Explone (record release) with Spanish for 100 and Boxcar Rebellion

Explone

Explone is the music of Patrick Porter, Josh Williams, Kyle Stevens and Scott Andrew. Lured by lighthouses such as Cheap Trick, Hüsker Dü, Nada Surf and Swervedriver, Explone charts a confident course through frenzied power-pop guitars, bittersweet melodies and occasional sprawling shoegaze crescendos. The resulting music is indie rock drunk on melody and melancholy. 

Patrick Porter formed Explone in 2005 as a recording project and an outlet for his own songs. A veteran of many Seattle bands including Crystal Radio, The Bourbonites and Red Jacket Mine, with Explone he stepped out of the sideman role and up to the microphone for the first time. Inspired by ornate pop artists like The Spinanes and Josh Rouse, Porter wrote a set of textured, intimate songs and set to work recording them. Initially joined by Josh Williams on drums, Porter did the rest and the pair released Crooks, their debut album. Hardly a typical singer-songwriter album, Crooks created a band feel before the band had fully materialized.

With an album to champion, Explone played shows around the Northwest while gradually evolving from a songwriting and recording project into a full-fledged band. Scott Andrew joined on bass, followed soon after by longtime friend Kyle Stevens on guitar. Pretty soon the last vestiges of singer-songwriter-ism had been purged, replaced by thick blankets of electric guitar atop the inventive and solid foundation of Williams and Andrew. Explone had morphed into a wholehearted rock band, and the next obvious step was to make a wholehearted rock album.

Teaming up once again with producer and engineer Shawn Simmons (Jen Wood, Grand Hallway, The Devil Whale), Explone began crafting a new batch of songs. This time the guitars stepped unabashedly to the fore, as Porter drew on a more amplified set of influences: 70's power pop, 80's post punk, and English shoegazers from the 90's. Working at Studio Litho in Seattle, the band molded the new group of songs into a sharp-edged whole, producing the upcoming release Dreamers/Lovers.

When one new song ("St. Yesterday") was leaked to independent radio flagship KEXP early in the recording process, it became a featured Song of the Day and received airplay for weeks, garnering Explone some new fans and building anticipation for the full album. Set for release in June 2010, Dreamers/Lovers caps a time of transformation and kicks off a time of celebration for Explone.

Spanish For 100

After weathering the underground Chicago indie circuit for a number of years, Illinois native, Aaron Starkey, packed up his guitars and moved west to the temperate environ of Seattle. Meanwhile, Washington State natives Corey Passons and Ross McGilvary, both former founding members of the gritty regional rock act, Preston Mill, wanted to stretch their creative legs beyond the tried and true form that Mill established during its long, successful tenure in the Northwest music scene.

A serendipitous meeting revealed a mutual affinity for Class A amps, thinline telecasters, heartfelt melodies, chips, and salsa. Their desire for honest, straightforward songcraft, deeply rooted in the tradition of Neil Young, Built to Spill, and The Jayhawks, further fueled the three musicians, and Spanish for 100 was born in the spring of 2002.

In the months that followed, Spanish for 100 performed countless shows and regional tours, culminating in their first full-length effort, Newborn Driving (released December 2003), produced by the notorious Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, The Shins).

It was the summer of 2004, and after a relentless performance schedule in support of Newborn, the band swept back into the studio, again with Phil Ek at the helm, recording the follow-up EP, Metric. However, the drum chair had been a revolving door.
Though the band itself yielded a healthy cache of talented drummer friends volunteering their services toward the cause, schedules and prior commitment conflicts prevented the band from securing a permanent replacement for the job.

Enter Chris Crumpler, another Spokane native and classiclly schooled percussionist. A veteran of the northwest music scene Chris has brought a strong presense to the drum throne enabled his survival during Spanish for 100′s 542nd drummer audition. 

Boxcar Rebellion

Boxcar Rebellion is Kathy Moore - guitar/vocals, Darryl Miller - Bass and Reade Whitwell - Drums. the band creates original music inspired by artists including Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Drive By Truckers, Lynryd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. The band mostly plays around Seattle at clubs that feature americana alt rock/alt country, and blues.