A restless multi-instrumentalist, All Spots To Black’s Philip Krohnengold is a career collaborator - currently touring with Sara Bareilles, and in the past having toured/recorded with Jeff Tweedy (wilco) and Gary Louris (the jayhawks) in Golden Smog, with the band Gomez, with Ben Harper, Ferraby Lionheart, Leslie Stevens and the Badgers, Duncan Sheik, and others. Now in Los Angeles, he makes his musical home as a member both the americana/alt-country and indie rock families.

In All Spots To Black, Krohnengold combines the stark simplicity of a guitar trio with lush vocal harmonies in a palette reminiscent of panels from the indie comics he credits with much of his inspiration for songwriting. Hang-gliding in the appealing chasm between craggy despair and defiant vulnerability, the band falls somewhere between the moody roar of Mark Kozelek's Red House Painters and Tonight's-the-Night-era Neil Young. This is harmonic rock played with a sort of thoughtfully grim resignation that, when bolstered by an artful bottleneck slide guitar, transcends the inherent melancholy of the songs. The music is brainy, but mellow, but loud.

The band also features bass player Lucas Cheadle (lucinda williams, michelle shocked), drummer Al Sgro (gary jules, alexi murdoch) and singer (and monster songwriter) Holly Conlan.

Singer/Songwriter Jake Newton was raised in the Mountains outside of
Yosemite National Park. He grew up playing music with his family, and
lived the life of a fantasist child, surrounded by nature; head in the clouds.
There was one stop light in his town. The nearest record store was 45
miles away. It was perfect isolation. As he grew, he yearned for the
excitement and vitality the city promised, the faint sounds and pictures that
came to him through the T.V. static.

It is the clash of isolation and the frenetic nature of the city that make up
Newton’s music. His most recent release “Kill the Past” circles around the
themes of mortality, loss, and what it is to live as a transplant in Los
Angeles.

“Jake Newton plays American music. It’s rich and opaque and vigilant - his songs
sleep with one eye open, full of curiosity about the world outside and in. Gentle
lullabies that he hums while reaching into the wilderness”
--Ben Lee

“With every new recording Jake Newton continues to find the reason why we love
music and put it into song after song. Songwriting as a history-making endeavor -
that's huge! All I can say is well done and do it again (and again).”
--Charlie Peacock, producer, The Civil Wars

Newton’s latest release, “Kill the Past” was funded entirely by fans using
Pledgemusic.com, produced by Justin Glasco and recorded with a live
band to 2 inch tape at Boulevard Studios in Hollywood, CA.

“We wanted to get a majority of the record live in the studio with the band
that we’d assembled. It was amazing to come out of the tracking room and
hear about 80 percent of what would eventually be the final product
coming out of the monitors.”

“Kill the Past” premiered in the top 100 Singer/Songwriter charts it’s first
week using simple word of mouth and absolutely no label support.