Friday, July 16 9:00 pm
T Boyles Tavern
T Boyles Tavern: 37 N. Catalina Ave, Pasadena, CA

Hi everyone. We wanted to share our latest review with you all. Again thanks for all the support!

Album Title: Flight Risk
Artist: Helicopter
Reviewers Name: Michael Morgan
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Title of Review: The Eagles had their Frey, Henley and Walsh.  Helicopter's quartet of songwriters unravels a brilliant musical collage of country, hard rock, reggae and pop.

Review:

Country music has its share of hard rock crossovers.  Seventies bands, like The Eagles, saw much success fusing hard rock and country.  More recent acts like The Avett Brothers take the country sound to another level mixing it with frenetic rock rhythms, concocting a punkish aesthetic.  Los Angeles, CA band Helicopter fulfills the same prophecy as The Eagles and The Avett Brothers, while throwing in some pop and reggae.  It might come off as an ill attempt to be everything to everyone if they weren’t so damn good at it.  On their 2009 debut album, Flight Risk, the quintet, hailing from places as far away as the Philippines (guitarist/vocalist Bruce Makabenta) and New Zealand (co-founder, drummer, songwriter, engineer and producer, Matthew Moore), demonstrate their expansive appetite for Southern-style classic rock, carefully crafted guitar-driven pop, reggae, and alt-country.  

The explosive ear-opener and album's namesake, "Flight Risk," could certainly be a play on the band's potential to be searched at airports, given the wide range of backgrounds of each band member.   The thunderous claps of drums and grouty vocals of Stefano Capobianco simultaneously channel Lenny Kravitz during his “Are You Gonna Go My Way” period and a softer, yet equally cool, Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols fame.   Each successive song introduces a new element to the Helicopter sound.  Johnny Kempt takes the helm on the second track, "When We Get Together," offering up a refreshing southern rock twang, while retaining those swilling raw guitar licks and badgering drum booms.  If this track were around for airplay when “Easy Rider” was made, this song would have been perfect for those long motorcycle-rides down Route 66.

The album quickly eases off the beautiful raucous of hard rock into a bevy of country and pop love songs.  This could indeed be the one "risk" of Flight Risk.  Listeners could be confounded by the jolt of ballads, or, equally impressed by the band’s versatility.  The latter holds up more here in this case, since they tend not to overdo anything they perform. The musicianship and detailed production work on each track shows making Flight Risk a risk worth taking.  There is just the right amount of attitude with the Joe Cocker-esque growls of "Broken."  Then there is the square love song, "Smile," with its bright hooks and fearless acoustic rhythms.  The sonically explorative nature of  "Strangers" gives way to a dark intrigue unseen anywhere else on Flight Risk.  It is these unexpected and complex moments on the record that make this album interesting and worth listening to many times over.  

Helicopter's armada of musical styles is a result of their diverse backgrounds.  Four of the five band members that write the songs, each have their own distinct lyrical voice.  The Eagles had their Frey, Henley and Walsh.  Helicopter's quartet of songwriters unravels a brilliant musical collage of country, hard rock, reggae and pop.  Helicopter’s Flight Risk would fit well on the record shelf of fans that love Eric Clapton, The Avett Brothers and The Allman Brothers.

Review by Michael Morgan

Well the band is looking forward to playing in Pasadena on April 16th @ T Boyles. Matt lives in Pasadena so it's a home gig for him, no travel, yeah!
As you can see we gave the website a new look and have been having fun with Jango Radio. People from all over the world have been able to listen to the album and the comments have been great.
We're working on video blogs next. We want to show you all what happens at rehearsals, gigs, the road, studio etc... I think  it'll be fun for you and us. Hopefully we'll get that going next month.
To then, see ya!

Hey everybody another weekend is upon us. The band is looking forward to the Cd release and it will be fun to see you all. El Cid is a great venue, very cool atmosphere.
Well we're off to the desert this weekend to play a show at Augustas. It always rocks there!
Helicopter

Hello Friends,

Happy Martin Luther King Day! Hope you all had, as pleasant, a weekend as possible. Big week for the boys, Big Return to San Manuel Casino, Thrusday and THE SWALLOW's Inn on Saturday. Very much looking forward to Swallows and seeing our good friends down in San Juan Capistrano.

T Shirts and cd's
Will be available at the show. Don't forget to visit us at the site and watch the videos. Send the you tube link to as many friends as possible. Let's get the word out about the band. Thanks for your help and support. Some other big gigs coming in the next coupl of months, so stay tuned.

Thursday Jan 21, San Manuel Casino Redlands
Friday Jan 22, RT's Longboard, San Diego
Saturday Jan 23, Swalllows Inn, San Juan Capistrano
Sunday Jan 24, Cooks Corner

Hope to see you all out this weekend. I'll drink to That!

www.helicopterband.com

Well 2009 has been a very busy year but it's been a lot of fun also. We hope everyone out there had a rocking 2009. We have just finished our music videos as you might have already seen, we hope you like them.
Pass them on to everyone you know, we want to get these videos out there making noise.
Have a happy Christmas everyone!

The new album is out!
We're very excited for you to hear what we've been working on for the last few months and we can't wait to come and play for you all!
We're going to be doing a music video soon so we'd love to hear what 2 songs you'd like to see as music videos.
Thanks to everyone for all the support.