ELLIS ASHBROOK

Ellis Ashbrook is not shy on telling everyone who can hear that they're a genre-bending band which echoes the sounds of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, and Ween. With an additional Bread & Puppet philosophy, now imagine young people getting themselves down and dirty playing licks and riffs, with a vocal styling uniquely old school - then you get Ellis Ashbrook.

The band calls themselves as DIY - Do It Yourself - such ethos that was once exclusive to the punk world has spilt over to the new underground. In college, the band paid their dues performing at the legendary basement party scene in Boston's Allston neighborhood at night. In the daytime, several members of the band were astute students at Berklee School of Music.

From Boston, Ellis Ashbrook moved to New York and into triple-deckers sandwiched between Brooklyn projects and the tightly-knit Chassidic community. This interesting dichotomy makes for a dynamic environment for the band's music to evolve. While under the same roof in Brooklyn, they played, slept, and ate together, and in its basement they were brewing incendiary performances that were witnessed by hordes that have passed through their cellar. Ellis Ashbrook lived, breathed, and ate music.

And who are the members of this passionate group of rock 'n' roll music artists? John Barber (guitar/vocals) and Alex Major (drummer) are childhood friends in Rhode Island. Soon they would later connect with Jonathan Granoff (bassist) and meet Natalie Lowe (keyboards/vocals). As Ellis Ashbrook, they're a super producing team - not just their own shows, but their own studio projects with Granoff twiddling the knobs. On their video 'Hard To B EZ', they managed to make it look spectacular - even on a shoestring budget!

To date, Ellis Ashbrook has released three albums: 2006's self-titled debut, 2008's Assemblage, and this 2011, Meridia. Currently, they're on tour to promote their latest album and they're making believers out of you.