Lennon To Shoot New Video

Lennon will be shooting a video for "My Beautiful" in Los Angeles on 3/5 and 3/6 The Group over at Lennon Online hope to have it up on the their web site before the end of March. 
¶Posted by Team Rock 6:41 AM

 

downBleed CD Release Party – “Bleed For Me”

By: Xyon

In the winter of 1989, two cousins dreamed about playing the guitar, forming a band, and making an album. Soon both cousins were in bands and developing their style of music. Time passed, the two cousins eventually got married, but they never lost their passion for the music. Dawg (Kris), the lead guitarist, married a wife who supports his music career and Doug Fletcher, the drummer and lead singer, married Leona Drake. Leona had been playing the bass since she was fourteen and would use her talent to complete the band that was first called “Cheap Disguise”. As any band will tell you, finding the right place where it all “clicks” is a tough and lengthy process, but when it does it’s magical. That magic has been found with downBleed and their debut album “Bleed For Me.”

“For awhile we called ourselves ‘Cheap Disguise’ but soon our music started evolving and getting heavier,” Doug said during a round table discussion I had with the band before their show at O’Malley’s in Bristol. “One day Dawg came in and asked if we would care if we changed the name, and you know, it was the best thing to happen to us. Everything started clicking and meshing together. We started getting gigs and now this album!”

According to Doug and Leona, Dawg came up with the new name. “It was really pretty simple. I was tired of coming up with names that were already taken. For instance, for about – what Doug, 24 hours? – we called ourselves “Lifebleed” after one of the songs on the CD. But we found a band on the Internet that already had that name. It was just long enough time for me to really want that name, to really start feeling it. I was really let down so I just started putting together words that I thought sounded cool together. When I came up with downBleed, I presented it to the group and they liked it. We do everything as a group.”

The total group effort is what makes this band strong. Leona explains, “Not only are we family, but we like being around each other. That makes it so much easier. We collaborate equally on all the songs – from writing of the lyrics to writing the music.” Doug added that the after they get all their thoughts and ideas down, he organizes it into the format the band uses.

When asked how the recording process went, they all said, “Long!” with grins all around. The producer on the album is local favorite Gene Hughes and they recorded both in Johnson City and Bristol. According to Leona, “If it didn’t sound right to Gene, he would make us do it over and over until it sounded right. He was very professional getting everything to sound the way we wanted it to. It was so worth it!”

The band had a previous recording of demos that they recorded and gave out free at the shows. When this was mentioned they all got slight grimaces on their faces and Leona said, “The demo did not capture the character that the new CD has.” Doug said that because they are such perfectionists it was hard to hand those out, but it was all they had to get their name out to the public.

DownBleed’s new CD entitled, “Bleed For Me” will be available Feb 20 when they play Heather’s Hide-Away with a full line up that includes: Omega Tribe, WFO, and Underpass. If you buy it from the band it will be $6, but you will be able to find it soon at DADS (in Johnson City, Bristol, and Abingdon) and at the Music Palace (Rogersville) for $8.99.

Before long my time with downBleed had run out. First Dawg was called on stage for his sound check. As he left he said, “If you like heavy music then I think you will like this CD.” Next Leona’s was called. As she got up from the table she said, “You know, it is not about the money. What we hope to get out of this CD is some exposure, to help build our future playing the music we love.” As Doug watched his wife walk over to the stage he said, “You know, our music is from the heart, whatever we felt – that is what we wrote.”

From the advanced copy I was given, this album will live up to every expectation and is just a preview of things to come from downBleed. Samples of a couple of the songs from the new CD have been put on the Team Rock website (http://teamrock.blogspot.com) and are available to download. This CD has been a long process and I say, from the heart as well, It’s about time!

 
¶Posted by Team Rock 1:24 PM