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[edit] Ninefinger

Ninefinger is an American rock band hailing from Los Angeles. Their music, while influenced by '90s grunge bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden as well as non-grunge '90s acts like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine, is modern rock adhering to the classic four-piece combo (vocals-guitar-bass-drums) that virtually every rock band since The Beatles has adopted as their own.

The band's name is derived from lead singer Mike Winney's missing index finger on his right hand, the result of a construction accident that occurred in Scottsdale, Arizona, his hometown. Many fans and supporters have humorously interpreted the name to have other meanings, the most popular being a reference to the character of Frodo Baggins in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy: at the end of the third part, Frodo's ring finger is bitten off by Gollum. On occasion, the band shortens its name to simply "The Nine".

There is no real categorization that Ninefinger's music falls under, since each member's individual style and influence leaves its imprint on the final product. This helps the band defy the constraints of belonging to a "genre" or a "scene". Guitarist/main songwriter/co-founder Joshua Picard acknowledges the debt owed to his rock heroes but is also wary of pigeonholing the band's sound into a catch-all label that does not capture the essence of the group. Sometimes the members of Ninefinger will claim that they are a "hard rock" band, if only to make it easier to explain their sound to the uninitiated.

[edit] Band History

Joshua, a Rhode Island transplant, started the band in 2002 but the early line-ups changed constantly. The band did not begin to play live gigs until Mike joined the band as lead vocalist in 2004. By that time, the rhythm section (which was unhappy with the band's musical direction) began a gradual defection. This left Joshua and Mike with no choice but to continue writing songs as a duo, sometimes playing two-man acoustic shows at small L.A. clubs such as Universal Bar & Grill and the now-defunct Lava Lounge.

With the addition of James Ledesma on bass in 2005, the band's core began to gel. James, a native Angeleno with a long pedigree of playing in various groups over the years, quickly recruited a friend, drummer Dan Wolfe (an Arizona transplant like Mike), to fill in for a replacement drummer who was unable to make their next gig (Ironically, this replacement drummer was the person responsible for bringing James into the band after the original bass player and drummer had left). This incarnation of Ninefinger played their first show at the Lava Lounge in Hollywood on August 11, 2005, and continued to play shows all over Los Angeles for eight more months until Dan amicably parted ways with the group to pursue his own musical tastes. Because of his key role in keeping the band's momentum going and his powerful contributions to certain song arrangements, Dan is fondly referred to as "The Tenth Finger" by the remaining members of the group.

In 2006, to fill the void left by Dan, James once again called upon his vast pool of musical resources and recruited Eric Soria, a longtime friend and former co-worker, to sit in on the skins. Eric (better known by his nickname "Buddah") meshed perfectly with the others: his precise, metal-tinged percussion style complemented Joshua's loud, distorted guitar and melded with James' fluid, slinky basslines; furthermore, Buddah's energy and perfectionism as a drummer provided the perfect foundation for Mike to develop his skills as a frontman and a vocalist, especially in their live act. Thus the current line-up was cemented into place.

[edit] The Beginning

With a new drummer firmly in place, Ninefinger went into a small studio in Glendale to record their first EP, The Beginning, in 2006. Earlier attempts to create a demo CD for the purposes of distribution were unsatisfactory, and so while the actual recording of the EP took only a few weeks to complete (all the bass and drum parts were recorded in one session!) the post-production and mixing spanned over the course of a year. Adding to the long delay were the health problems of the project's main engineer and the consistent show schedule that the band kept up: their residency with the Lava Lounge lasted until the club's untimely demise in February 2007, and Ninefinger struck up friendships with many other local bands in the process such as Ex-Paladin, Junkbox, and Retarded DiCaprio.

The Beginning EP was finally finished in May 2007 on 656 Records. The songs include:

1. "420"
2. "Wasted Days"
3. "Hammer And Nails"
4. "Drugs"
5. "Speed Queen"

All of the songs on the EP were written by Joshua Picard and Mike Winney, and predate James Ledesma and Eric "Buddah" Soria's involvement with the band. Future recordings will include songs that were written as group collaborations. There is also a large collection of bootleg recordings currently being assembled by the band's resident archivist that documents Ninefinger's performances and rehearsals from August 2005 to the present day.