They have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel, Bonnie Prince Billy and Belle & Sebastian, and the band cite both punk rock and folk as influences.
Their name is a marriage of the title of one of the band’s favourite films, The Squid and the Whale, and the director of said film’s name (Noah Baumbach). They are also avid fans of the film director Wes Anderson, who helped produce The Squid and the Whale alongside Baumbach; the group’s e-mails, and many of their MySpace blog posts, are signed “Sic Transit Gloria”, a phrase frequently used in Anderson’s film Rushmore.

The band performed on Jeremy Warmsley’s internet television show, Welcome to our TV show, and have made several appearances at festivals including Leeds, Cambridge Folk Festival, Latitude, SXSW, V Festival and Glastonbury. In May 2008, the group’s side-project, The A Sides, performed a one-off show at The Push Club.

The band’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays me Down got to Number 5 on the Official UK Album Chart and has received a mainly positive critical response.

From January 2009 onwards, the band started work on their second full length LP, entitled The First Days of Spring. Along with the album release, Charlie Fink has made a film that runs the entire length of the album, also entitled The First Days of Spring. The band decided not to feature female backup vocals on their second LP. The album was released on August 31st 2009, a little over a year after their debut.

“The First Days of Spring” is the first single release from the album of the same name and is available for download from the band’s website. Another second single entitled “Blue Skies” was released in the summer of 2009, after the song got its first airplay on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show on 22nd June 2009.

The band played the 2009 Reading and Leeds Festivals on the main stage, as well as a variety of other venues on their current tour.

On August 28th 2009 Doug Fink, brother of lead singer Charlie Fink, announced he would be leaving the band to pursue a career in medicine. The announcement was made days before the imminent release of their second album ‘The First Days of Spring’. At this same time a new member Fred Abbott was brought in on 2nd guitar/piano and Doug was replaced by former Pull Tiger Tail drummer Jack Hamson.

Their song, “Give a Little Love” was used in an episode of Cougar Town titled “Here Comes My Girl” which first aired on November 25, 2009. Another of their songs, “Blue Skies,” was used in an episode of One Tree Hill titled “Some Roads Lead Nowhere” which first aired on December 7, 2009.

In January 2010, it was announced that Noah and the Whale was to be heading to the recording studio soon to prepare their third album, for which the band is considering the title Old Joy.

Taking their DIY ethic to the highest possible degree, Nielsen sings and plays nearly everything–from guitars, to keyboards, to bass–while Lee provides drums, acoustic guitars, and piano, to name but a few weapons in their combined arsenal. Having wrote, performed, produced, and released their latest collaboration, entitled 003, themselves, the duo imbedded their unique fingerprint on all aspects of the project. To put the finishing touches on this latest effort, Oh No Not Stereo also enlisted Max Coane (Jack’s Mannequin, The Rocket Summer, The Bronx) to engineer, Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, Anberlin) to mix the songs and Jim Wirt (Something Corporate, Incubus, Live) to add his studio expertise, while bringing along The Section Quartet for sophisticated strings in strategic spots. Nevertheless, the act still enrolls a touring bassist and guitarist on the road, to better transfer their studio accomplishments to concert stage in real life.

From the very get-go, with the gutsy guitar riff that announces 003’s opener, “Let’s Get It Started,” Oh No Not Stereo immediately separate themselves from other contemporary duos. These musicians are many times fast and edgy, yet always passionate and articulate. Nielsen and Lee have never seen an instrument they couldn’t master, and steadfastly refuse to ‘take it easy’ when playing live.

Whether in the studio or on stage, Oh No Not Stereo make big, bold, beautiful noise, which never fails to leave a huge and lasting impression–no matter how you experience their music.

With the release of their first full length album, “Stop Looking Like Music,” Hey Ocean! has been spreading their sound across southern BC; their shows serving as reminders to their fans (young and old alike) that there is still a place for music that makes you feel good. Drawing on influences in folk, jazz, funk, hip hop, pop, and more, the young band incorporates whimsically poetic lyrics, finely crafted pop and funky freeform jams. Playing packed club shows for up to 700 people, their own enthusiasm at live shows is matched only by that of the growing audiences who have come to know Hey Ocean! as one of the best shows vancouver has to offer. Passionate voices, pensive words, and frivolous fun keep this music honest and pure: from the heart, for the soul.

Beginning (2006–2007)

BrokeNCYDE was the brainchild of vocalists Se7en (David) and Mikl (Mike). According to them, the etymology of the band name comes from the idea of their music being fundamentally broken or “broken inside” due to their relationship problems. From there, they began to write more lyrics and songs and promote themselves online. Later, the other two members, Phat J (Julian) and Antz (Anthony), joined the band.

Signing to Suburban Noize Records and BC13 EP (2008–2009)

In July, brokeNCYDE earned a spot on MTV’s Total Request Live where they performed FreaXXX on the segment “Under the Radar.” They signed to Suburban Noize Records soon after, and released the BC13 – EP early in 2009. Their two previous self-released albums (“The Broken!” and “BC13″), and one self-released EP (“BC13 Mix”), are no longer available for purchase or legal download.

On December 6, 2008 they appeared on Fearless Music TV performing their song “Sex Toyz”. They were brought back the next week on December 13 to perform “FreaXXX”.

BrokeNCYDE has toured with bands such as Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Breathe Carolina, Karate High School, and The Morning Of.

In the summer of 2008, they performed on the GET F$CKED UP US tour with Millionaires as the headliners and Hyper Crush as another supporting act. Special guests And Then There Were None and The Arrival each took half of the tour as well.

They performed on the I’m So Fierce tour with headliner, Jeffree Star, as well as other supporting acts Grab A Girl And Dance, Kill Paradise, Red Car Wire, and Teen Hearts in Fall 2008.

I’m Not a Fan…But the Kids Like It and touring (2009–present)

BrokeNCYDE played on The Original Gangstour tour with Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Eyes Set to Kill, and special guests And Then There Were None. They also played on the Saints and Sinners Tour 2009 with Senses Fail, Hollywood Undead, and Haste The Day.

BrokeNCYDE is scheduled to play the entire Warped Tour 2009.

The group’s debut full-length, I’m Not a Fan…But the Kids Like It, debuted at #86 on the Billboard 200.

Criticism

Metal Edge Magazine has called brokeNCYDE “fucking horrendous”. Thrash Magazine has called them “a mockery to the world of music”. Another metal magazine, Decibel, has repeatedly made fun of the band, mentioning them in a interview with the group Big Business, and once ironically referring to then as their “favorite screamo-crunk band”. British commentator Warren Ellis calls brokeNCYDE’s “Freaxxx” music video “a near-perfect snapshot of everything that’s shit about this point in the culture”. Says August Brown of the Los Angeles Times, “The ‘Albucrazy’-based band has done for MySpace emo what some think Soulja Boy did for hip-hop: turn their career into a kind of macro-performance art that exists so far beyond the tropes of irony and sincerity that to ask ‘are they kidding?’ is like trying to peel an onion to get to a perceived central core that, in the end, does not exist and renders all attempts to reassemble the pieces futile.”

Band members

Se7en – screamed vocals, rap vocals (2006–present)
Mikl – clean vocals, autotune vocals (2006–present)
Phat J – synths, guitars, beats, backup vocals, backup screams and growls (2006–present)
Antz – fog machine and lights (2006–present)

and you follow the moon.

“We can’t sit on the beach with an acoustic guitar forever!” proclaims Cisco Adler. “This is not a one-trick pony.”
His other half, Aaron Smith (a.k.a. Shwayze), closes his eyes and nods and offers, “We’ve already got that beach-time summer vibe, chilling during the day. Now we want some stuff for the clubs that bangs your ears out and you can dance to it. This is definitely an evolution from the first one.”
That first one, the self-titled Shwayze, ushered the unlikely duo to unlikely heights. A string of multiple hits (“Buzzin’,” “Corona and Lime”

) fueled by millions of Internet plays carried them to top ten album sales, landed them a coveted slot on the Vans Warped Tour, and turned them into reality television stars on MTV. In a wound-up world, Shwayze was a life-lesson in laid back lassitude, a coast-to-coast call to make every day a lazy day. And if success always breeds a bit of contempt, Let It Beat comes out swinging.

“It’s like, ‘All right, here it is!’” Shwayze says, laughing as he describes the challenge posed on the opening track, “Livin’ It Up.” “You guys said we couldn’t make another one. You thought we were gonna make the same thing. You didn’t think we were deep enough! Well here it is. And don’t be mad when your girl leaves with us.”
Featuring contributions from New Orleans hip-hop duo The Knux, Shwayze’s lifelong hero Snoop Dogg, Ric Ocasek from the Cars, and Darryl Jenifer, bassist for legendary D.C. punk band Bad Brains, Let It Beat is a fearless experiment held together by the controlled yet casual guidance of Adler’

s production.

“I made a conscious effort to beef the drums up and make it thump,” he says. “The last record had one pace, I wanted this one to have more dynamics and go up and down like a rollercoaster ride. It’s about letting your heart beat and letting the blood pump through your body. It’

s about not stopping the flow. Let it all flow and it will all turn out right.

The first single, “Get U Home,” is an unapologetic ode to lust satisfaction… before you leave the club: “Take me in the bathroom/Take my clothes off/Make love to me up against the dirty wall/’Cause I can’t wait to get you home.” Let It Beat is never shy, never afraid to extol its own brand of virtue, it never apologizes, and, of course, you’

re always welcome to join.

“I’m definitely endorsing that behavior!” announces Adler, referring to the whole “dirty wall” scenario in “Get U Home.” “None of it is fantasy. We just live it and tell the story.”
“Our music is our lifestyle,” Shwayze says. “We’re not faking it.”
Shwayze was a juggernaut, an unexpected triumph from two beachcombing purveyors of pleasure and sunlight. It tapped into the hidden hedonist in us all, freeing indulgence from guilt for at least the length of a record. Let It Beat extends that day into night. It’s nothing less than a celebration of life. For every sarcastic wink, there’s that genuine gleaming grin at the thought of the next thrill. Let It Beat is not a fantasy; it’

s an invitation to a better reality.

“I’ve been a musician before I was anything else,” Adler says. “I was screaming for people to just listen to the music. But then at some point, I had to look inside and tell myself to just keep doing it and it eventually it’s gonna show people itself. That’s when it started working, amazingly enough. When you just let everything flow, it’s gonna flow in the right direction. When you start trying to control the flow, that’s when you dam it up.”
“It’s all a dream come true,” adds Shwayze. “We just want to keep on living the dream and keep on living it up.”

The Mad Caddies.. talents reach far beyond the boundaries of ska and punk, enabling them to throw a musical curve ball into the mix without notice. Reggae, dixie, jazz, surf, rockabilly, country and swing are all styles in which the group is well versed and aren..t afraid to inject into their unique brand of rock.

The band has toured the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan countless times, including stints on ..97, ..98, ..00, ..03 Warped Tours and both the Euro and American Fat Tours of 2000. Between all this time on the road, the Mad Caddies have managed to release an EP, a live record, and three other full lengths on Fat.

After a year of tirelessly crafting the new album “Keep It Going”, the Mad Caddies are ready to take this show on the road. They kick it off with a full two-month US tour with Pepper, immediately followed by six weeks in Europe. The Mad Caddies will be on the road the majority of the next 12 months, looking for new audiences everywhere from Mexico and South America to South Africa and Moscow!!

-Fat Wreck Chords

In 1997 the family moved back to Canada and almost immediately, nine year-old LIGHTS got her hands on a guitar. By eleven she’d learned a handful of chords, which she used to write her first song. Then, at thirteen she turned her attention to production. “I had so many more ideas than just the vocals and the guitar. I wanted to put a glockenspiel and strings and a bass and drums in there!”

As a teenager Lights spent much of her time writing songs up in her attic bedroom, which she dubbed Starry Night studios after her favorite Van Gogh painting. By eighteen LIGHTS had moved out of her parents’ house and was living in Toronto with only her pet tarantula Lance to keep her company. In this state of near-isolation LIGHTS finally found her signature sound- a merging of classic pop songwriting with deeply intimate yet universally appealing lyrics. She wrote “February Air,” a poignant ode to the chill of winter love, which became the first of four LIGHTS songs used by Old Navy in the company’s 2008 spring ad campaign.

Though her star was clearly on the rise, it was LIGHTS’ online profile that really solidified her fan base. Between the singer’s MySpace page (which to date has over eight million visits and fifteen million plays,) her personal web site iamlights.com and her passion for web-based fantasy games like World of Warcraft, the artist’s online identity is as evolved as your nerdiest teenage boy’s and this is something she’s very proud of. “There’s an entire world of people out there that play WoW and are talking about science fiction and they feel a little bit outcast, so if you can reach those people that’s sweet! Even my look is inspired by video game characters – it’s a cross between Laura Croft and Wonder Woman.”
In April 2008 LIGHTS released her eponymous EP. It contained six songs including “February Air,” which reached #3 on the MuchMusic countdown in Canada, as well as the epic “Drive My Soul,” which was an even bigger hit; the song was added to radio without being serviced, climbed all the way to #1 on Much Music, and spent over three months in the Top 20 on Hot AC radio. On the strength of her EP alone, LIGHTS won the 2009 Juno (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy Award) for New Artist of the Year, joining the ranks of Feist and Nelly Furtado.

The singer’s rapidly growing fan base was clamoring for live LIGHTS shows so she hit the road, playing countless sold out gigs in her home country, as well as numerous festival dates in the UK. In addition to touring extensively through the United States, this summer LIGHTS spent five weeks on the 2009 Vans Warped Tour and this fall will join Keane on their Canadian tour.

LIGHTS’ full-length debut, The Listening, will be released this fall. It includes a few songs already familiar to die-hard Lights fans, as well as plenty of new material including the first single, “Saviour,” a propulsive pop ballad that represents the essence of Lights. “My songs are spawned from moments of sadness or intense emotion,” the singer says. “‘Saviour’ is a big example of taking one of those really dark emotional situations and turning it into something positive. I just happened to get hit with a really dark sad night. The melody started coming together and the words started pouring out. I was crying when I wrote the first line of the chorus and it actually sounds kind of like crying. It’s a really, really powerful song for me.”

“So much of the music out there now is negative,” says Valencia frontman Henderson with a heavy sigh. “It’s all about someone complaining about their life. But that’s why we wrote this record. We wanted to write about how you should be happy and how you shouldn’t let what happens in your life upset you.”

To truly understand the gravity of that statement, you have to go back to early 2003, at which point the members of Valencia had just started playing out in the Philadelphia underground punk scene. Much like their musical heroes before them, the band’s career began with playing sweat-soaked shows in basements and vet’s halls, while trying to balance the regular routine of early morning college courses and afternoons spent at dead end jobs.
“In the beginning, there was just a lot going on,” remembers Walter. “There was a point where me, George and JD were all taking finals during the day, then we would go back and forth between the studio, then we would have to break away for a show. It was a lot of work and, at that point, we were doing it all ourselves.”

By the time Valencia completed their first album, This Could Be A Possibility, in the fall of 2005, their hard work had paid off. Released on I Surrender Records (a modest indie label run by one of their boyhood idols, former Midtown drummer Rob Hitt), the album had quickly earned praise in magazines like Spin and Alternative Press, while the band’s live shows graduated from dank vet halls to packed dates with hugely popular artists like Fall Out Boy.

All and all, it was a promising time for the band. But while on tour that May, Henderson (then 21) received some jarring news. Back in Newtown, PA, his girlfriend was injured in a freak accident and had been rushed to the hospital. The show that night was canceled and the members of Valencia immediately turned their van around and headed home. Sadly, they were too late. When they arrived home, Henderson’s girlfriend had already been pronounced dead.

The tragic death that spring sent shockwaves through the Valencia camp, but they persevered and eventually began work on an album of new material. By the winter of 2007, the band had found themselves camped out in Los Angeles, where they teamed up with producer Ariel Rechtshaid [Plain White T’s, We Are Scientists, Say Anything] to record their sophomore release.

The end result is We All Need A Reason To Believe, an eclectic affair that explores what happens when five young men are suddenly forced to deal with some very adult issues. Still replete with pop-punk hooks, but also with a far more mature statement, it is on tracks like “All At Once” that Valencia still churn out the kind of inch-thick hooks that made This Could Be A Possibility a cult hit. However, when Henderson lets out the songs final verse, a full-on orchestra backs him and his band mates. Elsewhere, on poignant sing-alongs like “Listen Up” and “Where Did You Go?,” the songs take on surprising musical depth, while the band get some help on vocals from The Starting Line’s Kenny Vasoli and Rachel Minton from Zolof The Rock ’N’ Roll Destroyer.

One of the album’s most compelling moments can be heard on “The Good Life,” a rollicking alt-country track that was inspired by the sudden death of Henderson’s girlfriend. “That whole experience deeply affected my life,” says Henderson. “We wanted to write a record that looked on the brighter side, and have songs on the album that portrayed hope and optimism.”

Ultimately, that’s what Valencia have done. Where other groups spend the years between adolescence and adulthood bemoaning their last breakup, the members of Valencia have made an album with the kind of unrelenting optimism that you can’t help but admire.

The band is currently scheduled to hit the road with Say Anything, Motion City Soundtrack, and Saves the Day in October of 2010.

“There was no desire to make another How Far Our Bodies Go,” explains the band’s frontman Chris Farren explains, referencing the band’s 2007 breakthrough release. “We don’t just want ourselves as a band to grow musically, but for the listener to grow and search out new music, too.” That’s exactly what the group—which also includes bassist Derek Perry, guitarist Casey Lee and drummer Sean Stevenson—aimed to accomplish with It’s Great To Be Alive… and it seems to be working. “It’s amazing to see the encouragement and response we get; we’re playing songs from our hearts and when someone you’ve never met can relate to those feelings, it’s an incredible experience,” Farren continues. “I know when I write lyrics, I’m trying to explain a feeling I want someone else to understand.”

In order to capture their creative vision for It’s Great To Be Alive the band packed up their van and headed to the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska, where they spent two weeks tracking the album at ARC Studios with producer A.J. Mogis (Bright Eyes, Cursive). Although this might seem like an unconventional choice for a band who have toured with decidedly more aggressive peers such as Against Me! and the Riverboat Gamblers, Fake Problems were so prepared going into the studio they didn’t have to worry about getting bogged down with technicalities. “We knew exactly what order we wanted the record to be in and what auxiliary instruments we wanted to use on the songs,” Farren explains adding that Perry arranged the strings, Look Mexico’s Matt Agrella arranged the horns—and at one point the band even enlisted the help of a seven-piece horn section comprised of University of Nebraska students and teachers. The result is an album that combines the band’s punk rock roots with elements of folk and indie rock to create a unique amalgam of music that’s as distinctive as Farren’s soulful tenor. “I’m definitely influenced by my musical surroundings, so there was never any decision to make ‘this’ or ‘that’ kind of song,” the band’s frontman explains, listing everyone from alt-country crooners like Ryan Adams to troubadours like Bob Dylan and rock revivalists such as the Hold Steady as influences this time around.

“We write songs that we would want to hear from other artists,” he elaborates. “We make music that we want to listen to, so it just wouldn’t make sense to keep doing the same thing over and over again. From the sinister shuffle of “You’re A Serpent, You’re a She-Snake” to orchestral ballads like “Tabernacle Song” and intricately layered anthems like “There Are Times,” It’s Great To Be Alive is less of a traditional album and more of a sonic journey that refuses to be limited by genre constraints. “We’re making plans to start playing shows with a horn section and a touring cellist,” Farren explains when asked how the band plans on recreating these songs live. “I love the dynamic and differences between a simple rock and roll set as well as a full orchestral production.” Lyrically, It’s Great To Be Alive’s parallels the musical progression the band have achieved with this collection of songs as well. “The last record was about being afraid to die, so this one deals with appreciating life and examining who you are and who you want to become,” Farren explains. However despite the positive nature of the album, songs like “Level With The Devil” and “The Heaven & Hell Cotillion” have a sinister edge to them. “You can’t make a decision without exploring all of the goods and all of the evils; I’d say a lot of the lyrics deal with exploring the evils in my life and facing them,” Farren continues. “I don’t believe you can really appreciate life until you are the person you want to be, doing what you want to do with confidence.” Ultimately, with It’s Great To Be Alive Fake Problems themselves don’t know quite where they fit in, but they’re confident enough in themselves to know that’s a blessing rather than a curse. “It’s art, it shouldn’t be about what cool club you fit in with,” Farren summarizes. “If our music is going to be appreciated, I’d like it to be because of our songs.”