All Hail St. Louis

Greenwheel just may perhaps be the best band of whom you've never heard. I have loved them since their Island debut came out years ago. They wrote the best break-up song ever - "Breathe"(it deff. was the soundtrack to me shedding many tears during my first major break-up)- and never got any credit for it. Except when Melissa Etherige covered it and then came the Grammys. So of course, Island, like many major labels only concerned with marketing music no one really likes but is shoved down consumers throats, dropped Greenwheel.




Fast forward to present day. Meet Go Van Gough- the reincarnation of Greenwheel. The band describes their sound as a cocktail of "sex, lust and anger......lost love and winning hope.....at times.....frantic and visceral,.......at times melodic as a lullaby." There are still signature Greenwheel vibes, a lot because Ryan's vocals are so distinctive. While their self-released debut, RUBY AND THE STARLIGHT BALLROOM, doesn't have any mega-singles, you'll still find yourself coming back to hear the songs. Particularly "So In Love." That chorus had me at hello.

This time the boys are doing it for themselves and I'm excited to see where it'll take them. If they're in your town, don't miss the show. Excellent stage presence and captivating performances will await you.

www.myspace.com/govangoghtheband





I found out about Go Van Gough a few days ago. This morning, while eating oatmeal and opening Planet Verge mail, I came across a band called Autovein. Of course, I dismissed them almost immediately, having never heard of their indie label, Outlook Music. And when the lead sentence mentions "armed with self-produced demos, self-produced video...." you kinda feel like it's gonna be, well shitty. It's bad, I know. But we get countless crap CDs sent here everyday and that's usually the case.

Anyway, I read the rest of the short bio. Turns out the band has supported notable acts on tour, including Fallout Boy, Coheed and Cambria and my favorite boys, LOSTPROPHETS. Then I looked at the press photo and recognized one of the members because he is Brandon from Greenwheel! The bio didn't mention where the band was from (tsk, tsk) so I jumped on their MySpace page and saw that yes, the band was from St. Louis, Missouri.

Autovein are pretty mainstream rock and I can deff. see them getting radio play. The song "Bullet In An Angel" should start breaking the path for them. I like it more every time I listen to it. The vocals sorta remind me of Breaking Benjamin. And even though the members of Breaking Benjamin are jerks who literally walked out of the venue to go brush their teeth or something when I was supposed to interview them and never came back, I still like their music. You just won't catch me supporting their live shows anymore. But that's off topic.

Go listen to Autovein. They were once signed to Columbia (there goes that major labels suck thing again) so you know they're doing something right. The chorus' are infectious.

www.myspace.com/autovein

*Joelle