This band has no past. Literally. We can tell you some things—a little of this and a bit of that—but Adam Bones is an artist--and a band--without a history. The man behind the EP Rock it Up is man with a story, to be sure, but who knows how much of it is true to begin with?
Those of you Beneath the Underground may have by happenstance slipped into a musty catacomb or back alley speakeasy-style rocker club and witnessed an early version of the Adam Bones vision. You might have been in London, or Chicago, Los Angeles, or someplace more rustic, but that was the past. Mr. Bones is arising from the shadows to stake a claim and make sure that everyone Knows His Name. Be sure you do; he will ask. This is not a test.
Likewise, his band, an All-Girl-Kung Fu-Army of riffs and beats to be dealt with, came from over the waters but emerged here (in your face, essentially), fully formed and ready for service. Unknown to each other, Adam Bones on his own and the future women of his band—Rikki Styxx, Tracy Lambertucci, and Breanna Fields—were both on a quest to find the missing components to their music machines. They crossed paths either in the Spanish Basque Country (where true-blue power pop is revered with Second Coming-like reverence) or in Brazil, depending on who is telling the story. Whatever the locale, the story that gets hinted at is that Bones was mounting a one-man intercontinental odyssey in search of lost chords and modes when he crossed paths with the trio of women, working at the time as the entertainment/R&R arm of an advance, off-the-radar unit under State Dept. jurisdiction. Indeed, capable of wielding their respective axes with assassin stealth, they were just the crew the seeker was looking for.
Rejoining to the South of France, for no particular reason other than it was not on either’s future itineraries, the quartet began to make music in earnest, Bones crafting the songs and stories, Rikki, Tracy and Breanna adding their touch to intensify the material. The band eschewed almost everything that was filtering through their laptops, radios, the air itself. This is a group that generates material from their heads, filters it through their souls, and activates it with hearts and hands (and in Ms. Styxx case, feet as well). You could call it rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock, power pop, punkified this or that, or electric music for the mind and body, the imposed genre doesn’t matter all that much. The music is made by a four-piece guitar group. There are no DJs, triggers, pre-recorded tracks, banjos, dubstep drops, or glee club vocals. Who’s got time?
While in the South of France, Adam Bones (the band) came together, but that is not all. Adam ran into Morgan Margolis in a dusty café one day. They had known each other in America and when Adam told Morgan about the group, Margolis, being a manager and concert promoter based on the West Coast, invited the band to the States. To Adam, it seemed like the least likely thing to do. So he did it.
“We came back,” says Adam, ‘because we like the musical climate.” With them they have brought a melting pot of ideas and experiences from throughout the world. “The European and South American thing, and being from America,” continues Rikki, “brought us together, and because of our travels we were opened up to an enormous plethora of musical styles.”
Despite the fact that Adam and the band are highly unconventional, and despite the fact that they have been described by some who are most certainly knowledgeable as “a high risk in the business,” Adam Bones’ wealth is his music.
Songs, songs, songs. The band has so many top-notch songs that they used to do three separate sets a night of completely different songs. Now, with the rigors of extensive touring, they know better. They’ve obviously had to cut it down; the fact is they have twenty-one tunes written for their debut long-player and they could have gone on forever. The band just doesn’t have any “B’ material. Bones songs such as “I Had You,” “Kill Ya, Baby,” “Highlights of the Lowlife” and “How Hard I Needed You” put pure musicality—richly varied melodies, lyrics of both thought and heart—back into rock ‘n’ roll.
Adam is aware that what you hear is only half the story. Given that, the first onslaught to the public not only includes the EP Rock It Up, but two simultaneously released videos from the EP designed to win friends and influence people. These videos not only set up the record, but begins to prepare the viewer for the ultimate Adam Bones experience: The Live Show.
Rock it Up is only one-half of the story. Because Adam Bones is that rarest of entities: A classic rock ‘n’ roll band, aware that the disc and the concert are two separate theatres. On stage, their spectacular showmanship combines magically with their musicianship to create a total event. You’ll be able to see them soon because the band plays 200 dates a year, taking their music to the streets. And, after all, that’s what rock ‘n’ roll is all about.
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…shrink me down again