembled on the dance floor. I joined them, and Sonic Graffiti took off.Trevor hit the drums so hard. He was beating them, and stomping the kick drum pedal through the floor of the stage. He did this for most of the show, keeping the time and the power. And you could really feel the power, blasting at you with that screaming buzz-saw electric guitar and rock-n-roll thunder voice—or whatever I called Drew’s incredible crooning at the start of this thing. They were all over the stage, Drew and Dane: bending and rocking and jumping, picking and plucking hammer down leads and riffs and ripping the new thrash to bones.



The dance floor mob was howling, and smashing their palms and taking long slugs of beer and twisting and shouting. And I was stomping, along with Trevor—I couldn’t help myself; I stomped so hard and so fast I’d lose my balance, take a sip of ale and switch to the other foot before it happened again. A friend of mine showed up and she got into it—everyone in Growlers, in addition to the dance floor rockers, was into Sonic Graffiti. Each song got a roaring applause, and finally an encore was demanded and the band delivered.



They played a lot of new songs. They were good. In the parking lot after their set I caught up with Drew and Trevor for a smoke, and we discussed this. Sonic Graffiti will be recording a new album soon, they told me, and those songs will be on it.



We got to talking about their sound, and Punk—and they way that Sonic Graffiti is a new form of punk. The beat is different, and the lyrics are changed, but the rest is somehow there—unfiltered and excellent, like the Clash, or Fugazi, but New. - The Bradenton Times

Finally, around midnight, there’s Sonic Graffiti, a young blues-punk trio led by twin brothers Drew and Dane Giordano. They spend their late-night set thrashing and yelping and sweating like it might be the last gig they’d ever play; by the end fans are dancing with them on stage. This, despite the fact that it’s the brothers’ fourth gig together in the past 24 hours. Then again, they’re music fans. And for music fans, this day just means that much.

“Thank you for celebrating our favorite holiday,” Drew told the crowd.

“Easter? Meh,” added Dane. “But Record Store Day…” - Jay Cridlin, Tampa Bay times

You can call this anything you want, garage, funk. punk , but put it all together and your getting an explosion of blues. And if your of the garagepunk persuasion you know what that means. Fast and furious yet sometimes subtle, cool ass harmonica, vox, reverb, fuzz, pounding drums, all with vocals that give the controlled chaos a center. The range is excellent and I think it is always the defining characteristic of a band that has the possibility of breaking through . The rendering of the blues is top notch, these guys have chops and they know what the job is. In other words, this shit is good, give a listen…. - 50thirdand3rd