Crimson Vim is a Madison based band who draws influences from modern rock to alternative rock to classic rock. Lead vocalist Erik Kjelland (formerly of Fallen Roadies) and bass guitarst Nick Fry (formerly of Middletown and Envy) joined forces to create music that fits in with modern music yet reflects the artists' other musical experiences. Lead guitarist Chad Thompson (of Baghdad SCUBA Review) was added to the group and quickly poured his electro-fried groove into the stew. Finally a rhythm master stepped out of the shadows with a jazz and punk background in the form of drummer Brad Reuber (formerly of Section 8). Crimson Vim is now a complete being, bringing groove-laden rock to the masses.

“We were in the studio and we were absolutely broke. We were panicking and wondering if we were ever gonna finish this record. We were physically ill, mentally ill. So… we just ran away to Mexico. We were just going to hide there for as long as we could. We had these visions of drinking mojitos on the beach. And when we got there… it was hurricane season.”- Jamie Hince on the making of their 3rd album, Midnight Boom.

Jamie Hince and his musical partner Alison Mosshart believe that your art is something you live, rather than something you merely do. Therefore, the conventional approach to recording an album - write some songs a bit like your last songs, book flashy studio and ear candy-providing producer, be professional and get home in time for tea - is not an option for them. The Kills make music that sounds like the stripped-to-the-bone nub of the crux of the sex and death and madness at the heart of the very best rock ‘n’ roll. And the only way to pull that off is to put themselves through the creative, physical, financial and emotional mangle. “It was definitely a journey,” confirms Alison, with the sanguine air of one who believes that anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. “We wrote so many records before we got to this one. It took a few failed attempts and different situations and going to different places and running out of money in order for us to get it together and write the right record.”

The Kills formed in 2000 when a boy from Andover, England and a girl from Florida, USA met in a South London hotel. “It was like we’d lived parallel lives”, Jamie recalls. Both had been to art college, the boy had just left a punk-pop band called Scarfo and the girl wanted to leave a punk-pop band called Discount, and both were disillusioned with the musical scenes they were part of. “We had these bedrooms on different sides of the Atlantic which were full of artworks and films and music that we’d made for no-one to listen to. We had so many things in common. It was at a time that if you spent a lot of time making art and dressing up you got beaten down for being pretentious. Everything was about being down to earth. And we both just felt this relief when we met each other.”

Alison was so convinced that this was the creative partner she’d always been searching for that she decamped from Florida to Jamie’s flat in South London. Inspired by a mutual obsession with The Velvet Underground, ‘70s London and New York punk, they formed a duo called The Kills, rejected everything they’d begun to hate about being in a rock band, got themselves signed to Domino and made a spectacularly sexy garage-punk album called Keep On Your Mean Side in 2003. Buoyed by the deserved critical acclaim for this and their incendiary early live shows, but also nonplussed by the fact that they were, once again, in a proper band with a record deal, they made a completely different, yet equally spectacular second album in 2005 called No Wow. A minimalist pop masterpiece, it was one of those records that made some into Kills fans for life, but most utterly confused. “No Wow’s really special to me,” reckons a defiant Jamie. “I was listening to lots of Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide, and wanted to make something stripped-down, and was determined not to make another garage-rock record like the first album. We were trying to make a Suicide record. More like a commercial suicide record…”

So, in light of that, is Midnight Boom, which has some goddam catchy tunes and features the beat-making skills of SpankRock producer Alex Epton aka Armani XXXchange, a conscious attempt to make a more commercial record? “Absolutely not,” responds Jamie, with something approaching horror in his voice. “We were just enjoying ourselves. I know we’re seen as dark, brooding, twisted and semi-gothic - but we’ve never felt like that. Midnight Boomis more in keeping with what me and Alison were doing when we first met. More tongue-in-cheek and less conceptual. People do tell me that Midnight Boom is more accessible. But the way I was brought up in music, words like accessible and commercial are still insults to me. Ha!”

“We wanted to make something very different from No Wow and Keep On Your Mean Side. I’d always talked it up in interviews that I wanted to be really forward-thinking and dispense with all influences. So I was determined to do that on this record. We’d toured No Wow for 14 or 15 months, and started work on the new record in January 2006. At first we ended up with an albums-worth of folky acoustic songs. We might put that out in the future, but I knew this wasn‘t what I wanted for this record. What kicked us off in another direction was a film I found called “Pizza Pizza Daddio” which is a sixties documentary about kids in inner-city schools in America, observing all the songs that they were singing in the playground. We just started building rhythms around those and had this concept of coming up with modern-day playground songs. Cos they’re really quite dark. Cutting people’s thumbs off, kicking people in the face, throwing ‘em down stairs. I kinda liked it. So I got this old MPC-60 hip hop drum sequencer and just started making rhythms on that. And these playground songs ended up as Midnight Boom. “Cheap & Cheerful” was the first playground song we came up with and then it developed from there. “Alphabet Pony” is based around that, too.”

With the basics down, The Kills started recording in Los Angeles, but they were discouraged by their environment. The pair decamped to Key Club in Benton Harbour, Michigan, where they’d recorded No Wow. Alison and Jamie’s best friends run the studio and it’s there where the Midnight Boom title came from. “That moment when the moon comes up and everyone goes to bed… it almost seems like time doubles. You can get so much more work done and you feel that magic happens. We worked from midnight to ten in the morning and slept all day. That’s just how we like to do it. I get anxious during the day. I need to get lost in a record.” explained Alison.

After 2 months in the studio, writing and recording, and experimenting with the drum programming, Jamie felt he needed a “veteran of beats”. SpankRock’s YoYoYo was one of their favourite records of that year, and it came about that Alex (Armani XXXchange), SpankRock’s producer was interested in assisting with the sound The Kills were after. Tips on how to make the rhythms more violent and gritty were lent and the record began to take a solid form.

Midnight Boom is a reminder that no-one makes erotically-charged rock ‘n’ roll like The Kills. Even though they have never been romantically linked. Perhaps people wouldn’t believe their platonic relationship because Kills songs seem to drip with themes of hedonistic sexual freedom. Or maybe not having sex is the secret to the perfect sensual-musical marriage. “We’re aware that that’s how it comes across,’ Jamie concedes. ‘We get so many comments about the live shows, about it being sexually tense and sexually charged. But, honestly… that just came out of nerves! When there’s two people onstage of different genders, and you’re scared to death and don’t want to look at the audience so you stare at each other instead, that’s just how it comes out.”

“We’re both quite shy and secretive,” agrees Alison. “Which is why we don’t need other people when we’re working. We’re just control freaks.”

It’s a good thing those Mexican hurricanes spilt their mojitos, and made them get on with the job, because the result is their best record so far and one that’s going to be difficult to match in 2008. The Kills have come a long way since dreaming about bringing romance and sex and glamour back to rock ‘n’ roll in a flat in Gipsy Hill.

“The first album was the most honest record ever. We had nothing to lose. The second album was an experiment borne out of frustration. It was written and recorded in a month, a crazy idea. Midnight Boom is a journey where you don’t think about anything you’ve done before and everything just… falls out of you. We’re very proud of it.”- Alison Mosshart (from dominorecordco.com)

Picture a BBQ in HELL. A party who’s guests included Music Legends of the past and present gathered together to have one big hellraisin’ jam session that rode on all night long. Imagine the SOUND, the POWER, the INTENSITY behind the flame that was lit. Well…here’s something similar.

The seed of fire was born in 2003 by four friends who shared the same common vision of getting together to krank up, jam out, and have some fun. For something that started out as a hoaxy-jokesy side-project band with little to no expectations, it certainly has gelled into a well oiled and defined machine which is reinventing the wheels of today‘s music. The self proclaimed “Revolators” say that they headed down South to make a deal with the Devil at the Crossroads in return for its insatiably potent sound dubbed as “DIRTCORE”, a unique style which defines Delta Country Blues, penetrated by Monstrous Guitar Riffs, Red Hot Slippery Slide Guitar, Thunderous Bass and Drums, Soulful yet Sinister/Howlin’/Moonshine/Grit-Gravel Vocals, fronted by a Anthematic Attitude that boasts SEX, BOOZE, and ROCKn'ROLL! The band’s lineup consists not only of its core members; BROWNBAG JOHNSON (Slinger/Vox), BUD BLACK( Thunder), BILLY Z.BUBB (Skins), and the newly recruited rhythm guitarist HIGGINS, and HOWLIN’ JACK BOONE (Barker/Lead Vox), but also incorporates THE BBQ GIRLZ- sexy/devilish female singer/dancers, and lots of crowd participation from its diehard following and lively hood... The almighty BBQ NATION!!! Anyone who has seen Graveyard BBQ live knows that it’s an event not to be missed. Their high energy stage performance and over the top antics seduces the audience leaving their jaws dropped, fists raised, minds erased, necks sore, panties wet, and wanting more. They’ve opened up for many national acts and have headlined shows regionally to sold out crowds. In June 2005, the band released its debut self-produced record “Greatest Hits Volume 1” which included original members “REVERAND BRIXX” (Frontman/Vox),“PETERBILT WILSON” (Live Drums) and the infamous “DR.770” on studio drums. Shortly after, the band got its first big break by winning the "Be A Guitar Hero" National Contest in 2005 which immortalized and features them on the soundtrack of the hit Playstation 2 video game, GUITAR HERO, which has received enormous acclaim selling millions of copies worldwide. Last year they toured the United States in support of the game and have toured even more extensively since then. Currently, they’re about to release the highly anticipated follow up to their debut record appropriately titled, “Greatest Hits Volume II” which includes such classic hits as “The Clothes That Makes The Man”, “Ride The Stache”, “BBQ Nation”, Meat Yer Enemy” and their self-embodied cover version of ACDC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” The band plans to embark on more full throttle touring as their carnivorous hunger and demonic possession permits them to remain relentless until they get to the top! So prepare to MEAT YER ENEMY or join THE BBQ NATION!

Ultimately, Graveyard BBQ offers something for EVERYONE of all walks of life and age, and supplies SUBSTANCE, CONVICTION, ORIGINALITY and most importantly FUN!!!, something very much absent in today's music world. Graveyard BBQ has certainly made quite a name for itself, building its buzz from a rapidly growing worldwide cult following, and creating a sound to last for time and beyond… as fans will agree. At the end of the day, Graveyard BBQ proudly vows to carry on the torch of the legends who have paved the way before them, and to show the world that the true spirit of Rock N’ Roll is ALIVE and WELL. WELCOME TO THE BBQ NATION! "IF YOU AINT WITH US, YER AGAINST US"

Six quirky friends band together to bring you fun, dancy, riff driven industrial music. Since their inception in 2000, The Strand has produced three full length CDs, and received massive acclaim from promoters, journalists, and fans across the globe with their catchy, aggressive hits. Their music gets airplay in numerous gothic and industrial clubs worldwide and has appeared in a variety of magazines, websites, and independent movies. Featured on four nationally distributed compilations, they have launched from being a small home-based production into the ears and eyes of industrial fans across the globe. They have supported several national acts, and performed on the main stage at Convergence 11 2005, as well as the Dark Arts Festival in Salt Lake City 2004.

The band does not take the conventional techno approach when bringing the music to a live scenario. Instead, a majority of the music is performed live with a drummer, four keyboardists, male and female vocals. If you have not seen a live performance by The Strand, it is really something to consider checking out. Currently the band is booking shows and hard at work on their next CD release, slated for mid 2008.

Kinetix are Denver's five-piece rock connoisseurs, playing music that blends strong melodies with soaring guitar work and funk-filled rhythm. The buzz surrounding the band is now being heard thanks to whirlwind national tours and the release of their strong sophomore album, "Talking To Faces". Committed to performing onstage with an unmatched energy, Kinetix in concert is an experience few soon forget; frenetic dancing, sing-out-loud choruses, and mind numbing solos all come standard.

All five members met at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. Possessing degrees that range from Jazz Studies to Recording Engineering, Kinetix is widely regarded as a band committed to their sound. Eric Blumenfeld and Adam Lufkin are both melody-driven song writers and vocalists; as co-lead singers they work seamlessly to combine their unique musical styles onstage. Their structures serve as the springboard for the power rock of Josh Fairman, Jordan Linit, and Jack Gargan. Together, their music winds itself through tight instrumental jams, hip-hop-esque beats, and aggressive, catchy songs.

Kinetix's energy cannot be overstated: Hear it on "Talking To Faces", and you will be impressed. Experience it live, and you will never want to leave the dance floor. Recently, Kinetix's emergence on the Denver scene culminated in extraordinary fashion; a summertime headlining show at the legendary 1600-seat Ogden Theatre preceded a raging Halloween night at the Fillmore Auditorium opening for Umphrey's McGee. In a few short weeks, Kinetix will be thrilled to join The Greyboy Allstars on New Year's Eve,

Since its formation in late 2004, Kinetix has had the opportunity to share the stage with the aformentioned acts, as well as Particle, Rose Hill Drive, The Slip, Umelt, Papa Mali, Green Lemon, RAQ, Outformation, and Aesop Rock of Living Legends.

the world that the true spirit of Rock N’ Roll is ALIVE and WELL. WELCOME TO THE BBQ NATION! "IF YOU AINT WITH US, YER AGAINST US"

Since its genesis in 2001, Oakland-based sextet Subtle has been home-recording its way to the far side of song. Drawing from a diverse palette of instruments: sampler, synth, guitar, cello, winds, electronic and acoustic drums, and the unmistakable voice and prose of doseone, the band fashions a self-sampled and live-micd honest to genreless music.

Not to be missed, their live performance parallels and elaborates on the complex and natural lengths of their recorded material. With painted backdrops, stage-props and a whole lot of middleclass mojo, it is in the midst of live performance that Subtles works of song complete themselves.