Battleme is the story of an artist’s re-birth and re-discovery. It is the timeless sound of an artist coming of age. A view from the other side. Songs with no boundaries. Battleme is Matt Drenik, an artist who has always grown up in music environments from his early days in the Cincinnati suburbs, to his life in Austin, to his current residency in Portland. His early influences came from his brothers -- one was in a noise band, the other with a keen taking towards New Wave. “You had the Jesus Lizard in one room and The The in the other. I was just a kid. I didn’t understand the difference between the two.” While he didn’t understand the differences, these would be key stepping stones to the evolution of Battleme.

Battleme really began in 2009 on accident when Matt Drenik, the frontman of the Austin-based band Lions, was diagnosed with uvetis, an auto immune disease that affects the eyes of which there is no known cause or cure. At the time of his diagnosis, Matt was coming off of four years recording and touring with Lions who exploded noise and energy – touring nationally and internationally with the likes of the Toadies, Local H, and Monster Magnet. Fans gravitated towards their raucous live shows as spectacles of Drenik’s heavy state of mind. 

After he got sick, things began to change. He fell in love all over again with the songs on the Rolling Stone’s Sticky Fingers, Beck’s Mellow Gold, and Flaming Lips’ Clouds Taste Metallic. With his head full of ideas and a refreshed outlook toward songwriting, Drenik set out to create something different. The music is a clear departure from what he was doing in previous projects. He decided to call this new project Battleme. 

Soon after, his songs began to show up in FX’s Sons of Anarchy. He was asked to open for Joe Ely at the famed Cactus Cafe. His version of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My” saw over a million hits on YouTube. 

Wanting a change, Drenik moved to Portland, OR in the summer of 2010. He spent the next several months recording over 40 songs in his girlfriend’s basement, bending from one genre to the next. He eventually narrowed them down to an 11 song record. After burning a few CDs for friends, Thomas Turner from Ghostland Observatory got a copy and responded. Drenik thought Turner might offer him a show with Ghostland. Instead, Turner gave him a record deal.

With Turner signed on to produce, the two lived and breathed the songs for the next six months. They sent mixes back and forth, collaborating on the sound. Drenik’s songs took on new forms – powerful hooks, bottom heavy grooves, and ethereal textures blended effortlessly with drifting, falsetto vocals to create an adventurous mix of post-modern rock and soul that would come to define the record. Synthesizers generate “Touch.” A solitary guitar builds into a wall on “Trouble.” The cosmic call to kill the quiet in “Wire” gives way to the sweet satisfaction of a “Killer High.” Genres coalesce, dividing lines disappear, and Battleme allows the sounds to create their own field of vision. A view from the other side. Songs with no boundaries.

Battleme’s eponymous debut on Trashy Moped Records is set for release April 24, 2012.

Who is Howard Ivans? A stylized frequency? A flutter of heartbeats? An outline of emotion? Another gambler waiting for that strike of lightning playing the zero-sum game of love? Or is he the blurry figure at the edge of frame? “Someone that likes being in the dark room and dark stages, where the sound is brighter than the face.” A man away from himself. Keep breaking it down boy. On a path to obsession, his head full of fury and dreams, Howard Ivans is high-stepping through the rolling sea of time.

Ivan Howard has encountered this character before. Surely he was an uncredited guest when the Rosebuds recorded a song-by-song cover of Sade’s Love Deluxe. And when Prince showed up at a Gayngs show and ripped a solo offstage on his unplugged purple Strat, Ivan Howard and Howard Ivans watched him in disbelief, flickering back and forth in that sublime, surreal moment. But the first proper appearance was on a 45 for Spacebomb Records, “Red Face Boy b/w Pillows”; then the man could really breathe, stretch out and hear his own voice, see his hands in the light. There is a strange duality between the unassuming country boy who grew up barefoot on a tobacco farm in North Carolina and the neo-soul entertainer crooning over staccato Billie Jean guitar lines, but it’s not a reflection, more a yin and yang situation, interlocking bodies of shadow, imagination, and abstracted history. The tension is fascinating. No past or future, only a presence.

Beautiful Tired Bodies is Howard Ivans’ opus – is it the magnum or a sweet 750 ml? Only time will tell. Either way, it’s pure magic, a soft funk tone poem to lost identity, the grip of love, and trying to live in the present as time rushes under the bridge. Feelings at the edge of feeling, a sound that Ivan Howard dreams about. What a sound to dream about, lush, muscular, brooding, rising and falling with the lungs of live musicians, crystalline guitars, enchanting string arrangements—a real show. Alongside the team of Spacebomb co-producers Cameron Ralston and Trey Pollard, and a first call cast of Richmond, Virginia’s finest musicians, Howard Ivans has signed his name to a smooth statement of purpose. And whoever he is, he’s playing an idiosyncratic R&B game with passionate skill.

Dana Buoy (of Akron/Family) is a multi-talented instrumentalist and songwriter based out of Portland, OR. With thick synths, soaring vocal hooks, and washed out harmonies, Dana Buoy’s infectious energy and indie-pop prowess combine to make his new release, 'Preacher,' his finest collection of feel-good jams yet.
Description
Dana Janssen left Brooklyn in 2010 for the allure of an unknown life on the West Coast. Also a key member of the experimental art rock band Akron/Family, he moved to Portland, OR and shortly thereafter began his new indie-pop project, Dana Buoy. Inspired by his new surroundings and a new romantic interest, it wasn’t long before he wrote and released his full-length debut 'Summer Bodies' in 2012. Conceptually based around the excitement and mystique of finding someone to fall for, 'Summer Bodies' is upbeat and care-free, as has become so characteristic of Dana Buoy’s music. Now with 2014s’ 'Preacher,' a five-song EP, Dana’s youth and attitude are still front and center but with a new depth as a result of growing up and moving on. Written and performed entirely by Dana Buoy himself, and co-produced by Dana and Abe Seiferth, this EP's cathartic pop is more polished than ever. From the head-bob inducing “It’s Alright,” to the warm and fuzzy synths that weave together the title track, 'Preacher' is infectious and real, and ready for every moment to feel good.

The band was founded in 1992 as a project of Max Marzocca (drums) under the name of Piper of Hamelin

Current line-up
Diego Fanelli - Vocals 
Domenico Mele - Guitars
Lorenzo "Fünj" Signorile - Bass
Max Marzocca - Drums

Former/past member(s)
Vocals:
Mike Tarantino (Penis Leech)
Raffaele Fanelli (Motherly Sin)

Guitars:
Marco Aromatario (Exhumer (Ita), Requiem K626, Mutala, Ad Noctem Funeriis (as Nihil), Corpsefucking Art, Stench of Dismemberment)

Bass:
Michael Maggi
Vito Laterza