Santa Barbara-based reggae band Rebelution has announced that their long awaited sophomore full-length album “Bright Side of Life” will be released in stores nationwide and digital worldwide on August 4, 2009. The album follows up their award winning debut album “Courage to Grow,” which garnered mass downloads and radio play on monster radio stations such as San Francisco’s Live 105 where their single “Safe and Sound” was played on heavy rotation, with spins on San Diego’s 91X, and Los Angeles’ KROQ. The album was also selected as iTunes Editor’s Choice for Best Reggae Album of 2007, and has been in the top 10 iTunes Reggae album sales since its release two years ago. In addition, “Courage to Grow” remained in the Billboard Top 10 Reggae Chart for 36 weeks, and peaked at #4.
Now for the summer of 2009, the band is ready to unleash 12 new signature tracks blending their cohesive mix of reggae, rock, and hip-hop influences in a calliope awash of front man Eric Rachmany’s Santana-esque guitar flurries, Marley D. Williams’ solid and attacking bass lines, the psychedelic and tasteful piano, keyboard and Hammond b-3 styling of Rory Carey and the jazz rock fusion of Wesley Finley’s finesse drumming and percussion.
Of the new album, Rebelution shares, "After the positive response from fans and critics for 'Courage to Grow' and touring in support of it for the last few years, we are glad to finally reveal our new material to the fans who have waited so patiently. We've played many of the new songs live, but the recorded versions will have that 'studio magic' from all the time we've put into them, and there are surprise songs that people haven't heard yet.”
The release of “Bright Side of Life” marks the first release under Rebelution’s newly founded record label, 87 Music in association with Controlled Substance Sound Labs and Silverback Music, the California based music collective, which is also home to artists Slightly Stoopid and Pepper, and their respective artist imprints. The band notes that their second album will show their growth in maturity musically, with a more polished sound with flares of new styles that fans and future fans have yet to hear.
For the rest of 2009 moving into 2010, Rebelution plans on touring to follow up their previous national efforts which included sold out shows at venues such as The House of Blues San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles as well as The Fillmore in San Francisco and more in Florida, Colorado, Texas and South Carolina. They have already shared the stage with notable artists such as The Offspring, 311, Slightly Stoopid, Willie Nelson, Damian Marley, Bob Dylan and Ludacris. Rebelution will also be recording an “iTunes Live Exclusive at the Palms in Las Vegas” feature later on this year.
