Dave Beck is an Iowan, born and raised, who has found his way into the heart of the Brooklyn song-writing scene after traveling across the nation, studying and playing music. He spent one year in Hollywood attending guitar school at Musician's Institute which he decided was more like the School of Rock meets the 13th grade than a college. Beck's time there was both productive and strenuous when it began to demand 10 hours a day, turning the joyous act of songwriting into a constant demand. After he experienced a stress injury piled on an old shoulder injury from high school, he officially became a guitar school dropout.

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From there he headed to Iowa City where he went to shoulder rehab and the University of Iowa, a Mid-western oasis for writers, musicians and liberals. He worked at Mickey's Irish Pub, and started writing songs again. He carved out his own major, graduated, and escaped the Midwest once again. Dave Beck's first song ever written was for a class project about parenting called "Growth and Development" and this little ditty made him realize he could be writing songs instead of doing projects. He started some high school bands, Cam's Dream and Degrees of Freedom, which were "real good times" in his words. But these days the show is mostly Dave Beck and his guitar gracing the stages of New York. Brooklyn's Local Correspondents songwriting collective boasts him as an active member and he can be caught at the occasional Bar 4 Tuesday night open mic, but he's gearing up for a tour out to the Midwest in support of the October 26 release of Stranger Homes.

As they tumble out of the back of a maroon minivan into clubs, bars, living rooms and festivals across America, Fort Wilson Riot are liable to become a favorite local band, no matter where you live. Splitting their time between unstoppable touring and incessant recording, the Minneapolis-based duo of Amy Hager and Jacob Mullis have no shortness of ambition. In their time as a band they have recorded an indie-rock opera, Idigaragua, and performed it with a full cast of actors and dancers, produced and recorded their full length follow-up, Predator/Prey, and dropped singles, remixes and compilations.

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Their ambition doesn’t just include themselves, they actively work to promote other bands who become friends and collaborators on the road. Amy & Jacob will often go out with bands who are perhaps making their first attempts at a tour and Fort Wilson Riot has released several of the Wild-Eyed Scientist mixes to spread the word about the great music and musicians they find all across the country and the world! In their own music, Fort Wilson Riot isn’t just happy to let it stay the same either. Yes, they make great harmonies, with Amy’s soprano lifting and floating over Jacob’s growl and yelp, but there is nothing easily classifiable about the rest of their sound. From the crashing guitars and keys, to the blasting uplift of trumpet and harmonica lines to the dancing thump of electronic drums, Fort Wilson Riot are an energy that grabs a hold of you and takes you on a journey. The music doesn’t let up, and wherever they are, neither do Fort Wilson Riot.