Revolushn

Revolushn Abducts Minds With New Album 'The Freshman'
Ryan Donnelly | PopWrapped Author RYAN DONNELLY Updated 06/30/2016 10:57am PopWrapped | Music
Revolushn Abducts Minds With New Album 'The Freshman' | Revolushn
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From the second you hear the creative, Phish inspired, Revolushn, you know that you are about to hear something unique and strangely awesome. Hailing from San Francisco, Revolushn clearly respects his own artistic vision, and doesn’t play to the status quo when creating his songs, which is great when you enjoy bands such as The Sex Pistols or the Ramones.

Releasing his new album titled The Freshman, Revolushn will, no doubt, gain a lot of respect for his daring tongue-in-cheek attitude, along with his entertaining music.

Opening with his fast paced, punk infused, and instantly catchy track titled “Suck It Up”. The song is pretty much what you would come to expect from a song given such a title. Opening with a true punk guitar riff, a basic drum kit, and just enough rock machismo to pull it all off, “Suck It Up” is a welcome song to pair with your bad mood.

“Dark Matter” follows the punky “Suck It Up”, and although it doesn’t bring the same sort of energy, it does show us that Revolushn isn’t afraid to try something completely new and a little strange. Adding some female vocals at the end only add to the haunting and dreamlike state of the song. The song itself is a bit of a bland journey in comparison to the in-your-face message that the previous track brought to the table, but still, “Dark Matter" is well worth the time put in.

The third track off The Freshman is very David Bowie-esque, and it doesn’t even try to hide its 80’s electronica sound either. For many this will be a fun song to listen to, while others might find this track a bit too dated to take too seriously.

Moving on throughout the album we come across a few more musical gems like “Scarlett” and “KC”, with every track being a new, and many times, bizarre musical journey.

Revolushn is one musician who will eternally have polarizing opinions about his music. For many this will be an artist who fits very well between PHISH and Weird Al Yankovic, and for others this won’t have any place in their more reserved collection of music.

If you are daring enough, musically ambitious enough, then take a listen to what Revolushn has to offer and pick up a copy of The Freshman.

Revolushn can be found on Twitter and his official website. - POPWRAPPED

Recently released, “The Freshman”, the newest release from the San Francisco based psych rock band, Revolushn, is a mostly up beat collection of heart felt, powerful music, with a consistent feel and sound.

Although based in San Francisco, the members of the group are all spread throughout the country, and consists of 12 active members with wild nicknames, including: “NO”, “DEKAY”, and “EMC”. Some are lawyers, there is a filmmaker, and an astronaut, and rumors that several members of Revolushn were involved in a mysterious Music on Mars experiment for NASA.



Being that you are all spread throughout the country, how do you rehearse, play gigs and even record an album?

The Internet is a wonderful thing! The long-range collaboration happens that way.

Most of the song writing happens in California with NO and DEKAY. The California tracks are then brought to Cypher Studios in Kansas City were the KC crew adds tracks or not and then Aaron The HEAD, NO and Bobby Killer Bee mix and master them. That is our current mode of operation. I am sure that will change and become more sophisticated as advanced technology gets released. Plus, the aliens taught us quite a bit about musical telepathy.

As for rehearsals, the musicians in the band are really great and don’t need a lot of rehearsing to sound good. In fact, sometimes we purposely don’t rehearse. That adds excitement to the show.



The truth....was their music on Mars, which one of you is the astronaut?

The truth? Well, yes, and the house band is called The Extremophiles. Look it up. Kelly Snook (keyboards) was an astronaut in training but then she ran off to England to work with Imogene Heap on musical gloves and then got married to a suspicious New Zealander who the band doesn’t approve of.



Your music is incredibly “fun”, who writes the songs?

Currently NO and DEKAY write lyrics and the band morphs the lyrics

Into songs. And thank you!



Do you plan a tour in support of “The Freshman”?

The Morning Email
Wake up to the day's most important news.


Yes, we are currently playing small clubs, house parties and loony festivals. Can we play at your wedding?



What’s the deal with the wildly creative nicknames....”No” is my favorite?

The names are a shield against the slings and arrows we expect to receive.

Wait a minute, a sling throws the rocks, and you don’t actually throw slings at people. Weird.

Anyway, when we get on stage (as opposed creating the music), we want to make it special. We think people don’t want to pay money to see their neighbors on stage. So the names help us put on a show on stage. Plus, we are all either very private or wanted and folks like to keep a low profile outside of Revolushn.



How did you arrive at the selection for “The Freshman”, being that you recorded 30 songs for the album, and what do you plan to do with the other 21?

Funny thing happened on the way to the studio. Five minutes into the mastering session the hard drive blows and most of the songs are lost. Half of the songs on The Freshman we recorded at the mastering sessions. We almost didn’t have an album. In the end the songs we put on the album worked great with each other and Aaron the Head and NO survived a near musical disaster. It was three months before we were able to get the hard drive fixed. At some point we will probably put out The Freshman 2. Or maybe we will call it The Sophomore.



What are your musical influences?

Current bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Wand, Riana, Twenty One Pilots, Skrilix, Adele, and older stuff like Jimi Hendrix, Beatles, Sly and the Family Stone, Prince, etc. etc. Obviously we like guitar music but we also really dig EDM, Hip Hop, Trance and Ambient styles of music.



What’s next for Revolushn?

We are busy writing songs for the next album. We have about 20 new ones plus the ones we didn’t use on The Freshman. We are really excited about the next album as we are much more focused and playing together better than ever before. We play live once or twice a week now but plan on touring a lot this fall and next summer.

Also, we are really excited about the potential for The Freshman to be nominated for a Grammy. We have completed the submission process and actually know quite a few voters that will vote for us. I think it highly doubtful that we would win but stranger things have happened.

Links:
https://twitter.com/therub9
Www.facebook.com/olgas.page.9
REVOLUSHN.COM - Huffington Post

FILM
TELEVISION
MUSIC
ALL BALL
KULCHA
WORD TO YA MOM
JUNE 27, 2016
The Revolushn Will be Electric.
~Tirhakah Love (@GoonTherapy)

We are perched high in the trees, fluttering between dissonant forests of psychedelic funk, groovily synthesized amid the backdrop of a sweet lullaby, “Feel the world on your heels.” The song, “Scarlett,” on their newest work, “The Freshman” is the amalgam of electrified blues and graspable imagery representing the height of California rock collective, Revolushn, powers. When lead songwriter NO met Grammy-award winning engineer, Aaron Conner (of Bone Thugz-n-Harmony repute), a 12-piece musical collective from across the country was hardly the goal. But following the success of a Kansas City anthem and 50,000 YouTube clicks, the duo realized that this music schtick might actually work. Now their second full LP, “The Freshman” has hit the scene and featured their most diverse body of work yet.

Revolushn is a heavily inspired project with nods to Pink Floyd, psychedelic-era Beatles and King Gizzard but “The Freshman” opens with a throwback to The Clash in “Suck It Up,” a matter of fact screeching rock rhythm with a devil-may-care attitude. Though it’d return most prominently on their third track, “Been Thinking,” raw defiance isn’t the calling card. Revolushn shines when they’re conducting psych experiments. The wavering effect of tremelo’s in “Dark Matter” and the bookended touch of electricity on the otherwise acoustic “Vulcan Love Song” are all subtle breakages of form. Falsetto squeels from the dark studio ether careen in and out of the darkness between guitar riffs. The task of representing a wide range of musical contributions is carried, triumphantly, by Connor who masterfully layers screeches and rapid chord progression in a way that never felt too loud or convoluted. The project works because all the moving pieces are felt when they need to be.

Psychedelic rock has been a recipient of undue criticism because of its emphasis on aesthetic rather than substance. But lyrically and thematically, Revolushn is so focused on world-creating that you hardly realize the world its building is fantastical. But they don’t stay there. There’s still personality brimming on each record, waiting to be unearthed under all the noise. “The Freshman” is a careful psych-rock rooted in blues. Paying homage to those genres and molding a place of their own, Revolushn’s new work is imbibed with an immensely singular urgency carried along by a determined and sprawling new rock collective.

Here are some resources to learn more about Revolushn:

Website
Twitter
Facebook - POP JONES

Music Review: Revolushn – ‘The Freshman’
Posted by: Sahar July 20, 2016 in Album Reviews, Music, Music Genres, Reviews music, Rock Comments Off on Music Review: Revolushn – ‘The Freshman’

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San Francisco-based psych rock collective Revolushn is made up of 12 active members who are spread across the country, from the East Coast (New York City) to the West Coast through the Midwest. They released at the beginning of 2016 the album The Freshman, made up of nine tracks that explore an interesting array of sounds.
Revolushn 'The Freshman'Most of the songs on this LP can be filed under rock, with a couple of them featuring flavours from other genres. “Suck It Up” and “Kansas City” are rockers, both of them electric guitar and drum-driven. “Suck It Up” is an up-tempo, energetic, and irreverent beginning to the album which will set many a foot tapping. The mid-tempo “Kansas City” features some very flirtatious-sounding vocals, at times bordering on seductive.
“Dark Matter”, which mixes in some pop, is mellow and relaxing, featuring the kind of melody that you sway your head to without even realising it. Added to the expected electric guitars and drums is a piano; the vocals have been altered in such a way that they seem to be coming from a far away place, giving the whole thing a slight psychedelic feel. A touch of country is put on the mid-tempo “Been Thinking” and on “Martian Shanty Town”, with the latter having a certain Old Western feel to it (be ready to have the image of tumbleweeds running across a desert float randomly in your mind while you are listening to it). The collective also mixes in a dance music feel in the very up-tempo “Scarlett”, which is led by both percussion and keys.
Folk music also makes an appearance in The Freshman. Starting with an acoustic guitar opening, the slow tempo ballad “Higher” is very simply built—vocals, strings, gentle percussion, and backing vocals—which comes as a big contrast to all the other songs on the album. The mid-tempo “Alien Polka” opens up with an electronic sound typically found in B-movies with an alien ship landing, and it also features an accordion (of course).
The hip-hop feel in the mid-tempo “Vulcan Love Song” makes it a standalone track. It features distorted chanting followed by distorted singing, perhaps to reflect the contrast between the normal way Vulcans are and the way they lose control during their mating season. It makes for, along with the other tunes on The Freshman, an interesting listening experience that cannot be clearly categorized.
Tracks are available for streaming on SoundCloud. More information about Revolushn is available on their official website and on their Facebook page. - Blog Critics

Review of LP 'The Freshman' by Revolushn

J.L. Herrera - AXS Contributor
By: J.L. Herrera AXS Contributor Jul 25, 2016
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Review of LP 'The Freshman' by Revolushn
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The album The Freshman by Revolushn from San Francisco has a strong tasting psychedelic flavor. The LP comes with nine tracks that are composed well and should be received very well by music listeners that love psych rock.

Revolushn is made up of 12 members that come from all over the country, but came together in San Francisco to come up with a fresh new flavor of rock. Their creation, The Freshman, has a lot of sounds that can be connected to many bands from the past. In the end, their sound is very original and very accepting to the wild mind and ear.

About the band

The project came together when songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist NO met Aaron Connor, bass guitarist and producer, in Kansas City back in 2012. Connor, having experience with producing Bone Thugs and Harmony, was impressed with NO’s songwriting and vocals.

They met at a studio, owned by Bobby Killer Bee (guitar, vocalist), in KC when NO was recording his songs. The rest was history as other members of the band, who were friends, joined. These friends included David Kendrick (Devo, Sparks), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), Jimmy Leggs, D-Blues, and Michael Angelo Batio.

Currently, Revolushn has 12 active musicians that come from all over. The musicians in the band include the following: Buzzwell from New York; Eddiespaghetti, Jimmy Leggs, Norita, Bobby Killer Bee, and Aaron the Head from the Mid-west; Dekay Shuber, NO, EMC, Doyle ,and D-Blues from the West Coast.

About the LP

The LP The Freshman is a nice album that has a nice touch of psychedelic rock. It is a nicely composed album and it comes with twelve tracks. For the most part, the music is easy-listening in the sense that it is relaxing. Still, it rocks and it kicks nicely. Revolushn kicks ass with this new album and should go in rock lover’s music collection.

Tracks for The Freshman:

1. Suck It Up

2. Dark Matter

3. Been Thinking

4. Vulcan Love Song

5. Scarlett

6. Higher

7. KC

8. Martian Shanty Town

9. Alien Polka - AXS

‘The Freshman,’ A Bizarre, Martian-Themed Album by the 12-Member Band Revolushn, Worth A Probe


By DONNA BALANCIA – Revolushn doesn’t need to have permanent band members — because like on Mars, everything is transient. And that includes the music.

Screen Shot 2016-07-17 at 12.58.45 AMLed by a couple of guys with some weirdo nicknames like NO and EMS or something, these guys have taken a page out of the Residents’ anonymity book, but they’ve added their own space-like twist. Their new album is called The Freshman.

Revolushn is like David Bowie meets REM with some Sonic Youth thrown in. Eclectic, yes. But there’s apparently some top name talent here. Check out the song that started it all, “KC”

The band members are spread out from the East Coast to the West Coast with the troupe’s elders located in California. OK, so what’s with the space theme and the all the mystery?

Upon closer “probing” we find there to be way too much talent — however discombobulated it may be — for this to be some relatively new group just starting out. And thus the ol’ switcheroo with the band’s second record, The Freshman, which is a collection of space-themed oddities. Some songs are excellent. There are a couple of strange ones. But, what do you want from space people?



While they don’t sound anything alike, there is a similarity between the Revolushn and the great Jonathan Richman. Both Revolushn and Richman have a bizarre sense of humor that has great impact. The review rap with Richman — considered one of the leaders of the punk genre — is he could have achieved greater commercial success if he cut out the cutesy act and kooky songs like “Abominal Snowman in the Market,” “Ice Cream Man,” and “I’m a Little Dinosaur.” But who wants commercial success anyway?

Let’s be honest. When it comes to kooky, Revolushn may be taking that title and trying it on for size. If this album were to have come across our desks and we didn’t find out that some heavy hitters were involved, we would still think there were. And that’s despite the crazy album cover and bizarre musical style. We particularly like the cuts “Fly Me To The Moon,” “Been Thinkin,” “Dark Matter,” and “Martian Shantytown.” Of course “Alien Polka” is another classic – check out the video above.



Assuming Revolushn doesn’t want to be taken seriously and would rather continue to share an “inside joke” with its growing fan base, there still is plenty to like, particularly on The Freshman. The outerworldly Martian theme probably came to prominence because of the band’s heavy use of synth and reverb, distortion … and general weirdness.

Oh, and the videos are equally strange, by the way. Very much like Todd Rundgren’s excellent experimental videos from The Desktop Collection. You want Martians? Against a backdrop of break-dancing, two-legged pinkish figures dipping and bending, bongo playing musicians do their thing in one of the videos. There’s definitely an alien threat here of some kind, if we could only interpret what’s going on. But we had a hard time trying to figure out The Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly” video also, and it looks kind of similar.

The Twitter account for Revolushn, @therub9 is another strange case. The Tweets are quotes from famous humans, scattered in with some news about the band from time to time. No quotes from Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, or from his astronaut pal, John Herrington. Maybe they’ll just stay out there on their little space journey, where there’s no WiFi, but there are plenty of stars.

But in the meantime, the music on The Freshman is fun and the talent is about as real as it gets. But apparently, everything else on our planet is questionable.

Band members: DAVID KENDRICK, Drums-lyrics; SCHUBERT, Keyboards-vocals; EMC, Drums-percussion; WAYNE COYNE, Guitar-vocals; Production: AARON CONNOR (Bone Thugs and Harmony) Engineering-mastering; NO, Engineering-production-mastering. - California Rocker

Go to the profile of Ted Burke
Ted BurkeFollow
Jul 8, 2016
album review:
REVOLUSHN LIGHTS THE FIRE

THE FRESHMAN — Revolushn
Revolushn is a San Francisco based psychedelic band that offers an enticingly eclectic kind of rock and roll, and their first full length release, coyly titled The Freshman, gives listeners a variety of moods, tempos and attitudes that are the stuff that inspires you to push the ear phones closer to the ear canal so as to groove deeper and harder to this band’s flexing turns.

Band members David Kendrick (drums and lyrics), Schubert (keyboards and vocals), EMC (drums and percussion) and Wayne Coyne (guitar and vocals) are what original music bands should be, resourceful in their influences, varying the levels of aggression and sarcasm with softer, more reflective songs, a tight unit that fades in and out of rich funk and punk inspired bits of awkward grace, yet never going soft in either attitude or musical panache. Instrumentally, Revolushn is adept at adding craziness that inspires ideas that this is a band that has conquered the distance between immediate sensation and expression of that multiple perspective rush in songs that are sure footed, fractious, and anxious to rock and cause a ruckus.
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They are blues based, aware of their roots, an element that keeps this music grounded and connected in The Freshman’s easy flow; however much the shredding psychedelia guitarist Wayne Coyne pushes his solos to the margin and no matter how caustic, sardonic and at times ethereal David Kendrick’s lyrics tend to be, Revolushn wastes no moments on The Freshman. Coyne is a new guitar star here, fluid and free, with a bluesy fusion of jazz and grunge , creates the best kind of tension and release.

This is a solid, galvanizing debut album from a band that collaborates in ways that ought to a model for other new bands; bring your influences to the table, weave them together, mix up the approaches, tune for tune, don’t forget the blues, and don’t forget to rock over all. This smart, vibrant effort, and highly recommended for those desiring nothing less than a knock out release to add to their library. - Ted Burke

Revolushn Offers Up “The Freshman”
Ryan Donnelly July 7, 2016 Uncategorized Leave a comment 33 Views

Some musicians bravely choose to march to the beat of their own drum, they produce music that does not fit into any specific genre box, and for San Francisco, California’s own Revolushn,, music is truly a unique and creative experience.

poster human

Ryan: Your new album “The Freshman” is quite the creative piece. How long did it take to make this album?

NO: The writing took about 2 years from the first sessions to the CD release party. The first song took awhile but as we moved forward we picked up speed.

Ryan: Where do you gather inspirations from?

NO: Not to sound vague, but basically everywhere. Some songs come very quickly and others, well, we have one that took 10 years to complete.

DEKAY: Carbon based life forms, the subconscious and loud fuzz drenched guitar overtones.

Milk Bar photo (1)

Ryan: What does your song writing process look like?

NO: The songs start with a riff or a lyric idea. Then usually a musical work demo, the next step is finalizing the lyrics/melody. Once that is done and we like the result we will either use the demo sessions (most times the performance is great) to build the final mix or re-record the whole song in detail.

DEKAY: For me the lyric comes first, a single line or a subject, then the story goes forwards or backwards from there. I am currently ruminating on dark matter, botany, crime, and the human heart.

Ryan: How would you describe your music to someone that has not heard your album yet?

Aaron The HEAD: Sit back and put on some headphones and let Revolushn take you for a ride. Let us rock you, relax you, and spin you around with story. In the end you will be entertained and I feel there’s something on “The Freshmen” for everyone. No matter your genre or taste you will find something that you feel.

DEKAY: Heading toward A dash of psychedelia with heavy 70’s guitar.

NO: Kind of like a blues band on acid during a thunderstorm. And what DEKAY said.

Ryan: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be and why?

SCHUBERT: John Lennon

DEKAY: Unfortunately David Bowie is not among us, would have liked to meet Stephen Foster too, these days how about wire, the flaming lips and wand.

Aaron the HEAD: Radiohead. because they are my favorite and I would love to make music with them.

Jimmy Legs: Jimmy Herring, Guitarist. For style and attitude.

NO: Beck. I think he is a really serious musician. And probably a fun guy to work with.

Ryan: I see that the album has multiple music videos, but I can’t tell which song is the true lead single. Does the album have a lead single?

NO: SUCK IT UP has been the default hit radio wise but DARK MATTER has the most video hits. Since this album is so diverse we don’t nessecarlly want a hit. I don’t mean to sound like a dick but this is our first album and we haven’t necessarily found our grove yet. I mean the new stuff since THE FRESHMAN sounds killer and is more cohesive.

DEKAY: Nowadays, you tube is often the place to discover and hear a new band as well as SEE them, so we like video-ing!

Ryan: How enjoyable was the process of creating music videos to accompany your songs?

SCHUBERT: Since I direct and edit the videos I can answer. It was both a struggle and a very rewarding process. I have very strong ideas about how the videos should look and sometimes that isn’t what the rest of the band expected. There were some heated discussions and differences of opinion but in the end this group is very supportive and easy to work with. And we have so much fun shooting them it is a wonder they ever get’s done.

NO: Videos suck to make but are fun to watch.

Freshman cover.2

Ryan: What advice do you have for new artists looking to make their own album?

NO: Plan on it being longer and harder than you expect. Don’t settle for crummy recordings. You are not competing with the dufus down the street that put out an album in the 90s. With the Internet, you are competing with U2, Madonna, Katy Perry, etc, etc. If you are OK with that go for it.

DEKAY: The music has to matter to you, it has to force its way out and exist, and you must not stand in its way. One can record more easily now, but once the music exists the problems are the same as they have been since the 50’s, that is, the 1850’s and the dawn of the era of sheet music and Royalties:, you need to get it heard so—-, PLAY– and then, play more…

Aaron The Head: Spend time writing good songs and getting tight as a band. Hire a good producer and plan to spend at least 10 hours per song in the studio perfecting the sound. Don’t forget you need to build a fan base and market the music and play live as much as possible.

Ryan: At this point in your musical career, what are some of your musical highlights?

Aaron The Head: I’ve had many highlights. I have had my work as an engineer and producer sell millions of albums worldwide. My work has been nominated and won many prestigious awards including Billboard, American Music and the Grammys. I have had many gold and platinum sales and a Grammy win as the highlights but all of my work in the studio I approach the same and I’ve loved every minute of it. Hard work pays off.

DEKAY: after many years in the trenches and a few from a better vantage point I say, pick your battles, write what will matter now and tomorrow, try to be almost overwhelmed, but levitate above the fray, those moments are great, I love doing festivals and I love playing in many continents, and have done so with cool bands, and I want to continue, so….

Jimmy Leggs: Just having done it for so long and still be relevant.

NO: The current high point is that I finally have enough guitars. Well, almost anyway.

suck it

Ryan: Lastly, and thank you for your time. Do you have any news that you would like to share with your fans?

NO: Well thank you for thanking us:} We are fans of VENTS. We are very excited about the Grammys this year. And we have some great shows lined up this summer and fall as well. And it looks like the new album will be complete by October and out for Christmas. We are going to leave it under the Christmas tree for Santa.

DEKAY: next year will bring a second record into this here universe! BIG drums, big guitars

Big ideas!

Revolushn can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and their official site. - Vents Magazine