| Lo-Pro | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Genres | Alternative rock, hard rock, alternative metal |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Self-Titled - 413 Records (Major) The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge - Rocket Science (Indie)[1] |
| Associated acts | Ultraspank, Chokt, Staind |
| Website | Lo-Pro www.lopromusic.com lo-pro |
| Members | |
| Pete Murray Jerry Oliviera Neil Godfrey Pete Ricci Tommy Stewart |
|
| Past members | |
| John Fahnestock | |
Lo-Pro is an American five-piece hard rock band. They released a self-titled album in 2003. However, after touring in support of the album, they were dropped from the Geffen record label. The band then spent years working on new material, and streaming many new songs on their Myspace. Eventually they released the Letting Go EP on July 14, 2009 while on the "Stimulate This" tour and later digitally on October 21, 2009. In early 2010 the band finished a second LP tentatively titled The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge, originally to be released on May 25, 2010,[2] but delayed two weeks and released on June 8, 2010.[3] The band released their acoustic album Bittersweet, under the pseudonym "Life on Planet 9", at a concert on August 20, 2011, and on i-Tunes on August 25, 2011.
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When Lo-Pro formed, the majority of the band members had already played in other notable bands. Vocalist Pete Murray and guitarist Neil Godfrey were formerly of Ultraspank. Tommy Stewart had been the original drummer of Godsmack, and Jonathan Fahnestock had played bass for both Amen and Snot. Only Pete Ricci, the second guitarist, had not been in any past notable bands.
In an interview, Neil Godfrey spoke of the ending of Ultraspank and the beginnings of Lo-Pro:
"Ultraspank's demise was mostly because we worked so hard to get where we were. We were in debt to the label and they weren´t promoting us, so we had fulfilled our 2 album deal and we asked to be let go. People in the band had to get jobs and go about their lives."
"So I think about 2 or 3 weeks went by and I'd been playing my guitar. I called up Pete and said I had some ideas to lay down. The Spank guys were all going in different directions. With the pressures of the industry gone and the freedom to do anything I wanted, we started writing songs. The result was so refreshing in the fact that we could record ourselves and make these great sounding recordings we could listen to..."[4]
After almost burning out due to efforts with Ultraspank, Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey decided instead to get back into music together, resulting in the birth of Lo-Pro. They began recording a number of demos together in Pete's bedroom. Three songs have surfaced from these "home demo" sessions: "Thread",[5] "Ignition",[6] and "Wheels". "Thread" is similar to what would end up being on their album, except with different guitar work in the chorus and more programming in it. "Ignition" on the other hand, is entirely different from its album counter-part, only sharing a line of lyrics ("I'll say goodbye to the bright side"). Unlike the first two demos, "Wheels" was not reworked and was decidedly left off the album altogether.
"At that point a year had gone by and we had a bunch of songs recorded. The other guys were doing new gigs and such. Pete and I were still holed up in his studio keeping lo-profile we had leaked our music out to connections in the business and we got the call from Aaron Lewis. He got the ball rolling for us, connecting us with his friend Pete Ricci. He also pointed us in the direction of Gayle (management) who connected us with Tommy Stewart. I just happened to be partying upstairs in the Roxy in Hollywood one night and ran into Fahnestock. These guys are all amazing people and seasoned vets of the road."[4]
Getting Aaron Lewis to hear the demos, they became signed to 413 Records, his vanity imprint through Geffen. By 2003, Lo-Pro was in studio with producer Don Gilmore, also producer for Pearl Jam and Linkin Park. After a few months of work, their eponymous album was released on September 30, 2003.[7][8] One single was released, "Sunday", which gained significant airplay. Pete Murray said of the single:
"It's definitely not about watching football or going to church. It's really about how I've never had anything to look forward to on Sunday. I never liked going to school or going to a job, and when Sunday comes, you just know things are gonna hit the ringer the following day." [7]
Plans of a second single existed, and bassist Jonathan Fahnestock even asked the internet community to vote on their choice on it, but it never surfaced.[9]
The band toured extensively alongside Staind, of which Aaron Lewis was the lead singer of, and Three Days Grace. Additionally, on April 24, 2004, they released a 3 track acoustic EP exclusively through Napster, containing acoustic takes of "Sunday", "Ignition", and "Not Me".
The band finished touring in support of the album through the first half of 2004, In June 2004, the band announced that they had been dropped by Geffen Records.
"Lo-Pro has indeed parted ways with Geffen records. We're still a part of the 413/records family however, and we're alive and kicking. Weve been using our down time to write record #2 which were really excited about and think youll be very happy with as well. I dont want to give too much away, but its shaping up to be a very "live" record."[10]
While this confirmed that the band would continue on after losing major record label support, it would be a number of years before the band would be able to formally release material again.
Despite the band's statement that they would continue on, a year's worth of silence after being dropped from their record label left the perception that the band may have disbanded. However, in May 2005, they streamed a demo version of "Ingenious" on their MySpace,[11] to let people know that they were still working on new music. Additional new songs were occasionally made available for streaming on their various Myspace accounts over the next number of years in the same fashion.
In Summer 2006, the band found some success in winning at least 4 rounds of radio vote-off contests on "93X CAGE MATCH" (broadcast by 93X KXXR Minneapolis/St. Paul), beating bigger name bands such as Stone Sour and Shinedown. While great exposure for the band, it was not enough for them to get signed.
Starting up another Myspace in the spring of 2007, they featured various acoustic songs, both studio and live, that they have been playing and working on. An acoustic tour with Staind's Aaron Lewis was announced later on. Between songs during a performance at the Mohegan Sun, Pete Murray said:
"We're on night five on this video extravaganza, its good stuff... We put out a record a couple years back on Aaron's label and now we're working on a new one. I think were going to do this DVD thing first, cause' its basically done."
A full video was posted on the SyncLive website which contained acoustic versions of songs from their first album, and a number of early acoustic versions of songs that would appear on future releases, including "All I Have","Hang On", "Today" and "Letting Go". It mentioned a DVD was very possible for the upcoming release, although no announcements have been made from the band since. Rumors have surfaced of complications in releasing the DVD, and the idea has been dropped.
In a February 2008 interview with Ink 19, Murray spoke some of Lo-Pro's future:
"We really want to release something but we're the most prolific we've ever been so we've been recording like crazy. It's hard to stop. We've got a couple of rock records almost ready and we're almost done with our acoustic record, we promise." "You're definitely going to hear a raw version of Lo-Pro which was always our intention. I love our first record but, holy crap, it was over-produced. We don't nit pick as much anymore, we move on. The acoustic album will be a first as well." "We're lagging but we're really hoping the get this acoustic record out first in the spring* with a rock record right behind it."[12]
It is important to note that, this was made in February 2008, so clearly the "spring plans" fell through. The band did have music they intended to release around this point, however, they felt it was more like a demo than a finished product, and decided to expand the material more in the sessions done later with Angus Cooke, which would be worked into the material released in their next 2 releases, the Letting Go EP and The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge.[13]
Throughout this timeframe, Lo-Pro continued to look for "the right label" to officially release future music. While occasionally slipping into periods of public inactivity, they continued to trickle new songs in for streaming through their Myspace accounts. They assured fans that future music would indeed be released. At one point, they even said that they have worked on over 26 songs in contention for a new release. However, it is still unknown if all of the songs would actually see release.
At some point in 2008, bassist John Fahnestock left Lo-Pro, around the same time it was announced that he was part of the reunion of his previous band, Snot. He was replaced by Jerry Oliviera, who had been the rhythm guitarist in Ultraspank.
On May 5, 2009, Lo-Pro announced that they would be playing their first "live rock show in too long" on May 27, and that they have plans to start releasing new music starting in June 2009.[14] On July 3, 2009, the new track 'Alive', and new versions of "Texas" and "Breathe" were posted on their main myspace, in addition to adding some songs from their acoustic myspace. Artwork was also shown with some of the songs with the title Letting Go on the artwork. These songs and the corresponding artwork ended up being for a new EP titled Letting Go. A variation of the name "Letting Go" or "Let It Go" had been rumored as a title for music release for years.[11]
The above tracks "Breathe", "Alive", and "Texas" were available to download on Staind's website on July 4, 2009.
Lo-Pro played on select dates of the Stimulate This Tour starting July 14, with Staind, Shinedown, Chevelle, and Halestorm on Summer 2009. They also be played certain dates opening for Staind and Creed. The Letting Go EP was available for purchase during the concerts.[15] It contained the following tracks: "Texas", "Hang On", "Alive", "Today", "Breathe" and "Letting Go". It was reported to be released digitally in September 2009,[16] but was pushed back to October 21, 2009. It was later announced via Pete Murray's Twitter that "Alive" was kept off the I-Tunes version of the Letting Go EP because it was to be included on a future, full-length release.
Heading into 2010, information about another release came about. According to bandmembers Twitter accounts, they had worked on, and then finished up, their second full-length cd by early 2010. It was revealed to be named The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge.[17]
Pete Murray made a number of other comments on his Twitter regarding new music. On New Year's Eve 2009, he posted a link to a YouTube video which contained finished studio version of two new songs off of the new LP, a newly polished version of "Ingenious", and a previously unheard song tentatively titled "A Life That's Just Begun". The video was taken down a few days later. Another comment mentioned "listening to the album masters", suggesting the album was likely complete. Additionally, he mentioned that he and the band had even begun writing songs for a third album.[18]
On February 18, the bands official site was updated with a brief message stating "Almost there. Almost." signaling that things were still coming along.[19] A few weeks later in early March, it was reported that The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge would be coming out on May 25, 2010, and the first single to be sent to radio stations would be "Alive", on March 30, 2010.[2][20]
However, on March 21, 2010 Lo-Pro's official site changed from showing the date "5.25.10" to "6.08.10", hinting that the album has been delayed 2 weeks. It was later confirmed to be true.[3]
At the end of March, the first review of an advance copy of the album was written, confirming several more songs.[21] Other reviews eventually surfaced confirming the albums full track list.[22] On June 8, it was released as planned.
The band toured in support of the album in summer 2010, most notably an acoustic show in the benefit concert being put on Aaron Lewis in support of his charity foundation "It Takes A Community" on August 14, 2010.[23]
Pete Murray has confirmed that the oft-rumored acoustic album the band has mentioned over the years is still going to be released eventually, it's just that the band had decided to release a regular, electric album first (The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge) because it had been so long since the band had released any music at all.[13] Recent comments have confirmed working on recording acoustic material.[24][25] In August 2010, they released a new acoustic version of "Clean the Slate", different from the version available on their Myspace in 2007. It was originally in contention for the acoustic album, but was ultimately left off.
Murray confirmed again that the album was still coming out, and was due out sometime in Spring 2011, and that there'd be a holiday preview of a song off the album with a "Yule Log" video, much like how they had done previously on New Year's Eve 2009. One new song, "Sweet Silence", was debuted in this fashion.[26][27]
On July 31, Murray announced that the album would be titled Bittersweet, and would actually be released under the pseudonym "Life on Planet 9". [28] Despite releasing it under this new name, Murray confirmed that it was still the Lo-Pro acoustic album, containing the same members, that had been working for years.[29] It wwas first released in physical format at a live show on August 20, 2011, and was made available on iTunes on August 20, 2011.[30] The album was digitally released on CDBaby[31] on August 24th, and on August 25th on iTunes.[32]
The album contains a new version of the song "Wheels", a song Lo-Pro had demoed for their self-titled album in 2002.
On December 21st, Murray posted the yearly Yule Log, revealing a new song entitled "Ammunition"[33][34][35].
During the almost seven years of working on music between their self-titled album and their The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge release, the band was quoted on working on "over 26 songs". 16 songs will be formally released from these sessions, 15 from The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge, and 1 song that is exclusive to the Letting Go EP. Below are an additional 6 known songs from these sessions that were not formally release on the former album, or their 2011 acoustic album Bittersweet. There are atleast four songs unknown song titles as well.
Studio recordings
Of the studio recordings, 1-3 were available for streaming on the Lo-Pro Acoustic Myspace page, 4 was available for streaming on the bands main Myspace page, and 5-6 were only available for streaming off of lead singer Pete Murray's Myspace page.
Various band members have been up to projects since the formation of Lo-Pro as well, especially during the time since parting ways with Geffen Records. They include:
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