Rye Coalition

Genre: Rock Hometown: Jersey City NJ
www.ryecoalition.com

Friday, March 17   11:15 p.m.
Emo's Jr.   (603 Red River St)

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  Rye Coalition - Pussyfootin'
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Nowadays it is no secret that major labels bypass genuine art and creativity in favor of forcing their bands to manufacture “hits” for mass consumption. Rye Coalition proudly professes to know nothing about the criteria for a modern day radio hit single. And why would they? The band which consists of Ralph Gregory Cuseglio, Jon Gonnelli, David Anthony Leto, Justin Angelo Morey, and Herbert Joseph Wiley V has always written coherent records, musical journeys, quality from start to finish, as opposed to two hit singles surrounded by nine “shit sandwiches,” which is what most rock albums made today amount to.
Rye Coalition’s fourth full-length album, Curses, is all killer and no filler. It represents the band at its pinnacle unwilling to exalt any part as being greater than the whole on a twelve song romp that crushes from beginning to end. Curses is produced by none other than heavy weight hard rock champ, Dave Grohl (Scream, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Probot). But more importantly, Curses has come to represent Rye Coalition, as a band, regaining control of its own destiny after signing a major label deal with DreamWorks/SKG in 2003, then surviving said label’s sale to Universal/Vivendi and eventual house cleaning of what becomes a merge between DreamWorks and Geffen, only for the band to wind up in rock and roll purgatory on Interscope Records. Destined for the promised land, Rye Coalition leave Interscope at the end of 2004 and have the balls to demand that they be given full rights to the ownership of their record.
The mutiny is a success. The band emerges with Curses in hand and turns what could have been a Hollywood nightmare into and indie rock cream dream. In the end Rye Coalition get to make the uncompromising album that they set out to in the first place, work with Dave Grohl in the process, spend big major label dollars in doing so, are relinquished from the responsibility of paying any of it back, and now have the freedom to oversee the release of Curses by long time friend and champion of the socially unaccepted, Gern Blandsten. Rye Coalition’s guitarist Jon Gonnelli sums it up, “As a band, we felt gravely misunderstood by Interscope. Furthermore, we perceived the label’s treatment of Rye Coalition to be a symptom of their grave misunderstanding of what genuine rock music is.”
As a hard rock band with a collective personality, a sardonic sense of humor, and a history of twelve years worth of releasing records and touring with amazing bands such as the Foo Fighters, Mars Volta, Queens of the Stone Age, The Fucking Champs, Trans Am, and Dalek, only to name a few, Rye Coalition continues to exist outside of mainstream rock music’s cookie cutter regime. Front man Ralph Cuseglio explains, “Rye Coalition is a hard working live rock band that has built a fan base through performance, non-conformity, and musicianship without the help of radio or video air play.” As a group Rye Coalition’s main goals are first and foremost to become better musicians to ensure that each Rye Coalition record is a spontaneous progression toward something that the band has yet to accomplish, a snap shot of where the group is at as human beings and musicians during specific moments in time.
Rye Coalition achieves this by choosing to collaborate in the production of all their albums with MUSICIANS. 1997’s Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet and 1999’s The Lipstick Game were both engineered by Alap Momin aka The Oktopus in Dalek. 2002’s critically acclaimed album On Top was recorded by Steve Albini (Shellac, Rapeman, Big Black). With Dave Grohl on board Rye Coalition’s forth coming Curses is certainly no exception to the tradition.
In a producer, Rye Coalition need someone whom they can connect with musically, someone who understands what kind of band Rye Coalition is, and most importantly someone who shares a similar sense of humor in pursuing the creative process solely for the love of making music. Guitarist Jon Gonnelli states, “Once music becomes a means to and end and not an end in itself its purity as a mode of true self expression is corrupted thereby making it an entirely empty gesture.” That being said it seems that Grohl’s overall attitude and approach to composition resonates with the band. They hit it off and have a blast making a kick ass rock and roll record.
Grohl doesn’t take on the role of producing Curses alone. He enlists the help of right hand man/engineer extraordinaire, Nick Rasculinecz, to tweak the dials, co-produce, and mix the album. Grohl, Rasculinecz, and Rye Coalition share the common experience of coming from a punk rock background as well as a passion to create original music and connect with other people on a meaningful level during the process. What emerges from these sessions that take place at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, CA, are undoubtedly the best, heaviest, and tightest compositions of Rye Coalition’s career. Curses is an ode to the lost art of making an album in its entirety for the sake of exercising creative freedom and imagination. Don’t get me wrong here. Curses is an album of down and dirty rock and roll sure to have dudes playing air drums from Pittsburgh to Sacramento and dudettes riffing on air guitar from San Antonio to Flint. In terms of hard rock that’s out there today nothing can really hold a candle to Curses. And Rye Coalition has the live show to back it up. So thanks for your patience rock and roll children. Believe me, Rye Coalition’s fourth full-length album has been worth the wait. Curses is simply that good. Rye Coalition is coming to you in person. So in the mean time, make sweet love and don’t lose sight of the things that truly matter.