wessp8.bandcamp.com
https://wessp8andtheapolloproxy.bandcamp.com/album/the-procession-ep
Like and Follow here https://www.facebook.com/wessp8
https://www.facebook.com/wessp8andtheapolloproxy/
Comprised of members from across the country - from Tennessee to Mississippi to Idaho - the group writes music that charges, nostrils flared, hellish fire burning in its eyes. Their songs gallop, pushing feverishly toward their inevitable finish.
The leather-voiced crooner, Wes Speight, fronts the group, which includes the pounding Glendon Kisner on drums and thunderous Jonathan Murphy on bass. Led by Speight’s rough, crackly guitar chords, the band’s latest release, The Procession EP, grabs, grips, and grooves, as if a mix of Black Sabbath and The Who.
Founded in 2016, the group has already played a number of notable Seattle stages, including Slim’s Last Chance, the High Dive, the Blue Moon, The Vera Project, Conor Byrne and Sunset Tavern. The band, which was interviewed recently on KSKQ 89.5 in Ashland, OR, has also toured the northwest several times and most recently toured through CO, MS, TX, OK, and UT. The band has had plays on KEXP 90.3, KBFG 107.3, and KPIG 107.5 and you can stream there music on spotify, itunes, amazon, etc.
Standout tracks on their latest EP include “Gold Mind,” a psychedelic Black Keys-style blues lament and “Psychopomp,” on which Speight moans through his distorted harmonica like a sonic banshee in a storm.
To book the band, contact booking@wessp8.com and for more information, visit www.facebook.com/wessp8andtheapolloproxy/
Solo Bio:
"Music provides a soundtrack to our daily lives while simultaneously helping us to transcend this mundane existence. We need its power to make it through the day. Seattle duo Aline & Wes have harnessed music’s supernatural properties to create their newest record, In Between The Middle.
Veterans of the Emerald City scene, Aline Vida and Wes Speight pool their collective songwriting and performance abilities to make moody, introspective, and soulful music. Vida is a graduate of American Academy of Dramatic Arts in L.A., and her unique, fluttering vocal stylings add dimension and emotion to the duo’s songs. Speight is a prolific and dedicated songwriter, whose instrumental prowess is on display in every moment of music he makes.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the band’s new album ahead of its August 11th release date. In Between The Middle sees these two powerful performers wrestling in a world that feels divided between a variety of perspectives. But underneath all of these swirling viewpoints, love still reigns supreme. And it’s love that gives these songs a sense of peace. Vida and Speight know how to write and deliver a convincing, catchy melody. On the second track, “To Fade,” the two sing harmonies atop Speight’s thick, palm-muted chords. They sing, “I feel your wave, I chase your tail / numbing the blow, I flow at will.” Aside from being a set of phrases that roll off the tongue, the lyrics show that love comes in all shapes and dimensions. One minute, it’s infatuation. The next it’s heartbreak. Musically, the band moves from mid-tempo rockers to heart-tugging ballads in the drop of a hat. “More Room To Climb” shows the band’s softer side, and highlights Vida’s vocal range. The care and attention she places on small, subtle changes to her voice makes for a dramatic and compelling listening experience.
Now more than ever, we need records that can take us through the highs and lows of modern life. In Between The Middle is that record. It provides a space for us to feel everything, from joy to sorrow. We come away feeling a little more understood. And at the end of the day, isn’t that all any of us want?"
https://glidemagazine.com/294828/album-premiere-aline-wes-keep-it-moody-introspective-and-soulful-on-in-between-the-middle/#comments
Benevolent Transformer follows up Speight’s April 2020 release, Laid Bare. The latter EP lives up to its title: It’s a spare but lovely acoustic pop record where the romanticism of Rufus Wainwright engages in an affecting slow dance with singer-songwriter folk.
The five cuts on Benevolent Transformer, in contrast, cast a wider net. “Gone But Not Forgotten,” a great cry-in-your-beer ballad, is buoyed by some gorgeous rootsy harmonies. The mini-epic, “Dreamed a Stream of Consciousness” re-imagines Bruce Springsteen’s blue-collar rock in a dream pop framework, and Speight’s gift for self-harmonizing punctuates the reflective piano melody on “A New Wrong.”
The EP’s bookended by its two strongest cuts. Speight’s luminous acoustic guitar picking and appropriately soaring voice on the EP closer, “Fly On Raven,” somehow bridge the gap between Nick Drake and Chris Cornell. And “More of the Same,” Benevolent Transformer‘s opening track , represents some of his best songwriting. The song’s protagonist stares unsparingly into the abyss of COVID-era America (“Seems to me, that the government isn’t in it for the citizens/Seems to me, that what replaces sin is when you’re in it only to win”), even as he yearns for a lover’s touch. And Speight’s cavernous, Duane Eddy-style guitar and wounded falsetto punctuate the emotional pull of the words with dusky magic.
-Tony Kay http://artisthome.org/artist-home-premiere-benevolent-transformer-ep-by-wes-speight/
https://www.northwestmusicscene.net/100-bands-in-100-days-presented-by-verity-credit-union-day-46-aline-wes/
"Speight is an impressive multi-instrumentalist, playing keys, guitar, and harmonica and combining them with a highly-listenable vocals."
-Zen Wolfang Dan's Tunes
Dan's Tunes link
http://www.eastportlandblog.com/2019/11/27/aline-and-wes-place-to-belong/?fbclid=IwAR0hrEGWcPTm_W2ujgBBxKUvTRblYuxFWbsEc0a21I7CA1lqAHLE4SyC7Ic
"Displaying a wide array of tools in the musical chest, today’s artist Wes Sp8 & The Apollo Proxy is clearly on top of their game. Whether they are ripping on some down and dirty blues rock, like they do on “Sugar Mama” from their latest EP or the haunting, heart-wrenching ballad like “Sunny Day Lament(I Miss the Rain)” they have developed a unique blend, using a lot of what is good in music. They have a sound that is timeless, that could have easily fit in garage rock The Sonic’s era as displayed ferociously on “Southern Bastard” which also appears on the latest release".
http://www.northwestmusicscene.net/100-bands-in-100-days-presented-by-verity-credit-union-day-91-wes-sp8-the-apollo-proxy/
Show review
http://www.seattlemusicnews.com/2015/10/18/41for2015-nadamucho-substation/
Latest interviews
http://www.nadamucho.com/premiere-wes-sp8s-southern-bastard/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlearts/2015/02/20/interview-music-art-life-and-how-destiny-wont-get-the-best-of-amazing-musician-wes-speight/
Write up from MUSIC TREE FESTIVAL 2014
"The usual mix of adjectives is a little inadequate for describing Wes Speight's music, since it encapsulates so many different elements from radically different styles of music. Folkish acoustic influences blend seamlessly with heavily distorted guitars, tribal-like chants, and effects that lean heavily into the experimental side of things. Each track is wildly different from the others, but with enough similarities that they can be clearly defined as this particular musician".
"Wes Speight's use of just enough repetition keeps the tracks listenable. Often, an artist this unique fails to keep the listener's desire to hear the hook again in mind. Speight however, borrows just enough lyrical and melodic repetition from the popular end of the musical spectrum, without overdoing it."
-Westside Review
http://www.westsidereview.com/featured/featured-artist-wes-speight
http://www.nadamucho.com/41-seattle-bands-were-watching-in-2015/
http://www.nadamucho.com/tblfas-58-shades-of-static-brad-yaeger-wes-speight/
"WES SP8 creeped into my mind over time and I’m happy for it. His music gets better and better as the days go on and we’re excited for his new Rejection Letter EP. It’s reflective, stripped down, classic and bold. Any of the four songs are worth highlighting here, but we’ll bring to light “From us formed us” which has drops of Leonard Cohen tones, “Karma Police” tones and something all his own"
“There are a great many blues-rock bands in Seattle these days, but the one led by songwriter Wes Speight (often stylized "Sp8") is notable for its particularly gritty and gutty take on the genre”
