The Violet Lights

The Violet Lights are a rock duo based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California. Recording their debut EP, Sex & Sound, at the legendary Hollywood studio Sunset Sound, they emerged with what is being described as a "Velvet Underground descendant collection of songs more befitting of the 'garage' label than, say, The Strokes" and a sound labeled "a mash-up of Britpop, NYC garage rock and West Coast guitar musings." Sex & Sound has begun to garner media coverage worldwide, with critics taking notice of the high production standards and fun, radio-friendly quality of the self-produced, self-funded record. Bloggers are designating the five-song effort as "full of muscular guitars and hummable hooks," and deeming the songs "energetic and catchy" while predicting, "Sex & Sound is undoubtedly all they will need to find success." In late 2011, the EP appeared at #12 on the CMJ Radio 200 Adds Chart and remained on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart for several weeks. In support of its upcoming April 2012 release, The Violet Lights embarked on a on extensive two-month North American tour in early 2012, including performances at South by Southwest in March.

Young Digerati
Young Digerati are the architects of a synth-heavy, Anglo-centric, (small “r”) romantic sound that could have been built only in San Francisco (or in 1985). So it's no shock they’ve already scored airplay on their hometown’s influential Live 105 - or that they've been booked on the station’s BFD Festival and on DJ Aaron Axelsen’s legendary “Britpop” night Popscene. The prototypical Young D tune features lushly programmed keyboards and guitars, layered over live drums and bass. It inevitably stars a girl whom the band clearly will never get, and guys with whom they’ll never quite fit in. “Why do the girls I like move to the South to start a brand new life?” That’s the ego-crushing query that crops up in the very first line of the debut single, The Dauphin. The band’s expanding cycle of songs consistently and un-self-consciously calls to mind the Pet Shop Boys collaborating with the Postal Service on the soundtrack to a lost John Hughes film. They're currently writing, recording, and performing gigs on the West Coast and around the Bay Area.

Dogcatcher
Dogcatcher started as a rhythm section. We were backing up bands in San Diego playing as many as five sets in a row on a Friday night and then walking to the beach in the morning. Late morning. We set up some mics in our living room and started writing songs and made an EP called Feudalism, which we put out with an art group called Sezio. We only printed 50 or so copies of it. Now Dogcatcher is i...n Mountain View, California, and plays kinda dirty, jazzy, folk music. We just released a record called KILR that we did at the Red Rock Recording Company out near Google, which was produced by our good friend Nate Lewis (fotomokio). Currently, we’re playing up and down the California coast (mostly because we like looking at it), but if there’s a good spot for us to play near you, shoot us an email and we’ll try to make it happen. We have Ramon Esquivel on lo-fi hip hop drums, Jared Milos on bass, Ryan Kingsmith filling in the cracks on electric guitar Andrew Heine behind a Rhodes and a Rickenbocker.