Wintergreen
If a marriage between Death Cab For Cutie ’s savvy indie rock and the heavy surging guitars of Dinosaur Jr. would put you on cloud 9, then enter the chapel of Wintergreen . The Los Angeles collective draws upon the infectious pop/rock landscape of the late sixties (i.e. Kinks, Zombies, Beatles ) set against the dark backdrop of early nineties angst (i.e. Pixies, Nirvana ) .
Their latest release titled, ‘ Forest St.-ep ‘ exposes the visage of a more serious tenor without succumbing to the melodrama that has compromised many of their contemporaries.
Wintergreen released their five-song debut, The Extended Play , on the tiny indie Mt. Fuji Records to little notice in late 2005. Several months later, an extremely clever video for the song “When I Wake Up” directed by Keith Schofield [Death Cab, Fatboy Slim, David Byrne] — based on the urban legend of the Atari’s ET game debacle in which millions of cartridges were recalled and allegedly buried in the desert of New Mexico. Becoming an instant online classic, the exposure led to a top feature on YouTube [5.6.06], a MySpace ‘Indie Spotlight’ feature, circulation on both FUSE and Direct TV’s The 101 as well as a mention in the popular German publication Der Spiegel as well SPIN magazine [May '06] . The band’s MySpace fan count quickly shot up well over 50,000 strong and still growing. Several hundred thousand views later, Wintergreen had become a bona fide buzz band! * Over 2 million views to date
The band followed up with a 2007 self released LP, ‘ (Around &) Around Again ,’ which drew modest attention. A second video was shot and directed by Keith Schofield, which premiered at the BUG Video Festival [UK] late 2007. While being extremely well received throughout the blogosphere and indie underground, this video for their song ” Can’t Sit Still” tackled a slightly more controversial subject matter of making illicit drugs from common household items. The band is shown demonstrating how to cook up a variety of hardcore drugs in a step-by-step fashion. The videos caused a bit of a stir online creating endless debates as to weather the recipes were real or fake. For obvious legal reasons the recipes were completely fictitious and harmless. The video drew even more massive attention for the band.
Following a successful college radio campaign, multiple tours of the Northwest and a showcase performance at SXSW 2007 , the band underwent a difficult member change in the lineup and subsequently began a gradual transformation into a more sophisticated and dynamic style of rock heard on their brand new ‘ Forest St – ep. ‘
Wintergreen continues to redefine their place in the indie rock spectrum as their sound not only matures, but evolves with each passing album. At home and happiest in the recording studio, the guys hope to largely expand their catalog of music throughout the coming years and simply record as much new music as their right brains will allow. The band is currently in the studio working on an ambitious full-length release slated for Feb ‘09 and planning a tour of the Southern western United States to coincide with an appearance at this year’s SXSW music conference.
Trevor Sherwood [guitar]
Drew Mottinger [vocals, guitar]
Todd Ramsey [drums ]
Danny Young [bass ] Matt Casebeer [keyboard ]
