What They Say About Us
PRESS, REVIEWS, COMMENTS, ETC.
Several area rock bands are set to play with a purpose this weekend.
By Chris Anderson - Staff Writer
Appalachian News Express - 8/12/2011
Hard rock band Downtrend is set to host the annual Toys for Tots benefit concert on Saturday at the Elkhorn City park. The show will be the third straight year the band has hosted the concert and the first year they have taken the show to Elkhorn City.
The band will once again be joined by fellow area hard rockers Dreadfall, Lumiis and Downstep in the free concert which aims to collect donated new toys for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots effort.
The concert kicks off at 3 p.m. Saturday and ends at about 8 p.m. Admission is free, but those in attendance are encouraged to bring a new toy to donate to Toys for Tots. However, donations are not required for admittance.
Downtrend bandmember Josh Crum said Wednesday that the idea for the concert came from one of the band’s shows outside of Pike County, in which the band for they were the opening act was promoting the Toys for Tots campaign. Crum said the band wanted to do a similar show, but benefit concerts which collect money rarely are successful.
They also were faced with a lack of venues in the county in which they could play.
“There’s not a lot of venues to play in Pike County other than the (East Kentucky Expo Center) and it’s hard to fill up a 7,000-seat arena with local bands. Then we ran into the problem of not being allowed to charge admission into city parks,” Crum said of the band’s previous concerts in cities such as Pikeville. “So we thought, ‘Why not do a toy drive instead? Let’s use this as a platform to bring in some bands and do something positive.”
The toy drive is now in its third year and Crum said the bands, all of which play for free, are still enthusiastic about the concert.
The bands, however, are not the only ones enthusiastic about the show.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Elkhorn City Council, Mayor Mike Taylor urged those in attendance at the meeting to support the concert, the bands playing in the concert and the charity being supported. Crum said Taylor and the city have been welcoming to the show, even if the music is not of their personal taste.
“They’re great people to work with,” Crum said of Elkhorn City officials.
Crum said the bands’ brand of music is not one normally associated with outdoor performances in communities like Elkhorn City, Crum said, but the reward is two-fold. Crum said the concert is a great way to promote the bands which take part in the show. More importantly, though, the bands support the Toys for Tots campaign in collecting new toys for needy children across the country, he said.
“It feels good to help out in our way,” Crum said. “This is our niche for helping.”
The previous Toys for Tots concerts in Pike County were successful in their mission of gathering toy donations, Crum said. At the first concert in 2009, nine bags full of toys were collected from the more than 200 people which attended the show. Crum said the concert the following year fell victim to a scheduling conflict at a Pikeville park, along with harsh weather conditions. Still, he said, the concert produced about three bags full of new toys for the charity.
Crum said the concert is appropriate for all ages and rock music fans are encouraged to attend. The concert will be held rain or shine.
“It’s got something for everybody that likes rock and roll,” he said. “Bring out coolers and blankets and have a great time.”
Downtrend is currently working on a new album, “One Stop Sin Shop,” which is set to be released on Vision Metal Records in the winter. They have opened for several high-profile rock acts, such as Avenged Sevenfold and Sevendust. The band is set to open for Theory of a Deadman and Alter Bridge on Sept. 11 in Huntington, W.Va. Band members include Crum, Jay Justice, Jeremy Justice and Mike Jackson.
For more information on Downtrend or the Toys for Tots benefit concert, visit www.downtrendmetal.com. Toy donations can also be made by contacting the band at, downtrend@hotmail.com.
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DOWNTREND PERFORMS FOR FLOOD RELIEF
BENEFIT CONCERT IN PIKEVILLE
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Downtrend has a “Dirty Little Secret”
the Charleston Gazette
THE CD: “Dirty Little Secret”
PERFORMER: Downtrend
Normally, when you say a band sounds like something you would hear on the radio, it could be interpreted to mean an inherent lack of originality. In the case of Pikeville, Ky.-based Downtrend, it’s a compliment; especially since the band has only been playing since August 2005.
It’s rare that you see a band live, then listen to their CD. Normally it’s the other way around, with you being mad that you paid for the CD. I got hooked up with the 9-song debut personally by the band at the Sound Factory Friday night.
The nascent Downtrend (Daryl Amburgey - vocals; Josh Crum - guitar; Jeremy Chaney - bass; Jason Justice - drums) was formed a few years back in or around Pikeville by Josh & Jeremy, out of the ashes of a band called Voices of Aggression. They’re now reaping the rewards of sometime & effort in Downtrend.
The CD opens with “Save Yourself,” a song heavy on the hooks, and heavy in general. Amburgey, who hails from Indiana and had been in a Ky. band called Trustfall, gives this band clear, powerful vocals with range — and some rage. “Liar” is the standout track on DLS and it comes as no surprise, since the song has already been played on X106.3’s Loud & Local.
The songs on DLS are tight, for sure. In my opinion, the guitar mix needs a more layered sound, or something. Crum’s talents are on display on the “Liar” intro, and, all over the CD. Just a little studio magic might give these guys an album that would really stand out. Remember, this is their first release. They’ve been a band for not even a year.
“What Lovers Say” and “And You Call This a War” are both standout songs, the latter containing some cool samples of a little girl talking about lambs, their slaughter. “. . . War” is stomp-worthy, for sure. At the end of the track, the girl informs us that each time a gun fires, an angel gets its wings. Makes sense to me.
This band is one to watch out for, for sure. If you’re out on the town, and you have a chance to check‘em out: do so.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 9:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “Downtrend has a “Dirty Little Secret””
Nick2 Says:
February 1st, 2006 at 8:30 am
Speaking of seeing Downtrend live, here’s the lowdown on the DLS guitar mix, from Downtrend guitarist Josh Crum:
The reason the guitar wasn’t layered very often was because we pride ourselves on our live show. So, that being said, we didn’t wanna do anything on the CD that couldn’t be done live. So, we didn’t want you to get used to hearing one song one way, then coming to the show and saying “You know, they sound good, but something that I am used to is missing.” So, we layered a few areas but all in all left it original.
Josh, thanks. And, good point. People won’t be saying “I heard they suck live” about you all.
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DOWNTREND's performance at Champs to benefit Relay
Medical Leader (April 20, 2006)
DOWNTREND's performance at Champs to benefit Relay
by Michelle Goff
Editor
PIKEVILLE, KY - The Local hard rock band Downtrend regularly performs at Champs Sports Bar and Grill. However, the band's Saturday, May 6th performance will do more than entertain fans and patrons. It will serve as a Relay For Life fundraiser.
Josh Crum, band guitarist and a Pikeville Medical Center employee, said the idea arose from a desire to help the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. Which is scheduled for May 19 and 20 at the Bob Amos Park in Pikeville.
"I work in the Leonard Lawson Cancer Center and somebody mentioned that our band should play the Relay" Crum reflected. "But I don't think our hard rock music would fly at relay."
Therefore, Crum and his band mates - bassist Jeremy Chaney, drummer Jason Justice and Singer Daryl Amburgey - decided to do something else to help.
"The only place we play locally is Champs." Crum explained. "They agreed to donate the cover charge to the hospital's relay team and to pass around a tip jar."
For her part Champs shift manager Jamie Meade said the restaurant was more than happy to help.
"There will be a $4 charge for singles and a $6 charge for couples and 100 percent of that will go to Relay" Meade stated. "Downtrend is our house band, and we thought it was a perfect opportunity for a small business to benefit the community and the entire country. We're happy to use are facility and our popularity to make a difference. We hope this will make a difference."
Crum noted that the performance comes on the heels of the release of Downtrend's first album "Dirty Little Secret" which can be purchased at www.myspace.com/downtrendmusic.
"We play a lot in West Virginia and Tennessee" he noted "our first single "Liar" is getting played on radio stations in those states."
Although he said the band, which has only been playing together since August, would like to make a living performing music, the goal is not to necessarily become famous.
"Ideally, anyone who writes their own music wants to do it for a living." he commented
Crum added that Downtrend has also performed at other fundraisers and helped raise more than $2,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief. In addition, the band plans to play at an April 27th Rock Against Rape concert at Marshall University, which will benefit the Huntington Rape Crises Center.
For information on Downtrend's performance at Champs to raised funds for Relay, contact meade at 606-433-9628
For information on becoming involved with a Pike Relay For Life team, contact Hunt Cooper at 606-218-4928
For information on Pike Relay For Life corporate sponsorships, contact Doug Powers at 606-639-4840
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Pike's Downtrend signs with record label
Appalachian News-Express (April 19, 2007)
Pike's Downtrend signs with record label
by Michelle Goff
Staff Writer
Downtrend has come a long way in a short time. The band performed in front of an audience with new vocalist Daryl Amburgey for the first time at the August 2005 East Kentucky Fair. But when the band, which plays metal took the stage, the crowd acted a little bewildered.
"They introduced us as a country band." explains drummer, Jason Justice.
"I guess maybe they didn't know." adds guitarist Josh Crum
but Kenneth Poole, president of Vision Metal Records, "knows" about the band. Poole recently signed the four member band to Vision Metal. The band, which also includes bassist Jeremy Justice and singer Daryl Amburgey will head to Vision Metal's Harrogate, Tenn. headquarters next month to begin recording.
"He (Poole) heard us play before." Crum says "He liked us then, but we knew our singer at the time was going to move. When the time came up we called him and he was still interested."
Except for Amburgey, who lives in Knott County, Downtrend is a Pike County band. However, Crum and Justice note the difficulty of finding gigs in this area.
"There are no venues that cater toward our style of music." Justice states.
Nevertheless, that hasn't kept the band from playing. Indeed, Crum says they have been performing five or six shows a month in West Virginia and Tennessee and even won a battle of the bands in Hazard. This Saturday at 12:30 they will play at the Pepsi Pavilion until the Hillbilly Days parade begins.
Crum and Justice say rocking a crowed remains their motivation.
"It's always been the drum to play in front of a crowd and get out of the garage." Justice says
"The best thing about playing in a band is seeing people sing along and dance to a song you wrote." Crum adds.
The band mates write their own music, which Crum describes as "heavy but with a lot of melodic hooks." He says the writing process occasionally originates from "goofing off".
"Someone will strike a chord that someone else likes." he says with a smile.
Justice says their individual influences can be heard in their music. For Justice those influences include Nonpoint and Sevendust's Morgan Rose. While Crum considers himself to be a "diehard" Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads fan.
With the recording contract, the band, which can be found on the web at www.myspace.com/downtrendmusic has a management company taking care of their gigs. But Crum says they'll stay true to their name.
"It's about not following trends and not changing who you are." he says. "It's doing what you like. if everyone else likes it great."
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popular Pikeville metal band signs with record label
Medical Leader (April 21, 2007)
popular Pikeville metal band signs with record label
by Jarrid Deaton
Staff Writer
PIKEVILLE - The members of a popular Pikeville metal band are ready to take the next step in their musical careers after being signed to an up-and-coming record label.
Downtrend, a band that has been a fixture at Champs Sports Bar signed with Vision Metal Records. The band will hit the label's studio in Tennessee in May to begin recording their debut album.
"We're really excited to get to take this next level." said Josh Crum guitarist and PMC employee. "Not every band gets this kind of opportunity. It's a big step and it opens a lot of doors."
Downtrend's music created by Vocalist Daryl Amburgey, bassist Jeremy Justice, drummer Jason Justice and Crum can be best described as a mixture of aggression and melody, with comparisons to bands like Sevendust and Nonpoint. Downtrend has opened shows for Nonpoint on two separate occasions.
Downtrend also performs many charity concerts, including donating money from the cover charge for a performance at Champs to the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.
Samples of Downtrend's music can be heard at www.myspace.com/downtrendmusic
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Local band mixes talents to produce CD
Appalachian News-Express (March 27, 2008)
Local band mixes talents to produce CD
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-EXPRESS
The perfect mixture of melody and madness. That’s how the members of Downtrend, a Pikeville quartet, describe their sound and their band. Formed in 2005, the hard rock band (guitarist Josh Crum says all that melody and madness actually crosses over into several genres), is set to release their first CD, “Conflicts of Hearts and Tongues,” next month.
“The title comes from a song,” explains vocalist Daryl Amburgey. “You don’t say what you mean or mean what you say. It’s about untruths. The whole album is based on untruths and wildness, and the wildness that follows untruths.”
The 11-song CD was recorded at The Cave in Harrogate, Tenn., and will be released by Vision Metal Studios and will be available at Sound House Music or www.downtrendmusic.com. It can also be ordered from any music store or downloaded digitally at such online sites as iTunes.
Although they’ve been recording for nearly a year, the process began before that when the president and owner of Vision Metal heard Downtrend play live. He made them an offer, which they declined. They renegotiated and agreed to a contract that lets the band retain the rights to their music.
Amburgey writes most of their lyrics while the other band members, Crum and brothers, Jay Justice (drums and percussion) and Jeremy Justice (bass), provide the music.
After a process that included advertising and searching online, the band obtained this “perfect mixture.”.
“Josh and the old bass player found the old singer in the ‘Mountain Bargain Hunter,’” Jay Justice notes.
“And we found Jay through an audition,” Crum says. “We found Daryl on the Internet.”
Then, when things didn’t work out with the former bass player, Jay Justice’s younger brother switched instruments.
“My little brother can play anything and he was old enough to join the band,” Jay Justice says.
“We’re kind of like Quiet Riot,” Crum says in reference to the heavy metal band that achieved mainstream success after most of their original members had left the band. “We have two members who weren’t in the original lineup.”
Jeremy Justice recently moved to Lexington and the others live here in Eastern Kentucky, but the band still manages to get together to play two or three gigs a month. According to their Web site, in the next few weeks they have shows set for Whitesburg, Bluefield, W.Va., Huntington, W.Va., and Hillbilly Days, where they are scheduled to play at the Pepsi Event Center on April 17 at 9 p.m.
“We’re getting a good enough reputation that we’re getting invited to open for national bands like 12 Stones,” Crum says.
But the members of this hard rock band have interests and opinions as varied as the different genres of music. Take their inspirations and goals, for instance.
“I was probably 10 when I heard (legendary guitarist) Randy Rhoads play and I knew I wanted to do that,” Crum recalls.
Jay Justice names Nonpoint’s Rob Rivera, former Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake drummer Tommy Aldridge and Sevendust’s Morgan Rose as inspirations.
As for Amburgey, he likes Elvis Presley and Dean Martin.
When it comes to their hopes for the CD, Jay Justice says, “I want to level it up from where we are now and keep moving up.”
Crum adds, “I want it to lead to a bigger album. Our demo led to this. It’s all a stairway to us becoming a regional act or getting an even bigger album with one of the big five or six studios.”
Amburgey says, “I want to live comfortably. I want this to be my job. If I can make what I do now, I’d be all right.”
“Like I said,” Crum notes with a smile, “It’s a perfect mixture.”
Story created Mar 26, 2008 - 19:17:51 CDT.
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The Hard Place
M.E. Music Entertainment (May 08')
The Hard Place
by Steve Nall
With DOWNTREND with find ourselves back into the musical vein that The Hard Place knows best. With speedy riffs, pounding double bass, group musical stabs and a mixture of scream/sing vocals these guys are everything that modern metal represents. The song "Your Final Farewell" brings all these attributes together in one slammin' heavy song. The breakdown to the slower riff near the end of the track is a nice contrast to the rest of the song and the double bass work of drummer Jay Justice is very steady and constant - a must if a band is to pull off songs like this one.
The song "She's Lightning" employs some riffs that are very familiar to me, but when you only have so many chords and rhythms to choose from, a little overlap is always going to happen.
Downtrend is very well on their way to the big time and if they keep writing material like this, the trip there won’t take very long. Having recently signed a deal with Vision Metal Records, they are now in the process of releasing their debut "Conflicts Of Heart And Tongue", and in anticipation of this event, the band is playing out all over the place. (If you wanna catch a preview of the upcoming release or see the current concert dates) visit downtrend on the web at www.downtrendmusic.com and you will see why they are quickly becoming one of the most sought after bands in the state of Kentucky.
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X-Fest announces line-up
The Herald-Dispatch
X-Fest announces line-up
Jul 29, 2008
By DAVE LAVENDER
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Book it and they will come, scream and mosh under a hot sun in brutal joy.
WAMX-FM's X-Fest turns 12 on Sept. 6, and the X-106.3's annual fest celebrates in style at Harris Riverfront Park with two stages of hammering metal that features such headliners as the five-man Orange County, Calif.-based metal act Avenged Sevenfold.
The Warner Bros. recording artists, currently touring Europe, has its latest single "Afterlife" sitting at No. 20 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.
This is the first area performance for the band that burst on the scene in 2005 with its million-selling debut, "City of Evil," that featured the wildly popular single "Bat Country" and that helped the band straddle the music scene as the only band to headline Warped Tour and Ozzfest while simultaneously hitting No. 1 on MTV's TRL.
Other national-act X-Fest main stage acts include: Shadows Fall, Pop Evil, Egypt Central, Another Black Day and Midnight to Twelve.
Keeping it rowdy on the floating, Budweiser Loud and Local Stage will be X Factor 1 (Columbus, Ohio), PI (Ironton, Ohio), Bud Carroll & the Southern Souls (Huntington), Downtrend (Pikeville, Ky.) and Stitch Rivet (Bloody Creek, Ky.).
Gates will open at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 for X-Fest and tickets will go on sale Friday, Aug. 1, at all Ticketmaster outlets including the Big Sandy Superstore Arena Box Office. Tickets are $30 in advance and $45 day of show.
Also, a limited number of Pit Passes will be available in advance for $45 at the arena box office at 1 Civic Center Plaza, Huntington or by calling 304-696-4400.
For more information, please visit www.x1063.com.
The X-Fest date will kick off Avenged Sevenfold's North American tour, co-headlined by Buckcherry and featuring Shinedown and Saving Abel.
The band just released its self-titled CD that features the singles "Afterlife" and "Almost Easy," and Avenged Sevenfold will release a live DVD Sept. 16. For more on Avenged Sevenfold, visit www.avenged sevenfold.com.
This is the 12th edition of X-Fest that started at Ritter Park with Jimmie's Chicken Shack and a handful of bands.
In the years since, a who's who of metal and modern rock has played the fest including Hatebreed, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Hinder as well as several nationally touring, locally based metal acts such as Bobaflex, Byzantine and Chum.
the Charleston Gazette
the Charleston Gazette
STAY TUNED FOR MORE!!
By Chris Anderson - Staff Writer
Appalachian News Express - 8/12/2011
DOWNTREND PERFORMS FOR FLOOD RELIEF
BENEFIT CONCERT IN PIKEVILLE
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