It often takes rock-n-roll bands years to refine their sound -- with many going through similar stages of development from the unpolished garage sound in the early, young formative years to the rehearsed, catchy pop sounds that many successful musicians and writers exhibit when they’re “discovered”. Even the Quarrymen went seven years before making it big as the famously acclaimed Beatles. Other less known artists like the band Flake took nearly a decade of hard work prior to becoming the Shins and then seven more years to chart on the US top 100 album list. These are some of the trials and tribulations of the rock-n- roll music industry as bands build their name or create their own unique musical identity.
Many bands, however, only rise from the ashes of obscurity for a single song or a one hit wonder as they stumble upon success only to run out of creativity when they reach their more polished years. Sometimes the excitement and newness wears off or the ideas stop flowing. Bands sometimes rock for a time, only to disappear from whence they came.
One band that’s apparently just appearing on the rock-n-roll radar screen is a band out of Cleveland known as “Eclyptic” -- which means path of the sun. The foursome went on to win the Live Nation Cleveland “Rock Off” out of hundreds of bands in 2005. What was noteworthy for the band was they were merely high school freshmen, not more than fourteen years of age. The Rockoff success continued for Eclyptic in the next three years as the band were “finalists” at the show held at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame and the House of Blues, four years running-- setting the stage for Eclyptic as an indie band to watch. An initial EP in 2005 for Eclyptic and full length CD recorded in the band’s basement in 2006 gave fans an early taste of the “garage type” feel of a young band with initial hope and promise. The band, though, needed time to mature and refine their style and only bootlegs were available from their various shows and performances. In 2008, Eclyptic continued to perform live with appearances at Tower City Amphitheater prior to Dennis De Young of Styx, a side-stage appearance at Blossom prior to the Jonas Brothers and a morning news segment on WKYC channel 3 brought the band a bit of excitement.
Finally in 2009, Eclyptic appears ready to reappear on the “recorded” rock scene with a new "third times a charm" effort -- many of the songs spawned from the seeds that were taking root from early days of the band. Although four years isn’t long for a band to rise up, it’ll be interesting to see where this effort goes or if it will grease the way for the big breakthrough that may follow. No one knows whether Eclyptic will ever chart their songs as the James Gang, the Raspberries and others from Cleveland did, but it’s certainly going to be interesting watching the band reach toward the skies. Playing a wide array of songs from various genres, Eclyptic brings a new flavor to pop, alternative rock, alternative country and folk rock.
Eclyptic is a new band to watch here at thesixtyone. To introduce themselves, they’ll be releasing some of their early songs prior to embarking on the songs from their new album later this summer. Although the band has a song that says the “Sun Ain’t Rising” - maybe down the road it will?
