elevatedmole
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Here is an article that caught my eye from the local paper. Read it -- very interesting.
This Band Could Go Big
The band Rearview Mirror, out of Cresco, has been noticed by heavies in the music industry. The group's national tour hits Des Moines today.
Cresco, IA - These four rock stars-to-be don't have piles of cash, penthouse suites, stretch limos or a gaggle of models in tow.
Of course, with such flashy accoutrements they'd look a little conspicuous hanging out in downtown Cresco.
On this frigid and windy January day, the four members of a hard rock band called Rearview Mirror are stuck in their rural Iowa hometown, whose population couldn't fill your average concert arena.
Tomorrow, the band piles into a van and embarks on it's first major concert tour.
Then what?
They could be destined for fame and fortune. Their rock'n'roll fantasies could be fulfilled.
Steve Lillywhite, the record producer who fine-tuned the albums of U2 and Dave Matthews, is betting that this unknown band from northeast Iowa can follow their multi-platinum footsteps.
Lillywhite has anointed Rearview Mirror, and now it's up to the band to live up to his expectations. He expects the band's debut album, "All Lights Off", to rack up record sales and radio requests when it hits stores in June.
But today the foursome are tooling around town in guitarist Matt Olson's beat-up, grey Pontiac.
They're living off their parents because their record label has demanded they remain on call to play last-minute gigs.
"You can't have a job, but you're expected to have money to survive," said bassist Jason Ptacek, the acerbic one. "We've been sitting dormant for a while."
Well, not entirely dormant. Lead singer Adam Ptacek, Jason's younger brother, graduated from high school last week. But he has nine reports to still write for health class.
"I'm pretty much just going to go on the Internet and cut and paste everything," he said.
Like all true rock stars, they hate homework, but these guys are a long way from giving a Grammy acceptance speech: Unscrewing a lucky bottle cap and winning a free soda is a big deal to the Ptacek brothers, guitarist Matt Olson and drummer T.J Kammer.
All that could change quickly in the next few months leading up to their album's release. The buzz about Rearview Mirror is shaping up within the record industry.
The two brothers and their friends started the band in 1996 for lack of a better option.
"We're not sports people," Jason said.
"It was more fun to make noise," Olson adds.
Naming the band was more difficult than starting it.
"It was like four parents trying to name a baby," Jason said.
They threw out Thistle - too country.
They flirted with the Creepers, and that eventually became their pseudonym for occasional gigs where they played only cover songs.
Kammer's mother suggested Rearview Mirror while driving. It also happened to be a Pearl Jam song. The name stuck.
The band's first big gig was Sweet Corn Days in nearby Lime Springs.
They rcorded their first album at Catamount Studios in Cedar Falls in four days, back when they were heavily influenced by Limp Bizkit and Korn - an angst-ridden early phase they now regret.
"If I had heard us, I don't think I would have been very supportive," Olson said.
Club gigs ensued, mostly across the Iowan border. The Rearview Mirror guys were getting into bars before any of their classmates could, as the sober entertainment for a roomful of revelers.
The band's first big break came courtesy of a connection by Kammer's mother: She knew Bobby Vee's son, Tommy, whose attorney heard the band play in La Crosse, Wis.
Attorneys met managers, managers knocked on music industry doors, and it took off from there.
[snipped really boring and not very relative to the original meaning of the article parts]
Guitarist Olson calls his band "the Iowa band that really hasn't played in Iowa, ever."
That has changed in the last month or so as Rearview Mirror left Cresco behind and trekked its way around the country. Its tour van is equipped with an XBox and TV - close enough to a limo as far as the guys are concerned.
[cut out really boring parts again]
Steve Lillywhite has shaped milestone albums for 20 years, so it's no small potatoes for him to hype the first band signed to his new label as Iowa's answer to U2.
"They could be the next big thing from Iowa," he said with conviction, from California. "Slipknot has sort of opened a few doors."
Lillywhite and the band made their first connection over the internet. Demodiaries.com turned him on to Rearview Mirror. He flew to La Crosse, Wis., to hear the band in concert. Duly impressed, he recorded its "All Lights Off" debut album in Minneapolis.
What he discovered in Rearview Mirror, Lillywhite explained, were young men willing to "live or die in the band, which you get outside of major metropolises."
Iowa incubates raw, unsullied idealists, and these idealists reminded him of four Irish lads from the early 80's. "They just has that thing, the same spirit that I found in U2 when they were 17 years old," he said.
Lillywhite is looking forward to introducing his new band to an overseas audience. "You see them rise up, how they deal with the fame. The problems only start when the success comes.
"U2 is the only band who has managed to dodge the bullet."
------------------
"You must not look down on someone just 'cos they are 14 years old. When I was that age I listened to the music of John Lennon and it changed my way of seeing things, so I'm just glad that 14 year olds are coming to see U2 rather than group X." - Bono, 1988
This Band Could Go Big
The band Rearview Mirror, out of Cresco, has been noticed by heavies in the music industry. The group's national tour hits Des Moines today.
Cresco, IA - These four rock stars-to-be don't have piles of cash, penthouse suites, stretch limos or a gaggle of models in tow.
Of course, with such flashy accoutrements they'd look a little conspicuous hanging out in downtown Cresco.
On this frigid and windy January day, the four members of a hard rock band called Rearview Mirror are stuck in their rural Iowa hometown, whose population couldn't fill your average concert arena.
Tomorrow, the band piles into a van and embarks on it's first major concert tour.
Then what?
They could be destined for fame and fortune. Their rock'n'roll fantasies could be fulfilled.
Steve Lillywhite, the record producer who fine-tuned the albums of U2 and Dave Matthews, is betting that this unknown band from northeast Iowa can follow their multi-platinum footsteps.
Lillywhite has anointed Rearview Mirror, and now it's up to the band to live up to his expectations. He expects the band's debut album, "All Lights Off", to rack up record sales and radio requests when it hits stores in June.
But today the foursome are tooling around town in guitarist Matt Olson's beat-up, grey Pontiac.
They're living off their parents because their record label has demanded they remain on call to play last-minute gigs.
"You can't have a job, but you're expected to have money to survive," said bassist Jason Ptacek, the acerbic one. "We've been sitting dormant for a while."
Well, not entirely dormant. Lead singer Adam Ptacek, Jason's younger brother, graduated from high school last week. But he has nine reports to still write for health class.
"I'm pretty much just going to go on the Internet and cut and paste everything," he said.
Like all true rock stars, they hate homework, but these guys are a long way from giving a Grammy acceptance speech: Unscrewing a lucky bottle cap and winning a free soda is a big deal to the Ptacek brothers, guitarist Matt Olson and drummer T.J Kammer.
All that could change quickly in the next few months leading up to their album's release. The buzz about Rearview Mirror is shaping up within the record industry.
The two brothers and their friends started the band in 1996 for lack of a better option.
"We're not sports people," Jason said.
"It was more fun to make noise," Olson adds.
Naming the band was more difficult than starting it.
"It was like four parents trying to name a baby," Jason said.
They threw out Thistle - too country.
They flirted with the Creepers, and that eventually became their pseudonym for occasional gigs where they played only cover songs.
Kammer's mother suggested Rearview Mirror while driving. It also happened to be a Pearl Jam song. The name stuck.
The band's first big gig was Sweet Corn Days in nearby Lime Springs.
They rcorded their first album at Catamount Studios in Cedar Falls in four days, back when they were heavily influenced by Limp Bizkit and Korn - an angst-ridden early phase they now regret.
"If I had heard us, I don't think I would have been very supportive," Olson said.
Club gigs ensued, mostly across the Iowan border. The Rearview Mirror guys were getting into bars before any of their classmates could, as the sober entertainment for a roomful of revelers.
The band's first big break came courtesy of a connection by Kammer's mother: She knew Bobby Vee's son, Tommy, whose attorney heard the band play in La Crosse, Wis.
Attorneys met managers, managers knocked on music industry doors, and it took off from there.
[snipped really boring and not very relative to the original meaning of the article parts]
Guitarist Olson calls his band "the Iowa band that really hasn't played in Iowa, ever."
That has changed in the last month or so as Rearview Mirror left Cresco behind and trekked its way around the country. Its tour van is equipped with an XBox and TV - close enough to a limo as far as the guys are concerned.
[cut out really boring parts again]
Steve Lillywhite has shaped milestone albums for 20 years, so it's no small potatoes for him to hype the first band signed to his new label as Iowa's answer to U2.
"They could be the next big thing from Iowa," he said with conviction, from California. "Slipknot has sort of opened a few doors."
Lillywhite and the band made their first connection over the internet. Demodiaries.com turned him on to Rearview Mirror. He flew to La Crosse, Wis., to hear the band in concert. Duly impressed, he recorded its "All Lights Off" debut album in Minneapolis.
What he discovered in Rearview Mirror, Lillywhite explained, were young men willing to "live or die in the band, which you get outside of major metropolises."
Iowa incubates raw, unsullied idealists, and these idealists reminded him of four Irish lads from the early 80's. "They just has that thing, the same spirit that I found in U2 when they were 17 years old," he said.
Lillywhite is looking forward to introducing his new band to an overseas audience. "You see them rise up, how they deal with the fame. The problems only start when the success comes.
"U2 is the only band who has managed to dodge the bullet."
------------------
"You must not look down on someone just 'cos they are 14 years old. When I was that age I listened to the music of John Lennon and it changed my way of seeing things, so I'm just glad that 14 year olds are coming to see U2 rather than group X." - Bono, 1988
