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It's From the Sky. formed in late 2007 when David Lee (Guitar, Vocals), Christopher O'Keeffe (Guitar, Vocals) and Chad Dravk (Drums) started practicing in Cambridge, MA. After a short search for a bassist proved unfruitful, the trio began playing shows in and around the Cambridge/Boston area. Their brand of self-described “Sci-Fi/Horror Noise Rock” featured the melodic dual lead singing of Lee and O'Keeffe, blasts of guitar noise, and Dravk's punk-influenced drumming.
Their first recording, electric sle[ep], was recorded and mixed over a weekend at New Alliance Studios in Cambridge in early 2008. Most of the album was tracked live and featured the original two guitar, two voice, and drum lineup. According to O'Keeffe in the band's 2009 documentary Formative Days, “Every song on that first EP is either set in space, about a zombie, about a werewolf, or about a zombie or werewolf in space.” Indeed, the band's initial infatuation with b-movie culture would define the early days of its sound.
Following the release of electric sle[ep], the band found itself expanding its sonic palette, enlisting friends from the Boston music and art scenes to help intensify their live shows. Over 2008, the core of Lee, O'Keeffe, and Dravk was bolstered by inclusion of extra bassists, keyboardists, guitarists, live painters, and a standing collaboration with digital visualist Chris Roby at dozens of shows up and down the east coast. The band also created self-directed videos for each of the five songs on electric sle[ep].
Similiar to It's From the Sky.'s lyrical content, the band's visual design highlighted an affinity for science fiction and horror. According to Dravk in Formative Days: “With It's From the Sky. I went with a 1950s, almost 60s detective/horror/romance comic feel.” This style is stamped all over everything the band touches, including its award-winning website (www.itsfromthesky.com).
Propelled by the dual songwriting of Lee and O'Keeffe, the band accumulated an overflowing handful of original songs after the release of electric sle[ep], and, in late 2008, began putting select tracks together for their followup, the concept album Barbara's Bloody Footprints. “If the first EP was about b-movies, sci-fi and horror, this one is a little more concentrated, more genre-specific,” says Lee in Formtive Days. “It's a detective story about a girl that gets murdered.”
Just as the band's live shows had departed from the bassless, three-piece blueprint of electric sle[ep], Barbara's Bloody Footprints featured more layers: baritone guitar, bass, keyboards, foley work, and increasingly intricate vocal harmonies. The album takes place in a small town in 1963, and opens with the murder of a young girl on prom night. The rest of the story focuses on reactions from the townspeople.
Barbara's Bloody Footprints was released on Bampf! Records in December, 2009. They are currently working on videos for the tracks “Pistol & Passport” and “Class President”. They have also added a fourth fulltime member in the line-up, bassist Rich Marscher.
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December 2009
I awoke in the middle of the night and sat upright as if something has inserted rods into my appendages and took control of my voice, for I spoke aloud the following words, "It is of veritabyll report, and attested of so many that there be nowe of wyse and learned to gaynsaye in it, that ye serpente hys eye hath a magnetick [crick] propertie that whosoe falleth into its svasion is drawn forwards in spyte of hys wille, and perisheth miserabyll by ye creature hys byte."
November 2009
Another publishing of our musings has been made publicly available. Strewn they will be as we will be. Writings are fresh and new as is the meeting house. Crimson synergy flows with darts of light.
October 2009
We tried to look closely into the face of the mysterious being - and suddenly we gave an involuntary shudder: there was a chilly breath upon us all. We were not in the same meeting house, we found ourselves in another meeting house in a neighboring village; and where, as we fancied, the phantom had stood, the moonlight lay in a song of white upon the floor.
August 2009
The door was creaked opened by a young chap. His face wore a melancholy expression, almost despondency, of one who travels a wild and bleak road, at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up as soon as he saw the kindly warmth of his reception.
July 2009
It has been some time, but we knew what was happening. What was stationary electric charges, they began to move - creating magnetostatics about. There was a firmamental shift, much like the one we have experienced prior, and there, before us in the light, was another - low-frequency implements in hand.
June 2009
The heaviest mist in the history of the city settled over the town at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. All traffic has stopped and the mist hangs like a pall over everything. Lights of ordinary intensity fail to pierce the fog, which is constantly growing heavier.
May 2009
The slam of the door, the dash to the stair-head, the leap downstairs, were followed by a faint. Awakening, shimmers of a being hovered with a brandy bottle and a very reproachful face. "The promise of silence was kept for no one," it murmured.
April 2009
I turned my head, and saw the profile of a man who was leaning over the parapet beside me. It was a refined face, not unhandsome, though pinched and pale enough, and the coat collar turned up and pinned round the throat marked his status in life as sharply as a uniform.
March 2009
We slipped in like a ghost, and closed the door. While
striking a light in the office, we could hear the teeth still clicking out in the dark hall, till it seemed as if some initial sounds were recorded and agreed upon.
February 2009
These are, indeed, the ne plus ultra of good musings. Every thought in such matters admitted the musings to be good. There was neither too much of this nor too little, -neither rudeness nor fragility. We could not imagine a more graceful prosperity than that of the most recent recording-bound musings, and there was just that due gentle prominence in the rear of the meeting house which goes to the conformation of a brain feeding off another.
January 2009
Meanwhile, the snow began to come down with ominous steadiness, and the wind fell. After this, the cold became more intense, and the night came rapidly up. As for us, our prospects became more intense with the darkening sky, and our gatherings grew heavy as we thought how young our musings are - already watching through the window of our meeting house, and thoughts of all the potential in store for us throughout this new year.
December 2008
Well do I remember the night, when over the swamp we played the shocking corruscations of the daemon light. After the beams came clouds, and then I slept.
November 2008
Our musings and findings have now been released into other mediums; via radio waves and fiber optics. Our meeting sessions are more agenda inspired - for we have another recording in the near future...our second release. Spontaneous combustion may be integral.
October 2008
The mention of another joining our meetings have been on the brink of our tongues for quite some time...and one has stepped forward - in the verbal sense. We have yet to feel a presence amongst the meeting house...in which we returned to after a brief pause. Now that we have rekindled, an agenda was transcribed; with a neoteric fervor. Another publishing of our research is in the self-propelled machine.
August 2008
We made an internal note of the virus halting our endavors. However, we were pleased that the slight evidence of intuition which had induced us to engage outside of our village had not entirely failed at the first trial.
July 2008
A hollowed whisper tells of a time of breath taking. A recovery of windedness. Only to build for another, but with more might, venture of bringing our musings to the public...but unlike the other occasions, we will be found within non-local villages.
June 2008
Being fellow lads with a reputation for decided action, we soon recovered ourselves. When thoughts left our meeting house at the beginning of the sermon, no muscle of our faces betrayed the wounded vanity and annoyance that burned deep within the heart. But a hornet sitting directly in such paths was a very different matter. Realization reared in a flash that was poorly clothed -- in a world, that was practically half naked. We bath in the sunshine of tomorrow.
May 2008
What was once a decayed thought, the revitalization of another joining the group has rekindled. With negligence about, one may wonder why. Well, my friend we wondered as well, but that was yester. Another joined for a few meeting house sessions --- transition --- bringing what we would haven't to a public demonstration. Where we were, we did know, but now we realized we were lost. Time for another drink.
April 2008
In the corner of our shared notes, obviously written with a pen dull of ink, reads: End of Phase One. At this point we recollect - Months: 06; Shows: 04; Songs: 11 and a few in our log; Members: 03; Amplification Cadavers: 02; Expenditures: infinity dash; Published Recordings: 'electric sle(ep)' - forthcoming within a 30-day celestial shift of this month. Analysis: The steady growth of our coterie and scribings prepare the next day to be brighter - story AB=C, oftentimes. Are we out of the miscroscope? Yellow hue has dissipated? Can we keep the blind? Polarity of battlescars? Energized, elocuted, electrified? We end on these questions to bring them forth.
March 2008
Our provisional recordings are assisting us in kind with our solidifying endeavors. On the other side of the note, we had to cancel a public appearance, only to reschedule the following week. Outlook: promising (scribbled at the top of each page of our notes), we have a masterly phenom (redundant?) giving hand with a scheduled transcription this month. After then, distribution will be fruition.
February 2008
The search for a new meeting house has proven to be a more difficault task than presumed. Determined we are, but reality gets the best of us. We can still continue with our current situation, but limitations are about. Limitations are about, yes, but how we can deal with them only makes our research and collections more durable. Though, it would be nice to use our own equipment and move amongst without hitting elbows.
January 2008
"Another year," so the calendar says. With our findings and our recordings, another year means nothing. Time ceases when such notes are about - and such notes care not for chronology. We plan to present our findings once per calendrical month and an arrangement to publish our findings are furthering...making them tangibly present even when they are in the past. We realize our boundries are galactic; limitless.
December 2007
With our findings and humbility in tow, we made a public appearance in the village in which upon we first met. They (the public) seemed to have received our research with open arms. Could they (the public) want more? We have more; more than we, or they (the public), could ever realize. Yes, *cough* we must continue our meetings, and we will bring polished and new ideas to the them (the public) once again.
November 2007
A message was sent - asking us to make an appearance. Perhaps our research is too premature for the public? (rhetorical). The public needs to know, however.
October 2007
The meetings prosper. The novitiate assists progression to our liking. Organization is beginning to take form.
September 2007
We cannot resonate enough between the two of us. A familiar gentleman came to a meeting. His enthusiasm lacked. Was he not a believer? Not soon afterwards, there was a fermamental shift. Another stood before us with assignments in mind and impliments in hand.
August 2007
Frequenting gatherings, the two of us decided upon a meeting house. We stand, we sit...I start to think the walls are staring and recording. Pay no mind.
July 2007
The crispness in the air changed. Myself and another held discussions. What was to come? We may never know.
June 2007
Out in the field, a noise was heard. Not knowing, I would never know. I went to see what it was - and to my surprise, so did another.
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