| CD REVIEW Famous |
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Band: Famous I’ve no clear idea when exactly this New Hampshire based trio (composed of singer: guitarist Ben Phillips, bassist/ backing singer Mark Damon, and drummer Jamie Perkins) was formed, as any info portaining to that event is simply lacking! However, by the end of 2005 the guys had recorded their 9-track full-length debut All The Wicked with the aid of producer Kato Khandwala (Paramor, Breaking Beljamin) at New York City’s Threshold Music studio and released it through their own label Burning Records (delivering an actual CD in stead of a mere cd-R). With influences cited at the band’s MySpace page including The Beatles (mentioned twice for good measure), Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Soundgarden, System Of A Dawn, Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Television, it’s fair to say that the guys have a very background based in several sub-genres, yet what the trio plays is a Grunge based Rock with metal fringes which has gained ‘em the citation of “…imagine Nirvana meets Led Zeppelin on crack…” from Face Magazine! A quote which is very much to the point in some of the more energized songs (although I don’t like the crack pun too much), but some of the other influences definitely come trough in the calmer tracks (there’s even an acoustic ballad to end the album) as well! Work on new material (writing sessions) was started as far back as late Spring 2007, bassist Mark around that time also occupying himself with the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, with whom he toured in Europe during Summer (time during which lyricist Ben would be occupied trying out different texts on the music that was already composed). By late September the band was apparently in the finishing stages of their songwriting, but it would take ‘em until February 2008 to join Khandwala at Elmwood Park (NJ)’s House Of Loud studio to be actually recording the stuff! Next up, Mark was granted the honor of gracing the back cover of the March issue of that year’s Fender catalog…but the exposure cllearly did not give the band the necessary ties to secure a deal with a bona fide record label. Tired of waiting around, the band posted a total of 3 new songs at myspace.com/famoustheband (alongside 3 songs off their debut album), starting in early October 2008. Those are the same tracks that we have on our Advance Songs demo, by the way, so why should I even bother trying to tell you about the details when you can discover what the band does yourselves. Just head on over to the guys’ MySpace if you’re into exhilerating Grunge-based music. By the way, the guys are stíll looking for a record deal, so if you happen to be friends of some label people whom might be interested in this, pass the news on, okay, because Famous certainly deserve the break! 89/100 Tony. |