Rocky Votolato is an Italian-American musician. He was born in a rural hospital near Carrolton, Texas in 1978, though was raised in the Pacific Northwest. When his former band Lying on Loot disbanded in 1996, Rocky Votolato, along with friends Rudy Gajadhar (drums) and Andrew Hartley (bass), started playing under the name Waxwing. Rocky's younger brother Cody (The Blood Brothers) soon joined the band on second guitar, and the band recorded their debut 7" for Henry's Finest Recordings. In 1999, Second Nature Recordings released their first full-length, entitled 'For Madmen Only'. Blending straight-up rock with elements of post-hardcore, and Cody's metal reminiscent guitaring, Waxwing soon established a strong local following. It was a feat built upon with their two succeeding albums 'One For the Ride' (2000) and 'Nobody Can Take What Everybody Owns' (2002).
In 1999, Rocky Votolato branched out from his work with Waxwing, having written a handful of songs which did not really fit in with their more aggressive, fast tempo syle. Along the way he has toured with the likes of Damien Jurado, Small Brown Bike, The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, Owen and The Casket Lottery, members of the latter having provided assistance as backing musicians on occasion. His studio albums have also been littered with appearances from some of Seattle's finest musicians (including players in the bands Red Stars Theory, Sharks Keep Moving, The Blood Brothers, Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion and Sub Pop solo artist Rosie Thomas). On the production side, Votolato has worked with Matt Bayles (Pearl Jam, Botch, Murder City Devils, Hayden), along with Chris Walla (of Death Cab for Cutie). It is a creative input which has helped see Rocky progress stylistically with every release, from his low key self-titled album released in 1999 - all pretty much recorded live, right through to his recent, alt-country, folk-esque offering, 'Makers'. A video was shot for the first track of Makers, "White Daisy Passing", a song which also appears on the soundtrack of the forthcoming Seattle indie feature film Cthulu.
Rocky also starred in the film 'The Edge of Quarrel', which he worked on with Dave Larson from Excursion Records. It also includes members of the Murder City Devils and Botch, and is about a gang war between straightedgers and punk rockers.
He is married with two children, and lives in Seattle.
Rocky Votolato on Facebook
From a cabin in the woods outside of Bearsville, NY--where there's nothing much to do but watch the grass grow up with the coyotes, deer, turkeys, and yes, bears--Matt Pond let go of all those studio entanglements and hacked off a piece of his own fate. Trusting in the flicker at the end of the tunnel, he gives us The Dark Leaves, due April 13th 2010.
In this era of technological advancements, it's remarkable that something can be repaired the old-fashioned way -- dismantling the gears to put it all back together again. After almost giving up on the world outside the woods, Matt Pond, with the invaluable aid of Chris Hansen (engineer, co-producer), returns with The Dark Leaves. It's a record about surrendering and not, about being done with darkness and having something to sing about it.
Also available from these cabin sessions are the digital, nine-song EP Auri Sacra Fames (currently available exclusively online) and coming soon is "The Threeep," a set of three 7", three-song singles with as many songs each (three A-Sides, three Instrumentals, three B-Sides), which conveniently clip together into a cube. Contributing to these sessions are Eve Miller on cello, Christian Frederickson on viola and Dan Crowell on drums. The first installment of the limited-edition vinyl series is available for purchase HERE and on iTunes, with the final two being released in early 2010.
"Starting," the first single from the "The Threeep," features the following tracks:
Side A: "Starting" (from The Dark Leaves)
Side B: "Stopping" (non-album track)
Side B: "The Colour Out Of Space" (non-album track)
Matt Pond PA on Facebook
$12, ALL AGES
Doors @ 8 pm
THIS SHOW WILL BE OVER BY 12 AM. ROCKY PERFORMS AT 10 PM.
Advance tickets available @ Ticket Alternative, Criminal Records,
Decatur CD, Fantasyland Records and the following CD Warehouse locations: Buford, Duluth, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville and Roswell.
If you want to win a pair of tickets to this show just be the first person to comment on this blog posting stating that you want to win the free pair of tickets to this show!
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