Facing New York Wiki Information
Facing New York
is a two-piece, progressive, indie rock band from the Bay Area, California, formed in January 2004.
The band is currently on Five One Inc. Records and has released two full-length albums, one EP, two splits, and one single sampler.
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FACING NEW YORK TICKETS
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Biography
The original five members formed from mutual bands from the Bay Area scene. Omar Cuellar and Matt Fazzi left their band,
Tragedy Andy, to pursue a new musical direction, while Eric Frederic and Rene Carranza's band,
Locale A.M., had recently disbanded. Eric continued to write music and along with Rene, the two began to jam with Matt Fazzi. Omar was then invited into the project and the four then began Facing New York.
Brandon Canchola was the first bass player auditioned and was soon added, completing the line up.
The band then immediately began to tour extensively over the next year, gaining a reputation for their inventive sound and style with intense and energetic live performances.
In early 2004, the group participated in the
Vans Warped Tour 2004 on select dates. There, they went on to sell more than 5000 copies of the self-released
EP,
Swimming Not Treading, pushing around 500 copies a day. The band not only gained a wide new fan base from amongst concert goers, but from also the headliners that they shared the stage with.
After the final tours were over, the members returned to
San Francisco in late 2004, out of work. So they immediately began to write their first full-length and
self-titled album, which was released on
August 30,
2005.
The band then set out on another tour to promote their new album. In March 2006, the band did a tour with fellow label mates,
Eastern Youth, and then with
Taking Back Sunday in the
Western United States in April of the same year. The tour then lead them traveling as far as
Japan, in early June 2006, to do a series of shows again with
Eastern Youth and the Japanese
indie rock group,
toe.
Then in July 2006, Rene Carranza stated he would be leaving the band to go back to school:
Rene Carranza played his last show on
September 1 in
San Francisco, and the remaining members finished off the remainder of 2006 with a headling tour throughout the
U.S., with friend and label mate,
Gavin Castleton filling in.
In March 2007, the band participated in the [South by Southwest] music festival and has begun to write new material which they debut at the festival.
Matthew Fazzi played his final show with the band on April 19, 2008 at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill. The encore featured ex-bandmate Rene Carranza back again on keyboards for a dramatic finale. It was revealed on May 5 that Matt had joined
Taking Back Sunday, after the departure of
Fred Mascherino.
The band released their second full-length release "Get Hot" on October 14 2008. They decided to stay as a three piece group during the process, however on March 1, 2009 it was announced the Brandon would be leaving Facing New York. The following is an excerpt from the announcement made via Myspace:
"Hello everyone,
I'm writing with the solemnest of news. Brandon is leaving Facing New York. We are canceling the UK tour in the wake of this. We decided that it wouldn't be right to make the journey with last minute replacement players. We want to offer the sincerest of apologies to our UK fans as well as the booking agency and other people that helped set this up.
You've all grown with us, and we want to continue that relationship. You know how you have some friends that you can not talk to for months or years at a time, and then you see them and it feels like not a minute has passed?
-Facing New York"
On April 6, 2009 the band announced that it is still working on new material and would be requesting the service of several musicians to collaborate on new material.
The band has cited their influences as:
Do Make Say Think,
The Dismemberment Plan,
Yes,
Fela Kuti,
The Police,
Led Zeppelin,
Steely Dan,
The Beatles,
Can,
Gentle Giant,
Sly and the Family Stone,
Parliament/
Funkadelic,
anticon.,
The Neptunes, and
My Morning Jacket.
Current members
- Eric Frederic - vocals/guitar/keyboard (2004-present)
- Omar Cuellar - drums (2004-present)
Past members
- Matthew Fazzi - guitar/vocals/keyboard/drums (2004-2008)
- Rene Carranza - keyboard (2004-2006)
- Brandon Canchola - bass/vocals (2004-2009)
Discography
- 2004 - Swimming Not Treading (EP)
- 2004 - Split: Facing New York/Amity
- 2005 - Full Turn (Single)
- 2005 - Facing New York
- 2006 - North / South (Split 7" with Jade Shader, Rum)
- 2008 - Get Hot