KIRRA IS:
Jesse Williamson - Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar
Daxton Page - Lead Guitar
Ryne McNeill - Bass/Backing Vocals
Zach Stafford - Drums

Kirra is a hard rock band based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with a strong emphasis on the word “Rock” meaning “Straight up and raw” as guitarist Daxton Page puts it when referring to their new upcoming debut album titled “Run Away.” Some of the bands influences range from Chevelle, Tool, Five Finger Death Punch, Seether, or simply stated, “Rock Music” in general.

The band was created when guitarist Daxton Page left a rock school program and was interested in starting a band. “Through friends of friends, I met Zach. We jammed a few times playing cover songs like "Chop Suey" by S.O.A.D, but we were looking for a full band. After a few weeks of searching on Craigslist, Ryne answered our ad and told us he could play bass and he also had a friend, Jesse, who could sing and play guitar. During our first practice together we went through a few covers. Then, Jesse throughout the idea of just improvising something. I had a chord progression that was in my head for about a week. By the end of our first rehearsal, we wrote the song "Drown" off our first EP.”

The EP “Sounds from an Empty Room” which was released digitally included the song called “Downfall” that immediately grabbed the attention of internet radio and social media fans worldwide. Shortly after, the band decided to continue writing for an album as lead singer Jesse Williamson recalls. “At the beginning we were just writing machines, we would write a song, practice it, throw some ideas for a new song, next practice we would work out the new song, practice, and this cycle happened about 2 weeks in a row. We wrote and write as often as we can, whether it's riffs, chorus idea, breakdown, etc. After the EP did so well, we had these extra songs for a while and we figured we should combine them for a full length record.”

Having music as the band’s release, “Run Away” has a little of everything in it lyrically, but more specific is the statement they wanted to make musically. “We wanted to make a statement about overproduction in the music today”, Daxton mentions. “We used 0 click-tracks, and wanted to make this as stripped down AND personal as we possibly could. I feel “Run Away” album is a direct reflection of where we were musically and personally and we are excited to get it out there.”

Kirra’s first live performance show was opening for a friends band, and after playing as many gigs as they could, they found themselves being invited to open for such acts as 3 Doors Down, Sons of Texas, Saving Able, Puddle of Mudd, & Smile Empty Soul. “The fans have always been great to us. Its great to know that there are still fans of rock music out there. We are just 4 guys who love making music together, there truly is no greater feeling than writing a piece of music that you put everything into, and seeing a crowd respond to that. It’s a gamble, you're putting a personal side of yourself out there. In the end, we are doing this for the love we have for rock music."

Tracks:

1. https://www.localbandz.com/kirra/audio/323/fly

The Beatles are introduced to the Rolling Stones for the first time backstage in Richmond, England. George Harrison says he's particularly impressed by the unsigned band's performance.

Kurt Cobain committed suicide in his home in Seattle, Washington. He was found 3 days after checking himself out of drug rehab earlier that month. Kurt was found with a shotgun laying upon his body, with a head wound and suicide note.

REVIEWED BY NEW HARD ROCK MAGAZINE

ALERT: NEW METAL CLASSIC!

Few artists come along and redefine a genre. Thirteen is one of the few bands I’ve heard in modern times that picks up where legendary bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Guns n’ Roses left off serving as the blueprint for modern heavy metal music.

Thirteen’s new single “Dark Star” leaves you in a state of awe from the ride Thirteen takes you down a “stairway to hell”. A beautiful mix of electric and acoustic guitars riffs and a guitar solo that echoes Randy Rhoads on “Crazy Train” hits you with a bag of “what the fuck” and vocals that command the power and sex appeal of Chris Cornell. I have been listening to Dark Star on repeat and it gets better with each listen. This is a reminder that metal is not dead but rather having a reckoning led by Thirteen.

LISTEN NOW

February 23rd, 1979.

The first tour of the U.S. and Canada by Dire Straits opens at the Paradise Club in Boston. The Group logs 51 sold-out shows in 38 days.

The music industry has always been competitive and cutthroat at heart, and these days, income is becoming harder and harder to find. Making a little money playing music on the side isn’t so hard, but in order to turn a passion into a career, you have to want it more than anything else. Though there is a ton of luck involved, many factors can be influenced to put you in a position to launch a musical career. However, it’s important not to have unrealistic standards about how things will be once you're able to quit your “day job.” Here are six qualities that successful musicians possess.

1. They have no other choice

Some professional musicians got where they are today due to the fact that they struggled to get other work, or just weren’t capable of doing anything else. When you have no Plan B to fall back on, Plan A will have to be what works out for you. In an interview I did with violinist Jenny Scheinman earlier this year, she described moving out of the house at age 16 and busking around Santa Cruz to make ends meet. Though this alone will not guarantee you a successful music career, it sure is a good motivator to get started.

The bottom line: Successful musicians are confident and adventurous enough to dive into their music careers headfirst.

2. They're willing to work hard and educate themselves

A professional musician must fill many hats these days. Often within a band, members will split the roles of manager , promoter and booking agent between the group. There are also many solo artists who take on all of these roles or more by themselves. Thus, it’s important to be able to educate yourself on the many different aspects of professional music-making, and to enjoy this process.

Of course, filling these roles results in a lot of work. John Roderick, who acts as the frontman, songwriter and manager for his band The Long Winters , once told me about the 18-20 hour days he would put in while in the process of releasing and promoting a new record. Of course, the payoff is that there is one less person to pay, and he is thus able to make a sustainable income.

The bottom line: If you think that going into music will be an escape from doing “real” work, think again.

3. They don’t mind living modestly

Depending on the path you take in the wide world of music, it’s possible that you may never have a stable income. Even if it is stable, it might take years or even decades before it's large enough for you to have certain luxuries. This doesn’t have to be a source of fear or anxiety as long as you know how to live within your means. Try to create some kind of stable cash flow in order to cover certain expenses such as gas, food or utilities. Teaching lessons or workshops is a great way to do this, if you feel comfortable educating others. That way, you can take a few things off your mind while doing your budgeting and focus more on making rent. In the end, it comes down to the question of living an easy life versus a fulfilling life.

The bottom line: It's okay to dream big, but if the only reason you want to be a musician is because you think it'll get you a large house with a yacht, you'll quickly get weeded out of this business.

4. They have a patient, persistent attitude

This might be the most important out of the entire list. A career does not appear overnight, and especially not one in the arts. Even artists such as Lorde , who seemed to appear in an instant and blow up the charts out of nowhere, had been planning and preparing for that time for years.

Of course, very few people have the good fortune to be signed and developed by Universal at the age of 13. Whatever your musical craft may be, as long as you are making steps to improve every day, you will eventually be one of the best out there . However, it could take years before you're capable of competing against other professional musicians. If you seek out new opportunities persistently, it’s completely possible to find the gig or job that sets you up into a more stable position, especially once more and more of your competition gives up and looks for other work.

The bottom line: Instead of becoming preoccupied with trying to get a "big break," the most successful musicians nowadays focus on growing their careers gradually .

5. They're willing to (and enjoy) working on their craft every day

No matter which aspect of music or the arts you're passionate about, it’s essential to practice your craft every day. By doing this, you will continue to improve while others stagnate, eventually being better than most others at what you do. In a first-year entrance speech that Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby ) gave to Berklee College of Music’s class of 2010, he recalled the old martial arts saying, "When you are not practicing, someone else is. When you meet them, they will win." In order to not only compete, but succeed in this hyper-competitive musical world, it’s absolutely vital to be on top of your game at all times, and be consistently raising the bar for yourself. And in order to make the most out of it, you have learn to really enjoy the process of improving and practicing as well.

The bottom line: If you don’t want to put in time to practice, you might be better suited as a hobbyist.

6. They're creative at generating income

One of the best things you can do when trying to stay afloat with your music is to find multiple streams of income. A great way to do this is by licensing out your music to be used in television shows, ads and movies. Even beyond that, taking on the management of a more established artist in your area or teaching private lessons/workshops can provide a “day job” alternative that will still grow you as an artist and a person, while also providing you with some really great networking opportunities.

Depending on your location or time of year, it may be very difficult to keep multiple income streams flowing your way. That’s where the creativity comes in. If there aren’t any opportunities to showcase your talent, you have to create the opportunities yourself. Activities such as busking, if done consistently and in a good location, can generate a good amount of money over time. Another alternative would be to try and find a restaurant that you think would sound great with live music, and go to them with the offer to perform weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly. It all adds up in the end, and sooner or later, a little bit of cash here and there can evolve into something spontaneous and beautiful.

The bottom line: Successful musicians don't wait for opportunities to come to them – they seek them out or create them themselves.

Dylan Welsh  is a freelance musician and music journalist, based in Seattle, WA. He currently plays in multiple Seattle bands, interns at Mirror Sound Studio, and writes for the Sonicbids blog. Visit  his website  for more information.

Lemmy Kilmister , who died December 28th , left an indelible mark on rock & roll. Everything about him — his thunderous singing and songwriting, his drugs-and-smokes lifestyle, even his protruding facial moles — was unapologetic and uncompromising. But just as important, Lemmy and Motörhead  left their grammatical mark on rock & roll.

Yes, we're talking about that umlaut — and Lemmy's role in popularizing one of   rock's most wonderfully enduring, if sometimes nonsensical, traditions.

Motörhead were, of course, not the first band to stick dots above one or more letters in their name for no practical phonetic reason. In the late Sixties, German proggers Amon Düül were most likely the first to take the umlaut plunge. In 1971, Blue Öyster Cult gave the mark its first brush with mainstream crossover. As original manager and producer Sandy Pearlman told me years ago, he and rock writer Richard Meltzer were talking about the band one day while standing outside a New York restaurant that served up Blue Point oysters. "I said, 'Why don't we call it Blue Oyster Cult?'" Pearlman recalled. "And Richard said, 'And we'll add an umlaut over the "O"!' And I said, 'Great!"'

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The Tao of Lemmy: 18 Great Quotes
From Motorhead's Frontman »

Several years later, when Lemmy parted ways with psychedelic art-rockers Hawkwind, he initially dubbed his new band Bastard — but ultimately settled on Motorhead, after a song he'd written in Hawkwind (it was also slang for bikers on speed). The crowning touch was the addition of the umlaut over that second "o." "I thought it looked mean," he said a few years ago. "That's the thing, innit?"

Mean, if not gnarly, was indeed the key. In their pre–"(Don't Fear) the Reaper" days, Blue Öyster Cult peppered their image and lyrics with intimations of menace and darkness, especially in songs like "Career of Evil" and "Dominance and Submission." But when it was attached to Motörhead, the umlaut, combined with Lemmy and his bandmates' scraped-raw approach to rock & roll, felt like the real ominous deal, and its repercussions were huge. "I pinched the idea off Blue Öyster Cult," Lemmy said in 2011. "Then Mötley Crüe pinched it off us and it goes on and on."

"I pinched the idea off Blue Öyster Cult. Then Mötley Crüe pinched it off us and it goes on and on." —Lemmy Kilmister

A modest but accurate boast: Rock history is now dotted — literally — with the Crüe, Queensrÿche, Hüsker Dü (not metal, and Swedish for "Do you remember?"), the Accüsed, Green Jellÿ (umlaut used ironically), Spinal Tap (often spelled, for optimum intended hilarity, with the umlaut over the "n"), and Rrröööaaarrr (1986 album by Canadian headbangers Voivod). Even R&B singer Jason Derulo used an umlaut on the cover of his first album, over the "u" in his last name, to help people correctly pronounce his surname.

For Lemmy, though, the umlaut was neither gag nor phonetical necessity. Just as Motorhead's early records injected a faster-louder rush and intensity into Seventies metal, shaking off any arena-rock sludginess that started to creep into the genre, so did the band's umlaut make a statement of its own. The diacritic firmed up metal's edge and identity; it declared that the music would always be a separate, sometimes jarring and rude, universe unto itself. (Lemmy, a collector of Nazi memorabilia, rarely if ever commented on any connection between that umlaut and Nazi-era use of the dots in say, "Führer.") For Lemmy, the umlaut, like the music and lifestyle he lived until his body couldn't take it anymore, spoke — or pronounced — volumes.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-lemmy-and-motorhead-gave-metal-its-umlaut-20151229#ixzz3vjzHMNuH

Server and feature updates!

1. LocalBandz has moved to a new server which should be much faster and more reliable.

2. Flickr support has been added, add your images to your profile from your flickr account.

3. Audio and SoundCloud has been combined to one page instead of seperate pages. To add a new Audio or SoundCloud track, visit your profile Audio page and click the small "+" button, you will then be able to choose to upload a new track or add a SoundCloud track.

4. Video, Vimeo and YouTube  has been combined to one page instead of seperate pages. Top add a new Video, Vimeo or YouTube video, visit your profile Video page and click the small "+" button, you will then be able to choose to upload a new Video, Vimeo or YouTube Video.

5. A new feature, Photo Album, has been added to all profile pages. This allows you to create a Photo Album much like a playlist. Just visit a Gallery and hover over the image, then click the small camera button to create/add the photo to a Photo Album.

Thanks!