City Sleeps

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All it takes is a few seconds of "Hotel" to make the truth clear: City Sleeps is poised to shock the world.

That first track, titled Hotel, is a flower blossoming against a rumble of thunder. Not since Queen has there been anything quite like this wash of voices, delicate at first and then billowing into plumes of harmony, organ, and harmonized guitar, leading in just a few seconds toward the explosion that kicks off track two, Prototype.

We could go on like this, moment to moment, through all of "Hotel", the Maverick debut of this Atlanta-based quintet. But you can appreciate its big-picture impact just as easily their overlay of skin-tight precision, massive tonality, raw emotion, and sheer power, whipped into a brew more musically potent that almost anything on the radio these days.

All of the fury and joy and catharsis released on "Hotel" has been building through years of hard work in the suburbs of Atlanta, where the story of City Sleeps begins. The first connection was between guitarist Adriel Garcia and drummer John Whitney, who have been making music together since childhood. They were the foundation on which an early incarnation of the band took shape.

Elliott Sharp was the spark that set this foundation on fire in 2000. One day he ambled, unheralded, into a rehearsal and struck up a conversation with Garcia. With little fuss or ceremony, he got down to singing and writing songs with them. They stepped up their practice schedule, played as many gigs as they could, delivering a killer set at the Atlantis Music Conference, got picked by Hits magazine as a buzz band, and began attracting attention.

By attention we mean major label representatives and people like Scooter Ward, the front man with Cold, for whom the band opened at a local club, as well as Limp Bizkits Fred Durst, who urged the guys to consider signing with his label. But the time wasn't right, as band members kept coming and going. Realizing they were hitting a dead end, Elliott, Adriel, and John decided that their best option was to record an album on their own.

In early 2004, Adriel recalls, We were getting ready to do a record on our own when, out of nowhere, we get an email saying, "My name is John Feldmann. Im a producer; I did Story of the Year and the Used. I sing for a band called Goldfinger. Are you signed yet?" And we were like, "Oh, shit."

Feldmann arranged to fly the band to L.A. for some initial recording.

Holed up at Feldmanns home studio in Bel Air, they cut three songs. After that, they flew back to Atlanta as Feldmann started mixing. Four or five days later he burned the songs to disc and dropped them off at Maverick Records.

"The next day", Adriel says, "we had a record deal."

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the band was adding its two final members. Reveille alumnus Steve Miloszewski signed on as rhythm guitarist. Mars Davlan, recommended by the guys in Story of the Year, came in from St. Louis to audition and was rewarded with the bass gig. With all the pieces in place, they flew back to Bel Air in the summer of 04 and, in an intense series of sessions, completed the rest of the album.

"It was a weird process", Elliott admits. "Everyone was wearing their emotions on their sleeve. Everybody was passionate. It was a struggle, in a lot of ways, but obviously for a good cause."

With soaring harmonies and cathedral organ, searing guitar and thundering drums, City Sleeps defies its own name and awakens those who have dozed too long on dreams of musical redemption. Get up its the dawn of a great new band.