Fresh Millions

It never happens to me, or rarely does, when I just can't wait to get to the party. I don't go to parties much. It's just not the sort of thing that happens in my life. It's not that I'm not being invited to them and they're happening all around me. They just don't occur here and therefore, if one comes about, it might be novel and something different, but it's still something that doesn't feel urgent, as if it were something I'd just been waiting to have happen. It's just another party and it will be a long time before there's another one. Maybe showing up late, or taking a non-reaction sort of attitude into a gala is just a way of prolonging the thing, or of underestimating how well it's going to go over, secretly hoping that it will overwhelm and make for the best night in recent memory. It's all just a set-up. This is going to be great. This party is going to kill and we're ready for it to happen and not stop until the roosters crow. Austin-based trio Fresh Millions make me feel like I'm missing so many parties that I would love and they make it hurt a little bit. The music on the band's self-titled, debut full-length gives off the feeling that we're like the white rabbit, late for that very important date. We're all missing out if we're not rushing for the door, getting in that cab, car or subway and hightailing it to the address in that text that came hours ago, out of nowhere, telling you to get to this certain spot tonight, that you wouldn't be sorry if you did because you know who was going to be there and god knows what else was going to happen. The music is an invitation full of intangibles, all sorts of draws and drags on different moods and energies, all engaging and all inviting, letting us get carried away the second that the music begins, as if it were the friendly face of that stranger that met you at the door of the party and threw a plastic cup of keg beer into your hand the second you entered the place. Fresh Millions music makes you feel that there is a rush to get to wherever this is playing, as if there's an endless string of possibilities awaiting you if you were to do so. You need to be there and then the music can help you. It can take you in the right direction and make sure that you're alright, that the fates will align, if just for that one night, though the music does leave it all open-ended, seemingly replicable whenever it's needed. The vocals that exist are little flavor crystals, just bits to chew on, to unlock the bigger joys of the heavily electronic outpouring of movement and what seems to be joy. It feels like throwback electronic music, meant for the express purpose of making nights of smiles and happy bodies. It's insistent upon you taking advantage of it. - daytrotter.com

2010-11 Austin Music Awards

Band of the Year
The Bright Light Social Hour

2. Roky Erickson with Okkervil River
3. Quiet Company
4. Bob Schneider & Lonelyland
5. Los Texas Wranglers
6. Speak
7. Los Lonely Boys
8. One-Eyed Doll
9. Grupo Fantasma
10. Reckless Kelly



Best New Band
Fresh Millions

2. Little Lo
3. The Long Tangles
4. 7 Walkers
5. Saints of Valory
6. Soul Track Mind
7. Candi & the Strangers
8. Lady & the Amp
9. Suite 709
10. Cari Hutson & Good Company



Musician of the Year
Roky Erickson

2. Bob Schneider
3. Julian Fernandez (Los Texas Wranglers)
4. Sahara Smith
5. Will Sheff (Okkervil River)
6. Jack O'Brien (the Bright Light Social Hour)
7. Taylor Muse (Quiet Company)
8. Carolyn Wonderland
9. Kimberly Freeman (One-Eyed Doll)
10. Alejandro Escovedo - Austin Music Awards

Over the last year, Austin’s electro/dance scene is really starting to pick up steam. With new albums from neiliyo and LAX in the works and bands like Auto Body rising through the ranks, there’s a lot to shake your bootie to. And whether it’s more mainstream or more experimental, we’ve got it all. Well know, dear dillos, you can add one more to the roster: Fresh Millions.

Fresh Millions is a three piece band that reminds me of proto-house music from the late 70's and early 80's. Their bass isn’t dirty enough to be no wave. Their spacey keyboards aren’t poppy enough to be new wave–so I’d call it dance roots. But don’t let that fool you–their sound is definitely something new.

To produce the new album, the band brought on Bryan Richie from heavy metal band The Sword. With full rock guitars and edgier drums, Bryan’s work definitely cranks it up a bit, letting you know that this band is definitely playing real instruments. Full of robot vocals, catchy loops, disco beats and psychedelic keys, the new album has a mellow Daft Punk or a rocky Justice feel to it–with just a little ESG, Hot Chip or George Clinton.

WATCH: In the 4-minute video, below, Chris chats with Fresh Millions band member Geoff Earle about the new album and the burgeoning Austin electronic music scene. - republicofaustin.com

We spend a lot of our time focusing on the rock around Austin, but rest assured, we love to shake it just as much as the next guy does. Recently, the Austin scene has been boosted by the rise of FreshMillions! , and their main guy Geoff Earle. They’ve been hitting the town with the likes of Focus Group and L.A.X. (who they will be supporting May 19th), making a name for themselves with electrifying shows that leave the audience drenched in sweat and coated in euphoria. Not to mention that a lot of people love the fact that Bryan Ritchie of The Sword (and Skate or Die) helped produce the record, but as much as we love Bryan, you have to know that those groove-tastic bass lines and electric shine were all there beforehand. Be sure to check out the band’s self-titled debut record, and attend one of their live shows because pretty soon, the whole town will be aboard this dance-a-riffic party bus of fun. - austintownhall.com

Fresh Millions is a live electronic band from right here in the ATX. After much time spent at the drawing board, the funk-infused dance rock trio released their self-titled debut album earlier this year via Insect Records. Using an animated mix of computers, synthesizers, and live instruments, Fresh Millions blends disco-era bass lines and electro-era pop with heavy, danceable beats. The band made the excellent choice of luring in Bryan Richie of The Sword to handle production on their album, making it the metal head's first foray into electronic music.

Their sound (and highly entertaining live show) has drawn comparisons to the likes of Passion Pit and Ratatat, and they are certainly making a name for themselves in the 512. The Austin Chronicle said "Imagine if you cut out all of MGMT's psychedelic tangents and Ratatat reassembled them. That's a decent starting point for Fresh Millions. The local daft punks craft collage-rock, layering live instrumentals over snippets from old jazz records."

You can catch Fresh Millions live at a couple of local shows coming up with fellow friends of the blog - All My Friends and Auto Body. They played recent Electric Aquatic Club voyage about a week ago, and talented young videographer Emmett Perkinson (aka Video Bacon) made this mash-up of their performance and the best scenes from Apocalypse Now. - covertcuriosity.com

A cursory spin of the debut album from trio Fresh Millions might leave you tempted to classify it as simple electrofunk in the vein of Justice or Daft Punk and move on — it has the ethereal electronic grooves, the processed Cylon-recalling vocals and synthesizers crashing like rain. And then there are the samples, a series of slice-and-dice moments encompassing everything from a gangbusters lift of the theme from NES classic “Castlevania” on “The Million Dollar Bill, Part 1” to a snippet torn from the Spinners’ “The Rubberband Man” on “Spunout.”

But across an economical nine tracks, “Freshmillions” also makes time to rock. Maybe that’s the influence of producer Bryan Richie, of Austin metal maestros the Sword, but “Freshmillions” is loaded with towering electric guitars on the propulsive “Monty” and “Spunout,” dashes of ’70s funk organs and some of the most bone-rattling drumming on any local record this year. - The Austin American Statesman

It’s surprising that the qualities of Austin’s two marquee instrumental-rock acts—Explosions In The Sky and The Octopus Project—have taken so long to intersect and spill over into new bands. But while Zorch may only borrow the Octopuses’ mischievous, circuit-bending streak, the duo’s compatriots in Freshmillions treat their glitchy tracks with the clear-eyed, full-hearted cinematic sweep of EITS. Then again, neither of those elder scene statesmen ever dig into a groove like Freshmillions, which tempers its build-up/tear-down impulses with scratches of disco guitar and hip-displacing syncopation. The band crams a lot into its songs, but no more so than eclectic prog-pop quintet SuperLiteBike, which opens here alongside the sleek, spiky, and Britpop-inspired come-ons of Love At 20. - The Onion // AV Club

Austin needs another rock four piece like it needs a second statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn, so the news that we have a new band in town whose sound relies less on guitar chords and more on electro-something or other is welcome news - some would say our city is poorly represented in both the bleeping and blooping departments. On the other hand, we’re hardly an island in this city, and anyone jonesing for electronica can find it coming through town on any given night...and this is the city who brought you Ghostland Observatory, after all. That said, what new thing does Fresh Millions, a trio featuring Geoff Earle, Cody Skinner and Dan Skarbek, have to offer us? Well, the emphasis for these guys is not solely on being electronic, but on being a live electronic band. They compare themselves to Octopus Project and Ratatat, and that’s apt. From the booming drums to the big, all-around punch of Fresh Millions, this is an album that wants to prove its stamina and transcend knob-twisting as a performance strategy. In that department, the album is certainly a success.

Produced by The Sword’s Bryan Richie, the record is rich in texture and has an enormous scope. The first (and best) track on the album, “Forever” contains snatches of vocal samples, all manners of interlocking guitar and synth lines, and is held up by big, big drum fills that leap across the track. This busyness isn’t always in the band’s interest, though, and when a vocoder, pummeling drums, guitars, xylophone and what sounds like a sampled harp all cling together on a track like “The Helicopter,” the impression one gets is of over-saturation. There’s the rub - the production is masterful and each song is a sonic picnic, but with so much coming at you in a proto-progressive rush, the album can’t help but feel overwrought. And yet, this band very well might have your number, especially if you can’t get enough cleverly-constructed, innovative stuff that blends both the world of live rock and home-based electronics quite well. We’ll leave that up to you. - austinist.com

Samples and other electronic sounds give Fresh Millions' fun, fresh instrumental rock music a modern flair, but it's live instruments that make the music pop. Propelled by keyboards and bass, "Forever" is an effervescent collage of sounds, while Mike Fonseca's erratic drum fills provide the momentum on which the rest of the instruments build.

Vocal samples crop up throughout "Forever," most notably in the track's introduction; the track builds up not unlike a typical house tune, although the beat barrage never takes shape. Instead, a guitar riff by Danny Fuller leads the assault while a melange of other sounds keeps the movement swirling. Buried are layers of keyboards, playing various melodies and countermelodies of their own.

While the final result may recall the collage work of The Avalanches, the approach to get there is anything but analogous. Instead of utilizing hundreds of vinyl-sourced clips and effects to form a three- to four-minute work, the live nature of "Forever" utilizes a more organic touch to achieve similar results. The resulting patchwork is as danceable as it is rocking — a winning combination if ever there was one. - NPR - Song of the Day

Imagine if you cut out all of MGMT's psychedelic tangents and Ratatat reassembled them. That's a decent starting point for Freshmillions. The local daft punks, opening for All Leather at Mohawk on Sunday, May 16, craft collage-rock, layering live instrumentals over snippets from old jazz records. "The samples have been so disfigured and contorted they're no longer recognizable," relates bassist/composer Geoff Earle, who freelanced for Columbia. "I'm pretty sure that legally we're in the clear." Freshmillions' self-titled debut, which beats with a metal heart thanks to production from the Sword's Bryan Richie, is the latest cosmic egg hatched by Insect Records, the new label from Attack Formation general Ben Webster. It's quickly become a hive for Austin's left-of-center avant-rock community, evidenced by a recent limited-edition compilation featuring Formation offshoots (Butcher Bear & Charlie, Reaganometry, Explosion Horse) along with Zorch and Total Sound Group Direct Action Committee, Webster's project with Tim Kerr, but there's a catch. The comp is only available as a free bonus for spending $30 at Domy Books, Backspin Records, or End of an Ear. Spend accordingly - The Austin Chronicle