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10 Years w/ Kyng, All Hail The Yeti, The Last Place You Look & Saint Carmen
October 31, 2013 @ 7:30 pm - 11:55 pm
Tickets for this concert can be purchased here.
Grand Stafford Theater, Din Productions, Rock Signal Productions & Rock 103.9 present:
10 YEARS
After a year and a half on the road touring 2010’s Feeding The Wolves, 10 Years reached a turning point. It was time to move forward and take full control of their career by launching their own label, Palehorse Records. In addition, the band decided to self-produce their fourth album, Minus the Machine, at drummer/guitarist Brian Vodinh’s Kashmir Recording.
Splitting up with a major label after five years was “a very scary step to take,” Hasek admits. “It’s like breaking up with a longtime girlfriend. You’re used to the motions, but when it becomes stale and unhappy, you need to move on and get energy back into your life. There was no anger on either side. We just painlessly parted ways.”
Working together as a band for the first time since writing the Gold-selling album The Autumn Effect helped 10 Years go back to their roots, without label-enforced pressure to create a radio-friendly “hit,” and free to experiment with the hard rock sounds that lie at the core of their music. “Our true fans who buy the albums, not just the singles, understand that our singles, for the most part, misrepresent the entire album,” says Hasek. “As a band, we like to explore more and go a little left of center with song structures. We wanted to create an album that has no boundaries, and where we didn’t have to make every song ‘three minutes and 30 seconds’ for a label to approve it. There’s a fine line with that, of course, and we’re very aware of it. We all grew up on rock music, and as many albums as we’ve written, the way we’ve written them, it’s ingrained in us to work within a time frame that fits radio. There are definitely songs that work well for that, but as a whole, we wanted this album to represent a journey in a sense.”
This chapter of 10 Years began in 2001, when Hasek took over as vocalist. Three years later they released their independent album, Killing All That Holds You, featuring the groundbreaking single “Wasteland,” which led to their signing with Universal Records. “That song was created in 2001 or 2002,” says Hasek. “We weren’t seeking to write a smash single. We were just writing music.” The Autumn Effect (2005) led to widespread radio and video play, a fiercely loyal fan base, and tours with heavyweights like Linkin Park, Korn and the Deftones. When their sophomore effort, Division, was released in 2008, 10 Years had cemented their place as one of hard rock’s top contenders and most sought-after live bands. Still, says Hasek, despite the success, “it all came to a head” with the band’s 3rd major label release, Feeding The Wolves. “When you feel like you’re being told to go through motions and jump through hoops, it takes the heart out of it,” he says. “We know that we need a hit and we understand that it’s important. However, as musicians, we’re not a band that says, ‘We’re going to make a hit.’ It’s better to do what comes naturally and then figure out the after-effect.”
With that in mind, 10 Years created their most powerful songs to date for Minus The Machine, with Hasek again relying on personal experiences for his lyrics. “Everyone asks about my inspiration for lyrics, and the best thing I can give them is a very generic answer: life,” he says. “Life is the experience — it’s everything you go through: the ups, the downs. I tend to gravitate more toward the therapy method. I’m not great at writing happy pop songs. So, I usually get the negative emotions out through music. As a person, I’m very happy and thankful for my life, but when it comes to lyrics, it’s therapy for me.”
One thing that won’t change is 10 Years’ connection with their fans. With the release of Minus The Machine, the band is looking forward to hitting the road, performing in close contact with their dedicated audience. “After the last touring cycle, we realized where we should strive to be, and that’s to be totally fine in the club environment,” says Hasek. “We don’t plan to chase after arena rock or amphitheaters. If things like that happen, then so be it, but we live and die by the loyalty of the club audiences. Our fans are loyal. They travel with us, and they want us to be loyal to ourselves. That’s what keeps them coming back. What we tried to do on this album is really give them what they want and what they need because they’ve been so good to us through the ups and downs of our career.”
“First and foremost, when it’s all said and done, we’re proud of this album in its entirety,” he says. “That speaks volumes to us because we’re our own worst critics. We pick everything apart. An album is your child, it’s your baby, and you know it better than anyone. To sit back and be 100 percent proud of what we’ve accomplished is so gratifying, and we think everything else will fall into place. We hope that everyone will enjoy what we’ve tried to do.”
10 Years on Facebook | 10 Years on Twitter | Official Website
KYNG
KYNG the southern California hard rock trio, originated in January of 2008 in Los Angeles. Singer/songwriter Eddie Veliz bassist, Tony Castaneda and drummer Pepe Clarke Magana, after years of working off and on with each other on various projects, decided to propagate the idea of a band that would closer fulfill their musical desires. Within months of sessioning the three were sold on the chemistry and shortly after that went into the studio to record their debut album. The sound they realized was exactly what they had sought after, a unique and universally appealing combination of heavy and captivating concepts, channeling influences from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin to the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age. “We wanted a band that could stand alongside anything in the scene, have the ability to crossover seamlessly and still bridge who we are.” KYNG’s versatile approach of a sweet devastation bleeds from an artistic drive toward a momentum described as “California Heavy”. Their evolution will undoubtedly blaze a trail that redefines what is expected and defines the giants they will become. The Los Angeles based trio, hailing from LA and parts of Mexico, is as unique in spirit as their sound. Reminiscent at times of the metal and hard rock of the late 1970’s in style and musical collection, with a presentation that is totally heavy, classic and modern-day all at once, they are sure to refresh the Active Rock and Metal landscapes of today and tomorrow. As drummer Pepe Clarke Magaña puts it, “I think we’re doing stuff, or a combination of stuff that has been done before, in a way it’s never been done before.” Their sound on Trampled Sun easily provokes the question, “Is that really just 3 dudes?” The pipes on Eddie Veliz reminiscent of Cornell is his early days, the thunder brought by Pepe Clarke Magaña on the drums and the rolling rhythms brought by bassist Tony Castañeda have KYNG meant for great things.
Kyng on Facebook | Kyng on Twitter | Official Website
ALL HAIL THE YETI
All Hail The Yeti are the band that turned their back on their Hollywood homes and are better for it. It wasn’t a matter of wanting to walk away from the lights and smog that permeate the false dreams and suburban malaise of their environs – it was necessary.
“We’ve managed to prevail through all the bullshit,” says frontman Connor Garritty. “I have seen too many great metal bands die here. We had to set our sights elsewhere. People always said it’s better to be a big fish in a small lake. I disagree. It’s best to be the biggest fish in the biggest lake!
AHTY are drowned in whiskey, campfire smoke, and blues of the ugliest kind. It’s the product of a wild beast of a band that’s evolved into a force to be reckoned with. Not that AHTY’s evolution was quick or calculated. Since coming together in 2006, the brainchild of Canadian vocalist and tattoo artist Connor Garritty, and guitarist K.J Duval. All Hail The Yeti earned a local following with their swampy, chaotic guitar tone and Garritty’s “look ‘em dead in the eyes” stage demeanor.
“Just about anything that you could think of has happened during our shows,” says the frontman. “Blood, vomit, spit, fights, laughter, broken bones, split skulls, stage diving, girls stripping, drug induced, alcohol-fueled mayhem.”
An EP titled “Trees On Fire With Songs OF Blood,” was released in 2010. It began to satiate local fans with live favorites like “Deep Creek”. With the band eschewing the Hollywood haunts and regular shows with their local kin for higher profile show with the likes of Times of Grace, Soulfly, Fear Factory, and Suicide Silence. It has become clear that All Hail The Yeti had grown into much more than a “local” band.
Without waiting for the “industry” to take notice of what their audience already knew, All Hail The Yeti entered the studio to record their debut full length, with producers Tommy Decker and Mike Sarkisyan in late 2011. The results prove that AHTY has learned to master the riff and make it feel as good as it is savage. While the likes of “Suicide Woods” is lean and mean, “After The Great Fire” verges on an epic journey, it’s churning vocal melody courtesy of bassist Nick Diltz, proves that AHTY have yet to show all of their creative cards.
Now with their line-up rounded out by guitarist Craw NeQuent, All Hail The Yeti are ready to take over the world with no intention of turning back.
How would Connor Garritty describe just what the hell All Hail The Yeti is about? “The best way to describe our sound is to capture how it makes each individual feel,” says the frontman. “Our songs touch on topics of death, life, love, love lost, the paranormal, crypto zoology, mythical creatures, partying, etc. It’s tough to describe our sound with one sentence.” It is left up to each listener to decide what AHTY has unleashed on him or her.
Enter The Yeti. The band that turned its back on the world, and made a name for itself in the process.
All Hail The Yeti on Facebook | All Hail The Yeti on Twitter | Official Website
THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK
thelastplaceyoulook is an American rock band that formed in Houston, Texas. Their debut extended play, The Lies We Tell Ourselves, was released on May 30, 2006. This was followed up with the debut of their first full-length album See The Light Inside You, on January 29, 2009, which featured singles ”Don’t Make It So Easy” and ”Band to Save Me”. In December 2011, the band released a music video and single of “Do You Hear?” a cover of the Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. A third as-yet untitled album is currently in production with the first single expected to be “Rip It Out.”
The Last Place You Look on Facebook | The Last Place You Look on Twitter | Official Website
SAINT CARMEN
Saint Carmen is a hard rock band with a modern sound and face-melting intensity; A new breed of ‘mainstream’ rock that knows no limits. Things started kicking off when the band found it’s current line-up in September 2012. With Avery Krueger on lead vocals/guitar, Dylan Cash shredding out the lead guitar, Buck Blackerby on bass, and Jake Bellamy smashing the skins and singing the back-up, Saint Carmen was built on a recipe for a hellacious wall of rockin’ sound.