They even were mentioned in news stories by nme.com, MTV, and Reuters.Īnyone who's heard the amazing pop arrangements and Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies of these multi-instrumentalists shouldn't be surprised at all the buzz. They were named in Soundcheck magazine's "Label Alert: The 411 for Lovelorn A&R Reps" section, which proclaimed that WLSTaF "will slay you" live, and "you will die of pure, unadulterated happiness." They received a shout-out from Miami New Times music editor Arielle Castillo, who called them "a bunch of shaggy, long-haired types with a really pleasant, tripped-out, fleshed-out, psych-y sound." They got props in numerous national music blogs, from and Some Velvet Blog to and ultra8201. You couldn't go anywhere at the 2008 SxSW music festival in Austin without hearing somebody rave about Tempe band What Laura Says Thinks and Feels. And in an era when studio wizardry often masks musical ineptitude, being able to say your group is a "live band" is quite an accomplishment. In the studio, TDO is solid, but the live show is where the trio really comes unhinged and rocks it. Given that frontman Brian Chartrand names Steely Dan as one of his biggest influences, it's no surprise that these jams are often keyboard-heavy and lean in a progressive-rock direction. Like the Grateful Dead, Ten Dollar Outfit takes its studio recordings and stretches them into epic, extemporaneous odysseys in a live setting. The band's latest (and only) studio album, East Meets West, displays the Phoenix trio's ability to merge smart acoustic arrangements with unbridled jams, but it's Ten Dollar Outfit's two live albums - Live at The Clubhouse and Live at Chandler Center - that really show off the band's musical dexterity. TDO rocks on the contemporary tip, with an original sound that blends folk, rock, jazz, and pop - sometimes in a single song. UnSkinny Bop recently returned from a national jaunt called the Bad Boys 2008 Tour and is currently unleashing its brand of jock 'n' roll at a Valley club near you.
The band is so sublimely imitative of the original that - prior to Poison's reuniting - promoters were looking to book UnSkinny Bop to open shows for Poison's fellow '80s hair-metal acts Warrant and Firehouse. UnSkinny Bop is so sincere in its spot-on renditions of Poison songs that the band actually records the covers and posts the audio files on the UnSkinny Bop Web site. The band not only physically resembles '80s-era Poison - right down to the big hair, lipstick, and spandex - but does a pretty amazing re-creation of Poison's sound live, too. And there is UnSkinny Bop, the nation's foremost Poison tribute band, from right here in Phoenix. There are The Atomic Punks (a tribute to Roth-era Van Halen) and Led Zepagain (Led Zeppelin tribute), both from California. Very few tribute bands attain such a degree of national success that members of the original band recognize or perform with the tribute band or such that the tribute band is able to sustain itself on a national tour. Given their history, however, we're sure it's gonna happen someday soon. But given the ever-tumultuous state of the music industry, the boys of Digital Summer haven't accomplished that particular goal just yet. In a perfect world, the band would be signed to a major label and have its videos all over MTV. Such accomplishments came about through a combination of tireless self-promotion (including plastering their ubiquitous stickers on street signs and buildings around the Valley), mobilizing a devoted street team of die-hard DS followers, and blasting out a radio-friendly melodic hard-rock sound in the same vein as Chevelle and Staind. The five-member outfit has not only gotten its songs in regular rotation on Valley radio powerhouse KUPD, it's also landed gigs opening for major-label bands like Godsmack and Sevendust, and amassed a legion of fans who pack its shows at such venues as the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. Since they debuted on the Phoenix music scene in January 2006, the rockers of Digital Summer have experienced a level of success that many local bands would kill for.
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