Your Vegas 'A Town And Two Cities' album

New Universal Republic band Your Vegas, whose sweeping pop EP is garnering raves and turning heads of iTunes fans (it opened up on the iTunes rock chart at a stunning #27), are making their way through several towns and cities on their much anticipated US tour, which kicked off on January 25 in Seattle Washington. The much buzzed about run is '08's kickoff alt-romp, with Your Vegas joining New York's new-wavey quintet the Bravery and British powerpoppers Switches on the multiple city trek before venturing off for a handful of solo shows in March.

Hailing from Leeds, UK, the resilient band hit their epic stride by selling everything and squatting smack down in Hells Kitchen, NYC, signing with Universal Republic last year, and drawing comparisons to breakthrough bands such as Coldplay, The Killers, and others. "Their sound is so polished, carefully constructed and grand...you could be mistaken for thinking it was U2 up on the stage", crowed one review. Pop culture tastemakers have also taken notice, with Your Vegas putting in a rousing TV performance from the Sundance Film Festival and picking up a key endorsement from Playboy magazine as one of the Top 10 Bands to Watch in 2008. Upcoming touts by indie-chroniclers Alternative Press, Music Connection, and Blender.com are also in the works.

Propelled by calling card signature songs on the 3-track EP like the soaring "It Makes My Heart Break," and the plaintive pulse of "Troubled Times," Your Vegas has already carved out that rarest of profiles: Anthem-driven rockers re-setting the indie music clock. Their debut CD, A Town And Two Cities is in stores April 22nd.

tour dates
Feb 21, 2008 Terminal 5 (w/ The Bravery) - New York, NY
Feb 22, 2008 The Fillmore at TLA (w/ The Bravery) - Philadelphia, PA
Feb 23, 2008 The Station (w/ The Bravery) - Portland, MA
March 8, 2008 Cabo Wabo Cantina - Cabo San Lucas Baja, CA Sur
March 9, 2008 Mar Nikki Beach (acoustic show) - Cabo San Lucas Baja, CA Sur

biography
How does a band from a little town outside of Leeds end up going by the name Your Vegas? "It was one of our first songs," says the band's singer Coyle Girelli. "Your Vegas seemed to sum us up. It's about escaping to a different place, wherever that is."

The band consists of: Coyle Girelli, (Vocals), Mat Steel, (Guitar), Mark Heaton, (Keys/Guitar), Jon Langford, (Bass) and Mal Taylor, (Drums). Escape, along with brotherhood, is at the core of Your Vegas. Four of the five band members grew up in a small suburb of Leeds called Otley. Forming a band came naturally; according to Girelli. "There aren't many people in Otley. You find three other people near the same age into music, you're probably going to meet up and form a band."

At first, the concept of escape simply meant finding a sound. The group started out as a grungy, Nirvana-influenced group, but that slowly changed. A keyboardist was added; the music opened up. "Making a racket turned into thinking about songs," says guitarist Mat Steel, who offers up U2 and Depeche Mode as influences (as for contemporaries, he mentions Coldplay and The Killers).

With its sound taking shape, "escape" now meant hitting the road. The band released a few indie singles and started touring the UK in a tiny van. "Up and down the motorway, doing what we call the toilet tours," says Coyle, referencing the bars, universities and small clubs that dot the countryside. "We'd hit islands off of Scotland, and then go all the way down to Plymouth. We even hit up the Scottish highlands--there were these small towns that no one ever plays, where the town's ancestors had settled thousands of years ago, and their families never left. It was good fun."

Fun or not, the band found themselves wanting to take the next step. Once a proposed major label deal fell through, a bold new plan took shape--Girelli would leave the country and move to New York. "At first, I came over to play some acoustic shows and see some friends," says the singer. "But it was really apparent that New York had so much to offer."

Oddly enough, even with his support crew back home, Your Vegas was starting to find its niche. Crowds grew bigger. Major labels started coming around. The rest of the band came over for a few weeks, and after noticing the buzz, promptly flew back home, "sold everything" (according to guitarist Steel) and relocated permanently to the States, shacking up together in Hell's Kitchen.

"That wasn't a hard decision," says Steel. "We stick together - it's like brothers from another mother, that kind of thing. And we all wanted to do the same thing-write great, uplifting tunes and play for as many people as we can, and hopefully make people happy. We finally found the opportunity to do that by moving to the States."

With a label deal in hand, Your Vegas started recording their album with David Bendeth (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Paramore) last April. "When we started talking musical influences and how we wanted a big sound, he just got it," says Steel. The band, meanwhile, continued to slave over new material. Girelli would write the skeleton of each track on an acoustic guitar, and then bring in what he had to the band, which would tinker with it in the group's rehearsal room. "It has to work live," says Steel. "And even then, there's a lot of back and forth. We spend a lot of time on each song."

The epic sound on "A Town and Two Cities," (Universal/Motown) and its attention to detail, is readily apparent in the final mixes. "It Makes My Heart Break" is simply an epic ballad, while "In My Head" features both a wall of guitar noise and some gorgeous pop harmony. Although the songs on the record are unabashedly anthems, the meaning behind them is far more insular for Coyle. "The lyrics, they're personal to me in many ways, even if I'm writing from another person's point of view," he says, pointing to the song "Birds of Paradise." Says the singer: "That's about two life-long friends, and one who goes to war and dies while being far, far away. Even though it's a song about war and death, there are aspects of it that are autobiographical."

As for the album title, it directly reflects the band's past and present. "We grew up in a small town, and then spent a lot of time in Leeds which is an amazing city for musicians," says Coyle. "Then we came here to the States, and that was our last inspiration before recording the album. So I guess it's about our journey, in a town and two cities".

Having already toured with The Bravery, Your Vegas is slated to play Lollapalooza and All Points West festivals this summer.

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Your Vegas - A Town And Two Cities