This month there’s seems to be a rather unusual alignment of stars... local stars that is. Local bands from our region including Antigone Rising, Bayside, Nine Days and Straylight Run are all playing here on Long Island in March.

Artists from our area who have made the effort have moved ahead. Long Island is just your starting point, not your destination!

The band Bayside have toured relentlessly the last few years. They have overcome personell changes, deadly tragedy and yet have managed to stay on Victory Records and produced a few great CD’s, including a well done acoustic CD in the midst of their darkest hours. This month they play the Crazy Donkey with former label mates Straylight Run.

Straylight Run is another example of a local band that keeps on going. When Nolan and Noon left Taking Back Sunday (also once on Victory and has since moved on to the majors) some people thought they would never go anywhere. Straylight Run proved them all wrong and by carving they own unique sound, they broke out of the emo genre to create something more experimental. Again constant touring and online promotion built a fanbase they could count on. When they got dropped by Victory Records, they continued on their own because they had established a fan base and managed to get picked up by Universal Republic. The band is now back with a full length album on their own terms.

Antigone Rising started out playing the same crappy clubs as many of you have played around here. I know this first hand because I booked the band at the old Wrong Way Inn back in 2000 / 2001 when I did the bookings there. This was back before it became the Village Pub South, before it even had a stage. Antigone Rising played the place like they were playing Shea Stadium. People like Lou Plaia (former VP at Atlantic Records, now founder of ReverbNation.com) in the audience noticed.

Antigone Rising have also toured relentlessly. The band has also had it’s share of successes and set backs. Their new album was supposed to be released through a distribution deal with Starbucks, but unfortunately got delayed and missed the holiday shopping season. So now they band is back to the DiY route.

The band Nine Days made their bones playing a well-attended Monday night residency at The Village Pub in Port Jefferson. Landing a record deal with Sony 550 they released their major label debut, The Madding Crowd in 2000 and struck gold with “Absolutely (Story of a Girl).”
You would think that was it for the boys, all easy street, right? Well turns out landing a record deal isn’t the end of a story afterall. I had the followup album single “Good Friend” in rotation at WCWP when SONY yanked the plug on them.

After much legal wrangling the band went back to DiY and released “Flying the Corporate Jet” in ‘03 on their own record label. Last January they released their first new CD since 2003, “Slow Motion Life (Part One)” and now return to our area for some live performances.

We here at Aural Fix would like to welcome you all home and wish you continued success on your own terms!

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