MySpace a place for friends

The Australian Rock band ASTRAL ALIENS - the only-ever, 2-Time Champions of the KROQ BATTLE for LOS ANGELES.

The Aussies again battled it out against 30 of LA’s other elite bands, winning the 2009 KROQ Grand Finale at The Knitting Factory, Hollywood. One of America’s leading music publications, Music Connection Magazine, reported on the KROQ event, saying: “Astral Aliens conquered the Los Angeles rock scene once again…they blew the competition away.”

With KROQ being one of America’s iconic Rock Radio stations, the bragging rights attached to winning The Battle For LA are among the most highly sought after by up and coming bands in America…and the Astral Aliens have won it twice.

Next month, ASTRAL ALIENS will also find themselves at the top of Music Connection Magazine’s “HOTTEST 100 BANDS”, listed in MC’s year-end issue.

Plus, they are in the Final Four of 7-ELEVEN’s 2009 US National Battle of the Bands.

The ASTRAL ALIENS are also getting the attention of a lot of new fans in America, with a combined total of over one and a half million hits and plays on their Myspace page since their arrival in Los Angeles, where they have spent most of the past year.

During that time, the Aliens have made multiple appearances at most of Hollywood’s leading Rock venues, including Viper Room (8 times), House of Blues (4), Key Club (3), Knitting Factory (4), Whisky A Go-Go (3), The Mint (3), The Derby (7), and several other prominent LA venues.

The band members are: brothers Jakob Fehres (vocals/bass) & Mablo Fehres (vocals/guitar), and singer/lead guitarist Eric Slater. The Fehres brothers and Slater are seasoned Karate practitioners, and martial arts katas and the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo form part of the ASTRAL ALIENS’ unique, high energy stage performances.

When asked by LA’s All Access Magazine what it means to the band to win the KROQ ‘B4LA’ again, Jake Fehres said: “Winning the first time was very cool, but I guess that doing it for a second time means that we’re one of the top bands in LA, one of the music capitals of the world. For some guys from Brisbane Australia, that is truly awesome for us.”

The band members are no strangers to band contests – they’ve won several of them in Australia. The Aussies first rose to prominence Down Under by winning the “Bandfest” rock contest, soon after which they won the "Best Radio-Friendly Band" title at the finals of "ROCKSTAR…The Real Deal!", the rock band search sponsored by Australia’s leading rock radio network, Triple M, and Coca-Cola. They were also the Runners-Up in the Australian Grand Final of the Jim Beam National Band Competition, as well as the Winner of the Queensland State Final of the World Battle Of The Bands contest.

ASTRAL ALIENS is the latest in a long line of chart topping Australian artists who were discovered, produced and launched in Australia and internationally by Wizard Records, which has been among Australia’s leading independent record labels for over 30 years. Those artists, including Air Supply, Rick Springfield, Daddy Cool, Marcia Hines, Tommy Emmanuel, Colleen Hewett, and Hush, have collectively chalked up over 40 1 and Top 10 records through Wizard, and have sold over 50 million records around the world.

Many top international artists have also been released on Wizard Records Australia, including such diverse acts as The Sex Pistols, The Captain & Tennille, Helen Reddy, Three Dog Night, Buzzcocks, and numerous others.

Wizard recently took another of its Australian bands, Porcelain, to the U.S., signing them to a multi-album world-wide deal with Universal Records USA. Porcelain is now hitting the Australian charts with their new single “The Last Song”, released on the Island/Wizard label through Universal.

Wizard is hot on the trail of doing the same with the ASTRAL ALIENS.