King Washington

"We're trying to bring back what never should have left."  Saturated in complex harmonies and intelligent chord progressions alike, the music of King Washington is a throwback to when rock n' roll was a songwriter's game. Combining the vocal styles and songwriting ethos of classic writers of yore, with the angst and adventure of growing up in 1990's Los Angeles, King Washington's music lives amongst the precious realm of fully unexpected yet somehow familiar rock n' roll. King Washington...

"We're trying to bring back what never should have left."  Saturated in complex harmonies and intelligent chord progressions alike, the music of King Washington is a throwback to when rock n' roll was a songwriter's game. Combining the vocal styles and songwriting ethos of classic writers of yore, with the angst and adventure of growing up in 1990's Los Angeles, King Washington's music lives amongst the precious realm of fully unexpected yet somehow familiar rock n' roll. King Washington was born in late 2006 by a then eighteen-year old Tyson Kelly, son of pop songwriting legend and Hall of Fame member Tom Kelly. The band sprouted and became a Los Angeles indie music scene staple in mid-2009 (with the additions of George Krikes, Kyle Turek and Gene Russell) when they began the longest of their many residencies; a six-month weekly stint at famous Molly Malones in West Hollywood. Directly from that initial run at Molly's came a year-long romance with a new and promising record label out of the mid-west. Fourteen months and a full album's worth of recordings later, negotiations fell through and the band was dropped without their debut LP ever being finished or released. An attempt was made to buy back the lost recordings from the label, but once again a deal was unable to be made and KW was back to square one. However, without missing a beat the band initiated a Kickstarter campaign and, with the help of their fans, were able to fund the entire re-recording of their debut album entitled, The Gears. The Gears LP was recorded over a twelve-day, finger-blistering stint at the Exchange Studios in Milwaukee, WI in late summer 2011 and has a planned release for February 2012. Produced by Ambrosia's Joe Puerta, the album showcases a quality and range of songwriting contemporary music has not been exposed to in recent memory. The album manages to be progressive in its writing while still maintaining a pop sensibility the average listener can grasp. The result is a fan-base and demographic as broad as the spectrum allows, while maintaining the envied respect of musicians and critics alike.