Matt Fisher-Vocals/Electrified Guitar/Stories of Old.
Eric the Red-Bass/Kee Bass/BGV's.
Priceless Toot Sweets-Shuffle Beats/Sex Appeal.
Influences
If last year's Great State of Emotion was a heart-wrenching, voyeuristic view of someone's heart being broken and stomped on, The Great State of Denial watches that soul spiral downward, working through the various stages of grief (anger, bitterness, denial), before getting to acceptance. As painful as the first episode in this trilogy was, part two draws a response that waivers somewhere between nausea and empathetic rage...
...Once again, Vandevander's principle player Matt Fisher channels the classic 70's rock and blues of Zeppelin, Golden Earring and T. Rex, creating a smoky vision, clouded with enough bitterness when looking back that it's hard to see forward.
...self-loathing has turned into rage and bitterness, accompanied by a guitar riff worthy of Bon Scott-era AC/DC on "Sleep With My Scars"...
-Grayson Nichols, DIG
..Vandevander Rock Create Your Badge..
THE GREAT STATE OF EMOTION:
Top 6 Albums of the Year:
Raw and ragged, The Great State of Emotion is art in music. It rips your heart out and shows it to you, still beating. Perhaps a tad to abstract for some and too intense for others, if you get it, it will tear you apart. If you don't, it will pass you by--and you need to chase after it.
The initial Vandevander release, The Great State of Emotion, is the first of a trilogy of EPs that will tie together to relate the cycle of emotional upheaval, inner turmoil and redemption.
Raw Emotion.
For anyone who has experienced heartbreak, betrayal or a painful breakup, the effect is similar to ripping your heart out and showing it to you, like the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Although Fisher told me he knows many people "just won't get this record," I think he's wrong. Although a few people my not identify with it, it's hard to not connect with what may be the most heart-wrenching disc I've heard all year.
G.K. Hizer- Urban Tulsa Weekly
THE GREAT STATE OF DENIAL:
Fisher's gift has always been conveying emotion throught his instrument, no matter what the context. With Vandevander, he's only made that all the more apparent...... one of the tastiest guitar players in Tulsa..... Vandevander is another beast altogether.
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Can we make it easier? Yes... we're gonna document everything... and there will be pictures and notes and cameras and everything else. And when it finally happens they'll wish they would've suffered through this with us... for there will be a failure to understand where we've come from.
Hey it was really good meeting you guys and seeing you play. i thouroughly enjoyed the set, and listened to the CD today. Good luck, hope to do a show with you again soon.