Flick her stick
was a Ft. Worth, TX rock band who gained national attention after winning VH1's acclaimed, and Emmy Nominated talent/reality show Bands on the Run
.
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FLICKERSTICK TICKETS
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Band history
Birth and local fame
Flickerstick
was formed in
Ft. Worth, TX by
high school friends
Brandin Lea (lead singer, guitarist) and Cory Kreig (guitarist, keyboardist). The two, who were guitarists in another local band, decided to put a band together just for the fun of it and picked some friends to join them, including Brandin's brother, Fletcher (bassist). The band started doing local gigs and immediately started gathering a solid fanbase.
Soon they graduated to larger clubs in
Dallas and started headlining shows. The band managed to put together $10,000 and self-financed their first album titled
Welcoming Home the Astronauts
. The album sold well in the Dallas area and at shows and the band received heavy local airplay. It was then that
Billboard magazine picked the band to be on a CD sampler of
Best Unsigned Bands in the Country
.
VH1's Bands on the Run
During this time,
VH1 heard Flick her stick's tune on the compilation and invited them to audition for the
Bands on the Run
show. After auditioning among 2,000+ other bands, Flick her stick was chosen to be on the show. The show originally stated that the band who made the most sales would win. Even though Flick her stick was lagging in sales and before the season was over the show changed the rules and gave the prize to Flick her stick.
Post-show fame
After six months of sell-out shows across the country, the band was signed by
Epic Records. In November 2001, Epic re-released the band's debut album which received moderate reviews in
Rolling Stone(3 out of 5 stars) and
Billboard, and anywhere from excellent to poor reviews in other music publications. The album was re-worked with the help of veteran producer Rick Beato and was remixed by
Tom Lord-Alge. WHTA debuted at #2 on the
Billboard Heatseekers chart and #150 on the Billboard Top 200.
[1] Despite being released in the 4th quarter, a time reserved for the top musical acts (due to the Christmas buying season), and selling over 50,000 records in the first week (which would have been a top 20 debut for a 1st quarter release), sales were considered disappointing.
A year later, they chose to have their Epic contract bought out for an undisclosed amount rather than record their follow-up with the label. They immediately signed with
What Are Records and released a
live album titled
Causing a Catastrophe
that same year. After the album's release drummer Dominic Weir was fired from the band for personality conflicts and continual physical aggression. After his dismissal he continued to play with another project
Mermaid Purse before eventually joining
Smile Empty Soul. He was replaced in Flick her stick by ex-
Doosu drummer
Todd Harwell.
On
October 14,
2003 Flick her stick released an EP/DVD combo entitled
To Madagascar and Back
on
226 Records
.
Recent years
Flickerstick continued to tour and perform regularly, and had a very strong fanbase especially in their home state of
Texas as well as the concert location areas featured in
Bands on the Run
.
On October 5, 2004, Flickerstick released their second album
Tarantula
on the Dallas-based indie label
Idol Records. The band had a number of tours across the country in support of the record. Founding guitarist
Cory Kreig left the band in April 2005 for personal reasons.
Tim Locke, who also handles lead vocals and guitar for Dallas-based alternative band
Coma Rally and alt-country band
Calhoun filled Cory's place in the band.
On April 3, 2007 the band's live record hit stores.
Live From Atlanta
was named as a result of a two-day, fan-invite recording weekend back in September 2006 at Tree Sound Studios in
Atlanta. 150 fans joined the band each night in a live recording room at the studio, and celebrated being part of the band’s live, special taping sessions. Unlike most live records, Flickerstick didn’t want to rehash all of their “greatest hits”, so the album actually featured six brand new songs that had never been recorded before. The album also featured a special studio track called, “Helicopter,” (Track 12 on the album, which was also released to radio as a single) along with three, enhanced videos from the recording shows in September. The three videos can be viewed on any computer, hopefully making it more attractive to buy the album versus downloading it online or through “file sharing services.” The record was engineered by industry veteran, Shawn Grove, who has helped to produce bands such as
Sevendust,
Collective Soul,
Edwin McCain, and many more.
Calling it a career
Rumors of breakup gained momentum when the band's website was taken offline in July 2008, and then confirmed by the band several months later with the following statement: "After a decade’s worth of touring, rocking, partying, more touring, more rocking, then even more touring, the time has come for us to pack it up and say goodbye," the band wrote to its fans in a MySpace message in January. "Throughout these years, our greatest reward has been the dedication and support of our fans across the nation. We simply could not have lasted this long without you, Flickerstick fans. . . . We’ve had some very good times together, and we will miss all of you."
[2]
After a hiatus of more than a year, the band resurfaced to perform three final farewell shows:
- January 24, 2009 at the House of Blues in Dallas
- February 27, 2009 at The Aardvark in Fort Worth, TX
- February 28, 2009 at The Aardvark in Fort Worth, TX
As of February 28, 2009 (the night of the band's final show) the band's myspace profile remains active.
According to some, Flickerstick unapologetically rocked harder than any other rock band--ever.
[3]
Discography
- Chloroform The One You Love
(1997)
- Welcoming Home the Astronauts
(2001)
- Causing A Catastrophe-Live
(2002)
- To Madagascar and Back
(2003)
- Tarantula
(2004) (Idol Records)
- Live from Atlanta: Two Nights at Sound Tree Studios
(2007)
References
- Charts, Allmusic
- http://www.star-telegram.com/music/story/1214488.html
- http://ofmoreimmediateinterest.blogspot.com/