Help Sunshine for the Blind win some bitchin' awards.

We are nominated for some Madison Area Music Awards in few categories and just putting this
out there.  The winners are chosen by popular vote in a rather byzantine online process
If you have a modest amount of patience
and a desire to help us this is what you do.  (it does cost $5, which is a donation to help
support music in Madison schools)

What follows is the series of web pages you have to navigate through to vote.  It is sort of
self explanitory but I have outlined the steps below...

1-Go to www.themamas.org and click on the blue "Register and Vote" link at the bottom of the page.

2- Next screen explains a bit, click on the "Begin Registration" link

3- next screen explains (more) what you get for your "Broadjam Membership".  (The MAMAs are piggybacked
on the Broadjam membership system to vote you have to register for a Broadjam membership).
Just click "Continue"

4- next screen is where you pick a screen name, password, name, address etc. 
Fill in the required fields, then click continue

5- The next screen you can skip unless you are interested, click continue

6- next screen click continue

7- next screen check the "I agree box" and click continue

8 next screen mentions the $5 membership fee, click continue

9- next screen enter credit card info

10- thanks for payment! continue

11- click vote in 3rd round

12- click "start"

13- Highlight the "category" on the left side of the screen. 
Sunshine for the Blind is nominated for Rock Song of the Year (twice)
and Rock Artist of the year.  (We are recommending people choose our song
"See the River Rise."  Make a selection in the vote box to the right of the song/artist name.
Then scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the "submit" button.  You can then
vote in more categories by highlight another category on the left.  Brian Daly is
also nominated in the Electronic Song of the Year.  There is a little info button by the
songs which will take you to a screen if you want to hear them. 
There are a bunch of categories to vote in if you have the fortitude.

That's it!

Some nice mentions in area blogs...

Matt Nelson's guerillabeatz

Contessa Says

Kiki Schueler's blog

MadTracks - 'See the River Rise' by Sunshine for the Blind

by Tom Laskin

What's best about Sunshine for the Blind's hooky rock thing "See the River Rise," from their new album of the same name?

Well, the big guitars mine the '70s without being stuck in them. The insistent, booty-addling back beat never lets up. Singer/producer/six-string wielder Brian Daly's pert, to-the-point vocal performance pumps the existential lyric with equal measures of defiance and dread. And while the bang-your-head-wake-the-dead quotient is way up there, no one would ever confuse Daly's crew with a metal band.

Guess that's another way of saying it's an essential iPod track for those about to rock.

Sunshine for the Blind + Lorenzo's Music, Electric Automatic

King Club, 9pm, $5

"Sunshine for the Blind's new album, See the River Rise, captures the Madison trio exercising various sets of muscles, handling the riff-heavy power-guitar workouts like the title track and "Drop the Weight" while also deftly executing simpler jangly numbers like "Dedication" and "Disappearing".  The Band is at its best when the voices of guitarist Briand Daly and drummer Daphna Ron mesh, as they do on the ultra-hooky "Open the Door".  Daly, known in the scene for his board work at DNA Studios, also recorded and produced the album, rendering a sound that's crisp, clean, and straight-to-the-point, which is how the band sounds live."

Sunshine for the Blind - See the River Rise

2006 DNA Music Labs

Style: Rock, Pure and Simple

"It seems I'm doing a lot of rewriting this month.  First I had to rewrite my Blueheels review because I didn't quite nail what made it so special, and now Sunshine for the Blind is going to make me rewrite my "Best of 2006" list.  Sneaking in during the waning days of the year, See the River Rise is the rare pure-rock record that I can get genuinely excited about.  Powered by a killer rhythm section and super-catchy hooks, River was over years in the making.  In fact, vocalist/guitarist Brian Daly scheduled the CD-release show (January 19th at the King Club) before the disc was even finished to give himself a deadline.  While my review copy is labeled "rough", that is obviously the producer in him talking (he's co-owner of DNA Studios), becuase this record certainly sounds finished to me.  Consisting of thirteen songs, most hovering right around the three-minute mark, this is the way rock should be.  The titular lead-off track traks the heavyweight crown with its thick guitar riffs and pounding percussion, and thought the rest of the album dials it back a little, it never loses the intensity or drive initiated with that song.  Following my first exposure to the band, I claimed their songs had roots in the psychedelic rock of the Beatles Revolver, and that sound surfaces most noticeably in "Another Sun" and "Drop the Weight".  The shimmery, hypnotic guitar of the former recalls "She Said She Said", while the more forcefull latter track is buoyed by the brilliant, Beatle-worthy, and vaguely heart-breaking line "I've got tears that will never dry", as well as by backing vocals from drummer Daphna Ron.  In truth, any song that Ron sings on is better for it, and her drumming is a revelation throughout.  She gives the disc's standout track, "Can't Be Real", a Pixies-esque feel, its tempo-changing propulsion lends heft to unsettling lines like "I'll be everyone you knew / I'll share your favorite point of view," before admitting "This can't be real."  Awesome.

While not as obvious as Ron, bassiste Ken Stevenson, who also contributes backing vocals, is just as crucial to their sound.  If they hadn't found him after going throught several other bass players, the band, and most certainly this CD, might not exist.  When I mentions Sunsine for the Blind, people invariably exclaim, "What a great name!" and it is, because that's what music is, really.  With the release of  See the River Rise, the first on new label DNA Music Labs, now they'll say "what a great band!"

Kiki  Schueler

This is more from the article quoted in our bio section:

The Entertainment: Book It!  Wisconsin Book Festival Party

October 22, High Noon Saloon

    "So where were the dancing librarians?  Everything else that had been promised happened during tonight's literary edition of the the Entertainment: sock puppets, MadLibs, improv, burlesque, lots of music, but, sadly, no dancing librarians.

    Despite that, it was definitely worth sticking around for the duration in order to see Sunshine for the Blind, because this was only their second show of the year.   A power trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Brian Daly (co-owner of Madison's DNA Studios and sought-after producter), drummer Daphna Ron and bassist Ken Stevenson, SFtB play insistent, instantly likeable rock with roots in the Beatles' Revolver album. Even without any gigs on the calendar, they've obviously been practicing; regardless of how intense the songs got, they stopped with remarkable precision. Stocking-hatted with Pippi Longstocking braids, Ron in particular was a force to be reckoned with; her simple, solid drumming drove the songs. Daly's pleasant voice and guitar skill on infectious songs like "Disappearing" and "See The River Rise" made me wish they would finish the album their website promised for October of 2005 (not a typo)."

Some omitted paragraphs here that have nothing to do with Sunshine for the blind

    "Yammer's original selections tended toward the literary ("The Palindrome Song" and "Song for the NEA" for example), but once Sean Michael Dargan joined them they took the evening's theme even more literally.  Elvis Costello's "Every Day I Write The Book", Richard Thompson's "Read About Love" and Nick Lowe's "When I Write The Book" (the latter of which featured a headlamp-wearing Karlin on typewriter) were a few of their inspired choices.  While all of that was entertaining, Sunshine for the Blind easily stole the show. They're just lucky the dancing librarians never showed up."

Kiki Schueler, Rick's Cafe

SFtB played at the Electric Earth Cafe for an Artists for Choice benefit/awareness raising event/art opening on June 14. Also performing were Fermata and members of the Wisconsin Stand-Up Comedy project (WISUC, for the those in know). This was an opening for a show of visual art by Sara Naatz, Lynn Lau, Amandagaze & Katherine Olson. The art from the show will be up through the middle of July, and we highly recommend you stop in and take a look.