Ariel Farber - vocals, violin
Valerie Gracious - vocals, synthesizer
Rich Hutchins - drums
Mathew Kennedy - bass
Gabe Moffat - electric guitar, dobro
Molly Ruttan - vocals, percussion
Linda Ruttan Moldawsky - vocals
Mark Sherkus - keyboards
Johnny Unicorn - keyboards, saxophone
Phideaux Xavier - vocals, acoustic guitar
Influences
Jethro Tull
David Bowie
Alice Cooper
Roxy Music
Sparks
Kraftwerk
Early Genesis
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Pink Floyd
Van der graaf Generator
Joy Division
Siouxsie & The Banshees
Biglietto Per L'Inferno
Le Orme
Ayreon
Lush
The Cure
Patti Smith
Cocteau Twins
Dead Can Dance
Supergrass
Arena
Pale Saints
Grandaddy
Sounds Like
Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Roxy Music, Van der graaf Generator, Moody Blues, Bowie...
Phideaux is a band comprised of many friends who have known each other since early childhood (Phideaux Xavier and Valerie Gracious were in nursery school together). They produce recordings of adventurous art rock music. They have seven albums, each unique in sound and content (an eighth entitled 7½ is well underway). Phideaux creates mysterious and melodic music for the sheer love of it, independently releasing recordings which have been complimented for capturing the essence of classic rock music while remaining modern and distinctive.
A dark wave of progressive music for the post-punk generation, the mesmerizing and eclectic sound of Phideaux have been described as funny, serious, doomy, derivative, innovative, pretentious, goth-tinged space folk "prog" rock... They are inspired by mellotrons and flutes and keyboard heavy music but also love dual lead guitar and power chords. Syncopation and tricky time signatures are sometimes utilized but always there is melody to be hummed and riffs to invade your ears and mind. The lyrics tell stories, sometimes clearly, sometimes abstrusely, but always with an intent to spark an image or metaphor.
Summer Solstice 2009 brought us Number Seven, the seventh recording product of Phideaux. This album is a continuation of the long form compositions found on Doomsday Afternoon and Chupacabras. It represents another foray into progressive rock, with perhaps a good dollup of chamber jazz and classic rock. I think you will be surprised!
Drop by the Bloodfish website where you can listen to tracks from all of our albums and download some of stuff for free: http://www.bloodfish.com. Once indoctrinated, you may wish to purchase hard copies and we point you to Amazon.com and cdbaby as well as various online progressive rock catalogues such as Syn-Phonic Music, Just For Kicks Music and Progress Records.
Please contact us if you'd like to help spread the word of Phideaux or perhaps use our music in your films. May I also point out that most of the band photos and indeed many of Phideaux Xavier were taken by Rod Reynolds - a talented los angeles photographer
goto: http://www.RocketManLA.com
Discography: Fiendish (2003); Ghost Story (2004); Chupacabras (2005); "313" (2005); The Great Leap (2006); Doomsday Afternoon (2007); Number Seven (2009)
Hello Xavier, hope all is well and the weather is nice down there. It's been a long time but we have just finished recording our new CD and decided to leak a new track early. If you got some time give it a listen and I'd love to hear what you think. All the best.
Oct 12th I'm playing The Trip in Santa Monica with 8 Infinite Suns...
its free brings some peeps. I'm throwing out Twinkies,and Oreos for the
vegans ;)-
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Phideaux, that really means a lot to me. Especially coming from you - your music is so astonishingly melodic and complex it leaves me awestruck as to how you can come up with such original ideas, let alone capture them with such aplomb. Your contribution to Mind The Gap is something I shall be eternally grateful for and proud of.
I know I'm very critical of Music From The Elder, but there's several songs on there that I really think are awesome, notably A World Without Heroes, Dark Light, Escape From The Island, and I. The Oath is pretty good, too. Odyssey is a good one too, though it's obviously very un-Kiss like. But I hate Mr. Blackwell, and I've always felt that the album wasn't quite what it could have been. And that album (and probably Unmasked, too) had a lot to do with why Ace left the band (though it's been suggested he probably would have drunk himself to death if he hadn't left). AND it's the only album left by the Ace/Paul/Gene/Eric C lineup. I wish we could have gotten that hard rock album that they were promising before Ezrin convinced Gene and Paul they needed to "show the critics how intelligent Kiss can be".
I often times wish they had done something like Music From The Elder after Destroyer. Paul Stanley once talked about how they tried to "broaden the parameters" of the band's sound on Destroyer, I think a concept album next would have taken that even further. And I suspect it might have come out better.
Funny you should mention Creatures Of The Night, though. I've never owned that one, but I've always liked the songs I've heard from it. I was recently watching Kissology Vol. II and I was thinking Creatures Of The Night itself is a really cool song. So is War Machine. I'm thinking maybe I need to get this one in the near future.
Hello Phideaux! It was great seeing you perform live at 3RP!! And it was great meeting all of you too!! Maybe we can work something out to get you to Akron, Ohio for the next Rock the Docks Festival next year!!?? I will be accepting submissions for the festival very soon and will keep you up-to-date on the happenings if you'd like... I met your friend from Copley, Ohio---she's going to help me work on this too! Great show you put on at 3RP!
How did you manage to list the exact same influences as mine? Glad to know there's more me's out there. Been listening to you on Pandora. Come to the Twin Cities?