Hey guys, just to let you know we are up for a Cincinnati Entertainment Award this year, for New Artist of the Year. check it out here

http://cea.citybeat.com/08pages/08music.html

Also, congratulations to our friends The Frankl Project, Duppy a Jamba, and The Seedy Seeds for their nominations. You can help support these awesome bands by voting for them here

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/best-of-18-cea-music-nominees.html

Congratulations to everyone.

http://cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/COV/809240318/1046/rss03

"LOCAL: FLUX CAPACITORS

Surf music wouldn't be the same without reverb-drenched guitar. The Flux Capacitors bless us with that facet on its 2007 album, John Q. Brains-for-Arms. The band puts a post-rock spin on the genre Dick Dale champions.

Lead guitarist Erick Stoll is ready to record new material.

"I feel like we've come a long way since (Brains-for-Arms); maybe we feel disconnected from it now. If I was to play it for someone now, I would play it with the stipulation that we've come a lot further," he says.

Don't expect a "Wipe Out" from this band at MPMF. "

Just thought I would mention we were mentioned in the past two editions of City Beat, on different people's "Best of 2007" lists. Check out Mike Breen's best local albums for 2007, and you'll notice we are mentioned!
"· Flux Capacitors - John Q. Brains-For-Arms
The Capacitors perhaps don´t reinvent the Surf music wheel, but they certainly have deflated all of the air, painted some avant ornamentation on it and refilled it with laughing gas. If Sonic Youth would have been inspired by Dick Dale instead of, say, Glen Branca, this is what it would have sounded like. (MB)"
http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A143387

Also, we were mentioned in Chris Lee's awards.


5. The ¨Let´s Groove to the Cool Wave Sounds of Some Surf Music ¨ CLOCMA goes to: THE FLUX CAPACITORS
This band is cool. This band is fun. This band rocks. Influenced by such artists as Dick Dale, Man Or Astro-Man and Devo, The Flux Capacitors built up a good local fan base during the year and continue to knock over crowds with their Surfness. "

Pretty neat stuff.

http://citybeat.com/current/cover5.shtml

Not a huge deal, but it's neat to think we've been noticed. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the shows the past two nights, I had a great time at both of them. Looking forward to future shows with Duppy A Jamba.

from http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A142524
"Spill It
New Waves
BY Mike Breen | Posted 10/24/2007

One would think that aficionados of instrumental Surf music would be at least a little reluctant to anyone coming along and messing with the formula. Like Blues, there are expected features of Surf -- reverb being the main one, I suppose -- and, while there have been groups that play the music in funny costumes or with some kind of gimmick (like, "It's Surf music ... but about spaceships!"), very few have strayed from the blueprint. Sure, there is a charming purity to simple Blues and Surf music, but I want to hear what people can do without the constraints of expectation.
That's why I was excited to get a copy of the debut CD from Cincinnati's Flux Capacitors, John Q. Brains-For-Arms. The Capacitors perhaps don't reinvent the Surf music wheel, but they certainly have deflated all of the air, painted some avant ornamentation on it and refilled it with laughing gas. If Sonic Youth would have been inspired by Dick Dale instead of, say, Glen Branca, this is what they would have sounded like.

That's not to say the Surf music puzzle-pieces aren't all there, nor that fans of the genre (well, open-minded ones) will be turned off by the band. The Flux Capacitors' members all have a clear knowledge of classic Surf and their chops reflect that. Lead guitarist Erik Stoll can whip out a wiry, reverb-drenched lick as good as anyone I've heard. And the rhythm section is more than adept at re-creating that big-wave rumble.

But it's when the band gets "weird" that things start getting really good. On "Better Get Used to These Bars, Kid," the guitars are downright jazzy, with a circular figure serving as the spine of the song. But from there the structure wanders like a boat lost at sea. As they explore different territory (harmonics, almost Prog-like licks, stop-start beats), they pull into a harbor of delicious guitar-noise, as feedback swells and swirls, sounding at times like an all-out air attack. To start from this sublime little jazzy riff and end up with something that sounds like it could have been left over from the Daydream Nation sessions is a remarkable feat.

It's these little surprises that make John Q. Brains-For-Arms an instrumental album to which you need to pay attention as you listen. On "The Flight of the Cat-Faced Bag" (seems having no lyrics gives license for deliriously surrealistic song titles), the band injects impulsive shots of over-driven fuzz, seemingly from out of nowhere, before breaking down into a softer section that really shows the tight interplay between the musicians. "Just 2001" is totally left field and one of the record's more engaging tracks, with spacey synth noise sprinkled throughout. I can safely say it is the best "cover" of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" you will ever hear. Well, at least the most creative. The band meditates on the theme (best known from being featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey) like a group of Jazz musicians, doing to it what Coltrane did with "My Favorite Things" (that is, making it all their own and changing how you'll look at that song forever).

I've run out of cheesy Surf metaphors, so let me just end by saying that Flux Capacitors have taken a musical genre seemingly set in stone and made it a Technicolor detonation of adventurous ideas, creative and deft chops and more than the occasional dose of humor.

The Capacitors host a CD release party for the new album on Friday at the Southgate House. Towhee and Southeast Engine also perform at the 10 p.m. show. (myspace.com/surfthefluxcapacitors)"

http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A140474

"I'm watching four suburban Cincinnati white kids on a stage playing pseudo Surf Rock wearing Indian headdresses and sporting terribly applied black makeup on their faces that was probably intended to be used by an athlete trying to keep the sun out of his or her eyes. Earlier in the evening, the same four people tried to convince me that they weren't a gimmicky band.
Gimmicky or not, The Flux Capacitors have spent the last year shaping their own unique blend of Surf and Post Rock infused with Jam-band styling. Formed through a chain of phone calls amongst friends after lead guitarist Erik Stoll was washing his car while listening to Man or Astroman?, The Flux Capacitors are one of the most unique musical acts in Greater Cincinnati.

"I already kind of had a band with Ryann (Walton, bass/guitar), so I called her up to ask her if she wanted to be in a real band, a better band," Stoll says. "And then I was like, 'Hey, Mike plays drums,' so I called him, and then I told Sean (Victory, multi-instrumentalist) I had a band and he complained until I said he could be in it."

Stoll says that playing with The Flux Capacitors is the first music project that he has ever really taken ownership of. Formerly playing brass in a Ska band, he says that there wasn't the same sense of ownership because he was more an auxiliary player and, in his current situation, all of the band members are on the same page.

Walton came into the Flux Capacitors from a similar situation. Her former band was comprised of all women.

"I'd much rather be the only girl in the band," she says.

The Flux Capacitors are a purely instrumental four-piece with interweaving, dueling guitars and tight drum fills, bass and keyboard. Rotating instruments during live shows, the band is trying to fight the impression that Surf Rock in the Midwest is a novelty.

"There is a lot of quality in Surf Rock that gets overlooked because it is viewed as a novelty," Victory says. "We're obviously influenced by Surf Rock as a genre, but we're not a straightforward Surf Rock band. We experiment and branch out."

Fighting the homogenization of the local music scene has been an uphill battle for the band. Without any other bands in the area making similar music, they're often booked with a smattering of other acts. No other local bands seem as diverse as The Flux Capacitors, as they blend reverb-filled walls of sound with dance beats and synthesizers.

"Cincinnati is a rough place for anyone who isn't Emo-Rock/Hardcore," Stoll says, insisting the band isn't against trying to conquer Cincinnati with their fun live shows.

With work finishing up on a debut album, due out in August, the band is playing new songs from the record on their upcoming dates.

"We offer something different than your average Cincinnati band," Stoll says of the album.

First and foremost The Flux Capacitors are fun. They're passing around a pack of cigarettes on the stoop of a building across from the venue of a recent show, with friends and girlfriends discussing how the ghetto is evidently burning. Later, the fire proves to be the Cincinnati Costume Company going down in flames.

Their good-natured humor extends into their records and live shows. It's refreshing to see a serious band that doesn't take themselves too seriously. There's no pretension and no bullshit.

With four different people bringing in different musical styles, The Flux Capacitors plan to continue expanding their sound. Overlooking the irony of a Surf Rock band in Ohio and the novelty of the headdresses, the band might very well be on to something. And they're dedicated to pushing the limits of their ensemble.

"We're a match made in heaven," jokes Victory.

"We can't break up, we saw the Ninja Turtle movie together," he adds, chuckling over the laughter of everyone present."