Born Cages

Born Cages was a New York City-based indie rock band formed in 2011 by Vlad Holiday. In January 2018, the band officially announced it had split after 6 years of touring and recording. Past members include Vlad Holiday, Matt Maroulakos, Dave Tantao, Amanda Carl, Steve Kellner, Pete Malleo, and Mike Lisa. The band released their final mini-album/EP Exit Signs In A Burning Building around SXSW Music Festival in March 2017, where NPR raved, "Undeniably great songs... Every moment was Instagram-ready, and every song made me want to throw my hands in the air... I look forward to saying, 'I saw them when...'"[1] The album contained lead single "Ain't Gonna Happen", which charted on Spotify's United States Viral 50.

Born Cages
OriginNew York, NY
GenresIndie rock, synthpop, new wave, alternative rock
Years active2011-2017
Websitewww.borncages.com
Past membersVlad Holiday
Matt Maroulakos
Dave Tantao
Amanda Carl
Steve Kellner
Pete Malleo
Mike Lisa

Born Cages shared stages with bands like Guns N' Roses, The Subways, Hockey, Magic Man, X Ambassadors, Donald Cumming (of The Virgins), Har Mar Superstar, JD Samson, Said The Whale, and Public Access TV.[2] On February 19 and 23 of 2012, the band were hand-picked to open for Guns N' Roses in Chicago and Maryland.[3][4]

Formation and Early Days

In October 2011, the band began booking shows in New York City under the moniker Electric Sun. The band's first live show was at Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 26, 2011.[5] In October 2012, they changed their name to "Born Cages" due to too many people confusing them for a 1970s rock band that shared the same name, fronted by The Scorpions' Uli Jon Roth.[6] The band's first show as Born Cages was at CMJ Music Festival with X Ambassadors. Vlad Holiday remains the only original member from the Electric Sun days.

Discography

The Sidelines EP (2011-2013)

Born Cages released The Sidelines EP[7] on June 18, 2013, which was produced by Jon Kaplan, co-produced by Vlad Holiday, and engineered by Oliver Straus.[8] The EP features three songs from the upcoming full-length album, and 2 exclusive tracks.[9]

Filter Magazine says The Sidelines EP, “beautifully straddles the line between dreamy and discordant … a standout 17 minutes,” and declared it "spellbinding."[10] Vice Noisey describes the music as a “blend of 80s-influenced synth/guitar work and modern pop-rock sounds” and Blackbook Magazine raves, “More than a decade after the riff-heavy heyday of The Strokes, The Vines, The White Stripes, The Hives, and many other bands that put the word “the” before a plural noun, we may be ready for another bout of ripping revivalism… Born Cages certainly makes that argument.”[11][12] Artist Direct says, “The New York indie band totally rocks our world with their brand of ‘80s-style, synthy rock.” [13] Alternative Press wrote, “Don’t Look Back - a soaring rocker that you’ll have no problem dancing to assuming you can put down the air guitar for four minutes.” [2]

The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with first week sales of 87,000 units.[14] In December 2014, the album was certified Gold, having sold over half a million units.[15] The song has also been featured several times on New York Classic Rock station Q104.3's "Out Of The Box" segment with Jonathan Clarke.[16][17][18][19]

In conjunction with the EP, a video for the song “Caiti” was released June 19, 2013 on VEVO/YouTube, and July 8, 2013 on MTV.com.[20][21] On February 13, 2014, Filter Magazine premiered Don't Look Back's official music video.[22]

I'm Glad I'm Not Me (2014-2016)
Photo by Nicole Mago

Born Cages' debut full-length album, I'm Glad I'm Not Me, was released via Washington Square on June 2, 2015. The album artwork was created by London-based illustrator Matthew Cooper, who's worked with Arctic Monkeys, The Kills, Caribou, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher and Paul McCartney.[23] Due to Rolling Down The Hill and Metaphor's radio play, I'm Glad I'm Not Me became the No. 9 album at Alternative Specialty radio during the week of December 10, 2014.[24]

On August 5, 2014, Buzznet premiered Born Cages' "Rolling Down The Hill," as the band announced a headlining tour in support of the new single.[25] On September 4, Fresh New Tracks premiered a Rolling Down The Hill remix from German producer Glastrophobie, which reached the No. 2 spot on Hype Machine's Popular Remix Chart.[26] Yahoo! Music premiered the song's official music video on November 1, 2014.[27] On November 21, 2014, the video won mtvU's The Freshmen competition.[28] On the week of November 19, 2014, Rolling Down The Hill reached No. 7 on the Alternative Specialty Radio chart, with spins on stations like LA's KROQ and NYC's Q104.3. The single also features B-Side track, "Fuel To The Fire," which was an old demo from the band's first studio recording.

Photo by Nicole Mago

On April 7, 2015, Diffuser FM premiered "I Just Want The Truth, Baby", the second single from I'm Glad I'm Not Me, as an instant gratification track on iTunes.[29] The song was featured on MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, along with indie film No Pay, Nudity, featuring Gabriel Byrne and Nathan Lane.

Exit Signs In A Burning Building (2017-Final Days)

On April 7, 2017, Born Cages put out their latest release, Exit Signs In A Burning Building. The release is a 7-song mini-album, produced by Vlad Holiday, mixed by Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Hamilton Leithouser), mastered by Emily Lazar (Arcade Fire, The Killers, Lou Reed), with additional production and engineering by Matt Maroulakos. In an interview, Holiday addressed the band's nearly year-long hiatus while writing the new album, saying that, "There wasn’t a specific process to writing this record other than, write when you wanna write. I don’t like music that feels forced, and sometimes that inevitably happens with a band’s second release, when you don’t want to be in the shadows for too long. But we took the shadows head on, because life’s too short to write shitty songs."[30]

The first song released was Ain't Gonna Happen on December 6, 2016, which reached No. 42 on Spotify's United States Viral 50 Chart on January 9.[31] On February 7, 2017, the band premiered their second single Half Asleep on Pancakes & Whiskey along with more details on the album release.[32] The official music video for Half Asleep was premiered March 8 on VEVO.[33] Born Cages performed songs from the new album at SXSW Music Festival in March 2017, where NPR raved, "Undeniably great songs... Every moment was Instagram-ready, and every song made me want to throw my hands in the air... I look forward to saying, 'I saw them when...'"[1] Born Cages also performed new music for Daytrotter and Paste Magazine's SXSW studio sessions.[34]

The band's final show was a sold out night with the band X Ambassadors at Toronto's legendary Horseshoe Tavern.[35]

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References
  1. https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/03/20/520039143/what-we-loved-on-the-last-day-of-sxsw
  2. "BORN CAGES ANNOUNCE NEW FALL TOUR DATES SUPPORTING SAID THE WHALE". Razor & Tie Direct L.L.C. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  3. "There's Axl, but no big Guns". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  4. "Guns N' Roses Concert Review – "Up Close and Personal Tour," Live at House of Blues Chicago – Sunday, 2/19/12 (With Setlist) - Chicago At Night". Chicagonow.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  5. "Lights Resolve + Night Fevers + The Canon Logic + Electric Sun". Time Out New York. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  6. "Electric Sun Change Name to Born Cages". ARTISTdirect. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  7. "The Sidelines EP". Borncages.merchnow.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  8. "FILTER Magazine - Media - LISTEN: Born Cages Give Us The Hard Truth Via "The Sidelines EP" (FILTER Premiere)". Filtermagazine.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  9. PupFresh: review of the Sidelines EP http://pupfresh.com/post/53220772034
  10. "FILTER Magazine - Media - LISTEN: Born Cages Give Us The Hard Truth Via "The Sidelines EP" (FILTER Premiere)". Filtermagazine/com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  11. "Premiere: Born Cages - "Don't Look Back"". NOISEY. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  12. "BlackBook Exclusive: Born Cages' Blistering 'Caiti'". BlackBook. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  13. "New Band Alert: Born Cages Release New Song "Don't Look Back"". ARTISTdirect. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  14. "Josh Groban". Billboard. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  15. "RIAA - Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - January 14, 2015". Riaa.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  16. "Who's This Man Between McCartney And Jagger???". Q104.3. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  17. "Who's This Man Between McCartney And Jagger???". Q104.3. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  18. "Who's This Man Between McCartney And Jagger???". Q104.3. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  19. "Who's This Man Between McCartney And Jagger???". Q104.3. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  20. "Born Cages - Caiti (Official Music Video)". YouTube. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  21. "Born Cages - Caiti - Music Video - MTV". MTV. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  22. "FILTER Magazine - Media - WATCH: Born Cages Keep Moving Forward With "Don't Look Back" Video (FILTER Premiere)". Filtermagazine.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  23. "Born Cages to release debut album I'm Glad I'm Not Me on June 2, 2015". Washingtonsquaremusic.com. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  24. "FMQB: Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Nielsen Ratings, Music News and more!". Fmqb.com. Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  25. "Exclusive Premiere: Born Cages Release 'Rolling Down The Hill'". Wevegotyoucovered.buzznet.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  26. "FreshNewTracks » Premiere: Born Cages – Rolling Down The Hill (Glastrophobie Remix)". Freshnewtracks.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  27. "Yahoo Music". Music.yahoo.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  28. "Born Cages Win This Round Of The Freshmen". mtvu.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  29. "Born Cages, 'I Just Want the Truth, Baby' - Premiere". Diffuser.fm. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  30. http://musicwhynot.com/born-cages/
  31. Born Cages [@BORNCAGES] (10 January 2017). "Whoa we're charting on US Viral 50 right now. That's a 1st... Thanks for all the listens & love. Can't wait to show…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  32. http://pancakesandwhiskey.com/2017/02/07/song-premiere-half-asleep-by-born-cages/
  33. https://www.vevo.com/watch/born-cages/half-asleep/QMGR31697846?isrc=QMGR31697846&share_location=ingestion
  34. https://www.facebook.com/BornCages/posts/1550152858390892
  35. https://www.horseshoetavern.com/event/1567896-x-ambassadors-toronto/
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