Alice In Chains
Badfinger
The Band
The Beatles
Big Star
The Black Crowes
Black Sabbath
Bob Dylan
Carole King
Cream
Crowded House
CSNY
Demian
Elliott Smith
Elton John
Elvis Costello
The Faces
Fiona Apple
Fleetwood Mac
The Grays
Harry Nilsson
Jane's Addiction
Jason Falkner
The Jayhawks
Jeff Buckley
Jellyfish
Jon Brion
Joni Mitchell
King's X
Led Zeppelin
Lenny Kravitz
Men At Work
Mountain
My Morning Jacket
Neil Young
Nirvana
Oasis
Pearl Jam
Pink Floyd
The Police
Radiohead
The Rolling Stones
Roy Orbison
Sheryl Crow
Smashing Pumpkins
Soundgarden
Spirit
Steely Dan
Stone Temple Pilots
Supergrass
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Traffic
U2
Van Morrison
The Verve
The Who
XTC
Below: Our tribute to Michael Jackson, an acoustic soul-style "The Way You Make Me Feel," arranged and recorded an hour after his passing...
The contemporary classic rock band Faith In Phantoms was "just kind of destined to happen," says guitarist Alex Lasner. It was early 2008, and the Bay Area band he'd been in since he was 15 had just moved to L.A. -- and already they needed a replacement bassist. "I remembered thinking that this guy Dean, who was in a band we shared a bill with a couple years earlier, was pretty good, he could sing, and he dressed pretty cool...so I tracked down his number."
Dean was working at a technology company and still feeling rudderless after his previous band broke up following a fun but ultimately unfruitful 15-month tour supporting an album released by Jive Records. "I was definitely at a crossroads," Dean says. "I was backing up a bunch of different people, and not really feeling inspired to write or be all that creative. But Alex changed that pretty quickly."
At Dean's Silverlake apartment, the two were listening to some of the songs Dean would have to learn for Alex's band -- melodic but very heavy, intricate rock stuff -- when Dean began scanning Alex's iTunes. "I was like, 'You like Sheryl Crow?'" Dean laughs. "And what are all these Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell albums doing here? And who the hell else but me has even heard of King's X, let alone has all their records?"
After bonding over bands for hours -- Stone Temple Pilots, the Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Steely Dan -- the pair decided they should start a side project, and once their first collaboration (the ultra-hooky pop rock tune "Take Advantage") was written, they decided the side project should probably become the project.
"I had just been given a big promotion at my job," Dean says, "but Alex said we had access to an awesome drummer, rehearsal space and a recording studio up north. I think I got to enjoy one day's worth of the raise before I quit and started planning a move to someplace I'd visited one time, for like a day. Alex is a persuasive guy."
The awesome drummer Alex mentioned was Andrew Keating, who also had an awesome studio, StickFigure Studios in Marin County, and an awesome knack for engineering and production. Almost a year and a half later, the 10 songs that make up Faith In Phantoms were finally finished.
"At first we were just looking to demo a couple songs," says Alex, "but we just kept writing songs that we really liked, and much to Andrew's dismay, I'm sure, we couldn't bear to not record them." The album includes radio-ready pop rock gems like lead-off tracks "Frost Flowers" and "Let It Go," heavy-hitting guitar rockers like "Tried to Tell Her," "After the Fall" and "I Can Quit You Baby" (yes, a lyrical play on the Zeppelin classic "I Can't Quit You Baby"), and moody indie-flavored tracks like "Whatever You Want" and "Longer Days Than Nights."
The official release of Faith In Phantoms takes place on the evening of Friday the 13th of November, 2009, when FIP will take the stage at the 19 Broadway Night Club in Fairfax, a popular village hangout in Marin. They'll also hold a release party in Los Angeles one week later on Friday, November 20, at Cinespace on Hollywood Blvd.
For more info, please head to FaithInPhantoms.com, and to preview the new album in its entirety go to http://faithinphantoms.bandcamp.com.
FIP FAST FACTS
1. Guitarist Alex Lasner was 17 when Guitar Player magazine called him "a six-string oasis in the wan modern rock world."
2. Singer/bassist Dean Moore's previous band opened for INXS at a sold-out Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
3. Drummer/engineer Andrew Keating's favorite TV shows to watch while making edits to FIP music were The Office, Lost, Arrested Development and South Park.
4. Only half the songs on Faith In Phantoms are about girls...some real, some an amalgamation of real girls...and some maybe even not so real.
5. The first band Alex and Dean finally got Andrew to leave the studio to go see live with them: Stone Temple Pilots.
I have been listening to your songs all weekend...and still spreading the word to my friends about your fantasic new cd release... Definitley have Faith in Phantoms..
Hi Alex ! Great seeing you and talking to you at 19 Broadway last night at The American Drag show. Don't forget to check out RUSH - Snakes and Arrows Tour on DVD. Alex's guitar tone will bring tears to your eyes ! See you soon ! Mike
If you want to be in a movie with Mario "THE POPE" at his Rainbow then show up ready to rock on Tuesday afternoon 8-4-09 at 1:00 pm. It's Rock N Roll!! Please respond so we know how many to expect!! Free Pizza! Happy Hour.. and being in a movie with a living LEGEND! It don't get better then that!!
Hey guys, I really liked what I heard of your music at the party last
night. Andrew, your studio is the shit, and I need your e-mail
address. I'll make it out to your festival show on August 8th. Here's
the info for our Phoenix show on June 26th. -Arthur
A rare triple headliner pairing North Bay
progressive/black/death metallers Cormorant with folk/ heavy metal
legends Slough Feg and the avant-garde, cello-infused brilliance of Giant
Squid at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma on Friday, June 26th. Also
playing are Helms Alee, from Seattle, fresh off their main support slot
on the Isis tour, and the twin bass guitar attack of Chico’s ambient sludge
lords La Fin Du Monde. A once-in-a-lifetime taste of the eclectic
SF underground metal scene north of the Golden Gate! Doors are at 7:30,
and the show is ALL-AGES.
Hey guys!
Just letting you know we are no longer NeoRelic. We are now The Shrill. New live song posted too! Let us know what you think!
Brandon of The Shrill
Online Now!
