Powerful, groovy, risk-taking Kansas City, Kansas music phenomenon, Antennas Up, is channeling the fever of Saturday nights of the 70s with contemporary electronic sampling and fist-pumping pop. On their debut self-titled album, releasing April 14th, 2009 on the band’s own independent label, Plastic Artifice, Antennas Up will grab you from the inside and provide a soundtrack unique and strong enough to inspire.

Self-proclaimed nerd and bassist of Antennas Up, Kyle Akers, had a heavy influence on the songwriting of the album. With a knack for video games, fixing computers, and chasing girls out of his league, Akers took his nerdy frustrations to the studio, while globetrotter and guitarist, Bo McCall, brought his adventure-seeking attitude. McCall, a professional exchange student, spent years soaking up the music of other cultures and annoying his roommates with late night practicing. Suffice to say, native Zimbabwe roots music is not his forte. While they all had an equal amount of input in the creation and final version of the album, the beer brewing, “100 percent awesome” and modest percussionist of the group, The Ryantist, acted as the conduit during production with his hands on the buttons. His passion for snapping photos and switching up stage lighting led the group to agree that the soundboard was the best place for this tactile-obsessive musician.

The self-titled album, mastered by Bob Power (Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Common, Citizen Cope) and mixed by Allen Farmelo (Yerba Buena, Department of Good and Evil), marks the first release from Antennas Up, but the band has been recording music together since 2002. After countless failed attempts at getting girls with their geeky demeanor, Antennas Updecided to make rock stardom a serious endeavor in 2006 when they started touring nationally with artists like Ha Ha Tonka and Downtown Harvest.

After juggling a number of lead singers, vocalist Lonnie Coleman joined Akers, McCall and The Ryantist in 2007 to record the self-titled debut. Although Coleman added power and soul to the album, he decided on another route and left Antennas Up. As though it was a sign, the band decided to keep the original line up as it was, and Akers took over as lead singer.

The guys of Antennas Up are all about exploring different directions with their music and having a good time with those new paths they come across. While they still sometimes sit behind their instruments and computers, attempting to mathematically calculate the best way to get to the core of a girl’s heart, their music allows them an independent outlet to be slightly jaded towards the female race (they’ve learned apathy equals sex appeal). That said, no math can contend with the pure love and firm commitment Antennas Up has to making music that forces us to move our minds and bodies until we all pass out with an overwhelming sense of feel-good sound and a taste of life worth participating in.

www.myspace.com/antennasup