Sons of the Golden West is an indie rock band based in San Francisco, California. The band explores the genres of alternative rock, singer/songwriter and Americana. Employing subdued and nuanced textures, as well as a full dynamic range, SOTGW can evoke fragile emotions yet tap into the contagious energy of full-bore rock.
The West Coast roots of its primary songwriter, Eric Butterfield, run deep. He is a fourth-generation Californian who grew up in the Los Angeles area. This heritage and a sense of a rapidly changing landscape losing its history inspired him to found Sons of the Golden West (http://sotgw.com/).
A Defenders of Wildlife video narrated by Ashley Judd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK1mZ4fL6Pk) featured the song “Teriza,” and “Apologies Aside” appeared in the fourth episode of the animation series Secret Agent Dan (http://www.syntheticniche.com/sad/episode_4.html).
Both songs are from the self-titled debut album, which the band released on its own Fashionably Late Records in 2006. The lineup for the Sons of the Golden West’s debut album was Eric Butterfield (guitar, bass, vocals, drums), B. Satter (guitar, bass), and Justin Sacco (vocals). Sons of the Golden West, with the addition of Aaron Markus on drums, performs at venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. A follow-up album is expected in late 2009.
Travel and relocation have informed much of the band's sound. When Eric was living in Denver, Colorado in the 1990s, the vibrant Americana music scene turned him on to alternative country music, though he played drums for the popular local pop punk band, Cold Crank. The band released CDs on local label Caustic Fish as well as its own label Drastic Plastic. Songs from the band were included on compilations from San Diego label Goldenrod and AP magazine, as a result of its regular tours of the West Coast.
Prior to that, Eric lived in Dublin, Ireland, where he indulged himself in noisy power pop, playing drums in The Mexican Pets, which went on to record albums for Blunt Records, tour Europe, and play with the likes of Pavement, Sebadoh, Fugazi and Therapy?. In addition to SOTGW, Eric Butterfield, Brian Satterfield and Aaron Markus play in the Bay Area band, The Commissioners.
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