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UK ARTISTS "LIVE" is.....
THE VERY FIRST AND ORIGINAL "FEATURED ARTIST SITE" on MYSPACE. 'Myspace' actually' grabbed their 'featured artist' concept from us, UK ARTISTS 'LIVE', as there was no such platform prior to us offering visuals, music AND interviews..We are a musician-supported site, designed for the great unsigned artists of the UK. With an elegant platform offering unsigned acts an opportunity to express themselves via professionally-composed personal introductions to compliment each artist with in-depth and engaging interviews by our seasoned staff of journalists, we are here to educate the reader-listener on every genre. We welcome other members of press; musicians; DJ's; recording studios; festival coordinators;on-air presenters, fans of UK music and the like.. . Once a month we present a SPECIAL CELEBRITY ARTIST who via interview offers sage and essential advice to the artist on the rise! Our official website is under construction. All will be notified when it is up and running! Lyric LaCeile and UK ARTISTS ‘LIVE’ present an encore presentation of our most beloved and special guests, ‘THE STRAIGHT A’, Frankfurt, Germany, continuing to engage and charm audiences round our raging planet for years!
INTRODUCTION, 'THE STRAIGHT A", by Lyric LaCeile:
‘The Straight A’ , based in Frankfurt, Germany made an immediate connection with me when I first heard them in 2006. Their first comment to me included their logo within my fave sci-fi /fantasy film, a cult classic, ‘Barbarella’… Their raw and powerful riot rock energy emanating from every chord, Wolfgang’s vocally-driven synergetic grooves, and their extreme musicianship delivering honest tones and aural pleasure promise you, this band delivers!
With stentorian tonal reminders of the realities of a rocker’s lifestyle in “Rock N’ Roll Asshole”, with ‘You ask me why I'm treating people round me just unkind/ call me mean and moody rock'n'roll is my state of mind/ there is no need for good behavior/ your conventions I don't care/ you may call me loser/ I'm gonna make it anyway” …’The Straight A’ mince no words !!!
In July and August of 2009, ‘The Straight A’ as well as close relatives, ‘The Swipes’ will be in studio, recording, mixing & mastering a couple of new tracks to look forward to! Note in our top friends ‘The Swipes’, again, they will blow your mind and soul. They intend to collect enough suitable material for expanding their current promo EP's to full length cd's. Furthermore, a regional compilation will be released, including one track of ‘The Straight A’ (major hit, “Rock'n'Roll Asshole”) and one of The Swipes , most notable, “Silent Alarm”.
If Frankfurt doesn’t ‘get’ this group, then fuck all, move to Berlin or anywhere else in the world, where the masses are not clueless chaffers on any element of what’s hot!! The ‘Straight A’ crew blast out full-on garage rock with an absolute symbiosis of sublime cool. It is with extreme delight and pleasure that I bring to you, ‘The Straight A’ !!
Line-up: Udo , bass master
Wolfgang , song stylist, guitars , vox;
Peter , skins
THE STRAIGHT A INTERVIEW by Ms. Lyric Laceile:
Lyric: Frankfurt is such a melting pot of culture, not quite the tremendous mecca for musicians that Berlin is. What is the attitude with your audiences locally, tell us why you feel your music fits in more with the American/British/International rock scene as opposed to local venues, and how, if so, would you say that you adapt your material to them?
Wolfgang: Yes, it seems that our music is more popular in the rest of the world than here in the area around Frankfurt. On MySpace e.g. most of the requests and comments come from the U.S., the U.K., Scandinavia, Australia , Italy and Spain.
Lyric: Don’t feel odd about it, that’s where the majority of my bio clients are based rather than in the U.S. so there you have it… I find Germany as well as the above-mentioned countries scintillating and far more interesting!
Wolfgang: For us, the feedback from Germans comes more often from remote cities than out of the region. This may relate to the fact that Frankfurt with its clean glass and steel skyline and its high costs of living is not a typical mould for an exuberant and influential alternative artist scene as we know it from Berlin.
Lyric: Not the first time I’ve heard this with Frankfurt vs. Berlin…just ask Martin Gordon!(Sparks/Radio Stars/Johns Children)
Udo: Our local area is regarded as the nodal point of trade, banking and other kinds of "big business" here in Germany. Nevertheless we don't intend to adapt our music to anyone, there will be no sellout of our musical attitude. Frankfurt may not be the stronghold of raw underground rock, but we're not alone. There are actually many more bands and some of them even with a style similar to ours. So we've formed a collaboration with three other bands in order to pool our forces and to create a more viable platform of garage and punk'n'roll groups.
Peter: Yeah, strength in numbers!! Unification is what its all about with us.
Lyric: It is more than apparent that you've got the right idea of joint-promotion with this group solidarity concept…. who writes these most prolific and oft’ entertaining lyrics or is that a collaborative effort?
Wolfgang: Song master would be me!
Lyric: Wolfgang, what would you propose as your focus, your direction and your muse, if any, in the realm of self-expression when writing ?
Wolfgang: They are inspired by experience, or people in my life. (With a smile:) And my most important muse and inspiration is always my beautiful wife Isabel.
Lyric: Lucky Isabel! So, you’ve been together awhile now, with thirty stellar tunes in your repertoire . How would you say that you've grown as and matured as a band?
Wolfgang: We are permanently surrounded by new influences which we try to transform into new tunes and lyrics.
Lyric: Are you gleaning towards more pop/punk-inspired music or retaining the raw energy of ‘garage’ and ‘glam’?
Wolfgang: We're not going to change our attitude. Our sound embraces and will continue to include elements of 70's rock - like ‘protopunk’ and ‘glam’ - as well as garage and modern indie rock, sometimes combined with hooklines in Motown style. We call it "riot soul", a new genre so to say...
Peter: Yes, on MySpace and other communities they will have to launch a new category for it! (all laughing)
Lyric: YEAH they will, I can see it now, 'riot soul nu-jive sonic rock'…..Your music is honest, melodic with a visceral groan bonding with this garage rock n' roll spewing forth an intense and joyful mirth. Obviously there is a strong bond here, tight musicianship, great arrangements! I was hooked, amused ,you had my attention the moment I heard the first two bars of "Rock N' Roll Asshole"….
Wolfgang: That song applies to Michael, the singer of my former band "Weed". I wanted him to sing the song, but unfortunately the band split. So I decided to sing the song myself .
Lyric: Okay, Wolfgang, the song , tell us, a tribute or a 'diss'?!
Wolfgang (smiling): It's a tribute, an homage, or let's say: a realistic description of this guy and his way of life. And we are still friends !
Lyric: Udo, two years ago you joined forces with three other bands to begin booking shows within Germany and other neighboring countries a couple of summers ago . How’s that working out, and do you have professional booking agents putting this together or are you doing this yourselves?
Udo: We've been booking ourselves, that experimental collaboration has gone well for us.
Lyric: Multi-taskers, you are one of the hardest working bands that I know, you're well-connected, yet how on earth do manage to juggle this with well, life?
Udo: We're bustling bands with a lot of contacts, as most of us have been in the music scene for many years. We know several event organizers we can negotiate with. Moreover we feel strong enough to arrange one or two little festivals ourselves. I’m sure at some juncture we'll see if we can additionally cooperate with professional booking agents.
Lyric: From what you've described as goals for the band, such as focusing on booking festivals , producing more cd’s, getting a record deal, and increasing your exposure in general…. knowing the upside of label support as well as the downside, how do you feel about perhaps forming your own joint label as opposed to letting someone else call the shots on what you can and cannot record??
UDO: We know what you mean and share your point of view. We want to stay as independent and autarchic as possible.
Lyric: Quite the vocabulary , Udo! My respect for you just became even higher ….. So what if an indie label offered you a contract you could live with?
UDO: Within the activities of our band association we're planning to self-produce a joint CD with three songs of each band and to distribute it at our concerts. A guitar player with one of the bands has his own little mastering studio, maybe this will help the participating bands to increase their output of recordings in the future. But it's hard to predict if "doing it ourselves" will be lasting out in the long run. So we'll keep our ears still open for offerings of indie labels. It would depend on their contract conditions if they'd be interesting for us or not. NOTE: The duration of July and August ‘The Straight A’ as well as close relations, ‘The Swipes’ will be in the studio, recording, mixing & mastering a couple of new tracks. They intend to collect enough suitable material for enlarging their current promo EP's to full length cd's. Furthermore, a regional compilation will be released, including one track of ‘The Straight A’ (major hit, “Rock'n'Roll Asshole”) and one of T'he Swipes' (most notable, “Silent Alarm”).
Lyric: Okay, here’s the obnoxious part, my ‘think piece’! Everyone gets this question, so vent! --What pisses you off the most about the human condition? Ignorance, apathy, hideous manners, anger, war, poverty, our pending ‘one-world government’ bullshit, etc?
Wolfgang: Many people, especially politicians, aren't aware enough that the whole mankind, figuratively spoken, is sitting in one boat.
Udo: Yes, instead of waging wars against each other, we should implicitly all pull together and stem the deterioration of our environment. Egotism and national solo efforts are the wrong answers to the challenges of the 21st century. This may sound like a commonplace, okay, but we think it can't be said often enough.
Lyric: Always a pleasure to hear from intelligent, driven talents like The Straight A! You heard it here, you heard it first, and you heard it true….Buy their music, go to their shows, they will have a lasting imprint on your life....Thanks guys, and get that clan of yours to the States before our borders shut down on every coast. (lol, ONE WORLD DOMINATION)
ANNOUNCEMENT! NOTE: Always note any changes in your appearance dates. We have contacted each act to notify you personally of the newly scheduled dates after February 2, 2008. WE strive for a constant calendar, and try our best to accomodate all artists' timing to the best of our abilities! Thank you very much for your patience and your kind support of our site!
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©COPYRIGHT NOTICE To the ARTISTS featured here (and to any and all lurking barristers/entertainment lawyers): For copyright purposes, all music featured here is with the artists' permission. Music is deleted from our systems following performance for the artists' protection. All artists have the option of making their music download-able on this site, unless we are notified, that feature will not be offered. All interviews are submitted upon approval by said Artist. Starting in February, unless previous agreement is made, all features will be 10 days in length,
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