Joe B. - Artifyin', Vocalizin' and guitarin'in/----------------------
"Little" Stevie Burkitt - guitarin and complainin'/---------------
Swifty Morgan - malignant low end thumpin'/-----------------------
Jon "killer" Kois - skin poundin'/----------------------------------
YETI- Muse
Influences
Angelo Badalamente, The Velvet Underground, Cheap Trick, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, The Beatles, Bowie, Honest Abe, Doo-wop, Led Zeppelin, Elvis, Rockabilly, Bernard Hermann, Ornette Coleman, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Yo La Tengo, The Dells, AC/DC, Alice Cooper Band, Jimmy Scott, Link Wray,CCR, Stravinsky, The Philadelphia sound, Phil Spector, Booker T, Tom Waites, Marc Ribot, Merle Travis, Berlioz, Can, Laurie Anderson, Elizabeth Cotton, The Kinks, Jeff Beck, The Who, Neil Young, Chuck D, Chopin, The B-52s, Talking Heads, Slayer, Queen, Jonathan Richman, Carl Perkins, Brian Setzer, Bad Brains, Black Sabbath, Nina Simone, Nick Drake, Julee Cruise, T Rex, James Burton, David Lynch, Bukowski, Keith Haring, John Fahey, The Monks, Bartok, Nat King Cole, Elliott Smith, Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Niko Case, Screaming Jay Hawkins, The Replacements, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Sonics, Mickie and Sylvia, Nazareth, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Joe Meek, the Pretenders, yeti.
The Nite Lights are a Philadelphia based four-piece original rock band featuring Stevie Burkitt-guitar, Swifty Morgan-bass, Jon Kois-drums and local artist Joe B. whose well known cutout posters for shows and political/social satires can be seen plastered all over the city on telephone poles or abandoned store fronts or carefully displayed like his exhibitions at The Bean Cafe' and Wexler Gallery(Upcoming in May). Since their beginning in the summer of 2002 they have increased their local following with a stylistically diverse sound and cabaret inspired performances. Drawing on influences ranging from traditional rock and roll to vaudevillian Americana inspired folk, their growing reputation for creating psychological narratives coupled with solid grooves, unconventional composition, and classic guitar work has secured them regular billing at the area's top rock venues (The Tin Angel, The North Star, The Khyber, The Trocadero, The Fire, and World Cafe' Live). In 2003, the band released their first CD ' I was Born A Man' and received solid reviews from Rockpile, Atlanta Music Morsels, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia City Paper but not Magnet they hate us. At this time the band began collaborating with other Philadelphia artists and playing more unconventional venues like The Mask and Wig, Le Cabaret Melange' at L 'Etage, Rays Happy Birthday Bar, and Fleisher Art Memorial all the while exposing themselves to a broader and more varied audience. Often donning dresses, kabuki makeup, Philadelphia Police uniforms with regulation mustaches for a stretch of shows, and surgical masks during the SARS outbreak their expanded audience eventually included Pittsburgh, New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. A second cd entitled A Quiet Evening with the Nite Lights was released on March, 2005 to solid reviews like "Imagine Rhett Miller brainwashed by a carnival owner and you'll have some sense of this Philly foursome.
Combining elements of classic country, backwoods blues, and vaudeville with the indie-pop sensibility of the modern hipster, the group keeps fans guessing--but keeps them listening, too." (Editors review - download.com)
The new release took the band on a more extensive tour through Ohio and Kentucky this time, peaking with a spotlight performance as a featured artist pick at the Midpoint Music Festival in Cleveland. In the spring of 2006 while still riding high and arranging songs for a third release known only as "The Rock Record" the band, having creative differences, decided to part ways with their then drummer/promotions director Neil Simpkins. Still hoping to get something out by Sep 2006 the band put together some new ideas in a more acoustic based format with local goto drummer Jon Kois(Marah,Three FourTens,Wastoid) only to be stymied when in August 2006 bassist Swifty Morgan found a lump in his neck which turned out to be cancerous. The next year proved to have it's ups and downs. Playing only a handful of acoustic duo shows and struggling to record between surgeries and radiation treatments the band stayed together during that time and created it's latest document entitled Descend. Set to be released in January 2008 The Nite Lights-Descend,a 6 song cd that, doesn't feel like anything short of a complete thought and effectively ends the quietus in the bands creative evolution over the last year. The release is hoped to be one of a trinity it promises to release in 2008.
I saw your little picture on someone else's page and was intrigued by the artwork... and now by your music, too! I tend to appreciate things off the beaten track... I especially like "Thoughtless Sheep." hope you feel similarly about my songs, best, Sue
HEY GUYS SORRY I MISSED YOUR SHOW LAST NIGHT ...WAS CAUGHT UP AT WORK...HOPE SWIFTY'S HEAD DID NOT RIP OFF HIS NECK AS A RESULT OF SHARING THE ROCK. CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
Hello! So i was putting my album together and there you were. Oh Stevie..... When i saw a pic of you i thought of the times when we would prank people from Miguel's when he found out he was a little bit pissed. Sad to say that it was after we graduated. Were we drinking?
Madballs!!!!
If you ever go down to manayunk check out the work.
I did this in 1998 in some apartment in Philadelphia!! Also I finished the new comic. I'll send you one when I get a chance.
Merry Christmas!!!
