Jamie Fontaine & the Level
Green Bay, WI | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | INDIE
Music
Press
Jamie Fontaine & the Level rang in the new year with their community in an intimate setting, rocking the Midway Bar in Lena on Monday night, along with Dead Cedar.
2018 was a busy, innovative year for Fontaine’s band, which has been performing, recording and sharing stages with popular, national rock bands like Saving Abel, Saliva, Rick Monroe and Michael Alexander & Big Whiskey.
“Getting advice from some professionals, making those relationships, seeing them flourish … these people that you talk to have No. 1 hits on the radio. So for them to take time out of their day, for them to talk to me about my project is pretty humbling, because they obviously see something in me that my record company sees,” Fontaine said. “They support me in my endeavors, in my music and how I was able to learn from them.”
Another feat this year included the worldwide release of their debut, self-titled album after just signing with Oconto Falls’ Stryker Records in 2017. The band has also released its first music video for “Stanley.”
The album is sort of an homage to ’90s rock and fuses the attitude of Alice in Chains with Nirvana’s simple yet catchy hooks. Lead singer Fontaine admitted he grew up listening to that music, and much of the band’s first album is a collection of songs Fontaine wrote in his youth while listening to those angst-filled rockers.
“The songs, a lot of them I have written throughout time,” Fontaine said, adding that he wrote one song when he was 12 years old. “The direction is just where the song takes me as I make it. I just listen to the riffs I am making. Sometimes, I’ll even come up with a song name first, and come up with the tune based around that, but that’s more rare.”
He is already working hard on the band’s second album, hinting the sound might drift away from grunge and more toward the blues, and is focusing on the energy and flow of their live performances.
“We’re trying to hone our craft in an entertainment fashion and create a show that can be repeated and just kind of have a set way of doing things, just a bit more professional,” he said. He hopes to put together “a particular set list and segways, a couple of, well, just banter between songs. From the beginning to the end of show, a nice two-hour set.”
Fontaine is looking forward to playing Madison’s Bratfest this summer and plans for the band to put on an exciting show.
“I think there is a lot more feeling in our live performances compared to the recordings. It is very in your face. We move around a lot. But this Bratfest in particular, I would like to impress,” Fontaine said. - Oconto County Times Herald
Jamie Fontaine & The Level, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, recently released a self titled debut album on Stryker Records that will fill your earbuds with all of the contemporary rock sounds they can handle. Colby Peters does a great job building the foundations of all 10 tracks from behind the drum kit. Joseph Weise lays down some killer bass lines, that you should really keep an ear out for, especially on “Bad Side”. And then there is Jamie Fontaine. When you are the guitarist/vocalist for a 3 piece band, you are taking on quite the load. It’s not an easy feat. Fontaine doesn’t just pull it off, he nails it! His voice is perfectly suited for the genre, as a cross between the late, great, Layne Staley (Alice in Chains), Scott Stapp (Creed), and Shaun Morgan (Seether). It’s a deep, bassy tone, but the man also has that perfectly controlled rock howl when the songs call for it. On top of that, his guitar skills are more than proficient as he wails on some killer solos throughout the record.
The band does a great job of putting their own stamp on the current rock melodies. The album opens with “Whore”, that begins with an acoustic intro that also has a clean electric playing over it, which is a cool effect. The album often layers in an acoustic guitar, which really fills out the sound of the songs. The second track, “Scars and Melodies” is a true standout rock song! Not only musically, with its intro build, great modern rock chorus, really cool breakdown after the choruses, thumping bass, and those great rock vocals on full display, but the lyrics about a lost love fit the music and vocals perfectly. It’s one of those songs that you can just feel as you’re listening to it. “Home” shows the mellow side of the band, driven by that steady bass and kick drum that your head will automatically bob along too. “I Aint Coming Home” closes the album as a ready for radio mid tempo track that again balances the electric and acoustic guitars for a full bodied sound that crescendos with every chorus. Fontaine’s vocal’s on the track, and the whole album for that matter, are just saturated with feeling and emotion.
This album does not have a bad song on it. Every song is well crafted and the lyrics are relatable and sincere. The production on the album is well done, every song sounds has that full rock feeling. If you are fan of popular hard rock from the last 20 years, you will enjoy this album. It balances all aspects of the genre perfectly. Stop reading, go listen. It’s definitely worth your time. - Sam Boettcher of Rock on Milwaukee
Discography
Jamie Fontaine & the Level - Self Titled - released 2018 Stryker Records
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Bio
In the year 2013, the stars were aligned, and the world gave birth to perhaps the greatest new American Alternative Band anyone had seen in decades. Meet Jamie Fontaine and the Level, your new favorite band.
The somewhat unlikely birthplace:
Green Bay, WI- the heavy drinking, hard rocking, home of the World Champion Green Bay Packers, and now, soon to be famous for something else altogether.
When you first hear Jamie Fontaine and The Level, something ancient and instinctive clicks and hums from within you. Your pulse begins to race; your blood begins to boil, and your grin starts to widen. The rhythm takes you away, and doesn’t let go until the music stops.
Think back to evolutionary changes in the music scene; picture Nirvana, Alice and Chains, Faith No More, and bands like Tool taking over the sound system. There was a time when all of that was new. Those iconic bands changed the landscape of alternative music forever.
Welcome back to the NEW.
Jamie Fontaine and The Level are the first band to actually rebrand, and consequently, shatter the status quo of modern alternative music in far too long.
As a listener, I was hooked from the opening thumping beats of one of the band’s early originals, the blues enthused “Home.” Since then, the band has evolved hit by hit, with singer/songwriter Jamie Fontaine leading the way. His awe inspiring vocals are limitless and dynamic, and his lyrics leave you thinking long after the song has ended. The rhythmic duo of Colby Peters and Joseph Weise drive the pulse of this band with the fury of a tsunami to the subtlety of a teardrop...and back again, seemingly effortlessly. They mesh seamlessly with Fontaine’s electrifying guitar work, as if the band has but one heartbeat.
Your head will bob, your feet will stomp, and you will want to see this band again and again.
Bassist Joe Weise, (formerly of national recording band Bodycast), invited me to one of their early band events at a place they rented called “The Warehouse,” way back in 2013. This is where the band planted their roots together, where their sound was fostered and forged. The nights at “The Warehouse” were the stuff of legend, and so, it is only fitting that this practice and party space where so much sweat and creativity flowed, would cultivate the seeds of the band that they have become.
Ranking #1 on the Alternative Charts in the Green Bay and Fox Valley area, getting frequent playtime on several radio stations, sharing the stage with a who's who list of other national acts, and having their concert videos broadcast statewide are not enough for Jamie Fontaine and The Level:
Do yourself a favor: checkout Jamie Fontaine and The Level now. Turn the volume way WAY up, and let the music take you.
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