Girls with Guns, Immigrant, Everything is Energy, Gosling May 11, 2007

MISSION CREEK MUSIC FESTIVAL presents

- Immigrant

Less than a year ago, they were playing in small clubs for crowds of 200.

Today, they play at 9,000-capacity venues, opening for big groups such as Muse and The Killers.

They are the San Francisco band Immigrant. The group, which opens for Muse at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Monday and plays a pre-show set Sunday at Club Six, formed when creative differences led guitarist-keyboardist Lee Czur and guitarist Patrik Sklenar to take a hiatus from their previous band, Evening. Lead singer Graham Shaw met Czur at a Killers show in 2005 and brought bassist Kai Chu. Drummer Jeff Ortega, who auditioned, joined three days before the group first show.

The name draws from simultaneous and contradictory familiar and foreign feelings that many immigrants have. How immigrants can be revered or admired as American icons, yet hated and feared as something un-American, appeals to him, says Shaw.

The five members ?immigrants themselves ?want to reach people through the amalgamation of different colors and textures in their music, which blends Middle Eastern, Turkish, Gypsy and psychedelic sounds. The songs, some politically-oriented such as hen Will Red Turn to Blue?and orking Class Day,?tie the current political climate to similarities in George Orwell ?984.?The song aesar on Trial?describes the overwhelming desire to accomplish goals and how ambition, without balance, can be damaging.

Czur says he never done anything so different or tried so hard, and gave up having a life for the band. The craziness sometimes makes him want to start eating his fingers. And if there any effect the band wants, it to make people feel something ?whether it pain, joy, anger or sadness.

here so much cynicism in society in general, and in our generation in particular, I love for our music to cut through all that, if only temporarily ?make people feel something genuine; suspend cynicism and irony for a moment and just feel something, anything,?Shaw says.

- Everything is Energy

Everything Is Energy is a band that is born of a man that has been through hell. Which is odd, because they sound like the ocean, flecked with gold dust straight from the angels?afros. The band is at once rhythmic and churning with a dynamic that supports Chris Shinn channeling of Gabriel... the angel, not Peter. An artist formed in the basement bands of Charlotte, Chris realized early that the only way he was going to be heard over the 7seconds, Descendents, or Dead Kennedys covers was to sing up high. ost of my influences as a singer have been women, you know... PJ Harvey, Sinead, Bjork... Curve.?He also cites Perry Farrell, Jeff Buckley and the Deftones for their dedication to beauty over commerce.

- Gosling

The guys in Gosling do not take themselves seriously (hooray!), but they are serious about their music. Their recent album, Here Is . . . (V2) delivers a mash-up of sounds and styles, dipping its fingers in many genre pots ?electro, hard rock, soft metal and pure ?0s British pop. The main thread is the contrast between the sprightly, poppy hooks and Davey nasally, high-pitched wails. (To make another comparison: Think Axl Rose fronting the Beach Boys.) Lyrically, the songs run the gamut from the romantic tealing Stars,?with its Bonnie-and-Clyde-outrunning-the-cosmic-police references, to the darkly bubbly r. Skeleton Wings,?with its haunting, almost vengeful chorus, f you want me, I at the top of the heap . . . if you climb over all the bodies wel meet . . .?Davey admits that they had to edit their list of influences on their MySpace page. t was getting ridiculously long,?he laughs. Right now, the list stops at 44, ranging from George & Ira Gershwin to T. Rex. (Add Elton John: he Burnout?features an extended ennie & the Jets?breakdown.)

GIRLS WITH GUNS
http://www.myspace.com/girlswithgunsrock

Official Website: http://12galaxies.inticketing.com/evinfo.php?eventid=16214