Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos lead a group of ensemble musicians with roots in new American literature, social consciousness, 1960's communal culture and believe it or not the late 90's electronic rock scene in LA as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.After taking a leave of absence as front man for from the highly successful Ima Robot (1998-2008), a dance/electronic rock act in 2008 due many factors including drugs and an increasing personal distance from the clubs and crowds involved with the band, Alex Ebert began writing a novel about a modern saint. In Ebert's words Sharpe was: "sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind, but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love."
Ebert, with singer Jade Castrinos, recruited a group of highly trained musicians in Southern California some coming from an art and music collective called The Masses. The group's first full length album "Up From Below" was released in July 2009 and is Edward Sharpe's debut in a musical sense.
The band's current line-up is a 10 piece consisting of:
Alex Ebert – vocals, guitar, percussion, piano
Jade Castrinos – vocals, guitar
Stewart Cole – trumpet, percussion, keyboards, tenor ukulele, vocals
Josh Collazo – drums, percussion, saxophone, vocals
Orpheo McCord – drums, percussion, marimba, vocals
Nora Kirkpatrick – accordion, vocals
Christian Letts – guitar, vocals
Seth Ford-Young – bass, vocals
Mark Noseworthy – guitar, vocals
Christopher "Crash" Richard– vocals, percussion
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros released their second full-length album, "Here", in May of 2012. Their third album, the self-titled "Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros", was released on July 23rd 2013 a week after their performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes - Janglin
- Official Site, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
- Wikipedia, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
There many descriptions of southern California's The Growlers. They enjoy a large audience on national college radio which, God bless it, calls the group everything from folk to psyche rock. The truth seems to be that they incorporate everything in between these two musical polar opposites and make these influences into their own sound.
The unusually gifted and soulful work of Jamie N. Commons has been prominently featured in TV's runaway smash hit show The Walking Dead on the AMC network. His track
2012 Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Donovan has a dubious reputation as The Pop Star Who Lost An Argument With Bob Dylan - famously documented by cameras backstage in a portion of D.A. Pennebaker's classic 1967 documentary Don't Look Back when Bob Dylan and Donovan surrounded by a hoard of reporters and hangers-on (all in quasi Beat regalia - shades and sandals). After Donovan played a trademarked wistful, chart-topping love song ("To Sing For You") Dylan followed up by playing a wry-faced version "It's All Over Now Baby Blue".
2008's "Introducing Hanggai", also