New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Audio Insight official website) Top 12 Unsigned Act And Bamboozle Artist AUDIO INSIGHT Celebrates The First Anniversary Of Critically Acclaimed Debut Album 'Dimensions', Releases 'The
Spirit Of Radio' CoverAudio Insight is Anthony Celi (lead guitar/vocals), Mike Deverin (bass) and Dan Sullivan (drums and percussion).
On Sunday, November 13th at 9 p.m., to commemorate the year-anniversary of their debut album Dimensions, the New Jersey-based prog-rockers released their official studio cover of RUSH's 'The
Spirit of Radio' as a free Facebook download for fans and is now available. Upon it's release, Audio Insight's cover made its radio debut later that night on Dover, N.J.'s 105.5 FM WDHA program 'Anything Anything', hosted by DJ Rich Russo.
"Audio Insight's cover of 'The
Spirit of Radio' is a great version by a band that is often very difficult to cover," Russo says. "I've always believed that doing other artists' songs makes a band better as both songwriters and performers."
The new release will also debut on top college radio station 89.5 FM WSOU Tuesday evening, as well as Chicago's BlogTalkRadio program IndieOnAir! hosted by Jeff Popka this afternoon.
On Saturday, November 14th 2010, Butler's newest, state-of-the-art venue and recording studio welcomed the emerging Woodbridge-based progressive rock as hosts of their debut album release party. The show would go on to become the venue's first sell-out crowd, effectively etching the young band in its history. Opening for Audio Insight on the night were local rockers Lost Blue and White Noise.
It has been nothing short of amazing as to what the band has been able to accomplish since.
In January of this year, top college radio station and loud, active-rock kings 89.5 FM WSOU brought the band in-studio for an interview with DJ Magneto and added their tracks into regular rotation. Several months later, Audio Insight would also have their tracks added to the station's specialty show 'Under the Stars' and then be invited to co-headline a station-sponsored performance at Seton Hall University in October.
Following their addition to 89.5 FM WSOU's music library, the band picked up their first of several album reviews, this time from The Aquarian Weekly, a recognized voice of music in the tri-state area.
At the time, Assistant Editor Andre Magnotta said, "Audio Insight has a ton of upside, and Dimensions is a record that you will spin more times than once. It‟s melodic, energetic-even frantic at times-and thoroughly agreeable, with appeal to fans of both progressive rock and post-hardcore."
Several weeks later, the magazine would go on to include Audio Insight among its coveted 'Top 12 Unsigned Acts of 2011' ranking.
"Ever since I got their CD, I have been listening to it non-stop," says Brian Schantz,
Director of The Aquarian Weekly's Project Greenroom series. "It has a refreshing sound, and the fact that it is a three piece blows my mind."
But, the band wouldn't stop there. After being crowned one of New Jersey's regional winners in The BREAK Contest at the completion of four-month long, battle-of-the-bands style competition amongst more than 400 acts, Audio Insight was awarded a slot to perform during the 2011 Bamboozle
Music Festival at the New Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J.
"The guys (in Audio Insight) are very good students of music," says John D'Esposito, founder of the Bamboozle
Music Festival. "I can really appreciate guys who really focus."
On Friday, April 29th, the band graced the festival's BREAK Stage and played a five-song set to a growing and energized crowd. Included in the band's performance were four songs off of their debut album Dimensions, which is currently available on iTunes, as well as their cover of prog-rock kings Rush's legendary track 'The
Spirit of Radio'.
"We were pretty excited," Celi says. "When you're up there and just look around, there's thousands of people there. It was pretty awesome."
For Audio Insight though, Summer 2011 was just getting started. Less than two months later on Saturday, July 23, the band found themselves on stage at Minnesota's Mall of America, ready to rock the world's largest indoor indie music festival sponsored by The Indie
Music Channel.
"I created the event because I have always felt that there needed to be more support for local and indie music," says
Christopher Ewing, Indie
Music Channel President and Founder.. "There are a lot of really talented singers and bands out here whose music isn't getting enough radio play, if at all, mostly because they aren't signed to a big record deal with a major label. Whether these singers or bands have a record deal or not, they still have awesome music that deserves to be heard."
In the case of Audio Insight's selection to the festival, on occasion the best news you can receive comes at the unlikeliest of times.
"In late May-early June, we submitted our music for review through Reverbnation.com, but kept our focus on the summer shows we had coming up." Sullivan says. "All of a sudden we get a call asking us to play and we were really, really excited. This trip wasn't easy to pull together in such a short amount of time, but thanks to some luck and a few of our biggest supporters, we made it happen and shared with our new fans in Minnesota a little Jersey rock."
The event, which was in its inaugural year, offered visitors the chance to catch a lineup featuring an international collection of today's best unsigned artists rocking five different stages throughout the day. The only band from the Garden State, and only set of hard-rockers on the bill, for Audio Insight the well over 2,000 mile trip was worth all 40 hours it took to get there and back.
"I can't think of any other unsigned artist in our area that can say they've played a show like this," Deverin says. "The experience was awesome, we got to see different parts of the country and we made a lot of new fans. I'd say it was a success for sure."
The band's last big performance of the summer came only days after returning from their trip to the Mall of America. On Wednesday, July 27, Audio Insight held their first headlining show, courtesy of Big Mountain Entertainment, at Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J. The venue has previously welcomed big-names such as My Chemical Romance, Nirvana,
Senses Fail and The Smashing Pumpkins, as well as many others.
"We were pretty excited to play this show because this was the biggest show of the summer for us," Celi says. "Big names have passed through Maxwell's, and to have a chance to be a part of it, to be up there, that to us was just awesome."
In addition to playing at these venues, Audio Insight's summer also included performances at High Velocity, The Saint, Starland Ballroom and The Stone Pony in New Jersey, as well as shows at Bar East, The
National Underground and Mazfest 2011 in New York.
"Playing in the tri-state area and sharing our music has been a dream come true," Deverin says. "From the staples here in New Jersey, to crossing the river and rocking New York, and now taking our first road trips out of the area, we're really trying to set this time aside for 'the big push'."
Much like their summer schedule, Fall 2011 found Audio Insight continuing to bring their music to new ears. The band's biggest show of the fall found them returning to Architekt
Music just nine days shy of their year anniversary to open for nationally touring act Scale the Summit (Prosthetic Records) on Friday, November 4th.
"Scale The Summit is an extremely talented band and it's very exciting knowing that we were able on the same stage as them and they were able to get a taste of our sound" says Celi. "Plus, we found ourselves back at familiar venue that's got some history for us; it was a great show out at Architekt that night."
Prior to this show, Audio Insight played a full fall schedule that included opening the 19th Annual Edison Fall Family Festival, rocking Seton Hall University courtesy of 89.5 FM WSOU, headlining a benefit concert for children with cancer at the drummer's alma mater (St. Joseph's H.S. in Metuchen, N.J.), and taking The Trash Bar in Brooklyn by storm for Fuse-TV and Jagermeister's Exposed
Music Festival. Also included were shows at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch and Casey O'Toole's in Wayne.
Dimensions (available on iTunes) and the band have also been recognized countless times over the last year. Audio Insight has garnered features by commercial radio on WRAT 95.9 FM in New Jersey and WKVYN 99.3 FM in California, received college radio play courtesy of Garden State-based WSOU FM, as well as WPSC 88.7 FM and WRSU 88.7 FM, were featured by both popular blog-talk radio program IndieOnAir! in
Chicago as well as California's THE LIST Magazine and numerous interviews and reviews.
Their debut album was also noted as 'Album of the Month' by New England's NewEars.org in August. In less than a two years, the band has morphed from live music newcomers to becoming very good at it.
Audio Insight formed while all three members were still in high school (Celi and Deverin went to Woodbridge High School, while Sullivan studied at St. Joseph's in Metuchen). Together since 2008, the band was brought together by their mutual affection for rock music.
"I met Anthony in high school," Sullivan says. "The first band we all liked was Rage Against the Machine. We started playing covers of their songs and really went from there."
