| Longwave | |
|---|---|
| Origin | New York, USA |
| Genres | Indie rock, shoegazing |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels | RCA Records, Original Signal Recordings |
| Website | LongwaveTheBand.com |
| Members | |
| Steve Schiltz Shannon Ferguson Jason Molina Morgan King |
|
| Past members | |
| Dave Marchese Jeremy Greene Mike James Jeff Sheinkopf Paul Dillon |
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Longwave is an American indie rock band. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Steve Schiltz, guitarist Shannon Ferguson, bassist Dave Marchese and drummer Jeremy Greene.
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Their first release, entitled Endsongs was self-produced and caught notice around the burgeoning rock scene in and around Manhattan. The band found its audience by first performing a series of shows at a club called the Luna Lounge on New York's Lower East Side..
Guitarist Steve Schiltz, originally from Rochester, New York, formed the band that originally played shows as "The Deaf Aides," named for John Lennon's comments that open the Let It Be album. A few months after Steve left Rochester to begin a career in music, he returned to play regular gigs at a coffee house called Blue Sunday. The Deaf Aides, with their regularly revolving members, eventually included bassist Dave Marchese.
Before Longwave formed, Steve played guitar for a short time in a band called Scout, featuring Ashen Keilyn on vocals, which released two albums. Steve soon left Scout to pursue more fervently his own aspirations. Schiltz would eventually collaborate with Keilyn again on his project Hurricane Bells.
Soon Drummer Jeremy Greene joined the band, followed by Shannon Ferguson, who had been working in a studio as a bassist for various bands on the West Coast.
Endsongs was released in 1999 on LunaSea Records, the record label created by Rob Sacher, co-owner of Luna Lounge, and soon after the band began touring the U.S. to growing popularity, especially among college-aged audiences.
Jeremy Greene left the band, which allowed a long time friend of Steve, (and fellow Rochester native) Mike James (formerly Mike Lapiana) to join as drummer. Mike left later on for various reasons and started his own band Mikey Jukebox
With their popularity on the rise, the band gained the interest of major record labels, and was eventually signed by RCA Records. This allowed them to record their first non-independent release, The Strangest Things, and also allowed them to work with famed producer Dave Fridmann of the The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev fame.
The release of The Strangest Things opened up an entirely new world of possibilities for the band, as they began to tour with the biggest bands of the year including The Strokes and The Vines. Three videos were produced for this album, including "Everywhere You Turn," which was directed by writer-director Daedalus Howell and featured Longwave performing at the Echo (a club in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles) as well as a mannequin factory.
After several successful years of touring the UK and US, Longwave returned to the studio for their 2nd major release, There's a Fire. The line up of the band continued to change just prior to entering the studio with Marchese and James both exited for various reasons. This left Steve and Shannon to perform all of the bass guitar on the album, but also led the two to expand their sound by assigning keyboard duties (formerly held down by Ferguson) to new members. Nic Brown, who had previously done numerous tours with the band, performed all drums on "There's a Fire."
In 2006 and 2007, the band was active in terms of touring, playing shows mostly in the Northeastern United States. Since the release of "There's a Fire", they have released three songs on their Myspace page, assumedly in preparation of their next album. However, that webpage also specifies that they are no longer signed to a record label, leading one to believe the band's relationship with RCA Records has ended.
On November 11, 2008, the band released their fourth album, Secrets Are Sinister.
Their sound has been likened with Radiohead, The Strokes, and 1970s post-punk rockers Television. There is also a "Shoegaze" stylistic element often noted in some of their music.
The band, as of 2008, is four people strong: