Arron Gleason
Over the past 17 years, Aaron David Gleason has shed his skin from an alternative firebrand of the now-defunct The Midnight Radio to a funkadelic groove man named Gilly Leads to a hyper-sensitive psych-rocker. He’s been chewed up and spit out by the machine, but he’s remained firmly grounded in his own convictions. Now, he’s ready to unleash a massive, four-album collection spanning each and every vibrant chapter of his musical career.
Each of the albums, which includes two The Midnight Radio collections (All Hours and Other Hours), Gilly Leads and the self-aware manifesto This is Aaron David Gleason, slithers between genres as a way to process a storied past as much as to celebrate those musical roots that remain ingrained in his very being. His songwriting, too, bites hard and won’t let go, permitting Gleason to pen tales of sexuality, mental health, the world’s ruins and nonconformity.
Signed early on to a small-tier record label in New York City, Gleason’s sojourn began as frontman of The Midnight Radio. Having finally freed himself from “music jail,” as he calls it, he has pieced together a complete picture of those early days. All Hours and Other Hours were spliced apart in the alt-rock band’s heyday, a decision that left Gleason exasperated over the whole process.
“It would have made one fucking great album. The problem is that we left off some of the crowd-pleasing things. I’ll take some of the blame for this,” he says of the double-decker of tunes. “I thought that some songs were ‘important’ because they had better structure, and they were more lyrically biting.”
In Flagrante Delicto, which was the band’s proper label debut, was mixed by Joe Chiccarelli (Counting Crows, The Killers, Alanis Morissette) and Andy Johns (The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen) and seems to thread the high-voltage rawness of early ‘00s vintage-rock. Musically, the songs weave together jaded rockstar expression with a brooding cast-off shimmer.
Things soon fell apart for the band, but Gleason continued on as a solo act and took on an alter-ego. “I went by Gilly Leads on and offstage for the first seven years of my career. For the first five, I was really encouraged to be a character. That sort of backfired on me. In some ways, it did get the band The Midnight Radio signed and an engine behind us,” he remembers. “But when it fell apart, nobody had patience for this guy who was taking his stage persona offstage, as well. As a really insecure 25-year-old, it helped, but it hurt me, too. There was something intoxicating about putting on that armour.”
In issuing such an expansive and striking musical tapestry, Gleason situates himself as one of the boldest and most adventurous shape-shifters working today. As on Gilly Leads, he wields a searing rock vocal with screeching energy, exposing a potent, sinewy raw nerve that’s both admirable and addictive. He veers into the winding, shadowy depths of hell-bent alternative rock, combing the corners of the work of glam-rock confections. “Let’s get you up on the silver screen / Projecting the light until it beams,” he caterwauls on standout “You Belong in the Movies,” a funk that riffs up and out.
Then, with “I Was a Teenage Zombie,” he wallows in burning youthful recklessness. “I’m a zombie baby / Bringing our love back from the grave,” he howls in feverish cries. The production is appropriately spooky, as if ripped from a vintage horror flick. And Gleason’s irresistible swagger is ever-so palpable and seems to stick to the eardrums.
It’s David Bowie married with Randy Newman -- but that’s just the beginning of Gleason’s full potential.
Even before Gilly Leads was born, an otherwise ordinary visit at a local record store completely turned his entire life upside down. He explains, “I walked into a record store, and there was this drum beat. A voice comes in, and I look at the guy behind the counter. I say, ‘Is this David Bowie? ‘Cause I’ve never heard this song before. I know this is everything I’ve been looking for.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, this song is called ‘Five Years.’ You should actually buy the whole album on vinyl if you can.’ I get this album, and it sounds cliche when they say this, ‘He was talking to me.’ I felt that. He has this one weird song where he goes, ‘Jamming good with Weird and Gilly.’ I love how he dropped that into a song with no context or frame of reference like we should all fucking be like, ‘Yeah, that’s great. I know those guys’ That just made me smile.”
He adds, “I had heard about this town called Leeds. That town sounded SO very British...and I wanted out of LA, so I took the town’s name and changed it a bit to be clever. I was 17.”
Gilly Leads fermented his penchant for killer rhythms and moody, skin-crawling melodies. It is an apt introduction to the kind of stylized eccentricities upon which Gleason’s perches so comfortably.
In excavating such a now-classically throwback style, Gleason hopes to further illustrate the depth of his craft, which he also flexed in working with Kennedy, known for his work with BØRNS, Mikaela Davis, Striking Matches and more. Kennedy produced a handful of tracks on Gilly Leads and ignited within him a similar desire to shake up the status quo. “He said, ‘I have this PC from 1993. I loaded it up with samples that fell off the back of a truck in the Ukraine. Let’s light it on fire and see what happens,’” Gleason says. “I really respect his creativity and the fact that he finishes things. I hate when people don’t finish things, but he does. He works his ass off.”
“It’s a special cocktail of insanity,” he says with a wink of his fearless four-album release, which comes to an artistic apex with the fourth and final entry, This is Aaron David Gleason. The songs are more reliably thunderous in the aesthetics of ‘80s arena-rock, doused in his signature ambient-based songwriting. Twinkling and intoxicating, “Bright Lights” is a prized piece of storytelling, which is then fused with an otherworldly instrumentation. “Deep down, she’s a steal / (Andrew) Wyatt’s girl out in the pool,” he sings.
The underpinnings of heart-torn romance are ever toughened with age, and Gleason is as world-weary as he is hopeful for a future that promises a kind of freedom he couldn’t have imagined. “It’s music where I wasn’t trying to get anybody else’s taste,” he says.
In 17 years, Gleason has zig-zagged from trashy dance-rock to well-trodden conventions and monstrous, limitless grooves. His songwriting has been a thick thread connecting each moment to the next, and his voice a beacon of hope for rock music’s ongoing importance. Through issuing such an extensive snapshot of his musical journey, he seeks for greater understanding not only of himself and his place in the world but the agency the listener can only ever uncover in the healing power of music. Midnight Radio - All Hours, Midnight Radio - Other Hours, Gilly Leads and This is Aaron David Gleason is staunchly vulnerable, genre-defying and quakes with boundless heroism.
At the end of the day, Gleason’s just a guy with one helluva powerful message to share.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AARONDGLEASON
Two new albums:
Just drive
Since releasing our debut EP last summer we have been focusing
on honing our live performance and writing our next release.
Our next single “Charmer” (Recorded and produced by Nick
Brine at Rockfields Studios) is the lead track from our
forthcoming EP. Amongst recording, filming videos, playing
shows and self promoting we have been spending time writing
alongside Max Rafferty (The Kooks) to develop the 2nd EP to its
full potential.
We are four childhood friends from the Welsh Valleys. Since
forming the band in early 2017 we have played regular shows
around the UK from festivals to local independent welsh venues
(Clwb For Bach, Hobos, Fuel..) and higher capacity venues such
as the O2 Academy Birmingham.
Frontman Ryan Ward has a strong love for the Killers and King’s
of Leon, which comes through in his vocal style and rhythmic
guitar playing. The killers are one of the main influences for us,
another nod towards their style can be seen in the form of our
drummer James Orwin’s simple yet musical playing. Bass
Guitarist Dan Gullet and lead Guitarist Chris Bowen complete
our line up adding a taste of their own influences from Catfish &
The Bottlemen, Mumford & Sons and Stereophonics
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justdrivemusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justdrivemusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/justdrivemusic
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-149833556
Black suit youth
Long Island and NYC's Black Suit Youth is back with their fourth full length album "False South" out on 59X Records. Recorded in Atlanta by Peter Catalano, "False South" is a proper high energy rock album. Look for Tri-State Area shows this winter as well as an East Coast/Midwest Tour in the spring. Stream False South on Spotify now or you can download from all major platforms!
"False South" features blistering lead guitar work from Massapequa Park's Fed Canelos, heavy bottom end bass from Hauppauge's Juan Orellana, hard hitting drums from Bed-Stuy by way of Richmond Indiana's Robert Abrams, and rhythm guitar and lead vocals from Ridgewood's Bryan Maher. Black Suit Youth plays an upbeat blend of hard rock, alternative, punk, and indie with an eye for arrangement and hooks.
Black Suit Youth formed in 2004, however this line-up is a rebirth of the band and has been together for about two years. The bands goal is to spread their music to as many punk/rock fans as possible, whether its on stage in front of a thousand people or one person at a time. You can catch Black Suit Youth live this month Feb 15th at The Meatlocker in Montclaire NJ.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackSuitYouth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackSuitYouth/
Bandcamp
https://blacksuityouth.bandcamp.com/
Spotify
EMR
songwriter, musician, producer
I am a twenty-one-year-old singer, songwriter, musician and producer from Dublin, Ireland.
My journey with music began when I was very young, flicking through my dad's CD collection, spending days on end discovering my favourite sounds.
From there, I learnt how to play the guitar and began singing and writing my own music. I discovered that I have a bit of a knack for picking up instruments including bass guitar, piano and ukulele, as well as a bit of banjo, melodica and harmonica which you can find in my recordings.
I graduated with a BA Hons Degree in Music Production in 2018 and from there I have been going full-time with my music. Since October 2018, I have released two EP's that I wrote, performed, recorded and produced myself in my home studio.
Music has always been my passion, and my aim is to share that passion with the world.
Website:https://emr.bandzoogle.com/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emrcreates/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emr_creates
Spotify:
Thomas Geelens
Thomas Geelens feels passionate about playing guitar and singing pop music. He wants to portray life through his lyrics and music in a truthful way with a sense of hope.
This refreshing positive view of music is welcome in our modern day. Interestingly,
Thomas is from Maastricht, Netherlands but told us he plans to play his music and promote himself in the U.S. His hometown, Maastricht, is a university town with a multicultural feel.
The town is culturally and architecturally diverse from the beautiful old fortress to modern museums. Because it is close to both Belgium and Germany and has several universities and colleges, Maastricht has a large international and university age population.
It also has a good, dynamic arts scene of music, performing arts, and visual arts to get involved with.
But it was Thomas’ 10 day visit to New York, USA in 2010 that inspired him to begin writing lyrics and singing more seriously. Since then he has been working to write and perform his own music. His inspiration in the music world is American singer-songwriter John Mayer because of his sound and authentic approach to music. He also likes Axl Rose of Guns N’Roses, Mark Knopfler, The Script, Don Henley of the Eagles, George Michael, and Colton Avery. Thomas is drawn to strong male vocals and soulful lyrics.
Thomas has recently released his debut EP: 'Stories From The Valley, Volume 1'
Genre:
Pop/SingerSongwriter/Pop-Rock
Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThomasGeelens/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thomasGeelens
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomasgeelensmusic
Official Website: https://thomasgeelens.com
Streaming Music Links
Spotify:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stories-from-the-valley-vol-1-single/1450452660
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thomas-geelens/sets/stories-from-the-valley-vol-1
YouTube:
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