A band from Long Beach, California that started out as a side project of Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck from Orgy. Genre-wise, they're definitely something electronic: they started out closer to Industrial Metal, but their most recent album is more Synthpop/dance oriented.
Sonic fans might recognize these guys as the band behind the songs "This Machine" and "Waking Up". They also did "Technical Difficulties" for Transformers and composed the score for the Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen game.
Every member of this band was also a member of "Dead By Sunrise" along with Chester Bennington. Ryan and Amir considered them essentially the same band, just playing different genres with a different singer. This band put out 1 album in 2009 before going on hiatus in 2012. After Chester's passing in 2017 it's unlikely they'll perform as this band again.
- Dead by Sunrise (Derakh, Shuck)
- Orgy (Derakh, Shuck)
- Street Drum Corps (Zummo)
Current Lineup
- Ryan Shuck - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Amir Derakh - lead guitar, synthesizer
- Anthony 'Fu' Valcic - keyboard, programming, samples, bass guitar
- Frank Zummo - drums
Discography
- Death to Analog (2009)
- Out of Ashes (as Dead by Sunrise) (2009)
- Death to Digital X (2010)
- Casa del Tigor Sessions (in collaboration with Virgin Tears) (2011)
- We're Here with You (2012)
- California Noir - Chapter One: Analog Beaches & Digital Cities (2015)
- California Noir - Chapter Two: Nightlife in Neon (2016)
- Harmonic Disruptor (2020)
Julien-K provides examples of:
- Album Title Drop: "We're Here With You," also the Title Track. (This was not the case with "Death to Analog," however, while "Analog Beaches & Digital Cities" and "Nightlife in Neon" are instrumentals.)
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Why else would the woman in "Systeme de Sexe" be speaking French?
- A Good Name for a Rock Band: The band name comes from Julian Kaye, Richard Gere's character from American Gigolo.
- Intercourse with You: "Systeme de Sexe". With background moans for added NSFW-ness! Live performances take the NSFW of the studio version and pretty much run on it, with Amir panting and moaning during the bridge.
- Lighter and Softer: We're Here With You, as explained below, eschews industrial metal for more accessible synthpop in the vein of Eighties music.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Close Continuance", an 80s-ish, bouncy, catchy number about a failing relationship.
- New Sound Album: We're Here With You is significantly different from Death to Analog (and their Sonic songs), with a much more dance/synthpop-oriented sound. The band's former bassist, Brandon Belsky, left due to his dissatisfaction with the new direction. (Coincidentally, the two albums were distributed by different record companies, with Death to Analog coming from Metropolis Records and We're Here with You coming from Circuit Freq Records.)
- At least judging from the singles, Harmonic Disruptor goes back to the sound of Death to Analog but with a stronger emphasis on the metal elements than on the synthpop elements.
- A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: The music video for "Kick The Bass". Possibly doubles as a Shout-Out to Derakh and Shuck's former band.
- Sampling: The source of the name of "Technical Difficulties." (Also pops up in other songs, such as the intro to "Death to Analog.")
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Most of the lyrics to "Technical Difficulties" are lost in heavy electronic distortion.
- Synthpop: The style of a lot of songs on the album on We're Here with You. Death To Analog had this mixed in with industrial metal and alt rock; California Noir is somewhere in between.
- Title Track: Each album so far has one, though only "We're Here With You" contains an Album Title Drop.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: "Technical Difficulties".
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: "Cruel Daze of Summer". (Unless it's a pun?)
