With a slightly punky perspective on vintage American blues, The Devil Makes Three is a breath of fresh musical air on its eponymous Milan debut. Laced with elements of ragtime, country, folk and rockabilly, the critically praised, drummer-less trio – consisting of guitarist/frontman Pete Bernhard, stand-up bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean – brings [...]
Lucy Woodward (born October 27, 1977) is a singer/songwriter commonly known for the Top 40 hit “Dumb Girls”, released in February 2003. After the single’s release, Woodward toured around the world in support of her debut album ‘While You Can’ (2003). Soon after, Atlantic Records merged and dropped many mid-level artists from their label, including [...]
Agent Sparks is a band formed in early 2005 when two former band mates from Audiovent decided they wanted to continue making music. Members include Benjamin Einziger (lead vocals, guitar), Stephanie Eitel (lead vocals, keyboard, percussion), Paul Fried (bass, vocals), and George Purviance (drums, vocals). They released their first EP entitled Not So Merry in [...]
Jersey Girl Lauren Ianuzzi likes to play with matches and start fires. Good news! She can take the heat. Lauren’s songwriting and unique vocal style reveal what she and most girls think about relationships and boys, but not rarely ever say. With tight clothes, flashy earrings and curls for days, Ianuzzi’s spontaneous and sexy personality [...]
The Yonder Mountain String Band (abbreviated YMSB) is an American progressive bluegrass group from Nederland, Colorado. Composed of Dave Johnston, Jeff Austin, Ben Kaufmann, and Adam Aijala, the band has released four studio albums and several live recordings to date.
History
The band’s history stretches back to when banjoist Dave Johnston and mandolinist Jeff Austin were still [...]
Natalie Walker is an American musician from Indiana. Walker was formerly vocalist of the trip hop group Daughter Darling, but has produced two solo albums, Urban Angel and With You, as well as an EP Live At The Bunker under Dorado Records.
Biography
Growing up in a born again Christian family, Walker spent her childhood in Indiana. [...]
Jonah Smith (born in 1975 in Syracuse, New York) is an American musician.
Recorded his first indie album “Industry Rule” in 2000 at engineer Matt Stein’s studio in New York. The album was completed in under a week and featured Jonah’s regular line up of musicians for the next several years: Marko Djordjevic – drums, Bob [...]
Gemma Hayes (born 11 August 1977, Ballyporeen, Tipperary, Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter.
Early life
One of eight children, Hayes was surrounded by music from an early age, both from any of her seven siblings’ bedrooms and being played by her father, a keyboardist in a local band. By the time she left for boarding school in [...]
John Brown’s Body is an eight-person modern reggae group. The group has released six studio albums and toured across the U.S. for ten years. Originally more deep-rooted in the more traditional roots and foundation stylings of Reggae that helped to build their reputation as a serious act, their music (starting from 2003) began to take [...]
Anyone who caught singer-songwriter Matt Duke at his early shows in the Philadelphia area or on Manhattan’s Lower East Side a few years back would have discovered an artist whose musical vocabulary was nothing short of astonishing. His tee-shirt/jeans/baseball cap attire may have seemed reassuringly familiar, but Duke’s performances immediately took listeners into uncharted territory. [...]
Fujiya & Miyagi are an English band formed in Brighton in 2000. They are currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records in the United Kingdom. They are self-described as being heavily influenced by 70’s Krautrock bands such as Can and Neu! as well as early-90’s electronic music artists like Aphex Twin. The origins of the [...]
Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in December 2002 based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Now under the Atlantic Records recording label, Tally Hall was previously signed to indie label Quack! Media who helped finance and nationally distribute their studio debut album, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. They are known for their upbeat melodies and [...]
Juno Reactor are a musical and performing act known for the cinematic fusion of electronic, orchestral and global music. Central to the project is Ben Watkins, and his collaborations with a constantly changing ensemble of musicians from across the world, including percussionist Mabi Thobejane from South Africa along with countrymen Amampondo, Eduardo Niebla, Steve Stevens, [...]
The Devil Makes Three is an American band. They formed and remain based in Santa Cruz, California. They play a brand of acoustic music that is difficult to classify but encompasses a blend of bluegrass, old time music, country, folk, blues, ragtime, and rockabilly. The group’s members are guitarist Pete Bernhard, upright bassist Lucia Turino, [...]
Brandi Carlile (born June 1, 1981 in Ravensdale, Washington) is an American singer and songwriter. Carlile’s music has been categorized in several genres, including pop, rock, alternative country, indie and folk.
Early life
At age eight, Carlile performed a rendition of the country music song “Tennessee Flat Top Box” with her mother. She began to play the [...]
Ben Taylor (born Benjamin Simon Taylor on January 22, 1977) is a musician and actor. He is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician.
On his first released album Famous Among the Barns and his EP #1, Taylor collaborated with friends Adam MacDougall and Larry Ciancia to [...]
Kate Victoria “KT” Tunstall (born 23 June 1975 in St Andrews, Scotland) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. She broke into the public eye with a live solo performance of her song “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” on Later… with Jools Holland. She has enjoyed commercial and critical success since, picking up three nominations [...]
Imogen Heap (born 9 December 1977 in the London Borough of Havering)[1] is a Grammy nominated English singer and songwriter from Romford, Essex, known for her work as part of Frou Frou and for her 2005 solo record Speak for Yourself, which she wrote, produced and mixed. In 2006, she was nominated for two Grammy [...]
An American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. They released their first album, Sink or Swim, on XOXO Records in May 2007, and their second album, The ‘59 Sound, in August 2008.
Brian Fallon – vocals and guitar
Alex Rosamilia – guitar
Alex Levine – bass
Benny Horowitz – drums
Trivia
Brian Fallon and Alex Levine are brothers in law [...]
Never Shout Never is the alias of eighteen year old American acoustic pop musician, Christofer Ingle.
Career
Ingle began making music as NeverShoutNever! in September 2007. His first exposure came through the internet, where he achieved success on MySpace before issuing the Yippee! EP on July 29, 2008. On July 30, 2008, he was featured on TRL, [...]
With a slightly punky perspective on vintage American blues, The Devil Makes Three is a breath of fresh musical air on its eponymous Milan debut. Laced with elements of ragtime, country, folk and rockabilly, the critically praised, drummer-less trio – consisting of guitarist/frontman Pete Bernhard, stand-up bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean – brings forth a genuine approach to acoustic music that is deeply steeped in rhythm.
“The rhythm is what our band is about,” Bernard enthuses. “We write with rhythm and dancing in mind.” Launched with the “The Plank,” an ode to meeting one’s maker, The DMT’s infectious amalgam of styles talks the talk and it walks the walk right out of the starting gate.
jimmy
From the outfit’s badass, backporch blues ode “Ten Feet Tall” – which is alive with three-part harmonies – to “Shades,” a wry look at barstool hugging daytime drunks, Pete, Lucia and Cooper create music that is pleasingly dissimilar to most other bands in modern music. Early critical praise of its self-produced recorded entry has earned comparisons to the likes of The Violent Femmes, Steve Earle and The White Stripes.
“I grew up listening to a lot of old blues music when I was young,” explains Pete, who was raised in rural Vermont and first befriended McBean in the eighth grade. “He was the only person I knew who was into the same style, although he leaned more toward the country side of things. When we started out playing, we were doing punk and rock.”
Fast forward a decade as The Devil Makes Three took shape in Santa Cruz, California. Pete moved west right out of high school with Cooper soon following suit. After first settling Olympia, Washington and playing in an ill-fated band, McBean – who by now had the name of his home state tattooed across his neck – again joined musical forces with Bernhard. In turn, they later teamed with New Hampshire-native and U.C. Santa Cruz attendee Lucia.
A spiritual fit, her enthusiasm made up of for her initial lack of ability. “Lucia had always wanted to play bass,” says Pete. “Cooper and I had already rented a stand-up bass for the group. And the main reason we were really excited about letting her give it a shot was because she didn’t know how to do anything we didn’t want her to do. And our music is simple, so the last thing that we wanted was someone who was overplaying for fear it would ruin the songs. She wound up learning really quickly, and it wasn’t long before she surpassed us.”
With the goal of being “an acoustic band but to play our shows like a rock show,” the band changed notions of what acoustic music could be. “A lot of it is really calm, and performances are sort of a ‘sit down, don’t talk, don’t move’ kind of an event. Thinking back to the old blues, ragtime and jug band music, it was house music, party music. That was what we wanted to do. And there really aren’t any other bands doing that.”
louie
That festive spirit carries forth to the live favorite “Old Number Seven,” a blistering homage to Jack Daniels Whiskey. “I didn’t set out to write about a particular product, but it just came to me. I had the chord progression, and the next thing you know I was singing.” More cerebral, but no less celebratory is the upbeat “Beneath the Piano.” Written about a New Year’s Party he attended back east, Pete says, “A bunch of people just wound up getting totally wasted and passing out under the piano. And I was one of those people. So that gave the chorus its life.”
If the equally eerie and pensive “Graveyard” is elevated by exquisite finger-picking, and matched by Bernhard’s haunting, soulful delivery of lines like, “Just leanin’ on my shovel in this graveyard of dreams”, “The Bullet” balances a punky feel with a noticeable affinity for Bob Dylan.
“It’s a traditional story-song,” Pete says of the tune, which is loosely based on the idea of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Stagger Lee”. “I wanted to try character writing. While most of my songs come from my experiences, that one doesn’t. But it’s the story of a criminal. I knew a couple of people who had been in jail. Their mentality afterwards was that they never wanted to go back. It didn’t reform them, but made them into more of a die hard, suicidal kind of criminal, who would rather die than end up incarcerated again.”
Speaking of Hurt, his immeasurable influence over the band is fully realized on The Devil Makes Three via one of four new bonus tracks. Of his trio’s forceful rendition of his American Blues staple “Nobody’s Dirty Business,” Bernhard says, “He was one of the great finger-pickers I loved. We were actually lucky enough to have recorded that while we were on tour in France.”
While McBean takes inspiration from folk fixture The Reverend Gary Davis, Doc Watson and axe-wielding guitar gods The Fucking Champs, and Turino counts Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Pixies and Gillian Welch, Bernhard was heavily swayed by the art of Lightnin’ Hopkins, the aforementioned Dylan, Tom Waits and Robert Johnson. The end result is genuine blues music that thrives as much in a live setting as it does on The Devil Makes Three.
from thuh back
“We play mainly rock venues where it’s not seated,” Pete explains. “Everybody dances. And except for the instrumentation and the fact that we don’t have a drummer, it’s pretty much like a rock gig. It can get pretty crazy, people are dancing and drinking and yelling. And that’s the way we like it.”
Proof that mayhem can be found without a drummer, Bernhard adds, “Our thinking is, ‘Let’s get people to have a good time and get together and go crazy.’ And they should treat seeing us like going to a punk rock show, even though it’s something that sounds considerably different.”
Different but alluring and undeniable, as evidenced by the ferocious “Dynamite”, which is upheld by what Bernhard calls, “stream of conscience lyrics,” The Devil Makes Three intend to spread its fiendish blues across the fruited plain in support of its first proper album.
“We thought these recordings are the best representation of what we can do,” Pete says. “And the word is spreading to a vast array of music fans, from Deadheads to punk rockers, bluegrass barflies and beyond.
Of their ability to draw a wide spectrum of fans from all genres and ages, Bernhard says, “I’ve never really understood it, but I’ve always been really happy about it.”
“We’re not really a genre-specific band,” he concludes. “I’ve actually had people come up to me and say, ‘I don’t listen to anything but hip-hop, but I love The Devil Makes Three. So I think we’ve always tried to keep it so you can’t really define our band. That always keeps things really exciting.”
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