True to its moniker, Westfield's Noledge proved that its members were already well schooled in the art of unleashing an airtight audio assault when the band burst onto the local scene with 2002's Changing Tides. After releasing another EP in 2004 and supporting acts like Saliva, Jet, Trapt and Killswitch Engage along the way, guitarist Jaysun Salois revealed that Noledge's business acumen may very well rival its collective musical ability these days.
"My friend in Gone By Daylight and I just spend countless hours exchanging stories about shows, promoting, what works and what doesn't," he said. "We've been implementing some of these ways to raise awareness, revenue and what have you, and we've seen quite a jump in both fan response and band morale."
With the recently released full-length Winding Of The Heart Strings—a sprawling, 13-tune collection that is easily the band's most mature effort to date—coupled with a well-orchestrated multimedia assault that includes ringtones and text message updates for fans as well as a noticeable uptick in merchandise offerings, 2008 may very well be the year that industry execs get hip to Noledge.
And in the event that none of them feel like traveling to the Pioneer Valley any time soon, Salois says he and bandmates Ian Mulanouskus (drums), Whit Cass (bass) and Parker Sharp (vocals, rhythm guitar) will also be taking their show on the road for the first time in the band's history.
"I'm in the process of putting together our first tour, called The Atlas of Intersections, which gets us out to the entire Northeast, hitting every state," he explains. "We'll definitely be doing that this fall, and in the near future we even have our sights on touring in Japan—with the help of a friend I have over there."
Before hitting the local highways or the land of the rising sun, however, Noledge has at least two high-profile area shows of note in the immediate future. The first finds it returning to the scene of its recent CD release party, Maximum Capacity, on a special 18-plus show this Friday, Jan. 11 with Breaking Records recording artist Lourds. On Monday, Feb. 4, Noledge plays Hartford's Webster with Nonpoint, Hell Yeah, Machine Head and Ankla.
In other news, as Iron Horse Entertainment Group (www.iheg.com) publicist Jim Neill reports, the subject of the annual tribute show that occurs at the Iron Horse in January is seldom common knowledge—or even a collective effort—at the onset.
"It's completely masterminded by our talent buyer, John Sanders," he explains. "But once the word gets out, the best local musicians all get on board pretty quickly."
Answering the call for "Brilliant Disguise," this year's ode to Bruce Springsteen occurring Thursday, Jan. 10 at the Horse, are Thane Thomsen, Steve Sanderson, Kevin O'Rourke, Chris Pureka, Phillip Price and Henning Ohlenbusch, to name a choice few.
Next month—Feb. 28, to be exact—the impetus for the imitation, the big Bossman himself, replete with the E Street Band, is scheduled to perform at Hartford's newly renamed XL Center.
On a decidedly sadder note, condolences to the entire IHEG community, who, the Nightcrawler has recently learned, lost one of its own—Dona A. Mazur—a couple of days shy of Christmas.
Lastly, in the never-ending effort to end with uplifting info, we note that The Basement in Northampton kicked off its Happy Valley Showdown last Sunday. The series will continue this Sunday, Jan. 13 at 10 p.m. with Futurepunk!, The Cheater's Club, Problem With Dragons, The John Bobbit Experience and Apocalipstick entering the struggle. Jan. 20 features Prescription America, Spot On, Running With Karma, Space Captain and Rabbit, Rabbit.
The first five weeks of winners will lock horns on Feb. 17 for a grand prize that so far includes studio time, a professional photo shoot and more. For details, visit www.myspace.com/indybattle.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 698-9373 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
