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the giveaway sounds like a mixture of brit pop and american folk music, mixed with indie music influences. Travis Shaver and Paul Krauss lead the band. Travis plays guitar, Paul Krauss plays piano, and both write, sing and collaborate, most of the time. Mark Colwell is now stepping up his leadership role from playing lead guitar to writing songs and singing. All three have a unique approach to writing and singing. The combination of which results in original sounding, sincere pop rock songs. Some would call it 'College Radio' material. In fact, the local college radio station now spins the giveaway daily. (http://www.impact89fm.org/ ) Whatever it is, it is definetly not the commercial, overproduced, cliche music heard on most radio stations these days. Powerful enough for the campus bars when playing as a full band, while still melodic and soothing enough to be played unplugged in the local coffee shops. The giveaway has done both. The band sold well over 200 copies of their first recorded demo in just three months while playing shows in the East Lansing area. After playing shows almost every week from August to November the band went back into the studio. They recorded the 'wake up EP' in two weekends. All the instruments were recorded together live in one room. Vocals were done the following weekend. The band then took the unmixed files to their friend and electronic musician Chris Bracciano. Chris and the band mixed the tracks and the band was happy with them. The EP has a live feel to it, but at the same time is mixed professionanlly and sounds very clean. Paul Krauss did the wake up EP art; the cover is a combination of two photos he took. The cd cover was sort of representing a blending of natural and urban environments. It was also supposed to evoke the notion of someone just about to wake up from a dream, a dream where one is never sure what exactly he or she were dreaming of. The tunnel represents the vision just prior to the person opening their eyes and seeing the moon rising over the water. Many of the lyrics of the songs on the EP deal with dreams and the sometimes-futile attempts of the speaker to awaken the subject they are dealing with. Some of the songs refer to awakenings of the speaker, epiphanies if you will. Listen closely to the lyrics and you will discover the theme. Both Travis and Paul each wrote about half the lyrics to the EP so the listener is able to hear a different style of prose for every song. Mark also wrote the lyrics to one of the songs on the EP. The EP ranges from very upbeat melodic acoustic rock to down tempo acoustic guitar and piano with jazz-style drums. The 'wake up EP' has a song on it for everyone's tastes. Michigan State's Student Newspaper (the State News, which is the biggest college paper in the country, and who rarely reviews locals bands) gave the 'wake up EP' 4 out of 5 stars overall. And gave it 5 out of 5 stars on replay value. Here is a link to that article: http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=14936 Musical Influcences include: Simon and Garfunkel, Koufax, Duncan Sheik, Coldplay, James Taylor, Nick Drake, Belle and Sebastian, Death Cab for Cutie, Josh Rouse, Doves, Ben Harper, Travis, Pernice Brothers, Elliott Smith. http://www.thegiveaway.net/ Check out the artist's website: http://www.thegiveaway.net/ Track List: 1. Undeveloped 2. This Fall 3. Colorful 4. Just the way things are 5. Never Again 6. A Better Tomorrow 7. Giving In Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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