{"id":45094,"date":"2020-02-22T08:49:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T13:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=45094"},"modified":"2020-02-22T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T13:49:11","slug":"on-stage-scantron-celebrates-ep-release-at-ortliebs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=45094","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Scantron celebrates EP release at Ortlieb’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, <\/span>Entertainment Editor, The Times<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Scantron<\/p><\/div>\n

Scantron can mean different things to different types of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those in the tech world, Scantron is a global, technology and services driven company.<\/span><\/p>\n

For teachers and students, scantron is a device used to scan prepared forms used for multiple-choice and true-or-false testing.<\/span><\/p>\n

For rockers in the Mid-Atlantic region, Scantron is a high-energy, no-holds-barred, badass garage rock from South Philly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scantron, the band, is releasing a new EP on February 14 and celebrating with an \u201cEP Release Show\u201d on February 22 at Ortlieb\u2019s (847 North Third Street, Philadelphia, 267- 324-3348, https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Scantron\u2019s new EP is titled, \u201cElectric City,\u201d and the first single from the four-song EP is the just-released track, \u201cWhite Linen Sheets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The songs were all penned by vocalist\/guitarist James Everhart. Scantron was founded by Everhart and Will Donnelly \u2013 both former members of the Philly-based band Low Cut Connie. The other four members of Scantron are bassist Tyler Yoder, keyboard player Jared Loss, drummer Robb Matthews and vocalist\/guitarist George M. Murphy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cScantron was kind of a pet project for me and Will Donnelly,\u201d said Everhart, during a phone interview Friday evening from his home in Philadelphia\u2019s Fishtown section.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe started playing covers before we did originals. Even the name was a joke. It was around the time I joined Low Cut Connie. It gave me an outlet for my songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying with Low Cut Connie for six years, I got to travel around the world, got to be on TV, got to play at the Newport Folk Festival, got to be in Rolling Stone. The only thing I didn\u2019t get to do was to be with my wife and to make my own music. I was ready for a new project \u2013 ready for something of my own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Scantron\u2019s first recorded project was an eponymous EP in 2013 followed by the \u201cPalamino Blackwing\u201d EP in 2014. The band then released three singles \u2013 \u201cOh No \/ I’m Not Surprised\u201d in 2016, \u201cPlease Do Not Come Home \/ I’ll Never Change\u201d in 2017, and \u201cMake It With You \/ Give Me Something\u201d in 2018. Scantron\u2019s next release was \u201cElectric City.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer of 2018, Everhart hit a wall. Six years on the road weighed heavy on his psyche. He was recently married and burned out on the grind of touring. He made the challenging decision to leave Low Cut Connie and return home to Philadelphia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that fall, he found himself reinvigorated, working through a new batch of songs that expressed the hurricane of feelings he was still weathering. The addition of drummer Robb Matthews and the return of bassist Tyler Yoder added a seismic punch to the band\u2019s live shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scantron\u2019s line-up changed a lot over the years,\u201d said Everhart, who grew up in the Pike Creek section of northern Delaware.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rotating cast. The line-up we have now has been around the longest. And it\u2019s the best lineup we\u2019ve had.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe recorded the new EP last February at Drowning Fish Studio in Philly\u2019s Port Richmond section. We chose that studio because our buddy Dave Shub works there, it has cool gear and the availability was there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Donnelly handled the engineering duties assisted by Shub. The EP <\/a>was mixed by Adam Hill in Memphis, Tennessee and mastered by Charlie Stavish in Joshua Tree, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe EP was self-produced and engineered,\u201d said Everhart. \u201cWe did all the recording in two days. The EP is self-released and we\u2019re working with another company to have a boutique vinyl release later this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn our live show this weekend, we\u2019re playing all the songs from \u2018Electric City\u2019 as well as all our other releases. We\u2019re going whole catalog.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Video link for Scantron — https:\/\/youtu.be\/S29zxr9rSvI<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The show at Ortlieb\u2019s, which has Eyebawl, Lifters, and Todd Fausnacht as opening acts, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sumo Cyco<\/p><\/div>\n

Sumo Cyco, a four-piece, female-fronted Canadian punk rock\/heavy metal\/hard rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, is making a return visit to the area this weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

On February 22, the rockers from \u201cNorth of the Border\u201d will conclude its month-long coast-to-coast USA tour with a local show.<\/span><\/p>\n

The band is part of the four-act line-up on The 69 Eyes\u2019 \u201cHell Has No Mercy 2020\u201d Tour at Reverb (1402 North Ninth Street, Reading, 610-743-3069, www.reverbconcerts.com<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Sumo Cyco — Sever (vocals, guitar), Matt \u201cMD13\u201d Drake (lead guitar), Oscar Anesetti (bass), Matt Trozzi (drums) — formed in early 2011 in Toronto and has released 16 singles and 17 official music videos since then. The foursome has released just two albums in almost a decade of existence \u2013 but that will change soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 2011 when we officially released our first video online and started doing local shows,\u201d said Sever, during a phone interview Thursday afternoon as the band was travelling to a gig in Pittsburgh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only been the last few years that we\u2019ve taken it up to a higher level. In 2013, we took first in the Indie Week Toronto competition. The top band got invited to play a festival in Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe played the festival and combined it with a full tour of the U.K. I had a lot of people over there that remembered me from my pop career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sever\u2019s pop career came under her born name \u2013 Skye Sweetnam.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Sweetnam first played Philly, people expected her to be a cute 15-year old singer who was the opening act for Britney Spears on her \u201cThe Onyx Hotel 2004 Tour\u201d — another pop princess-in-waiting — another \u201cMini-Diva\u201d ready to serve up a selection of dance songs accompanied by the \u201cchoreography du jour.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That was far from the reality of the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweetnam was no pop princess dishing out formulaic hits. Sweetnam was the real deal. She played crunching chords on her guitar backed by a hard-rocking band. And she wrote real songs about real life as a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took guitar lessons over my childhood, but I learned more by myself just trying to do power chords,\u201d said Sever. \u201cSongwriting is one of my biggest passions. I write a lot and I write all the time. I did my first demo when I was 12.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even back then, Sweetnam was a self-described \u201cchick playing with a rock band and jumping off drum risers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweetnam released two albums \u201cNoise from the Basement\u201d in 2004 and \u201cSound Soldier\u201d in 2007. Sumo Cyco also has two albums so far \u2013 \u201cLost in Cyco City\u201d in 2014 and \u201cOpus Mar\u201d in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been touring a lot since that trip to the U.K.,\u201d said Sever. \u201cWe won a John Lennon Songwriting Competition and they sponsored us of the 2015 Warped Tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe released seven singles and then put out the \u2018Lost in Cyco City\u2019 album. We kept putting singles and videos online. We were trying to take a new approach to things and not release a record.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut fans and magazines wanted a record, so we caved. Now, we\u2019re in a good record cycle. We put one out a few years ago and now we have a new one coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just signed a deal with Napalm Records in January. We\u2019re excited to have more team members to help us get exposure out there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe new album is in the works but there is no title yet. Once we finish this tour, it\u2019s time to get back in the studio and make magic happen. We already have more than an album\u2019s worth of songs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Video link for Sumo Cyco — https:\/\/youtu.be\/FtcVlSytJF4<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The all-ages show at Reverb, which also features The 69 Eyes, Wednesday 13, The Crowned, Suicide Puppets, Husk, and Signs of Withdrawal, will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another act will play its final show of a nationwide tour this week in the area. On February 24, Ross the Boss is closing his tour with a show at the Foundry at Fillmore Philadelphia (1100 Canal Street, Philadelphia, 215-309-0150, www.thefillmorephilly.com<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, bands or solo musicians will release an album and then go out on the road to support the new LP but that is not the path that Ross the Boss chose to follow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ross \u201cThe Boss\u201d Friedman<\/p><\/div>\n

Ross \u201cThe Boss\u201d Friedman, a stellar guitarist whose work spans genres and generations, spent the month of February playing shows from coast-to-coast. A few days after he gets back home to Queens, New York, he will release his new album, \u201cBorn of Fire.\u201d The LP will be released <\/span>on March 6 via AFM Records.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman was born in the Bronx, New York, and formed the punk rock band the Dictators in 1973. After recording three albums with the Dictators, Friedman went to France and worked for one year in Fabienne Shine’s band Shakin’ Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell tour in 1980 (on which Shakin’ Street were the support act), Friedman was introduced to bass player Joey DeMaio by Ronnie James Dio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in 1980, Friedman and DeMaio formed Manowar, with whom he recorded six albums. In 1990, Friedman joined Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ross the Boss (the band) was formed when Tarek Maghary organized an appearance by Friedman at the Keep It True Festival in Germany (where he is a promoter) alongside members of a Manowar tribute band called Men of War. They later changed their name to Ross the Boss and began working on original material.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was receiving a lot of requests from fans around the world for Manowar music,\u201d said Friedman, during a phone interview Tuesday as he was driving across the desert in Arizona.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying the Keep It True Festival, which was 2017, was great. We played Manowar material and blew the place away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, Ross the Boss released its \u201cBy Blood Sworn\u201d album and got rave reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith that last record, we spent a lot of time working up the songs in the rehearsal room,\u201d said Friedman. \u201cThis time, we did demos and then worked off the demos.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the demos to the studio, laid the drums on and then started building from there. Our<\/span> amazing engineer, CJ Sci\u00f8scia, recorded the drums, bass and guitars and everything went great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The February tour was just a prelude with a larger tour scheduled for the spring. The later tour affected the album\u2019s release date.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to tour in April, our label and our booking agent said we had to put out new product,\u201d said Friedman. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to put a new album out only two years after the release of \u2018By Blood Sworn\u2019 but that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got the songs together quickly. Now I\u2019m glad I did it. We did the basic tracks at a friend\u2019s studio in New Jersey and then Seeb Levermann mixed it in Germany. It\u2019s one of the best records I\u2019ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedman and his mates are ready to be road warriors again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got my full touring band — Steve Bolognese on drums, Mike LePond on bass, and Marc Lopes lead singer,\u201d said Friedman. \u201cOur set list is half Manowar and half Ross the Boss with some \u2018By Blood Sworn\u2019 and some \u2018Born of Fire.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Ross the Boss \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/0BMyWdNfJBQ<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The show at the Foundry will start at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $20.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times\u00a0 Scantron can mean different things to different types of people. For those in the tech world, Scantron is a global, technology and services driven company. For teachers and students, scantron is a device used to scan prepared forms used for multiple-choice and true-or-false testing. For rockers in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8457],"tags":[7426,12842,12840,12841],"class_list":["post-45094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-ross-the-boss-friedman","tag-scantron","tag-sumo-cyco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45095,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45094\/revisions\/45095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}