About

If music nourishes the soul, listening to The Strange Avenues is like a strict diet of beer, cigarettes, and rock n' roll. Based out of Boston, MA, TSA manages to draw from the best of rock, punk, outlaw country, and blues, congealing the blend into a sound that is in a word, raw. Completely without pretense, it's rock as written by guys that just want to drink beer and play loud.

The six-stringed seeds of the band were planted in 2009 with the meeting of Mike Patton and Mike 'Fitz' Fitzback. Although Patton was busy with his band Pretty Little Suicide and Fitz with Barely Legal, the friends spent the next two years hanging out and playing guitar, honing their sound and laying the groundwork for what was to come. It wasn't until late 2011 that the boys decided to take the project to the next level, and The Strange Avenues was formed. Wanting to record right away, a call was made to Mike's long time friend and drummer Wade Collins, who rose to the challenge. With Wade behind the kit, they entered the studio in December of 2011, resulting in their debut EP, Bacchanalia - an opus of the dirtiest rock n' roll to hit the musical landscape in years.

On the heels of Bacchanalia's January release, the Aves began cementing their status as, first and foremost, a live band. Despite the disheartening loss of Wade to corporate America, the band didn't miss a beat, with the talented Tim Betts filling in temporarily on skins and spending 2012 playing a slew of shows throughout the northeast. Any lingering doubts that they could replicate the rawness of the record were cast aside, and word began to spread.

In 2013 the boys met the hard-hitting Chris Ardoin, and after just 2 rehearsals played their first show with him, cementing the fact that the lineup was complete. Chris's feel-good booming behind the kit meshed perfectly with Fitz's impassioned guitar leads, all tied together by Mike's steady work on the rhythm and bass guitars. And when Mike's swaggering vocals were blended with Fitz's raw baritone, it became a heady concoction indeed.

If you've come looking for a family-friendly pop act, you've come to the wrong place. The Strange Avenues have left any commercial sheen by the wayside in favor of sex, drugs and rock n' roll, conveyed in an unapologetic and refreshingly genuine voice. From the first listen, it's abundantly clear - the ride has just begun and the future burns intoxicatingly bright.