7D7D

A new sound is happening driven by three forces of nature known as Tim Commerford, Mathias Wakrat and Jonny Polonsky. These powerful and unique elements have come together to form the trio, 7D7D.

Raised in Irvine, California, Tim learned the bass and began to channel a tough childhood into music. By the time he was in his early 20’s he was in Rage Against The Machine. Tim was also in Audioslave (where he met Jonny) and Prophets of Rage. French born Mathias first fell in love with percussion through his uncle who played, and began studying it at age 11, before moving to Los Angeles, where he would later meet Tim. Tim and Mathias were fast friends, sharing a passion for mountain bikes and John Coltrane, though it took many years before they performed together in a band.

In 2015 the two were both in the trio Wakrat, which Tim described as "unapologetic, unrelenting, unbridled and uncensored. Understood?" However, this could be said of every band Tim has been in.

Tim and Jonny first started writing music together after Audioslave broke up. Jonny had been a guitar tech, but that humble position is deceptive - Jonny was discovered in the 90’s by Reeves Gabrels, and Frank Black from the Pixies helped produce his first demo. Jonny was then signed by Rick Rubin to his label American Recordings. Jonny went on to join Puscifer, he has toured with many artists including Tom Morello, and he has recorded with Kevin Haskins and David J of Bauhaus, and played on the last two Johnny Cash albums produced by Rick Rubin and more.

The Volebeats

Before Americana caught on as a phenomenon in the mid-'90s, The Volebeats were hot on the trail of such seminal groups as Rank and File, The Long Ryders, and others who were combining roots rock with a British invasion hookiness and a healthy dose of twang. Born in and around the Motor City in 1988, the Volebeats formed when Jeff Oakes and Mattthew Smith gathered together an informal assemblage of musicians and songwriters from different bands in Detroit's underground music scene to jam on cheap hard to tune guitars in Jeff’s basement. Starting as an acoustic outfit, lead guitarist/vocalist Matthew Smith and vocalist/guitarist Jeff Oakes began writing songs along with Terry Rohm and Jeff's brother Al. With Keir McDonald (from Detroit's Medusa Cyclone) on drums, The Volebeats began performing on street corners throughout the Detroit suburbs. Their first album "Ain't No Joke" came out in 1989, and won them a loyal following. In 2005 the band was featured in Steve Martin’s “ShopGirl.” The Volebeats have released 9 albums to date, as well an EP and singles, including: Ain't No Joke (1989), Up North (1994), Sky and the Ocean (1997), Bittersweet e.p. (1995), Solitude (1999), Mosquito Spiral (2001), Volebeats County Favorites (2004), Like Her (2005), The Volebeats (2010), and Lonesome Galaxy (2022).

Bruce Bishop

Guitarist Bruce Bishop has taught multiple styles of guitar and music theory at Pitzer College and private schools for over two decades. He was a Los Angeles studio musician and performance artist, as well as an audio technician. Currently he lives and works in his music laboratory and recording studio in Northern Idaho, where he still performs professionally, both fingerstyle solo and as a duo with Beth Pederson.

The Cush

"You and I, riding on the fringes
looking for a sound" - The Cush

The search for that sound has yielded yet another brilliant record from The Cush, a band founded by husband and wife Burette and Gabrielle Douglas. This is their first record with Ben Harper's new label, Mad Bunny Records, and the 6th overall release from the band. Risk takers throughout their career, never content to be defined or restricted to a single genre, the Burlington Free Press did their best to describe them – and came pretty close - as "psychedelic space rock vibe with an Americana flavor."

"See us now as we are. Keep moving on. Before we change once again. Keep moving on."

Gabrielle and Burette were both born and raised in Texas and both come from musical families - Gabrielle's father was a classically trained pianist in his formative years. He and Gabby's mother were great dancers, they met as teenagers and found they had an instant connection with one another on the dance floor. Gabrielle took tap, jazz & ballet lessons throughout her childhood into her teen years. "Dancing to music was my first experience with how much we can communicate through the art form of rhythm, melody and lyrics." So, when I began to play and write music, this already felt very familiar and comfortable to me."

Burette's grandparents had a country music band together - his grandfather played guitar and his grandmother was on the drums. Burette used to go to their shows as a young child, and would even fall asleep in the guitar case. As he tells it, that was the same guitar case which he would later fetch out from under a bed to teach himself to play: "I knew that we had a decent acoustic guitar that my grandfather had given my mom. When I was 16 I got it out and started trying to learn it. I learned some chords from my grandfather, and a couple from my uncle, and I never stopped playing."

In addition to their grandparents and parents being musicians, all kinds of music was always playing in each of their households, whether on the radio or on the turntable, there was a constant array of sounds. They grew up soaking in the sounds of 70s rock and country radio, then the new wave era and alternative sounds from the 80's & 90's. Their influences are many and range from The Beatles, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Pretenders, Billie Holiday, Fleetwood Mac, The Cure, and Sonic Youth just to name a few.

In fact it was their love of music that bonded them when they first met through mutual friends in 1993. Gabby recalls, "Burette and I began dating a few months into playing music with one another. We began to write our own songs separately, and then sometimes together. Then we formed our first band, Buck Jones, in 1993." Buck Jones recorded three full albums and toured much of the US before breaking up in 1999. A year later, they formed their new band, The Cush.

In 2001, Burette and Gabrielle relocated to Burlington, Vermont where The Cush released their debut self-titled record. The band began touring the Northeast US, developing a loyal following. In 2006 they released their next record, "New Appreciation for Sunshine" on Undertow Records. The following year they were invited and performed at NXNE in Toronto, as well as at The Dream Machine festival, which included their first UK tour.

In 2010, they returned to their home state of Texas and released their third self-recorded album, "Between the Leaves". The album was recorded in various locations amid several east coast tours between Vermont and Texas. 2011 saw the band return for their second UK tour, which also included dates in Italy, Sweden, and Germany. In 2012 they were invited to perform at Austin Psych Festival, now known as Levitation.

The band's following continued to grow and touring Europe brought recognition and interest from labels abroad. In 2015 they released the psych rocking "Transcendental Heatwave", released jointly via Norwegian label Follyphone Records and Dream Machine Records in the UK/Europe and Dreamy Soundz /Synaptic Empire in the US. In 2016 they did their third UK tour, including a stop at the Supernormal festival in the UK, as well as shows at the Isle of Man, and in Norway. This tour yielded the 2018 release, "The Isle of Man EP" released on Dreamy Life Records. These songs were written by Burette and Gabrielle and recorded by Gyp Buggane in three days at Ballagroove Studios. With the help of their mates on tour with them, they all created much that totally encapsulates their experiences during their stay on the beautiful isle. In 2017, The Cush performed at Waking Windows music festival in Vermont. And in 2019 they performed at the Fortress Festival in Texas. They have had many opportunities to share the stage with national/international bands of all types over the years. As their sound is undefined and goes well with many genres, they draw a variety of listeners and fans of all ages.

"Find your way into the dark
Tasting fears that take of your spark
Kind side shine so bright
Behold the glow, a tranquil sight
will shine, a love divine.
Fly, Fly, Fly, Fly"

2020 finds the band back in their native Texas, continuing their pursuit of new sounds and ready to release their latest. The LP, "Riders in the Stardust Gold" was written and recorded in Fort Worth, Texas. Burette and Gabrielle wrote the songs and recorded band members Ben Hance on guitar, keys, and Austin Green on drums/percussion. The 6 new songs, "Haters", "Beneath the Lines", "Chariots of Smog", "Ajna Returns", "Fly" and "Daydream Beach" each take you on a journey to be returned with a new state of being before going back into the stardust again. The LP will be released on Mad Bunny Records in the Spring of 2021, with the first single "Haters" out in January 2021.

Birdthrower

"Dad, who throws the birds?" The little boy asked.

Leaver pondered the question for a few seconds.

"Birdthrower," he answered.

The answer seemed to satisfy the boy. The word rang in Leaver's ear. He thought it might make a good name for his next incarnation. That night, just to make it official, Leaver picked up his guitar and wrote a song called "Birdthrower".

"I felt like it was finally time to throw some birds. The plan was always to wait until I felt ready," Robert O. Leaver aka Birdthrower says about going public with his songwriting. He's been writing songs for years, playing out occasionally in various guises, and making demos at home. Leaver taught himself to play at the end of his teens, using the guitar to write songs. Those creations found a brief home in a trio he fronted called Raw Believer, then a duo called Crash&Burn. Leaver was Crash and when Burn tragically passed away he decided it was time to go solo, and Birdthrower was born.

However, it wasn't until he literally crawled up Manhattan that Leaver got his lucky break, and Birdthrower wound up with a self-titled debut record produced by Ben Harper as the inaugural release on Harper's own label, Mad Bunny Records.

Harper recalls, "I saw a man on his hands and knees crawling through Manhattan in a blue business suit. The world was walking by him as if crawling up Broadway was standard practice. I personally found it highly devotional. A man crawling home. Instinctively, I felt he was someone I needed to know. Turns out, he was also a songwriter, and not just any songwriter – this was Birdthrower."

The two became friends and Harper signed on to produce the record. "In the making of this album," Harper said, "Birdthrower recorded these songs live in one, two, three takes tops. As a musician I was inspired — as a producer, it was a dream gig."

The 11 original tracks were recorded in Silverlake in Los Angeles, California at Sheldon Gomberg's Carriage House studio with members of Harper's rhythm section Jimmy Paxton and Jesse Ingalls. The songs – "Days of Never Before", "Dreaming, Crawl Away With Me", "Medication", "Abandon Me", "Let Me Drive", "Close Now", "Pray", "Dig A Hole", "Give You Up", and "Birdthrower" – share the same breath, a warm acoustic thread running through them. They also share a sophisticated poetic and tongue-in-cheek sensibility, evidence of Leaver's previous experience as a published poet and writer.

One of the standout tracks on the new record, the song "Crawl Away With Me", is directly inspired by the actual crawl.

"I was at a somewhat desperate juncture, " Leaver says, "I was looking for a way to blow my own mind, without blowing up my life. ‘Crawling Home' was conceived as a climate crisis protest act, a kind of low down solo funeral march, but in the end I did it without explanation and let people come to their own conclusions."

After crawling, Leaver began Hole Earth, a project that took him to both sides of the Atlantic in the same blue business suit digging round holes, which he occupied in the fetal position before rising again and moving on. Needless to say he got a song out of that journey as well, "Dig A Hole".

Born and raised near Thoreau's Walden Pond, Leaver has always shared a deep connection to the outdoors and has worked a series of jobs as a stonemason, landscaper and gardener.

This love of the outdoors is apparent throughout Birdthrower's music, which is inspired by the natural world and the struggles of being human. "Songwriting is the one thing I know how to do that helps me try to make sense of my life and capture what it feels like."

"I'm a wind blower/see the storm clouds pass?/ who exactly do you think it is that kicked that storm's ass? I'm a pretty birdthrower/ see them up in the air? How do you think they got there? I'm the sun raiser/and you were up all night/who exactly do you think it is that's gonna bring back the light? Nobody gets it/nobody cares/ it was my idea to put you people in pairs/ I'm a birdthrower… and I want you to fly…."

Ben Harper, whose ongoing quest to find and share original new music, artists, and songs said it best: "I love Birdthrower's music and I want the world to have the chance to love it as much as I do. Take a listen. Thanks, Ben"