Artist description [from www.redshiftrecordings.com] Classifying Rand-Univac's sound can be hard, but then again, what band wouldn't say that? "Hey there, we sound just like blink182!" So anyway, we figure the best way to let you know what we sound like is to let you know what we listen to. What we think makes our sound unique is the presence of four very different musicans with widely varied influences coming together and making music. Josh grew up in Seattle, hanging out with the boys from now defunct classic rock band Shallow Water. He listens to a lot of Zepplin, Pearl Jam, Champion Birdwatchers, and loves hendrix. He's been working on getting some pretty sick noises out of his amp with a cheap-ass delay pedal and a lot of feedback. His rotovibe is also pretty much permanently on. Jeremiah comes from more folk, and even some old-school country roots ("traditional folk music is really dark music"), but enjoys such contemporary bands as Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, and U2. Andrew comes from a more indie/math-rock/prog-rock background, listening to bands like Yes, Don Caballero, Roadside Monument, and also Champion Birdwatchers. He also professes a deep and passionate love for a few composers, notably Debussy, Samuel Barber, and film composer Bernard Hermann. Andrew says he's desperately trying to rip off the ending to Debussy's goldfish, but we'll see what actually happens. Kevin brings a jazz influence to the group, lately, he's been listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so you can tell where that's leading: pure rythmic mahem. Aside from fusion, his drumming seems to be the more musically neutral part of the band, he's just WAY GOOD. The thing that makes all this matter is that Josh, Jeremiah, and Andrew all write songs, so the variation in the music is very wide. They write a huge amount of music, and each member brings their own influences to the songs. Bringing all this together, you end up with elements of bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Radiohead, Travis, Pearl Jam, and many more, without really sounding like any of these bands. And just for the record, Josh's vocals don't sound anything AT ALL like eddie vedder's.

Music Style indie rock

Musical Influences Radiohead, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yes, Don Caballero, Smashing Pumpkins, Roadside Monument, Champion Birdwatchers

Similar Artists Radiohead, Sunny Day Real Estate

Artist History [from www.redshiftrecordings.com] Rand-Univac started about three years ago at Whitworth College with Josh Wong (e.Guitar, vocals) heading to the lounge of his dorm to jam with his RA, Kevin Germer (drums, percussion). They started a band called Sketchbang Fairwell, with Andy Tobin on bass and Drew Henderson on lead guitar. Playing mostly on campus at Whitworth for a few years, the band weathered the loss of Drew at the end of 99. In november of 2000, Jeremiah Webster, who was doing his own solo stuff at the time, talked to Josh and joined on as an extra acoustic guitarist. In December of that year, Andy Tobin quit and Andrew Means signed on as bassist, cementing their current lineup. In April of that year the band decided they needed a new name to go with the louder, more rythmic sound they had acquired. A few names were tossed around ("how about: rage against my monkey!" "rage against my monkey?" "no, rage against my monkey" "rage against your monkey?" "Yeah!") and Madison was selected because it was easier to remember than Sketchbang Fairwell, and Jeremiah's uncle is named Madison, so there was some kind of cheezy story to tell. In actuality, the name comes from a now-defunct garage band fronted by a few of Andrew's friends, Chris Millheisler and Matt Lockheart. The connotations surrounding the band's name continued to grow when Josh and Andrew moved into the Woodway House: one of the cross streets on Woodway is MADISON st. It wasn't till later when they realized that there were 5 other bands called madison out there, some of which probably were big enough to have layers. But that's not for a while. Along with a new name came the release of the band's first Album/EP, the 7 song, "fairwell sketchbang" cleverly titled to bid adeu to the band's previous name. The 7 tracks include Dizzy, Last Look Behind, and A Moment or Two, Josh's throw-your-unmentionables-on-the-stage song. Also included is olympus mons' first song, there's too many kids in this tub (complete with the one-take mess up ending). This cd was reproduced (and continues to be reproduced) by the band by hand, burning the cd's on their friends' computers, and spray painting the tops of the cd's with a homemade stencil. A note for franklin mint collectors: different batches of CD's have different color spray paints. The first 100 were numbered and black, second batch was yellow spray paint (A few rare 'special editions' and a few 'special mess up editions' are floating around somewhere). At the end of the school year, the members went their seperate ways, Josh home to Seattle, Andrew to the coast of Washington, and Kevin and Jeremiah (both recently graduated from Whitworth) left in Spokane to rot in the infernal heat. Over the summer they played one show, to a 400 seat auditorium, host to about 60 people. Nothing more. Fall 2001 rolled around and the band got together again, fearing the worst. Instead, the songs they had written over the summer (two each for Andrew, Jeremiah, and Josh) came together in ways they couldn't have expected, with more intricacy and musicianship than ever before. The band had, by being apart, prepared itself to really become a true band, instead of four wildy divergent musicians with differing styles. They booked a few shows, and continue to do so, excited for what lay in store. At the end of October, Rand-Univac (then Madison) spent 60 straight hours in 'the Swamp' a house/studio in northern Seattle to record their first full length cd. Mp3's are available from this cd at the mp3 page. Through November and December they continued playing shows, and in early February, it became clear that now was the time to change the name. The band spent about two weeks asking their friends, asking messageboards, flipping through books on Mars geography, old-school blues ledgened, nasa documents, listening to their friends good and stupid (mostly stupid. mostly really, really stupid) ideas for names, until finally deciding on Rand-Univac; a name Andrew found back in high school while looking through a reader's-digest about the apollo space capsule. Since recording their album they've written over 8 new songs. Their prolific writing has barely been able to keep up with the number of shows they've played; they have an average of premiering 2 new songs at each show, so you're almost guaranteed to hear something you haven't heard before. Also, their stage presence has continued to evolve, with Jeremiah lilting around, Josh pidgeon toeing and wobbling, Kevin wailing on his crash, and Andrew pretty much destroying himself at the end of choice songs. As the band continues to grow, they rest in the knowledge that Christ has some grand plan for them, even if it's something as simple as playing some really good music for people, and talking with them after the show. More than anything else, Rand-Univac wants to communicate to our fans the intrinsic value we and God see in them.

Group Members Josh Wong: Guitar, Vocals Jeremiah Webster: Guitar, Vocals Andrew Means: Bass Kevin Germer: Drums

Albums the Sounds of Rand-Univac

Press Reviews The Local Planet: "One of Spokane's Most talented young bands"

Location Spokane, WA - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).