ROCK PLAZA CENTRAL
ROCK PLAZA CENTRAL
Having existed in various incarnations since 1996, over the past few years Rock Plaza Central has solidified into a core five-piece recording group including Chris Eaton (lead vocals, banjo, guitar), Blake Howard (drums), Scott Maynard (bass, guitar), Donald Murray (mandolin, trumpet, guitar) and Fiona Stewart (violin, trombone), with help on the last record from John Whytock and Louis Apicello (trumpets), and Andy Innanen (drums) often joining them on the road.
Past recording members have also included Rob Carson, Casey McGlynn, Jack Breakfast, Doug Tielli, John Tielli, Derek and Pearce Allen, and a grade 3 class.
After years in relative obscurity, their 2006 album, Are We Not Horses (including Rob Carson and John Whytock), was a huge critical success, receiving one of Pitchfork’s best ratings of the year, four stars from Rolling Stone, making countless critics’ top 10s, and being called everything from “a masterpiece” (Exclaim) to “uniquely intoxicating” (The Independent) to “2007’s finest folk/rock find” (Magnet). The literary-styled concept album about robotic horses who think they are real horses was even studied on a graduate English course at the University of South Alabama.
They are currently based in Toronto.
THE DAREDEVIL CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT
The phrase, "the agony of the leaves," derives from hot water pouring over tea leaves. As the tea steeps and the leaves unfurl, they release various flavors to the water, evolving the taste. While The Daredevil Christopher Wright's debut album, In Deference to a Broken Back, doesn't dramatize the agonies given them, they do face the weighty issues of cancer, death, and loss with a realistic and offbeat tone. Their joyful music is layered with the profundity of small moments that flavor life.
RYAN PAUL AND THE ARDENT
It took a near-death breakdown across the country to help Ryan Paul find his voice. The Minneapolis native entered the music scene in 1999 as Jeremy Ylvisaker’s (Andrew Bird/Alpha Consumer) guitar tech and began playing guitar and touring with a smattering of Twin Cities art-rock bands. By 2004, however, Paul lost himself in a haze of drug and alcohol addiction and eventually disappeared out east. It took nearly four years for Ryan to hit rock bottom and finally return home, with help of his family, to start his life and musical career over, sober and invigorated with direction and focus.
