"It was quite overcast out when my first band of the day started their set at The Rockwood Music Hall. The Shake didn't seem to care either way, they were ready to rock! Fans of the Australian band Jet can appreciate The Shake's garagey, AC/DC inspired sound as they brought back the guitar solo on numerous occasions while the guitarist and bassist harmonized on the vocals. Singer Jon Merkin resembles a young Paul Westerberg and entertained us with charismatic chatter in between songs. The bands catchy hooks, metal shredding climaxes and funky inspired bass lines made it feel like a Friday night! Dare I say they threw in a funky Bee Gee's cover?"
~~The Deli Magazine
"...a freshfaced rock and roll four-piece with stellar vocals, catchy guitar hooks and a penchant for the occasional disco cover... be sure to watch the video for The Shake’s single Manic Boogie. I defy you not to chair-dance."
~~No Happy Medium
Press for WELL, OH WELL
"There's been a long legacy of great American rock n' roll, and The Shake are making this legacy proud.
The guitar riffs tricky but catchy, perfectly suited for air guitar. The vocals present a kind of beautiful contradiction. On the one hand, the vocals are very in your face, but on the other they are quite aloof and nonchalant. Let's not forget to mention that girls are bound to swoon over this band like Penny Lane and the band aids from Almost Famous.
Here's to you guys being featured in the next Guitar Hero."
~~Tambourine
"Classics and labels be damned The Shake are taking over the indie rock scene with a perfect blend of elements as diverse as 60s/70s Britpop and NYC indie rock. Despite that description the coolest thing about The Shake is that they defy labels completely... They are young, they are diverse and most importantly they have the energy to kick the sometimes stale music scene in the you know what! The Shake manage to bring all of their individual taste to the table and provide us with some of the best tunes we’ve heard in a long time."
~~FREE Magazine
Garage rock at its finest, The Shake hammer it home with “Well, Oh Well,” a 10-song disc that takes the Rolling Stones and adds a lot of distortion. The fancy guitar work is by far the best part of the album, as these particular indie rockers have brought talent back to the mix in an ever-bland era of music.
~~ChicksWithGunsMag.com
"New York based The Shake, are probably one of the best-kept secrets of the indie music scene..."Well, Oh Well" is going to draw you in because of their catchy guitars and vocals all backed by their rock and pop sensibilities...The Shake is easily a band that has a chance to find their way into an overcrowded music scene and blow anyone and everyone away that is willing to give them a listen."
~~GuestListMagazine.net
"Rambunctious garage rock...with a rhythmic force...their songs wouldn't sound too out of place on alternative radio. They have hooks to compliment their melodic guitars and choruses..."
~~YRB Magazine
“The Shake mix rock 'n roll excess with riffs o' plenty to create songs that are fast, songs that are slow, songs that are funky, & songs that make you wanna move! “ (6 out of 6 Stars)
~~Rock N Roll Experience; http://www.angelfire.com/rock/e4/march2008.html
Press for KICK IT
“Kick It plays it straight, with plenty of immediately likeable garage rock…As “Devil’s Side” attests, the group isn’t at all afraid to throw in wailing electric guitar whenever the mood suits them. Eliad Shapiro even adds soulful organ to “Devil’s Side,” which only increases the fun factor. Witty song titles like “Dyin’ Ain’t the End of the World” shows that the group also has an overt sense of humor. So with all they’ve got going for them, who wouldn’t want to kick it with The Shake?”
~~www.popmatters.com
“The start/stop rhythms and speed-blues riffs of ‘Princes and Kings’ and ‘Outcast’ also recall early Kinks…the most inspired track [is] the pining ‘Let Me Take You Far Away.’”
~~Magnet Magazine
“Kick It…has been highly praised, boosting the band from just another generic indie band to a breakout act compared to the Kinks and other bands of the so called British invasion…This original flavor has hints of things we’ve heard before, like Oasis and the White Stripes, but it’s altogether new and different than most indie rock bands.”
~~Skope Magazine
“The Shake are a throwback not only to the great early punk new wave bands of the late 70’s (Television, The New Dolls,) but they also have a debt and connection to the great garage rock of the turn of the century (The Strokes, The Mooney Suzuki)… The energy is so high throughout that the album practically begs to be played more than once in a row.”
~~Cashbox Magazine
“Kick It is a stellar debut album, taking a genre (indie rock) that has a penchant for going stale and making it fresh by dumping out the baggage of thirty or so years. The Shake gets back to basics, combining modern garage rock with its earliest predecessor, 60’s British Invasion, but they do so with an endearing bit of unselfconsciousness that will have you eagerly coming along for the ride. Hopefully this record will see a major label release with some extra tracks, but even with the nine the band has given us, they’ve set expectations high.”
~~411mania.com
“Possibly the best unsigned band to be part of the indie NYC fabric for far too long unnoticed…full of rock n’ roll and enough belting punk thrown in to make you sit up and listen... All I have left to ask is, with guitar playing and vocals like this, why haven't these guys been signed to a major label yet?”
~~www.lucidforge.com
“For all the Shake's stylistic intricacies, in the end it's their melodies that are paramount, each one catchier than the next. “Princes" and "Devil's Side" truly do kick it, "Outcast" is absolutely incendiary, "8 O'clock" and "Let Me" sparkling pop fare, "Stop Fighting” is lethal, and "Manic Boogie” is enough to drive one right over the edge. This is the Sixties, and although not quite how some may remember it, true to the spirit and talent of the time.”
~~www.allmusic.com
“They play late-60s British-style garage rock a la the aforementioned bands, the Kinks, etc., adding some Strokesy fuzz…. pitch-perfect garage vox and bluesy guitars.”
~~www.skapunkandotherjunk.com
“The Shake have managed to take their rock and roll influences and produce a satisfying and rocking record that, more importantly, gets better with every listen…Influenced by the classic rock and roll of the Kinks, Yardbirds and Animals with a wink and nod to bands like Oasis and Jet, The Shake have managed to put out the type of album that builds on familiar influences yet rocks with a swagger that is all 2007…an amazingly diverse yet 100% rock and roll listening experience. A great listen and certainly a band to look to for big things ahead”
~~www.rockandrollreport.com
“The Shake’s Kick It is the soundtrack for a good old fashioned scenester strut”
~~www.pencapshewzine.com
“These guys manage to keep the quality up during the course of these nine tracks. This music sounds sincere and genuine…a far cry from a lot of the overproduced digital crap that we get slammed with. We can hear traces of The Kinks in some of these tunes. Neat stuff, fulfilling.”
~~www.babysue.com
“There’s something in this mélange that says to me: “I am the missing link between your fond nostalgia and your obsessive downloading of everything ‘Pitchfork’ fawns over”
~~www.deadairnightmares.com
“The Shake's combination of rollicking guitar, harmonized vocals, and boisterous attitude is nothing if not fun. They have a refreshing earnestness that allows lead singer Jon Merkin to belt lines like "Let the rhythmic music set you free / Stand tall for the revolution" without the slightest hint of irony.
~~Kevchino Indie Music Reviews
“Sunny stuff for the impending summer……riffols bashed out with as much power as attitude.”
~~Aiding & Abetting, issue 284: April 2007
“The Shake revitalize the raw and fervent sounds of the 70’s British post-punk rock scene with their debut album Kick It. One can only imagine the energy that is delivered with live performance of this material.”
~~www.rock-is-life.com
“The Shake has definitely done its homework on early classic rock and British Invasion rock groups…If this band boarded a time machine and went back to the years of 1965-68, The Shake would have a No.1 hit song, just like they will have hits in the present day…The Shake has molded its own sound by understanding that rock bands of the past have laid down elements of sound that creates the foundation for music of the future. All the songs I’ve reviewed are potential hit songs.”
~~Metro Spirit (Augusta, GA)
“Creative maturity beyond their years…… The audience’s loud screams signified a job well done for this particularily musical formulation, putting together a seamless stretch of quality numbers.”
~~ Columbia Spectator 2/27/20007
The essence of the raw Rock & Roll spirit, The Shake’s music is hook-laden, riff-driven, and loud. Just like their hometown of New York City, their music is self-aware, but never pretentious or uninviting.
The Shake's LP, Go Crazy, is more than a collection of songs, it is the embodiment of a band allowing their music and creativity to lead them through a recording process that can only be defined as Rock 'n Roll. The gang teamed up with producer Gregory Lattimer (Albert Hammond Jr's Yours to Keep) and spent two months immersed in an often frantic, off-the-cuff process. What emerged is an album that is as raw as it is intelligent, and as massive as it is focused.
The young New York City four-piece is a unique band of musicians. Lead singer Jon Merkin, guitarist Eliad Shapiro and bassist Jeremy Stein were raised in Orthodox Jewish households, which prevents the band from playing on Friday nights. And while many Jewish artists play up their faith as a marketing tactic, the members of The Shake have never let their two seemingly conflicting worlds interfere with one another. “You have to draw lines in the sand and have values and rules,” Merkin says. “We won’t travel on the Sabbath or eat non-kosher or play on Friday nights. But for Rock 'n Roll, well, we made a rule to have no rules. We're always gonna try something out before dismissing it as being 'not us’” That is not to say that their upbringing bears no influence on their material. In fact, the lyrics of one of the tracks on Go Crazy, "I Can Remember," depict the terror and tragedy of the Holocaust, culminating in the haunting reprise, "riot in the streets, hear the people they scream in their sleep."
To make Go Crazy all the more, well, crazy, The Shake invited a number of other New York City rockers to participate in the creation of the album with them. Tash Neal (The London Souls) adds his ever soulful, perfectly-dirty guitar musings to “Merry Musket (Reprise),” a down home 12-bar delta blues. The multi-talented Ezra Huleatt (Black Taxi) picks up his trumpet and gives “Pop Goes The…” just the right amount of whimsy to send you away whistling. And, finally, Matt Butler (Reckless Sons) lends his explosive voice to “Time Bomb,” making the already huge track even more dynamic.
While many City bands have spent the years since Room on Fire hitting the thrift stores for tattered clothes, changing their MySpace location to "Brooklyn" and trading in their guitars for synths, The Shake have stayed true to what drew them together as a band in the first place: Good ol' guitar-driven Rock. Theirs is music that is poppy enough to remember and edgy enough to satisfy. It also includes a certain unique sophistication. And it's the balance between these pop/Rock fundamentals and the band's innate intelligence that allows them to create a distinct and singular brand of Rock 'n Roll. What is special about The Shake is "the willingness to take chances," says drummer Vishal Kumar, "both in the studio and on stage. Each member is encouraged to draw from his own unique musical background and contribute throughout the song-writing process."
Unique. Open-minded. Rock 'n Roll. Meet The Shake.
Hiya, thanks for being a friend - I enjoyed visiting YourSpace :-) Keep it up May your life be full of love, light and fun... hugs SOREN - Beats for change - NYERTUN
Hey Jon, How are you? I'm good. I live right outside of Nashville. If you come here next year to do a show I would try to come. I'm not making any promises though. I don't really get to go to a lot of concerts that I would like to go to. Have a great rest of Wednesday. Sophie
We are celebrating our DEBUT on MTV.com and MTV's "Buzzworthy" with a FREE SHOW at THe Highline Ballroom!!!
Sunday Nov 15th @ Highline Ballroom 431 west 16th (bewteen 9th and 10th) with Pillow Theory (8PM) and Love and Logic (7PM) edibleRed is headlining! (9PM) Hope to see you there... we are expecting to it to be packed so we recommend people come as early as possible:)
Hey Jon, You're welcome for the support and the comment on your music and your songs. I'm glad that you're glad that I like your guys music and songs. Thank's. I would love to hear from you guys too. Thank's for saying to keep in touch and you too. How was your Halloween? Mine was good and fun. What did you do for Halloween? I dressed up as a candy corn witch and gave out candy at my older sister Amy's house. My niece Bella who's 4 was Belle. That's my older sister Amy's daughter. She was pretty as Belle. It was fun giving out the candy to all of the kids. She had 49 trick-or-treaters come to her house. It didn't rain on Halloween, which was good. It was so cold though on Halloween night. I'll show you pictures of me as a candy corn witch and of me with my niece Bella as Belle if you want to see those pictures. Have a great rest of Tuesday. Sophie
Hey, thank's for the add. I'm Sophie. I'm 24. I live in Tennessee. I really like your music. Your songs are great. I love listening to them. Best of luck with everything. Have a great Wednesday. Sophie
We thank you so much for the add!.. We’re just a small band, but we’d be delighted if you just listened to our Garage Rock songs and you sent us any kind of comment!! ☠
Hey! It's Damon from Set Theory. We are looking for a male or female vocalist in the NY area (we're based in Westchester, NY). If you know of anyone interested, please e-mail me here. We would really appreciate any help!
Our recent songs can be heard on our MySpace page.
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