wampus multimedia rolls out debut from cafebar 401

Brimming with darkly sweet pop hooks, Cafebar 401 blends Bowie-esque vocal presence with danceable grooves rooted in Euro-rock. Currently setting the Dutch pop scene ablaze, the band has appeared this year on Dutch national television and radio. Their relentlessly contemporary sound calls to mind Coldplay, Masters of Reality, Muse, Beck, Soulwax, Radiohead, and Queens of the Stone Age, but they bring something of their own to the party.

Don't miss their new CD.

After signing with Wampus Multimedia last year, Cafebar 401 rated an in-depth profile in the influential Dutch daily, De Telegraaf, and was featured prominently on Dutch television with SBS6. They are becoming fixtures at pop festivals up and down The Netherlands, including Dauwpopfestival, Struikpaaspop, IO-festival, and Wollipop. Cafebar 401 leader Tije Oortwijn grew up listening to the Black Crowes, the Rolling Stones, and Masters of Reality. He first piloted grunge-driven bands during the mid-'90s. Gradually he absorbed his influences and concocted the shadowy pop confections of Cafebar 401. Combining the roar of alternative rock with the drum-and-bass of N.E.R.D., Timbaland, Daft Punk, Cassius, and Outkast, Cafebar 401 evokes a hipper Foo Fighters, a fun and funkier Bush. The irrepressible "Something Worth Dying For," one of the band's live staples, boasts an uptempo drum-and-bass beat with a Fu Manchu-like guitar riff and a Masters of Reality-style chorus.

Cafebar 401 departs enough from their influences, however, to cast a distinctive shadow. The first single, "I Need to Know," is a blast of tuneful emo, a modern-rock power ballad cast as yearning band-and-strings lament. Bangers such as "Full-pro Disco!" and "2 am" augment frenetic dance tracks ("Something Worth Dying For") and contemplative pop ("Troubles," "Many Left Here Long Before").

Oortwijn is a songwriter first, a craftsman of guitar and studio. He infuses his songs with a mix of celebration and sadness. "If the song isn't powerful," he says, "we throw it away."

With the release of their debut, Cafebar 401 is reaching beyond The Netherlands to greater Europe and the United States. Armed with a disc that rocks hard and sticks like candy, Cafebar 401 could stick with you.

Buy.

http://cdbaby.com/cafebar401

Visit.

http://wampus.com/artists/cafebar401

 

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Wampus Releases Friction Catalog as Digital Download

Wampus Multimedia announces the electronic release of Friction Quasi-Quarterly, the pesky fiction magazine that terrorized terra firma in the early 1990s. After reaching an eclectic and possibly misanthropic core of readers until keeling over in 1994, Friction returns as a big, handy digital download (all 18 issues) in Adobe Acrobat format.

Feisty and ambitious, it labeled itself "stranger than truth." Fundamentally shameless, it counted the novelist Kurt Vonnegut among its paid subscribers.

Visit.

http://wampus.com/affiliates/friction

Buy.

http://wampus.com/affiliates/friction/buyfriction.html

 

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Get the Good Stuff: Releases from Wampus

http://wampus.com/store

Prefer downloads to CDs? Wampus titles are now available from Buy.com, iTunes, MusicMatch, and many others!

Cafebar 401

Brimming with darkly sweet pop hooks, Cafebar 401 blends Bowie-esque vocal presence with danceable grooves rooted in Euro-rock. Their relentlessly contemporary sound calls to mind Coldplay, Masters of Reality, Muse, Beck, Soulwax, Radiohead, and Queens of the Stone Age.

Arms of Kismet / Eponymous

Literate and insidiously catchy, Arms of Kismet is postmodern pop for the savvy, ironic streetcrawler.

Various Artists / After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed

From the unflinching optimism of Johnny J Blair's "Sunday Morning" to the cerebral ambivalence of Brook Pridemore's title track, 'After Hours' tells the story of an artist unencumbered by popular expectations, yet... popular.

Various Artists / If I Were a Richman: a Tribute to the Music of Jonathan Richman

A wildly entertaining ride through the repertoire of one of rock's most original and eclectic songwriters. Like Lou Reed & the Velvet Underground before him, Richman's deceptively straightforward music defies easy categorization. From his early days with the original Modern Lovers, through numerous iterations of the Lovers, to his latter-day solo career, Richman's work has mixed an arresting sense of innocence with a deep sensitivity to human emotion.

tvfordogs / Heavy Denver

The best modern-rock record of 2003. Check it out.

Kowtow Popof / Kowtow Drops the Pop Off

Powerfully nuanced postmodern rave-ups that set the car radio ablaze. "Preternaturally surrealist post-pop." --Eve Zibart, The Washington Post

Amateur God / Near Life Experience

Dark gothic-semi-vocal-ambient music in the tradition of Mylene Farmer, All About Eve, Celtic Frost, Type O Negative, Sisters of Mercy, The Gathering, Jean Michel Jarre, Orbital, Front 242, Rammstein, Art of Noise, and Voivod.

Various Artists / Glass Flesh 2: a Tribute to Robyn Hitchcock

Twenty-one great ways to skin Robyn Hitchcock's cat. Indispensable.

Wampeters / Murder Your Darlings

D.C. post-modernists reinvent the contrarian rock sensibility. Smoldering chamber rock descended from the Band, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys. "A great narrative album. The last great mainstream release that exemplifies this method of development of style and sound is Wilco's Summer Teeth." --Heidi Drockelman, IndieMusic.com

Mark Doyon / Bonneville Stories

Crisp fiction from Arms of Kismet's Mark Doyon that's as dark as optimism gets. "A brilliant collection of beautifully written stories that made me cringe, grimace, and laugh, while sometimes moving me to great pity.... There just aren't any flaws here, and I can't possibly do this book justice in a review. No one could, really...." --Laurie Edwards, CultureDose.net

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1929763093/qid=1034199246/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_7/102-8551637-2399362?v=glance&n=507846

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Coming in 2004-06

Dedicated to the support and promotion of independent music, Wampus is home to growing roster of indie artists. Interested in becoming a Wampus artist? Read all about it.

http://wampus.com/programs.html

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Wampus Multimedia values you as a supporter of independent music and will never share your contact information with anyone.  We welcome your ideas and suggestions with regard to promoting the work of indie artists.  Contact us anytime at mail4@wampus.com.