July For Kings

July For Kings is an ultra-melodic rock band from the Cincinnati Ohio area comprised of singer/songwriter Joe Hedges, bassist Brian Ives, guitarist John McGuire and drummer Dan McQuinn. July For Kings has toured nationally with Muse, Collective Soul, The Counting Crows, The Calling, etc. July For Kings (or JFK for short) is currently recording their fourth studio album, slated for release winter of 2011.

July For Kings released their debut album SWIM on MCA Records. The first single "Normal Life" received airplay on stations all over the US including #1 most requested on Las Vegas KMBX, garnering national media attention from Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone, and InStyle.

In 2005 July For Kings released the seven-song follow-up Nostalgia. In its first week Nostalgia was the #1 most purchased album at CDbaby.com, the largest online retailer of independent music in the world.

2007 saw Hedges release his debut solo album Curvature. The album, produced by Blumpy (Filter, Marilyn Manson, VAST), was recorded in the dead of winter at a remote lakehouse in northern Michigan. For this effort Hedges received two Cincinnati Entertainment Award nominations, won Q102’s 2007 Cincinnati Choice Award for Best Singer, and became the top 5 most watched YouTube musician for a day with the “Mitral Valve Prolapse” music video.

After a break to record and release his solo album Hedges united new guitarist John McGuire and bassist Brian Ives with July For Kings drummer Dan McQuinn and set out to make another July For Kings album--Monochrome. Hedges describes the album Monochrome as more upbeat than their previous album, Nostalgia. "This record is really about us trying to carve out a new sound that relates to our past albums but that is more modern and fresh. Overall the mood is more upbeat, more positive, and more mature." Although the album is best described as rock, there are several short detours into pop, blues, and even country, as the band shows off their songwriting and production prowess.

In 2010 Hedges released his second solo album entitled Alchemy, which Citybeat Magazine described positively saying "Hedges’ compositions — which range from broadly atmospheric to more direct and upbeat — are elegant, his songwriting mature and accomplished and his soundscapes provocative and full of depth."

July For Kings latest album is expected to be a return to the guitar-oriented sound that first established them in the Cincinnati area, tempered with flourishes of new sonic eclecticism on display in Hedges' solo efforts.