Singled out by the San Francisco Herald as 'the next big thing outta the San Francisco Bay Area,' this extraordinary quartet sold ten thousand copies of it's first album with no promotion, won exposure through promoting episodes of Fox's The OC, secured a Gibson endorsement, and earned plaudits in Amplifier Magazine and on billboard.com, garageband.com, starpolish.com, and loudenergy.com -- all without a label backing them up. Their second album, Insomnia, will up the ante even more. Produced by Gavin MacKillop (Goo Goo Dolls, Barenaked Ladies, Sugarcult) and with a targeted street date late in 2004, it's a feast of intimate, honest lyrics, unforgettable solo and harmony vocals, and music that can veer in a heartbeat from near silence to peaks of sonic power. The music is tight and taught; these guys can spin on a dime from a quick 6/8 to a slamming 4/4 and give you change. The songs beat the highest standards of modern writing, with hooks and melodies that connect and stay with you from the first time you hear them. The lyrics come out of everyday life -- stories of loneliness, frustration, regret, and anger, told with uncommon candor and dark humor. (Check the chorus of 'Options' ...) Each member of the band plays with chops and conviction. But the soul of MiGGs traces back to one young man's complex personality, searing honesty, and superhuman work ethic -- a rare combination in life and almost unheard of back in Bay Shore, Long Island, where Don Miggs was raised within a maze of blue-collar, cookie-cutter houses. He had the bug from the start: As an infant he broke his crib by grabbing the rim and rocking it in rhythm for hours at a time. His father, a telephone lineman, and his four uncles were all into music. Guitars and keyboards lay strewn around the house; Don got his hands on them quickly and never let go. He still has a tape of himself playing drums and singing 'Then She Kissed Me' -- the KISS arrangement -- at age six. By eight he was writing songs that were nothing like what his friends were hearing on Sesame Street 'My very first one, which I wrote with my friend, was 'You Spin Me, You Dazzle Me, You Take Me For a Ride',' he remembers. 'And the first one I wrote by myself was 'Love Machine.' It goes: 'Love machine. You turn me on. Now, don't turn me off. I'm full of love tonight. Yes love.' It actually freaked my parents out. At age ten Don organized his first band. From the start he was the take-charge type. 'I had a dream that my band was going to be called White Mist. I put it together. I literally taught the bass player and the guitar player how to play. The drummer played already, but I'd tell him what I wanted him to do. I didn't want to play other people's music; I was always driven to do my own thing.' From that point on past Don's high school graduation the band morphed from White Mist to the Alliance. He stayed in charge, writing the songs, playing lead guitar -- but never stepping up to do lead vocals. 'I was afraid,' he explains. 'I didn't want all that pressure. Plus I never really thought I had a good enough voice. I'm still like that today: As great as I think I am sometimes, I'm equally capable of tearing myself down hard.' All that changed one night when the singer didn't show up for a gig. 'Everyone was like, 'You've got to go on.' So I sang, and then I realized that these are my songs. I feel them. It felt right that I should sing them too. It was right.' Shortly after that the band morphed once more, taking the name Aim Cryer and picking up gigs throughout the New York area. With help from renowned engineer/producer J. C. Convertino (Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Madonna), they secured a development deal with BMG. Convertino produced their CD, Elusivity, which was released by Big Crunch in 1996. At the same time they secured a high-profile gig as a house band at Manhattan's hottest venue, the China Club. Cool stuff -- but things got complicated, as Don's colleagues unexpectedly busted himASIN: B0001FARSOVSKU: GGV.B0001FARSO.LNCondition: Like NewAuthor/Artist:MiggsBinding: Audio cd
