Posted by  Patrick in on June 25, 2007 at 4:58 PM
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Band of Asians (or DJ Audio Rage) is an SF Bay musical group, currently playing music mostly in the home music studio rather than doing music for gigs. It includes Asian musicians (i.e. mostly Filipino, but Patrick is Taiwanese) in a rock band formed back in early 2006 at a community college.
Audio Rage plays music as a garage band in Patrick's home recording studio using computers and musical instruments they got at the local Guitar Center. The members of Audio Rage were all born in the mid 1980s and grew up in the SF Bay. The garage band Audio Rage was formed in 2001 when Taiwanese musician Patrick Lew and Italian-American guitarist Eddie Blackburn started playing music together at community college (City College of San Francisco) and high school (Wallenberg) and schoolmate Shawn Blacharski later joined to play music in a garage band with Patrick and Eddie on bass. They drove by to Guitar Center and got some cool musical instruments and begun playing music together. Audio Rage was then called "Samurai Sorcerers" and in the garage band's early days, their repertoire consisted of mainly Grunge music from bands such as Pearl Jam and Silverchair which they learned from Patrick's record collection of a thousand CDs and on sheet music webpages.
The trio played music together at Patrick's home recording studio and many gigs around the Daly City or SF Chinatown in their late teens. Sooner than later, Patrick's community college friend from City College. Chinese musician Zack Huang, on MIDI keyboards. They began playing music as a garage band endlessly in Patrick's music studio, the School of Rage Studios, and recorded two albums in the summer and fall of 2004. They used their musical instruments and computer applications (i.e. Apple GarageBand 2) to record their music and put their music on the Internet (i.e. PureVolume). The Audio Rage Band made a CD of garage band demos called "Psychotic Love" which showed a local garage band of teenagers playing grunge music, which was handed out to their friends in college or Haight-Ashbury stores.
When Patrick and his then-Japanese girlfriend Asuka Nagase went to Amoeba Music (used record store) to go see Jpop singer Nami Tamaki for a free concert at the local music store, where Patrick and Asuka got their CDs of Nami Tamaki autographed when meeting the musician from Japan after her musical performance at the record store's free live event, it inspired Patrick and Audio Rage to write the song "Tokyo Pop Princess." This romantic date also happened days before Patrick graduated from high school to attend community college at City College of San Francisco to study computers and music.
Audio Rage never had a drummer for their band to play music with, so Eddie used a drum machine he got from the guitar store to serve as the drummer.
In the fall of 2004, Audio Rage played music for a couple live music events at City College. Their gigs at Ori-Wave (a community college music festival) and Talent Quest 2004 (a college karaoke contest) earned Audio Rage as musicians playing music in their garage band some accomplishments and failures playing music as a garage band in the local San Francisco music scene. They also set up their music & band profile on the popular MySpace.com, and their music and the garage band Audio Rage was underappreciated by fans but adored by a cult of local rock musicians and local rock bands from across America's great independent/local music scene. Patrick also won a runner-up prize to get his music and band through Audio Rage websites heard on a MySpace.com contest called "Sexy Asian guitarists."
The band Audio Rage's "Psychotic Love" concert tour ended on February 13, 2005 at Balboa High School in the school's library for an Asian music festival which artists, bands and musicians played music. Afterwards, Audio Rage played music in Eddie's home music studio for a couple jam sessions to jam on some music to record a new album. The Audio Rage Band then put out their "Blizzard of Sound" album through their music & band profile webpages on the Internet, such as SoundClick.com. "Blizzard of Sound" was recorded in one single session at Eddie's music studio on October 23, 2004 and the garage band played music (while getting instruments at the local music store) in favor of their favorite Grunge and Guitar Virtuoso bands, Steve Vai and Pearl Jam. However sadly, problems came into the garage band. As Patrick wrote in his online journal Xanga.com, which he used to promote his music and garage band Audio Rage. While Audio Rage's music was being popular on the Internet on music industry websites like PureVolume or SoundClick.com, tensions ran within the garage band between Zack, Patrick and Eddie as they went to Guitar Center and played music at School of Rage Studios to decide how to make their third album.
At School of Rage Studios where Audio Rage played music and Patrick using computer software to write music for the new album, Patrick wanted to evolve Audio Rage from playing Grunge music as a garage band...But Eddie and Shawn thought Audio Rage should play music just like the G3 concerts and music festivals. Eddie and Shawn had another garage band to play music in, Logic's Enemy, which normally played live music events across San Francisco through teen music festivals. So Patrick mutually parted ways with Eddie and Shawn in Audio Rage, and continued Audio Rage as his revised version of the garage band. Eddie and Shawn left Audio Rage in September 2005 to play music in Logic's Enemy Band, so Patrick continued Audio Rage as his own one-man band to play music in, or recruited a couple studio musicians to play the music for the new album.
Audio Rage would play music for a couple live music events in Hong Kong during the fall of 2005. Zack and Patrick would continue playing music under the bandname Audio Rage as a revised version of a garage band.
In 2006, Patrick's friend from City College, David Arceo joined Audio Rage on turntables and drums. Patrick, David and Zack played music as Audio Rage in the School of Rage Studios to make the new album for the band Audio Rage. Meanwhile, Patrick and David were playing music in the Band of Asians, which the garage band was formed in the music club from their community college. Band of Asians would play music at Vibo Music Center on May 8, 2006 (it was Patrick's first live musical performance since February 2005) and the live music event at the guitar store Patrick lives close to was recorded for a live concert album for the Band of Asians. The Band of Asians also have many music profiles on the Internet through MySpace, SoundClick and the very popular music industry website PureVolume.com. When asked about the musical activities and career of Patrick's musical projects and bands: Band of Asians and Audio Rage...Patrick said on the Band of Asians website, he would continue playing music in Band of Asians and put out Audio Rage's third album "Revenge" once Patrick, Zack and David finish putting the music together for Audio Rage's new CD.
Instead for his musical projects and activities with his bands he played music in, Patrick laid Audio Rage/Samurai Sorcerers to rest and instead played music in his new band Band of Asians. Zack was soon gone from Audio Rage to focus on college and education...So Patrick and David were to play music in the Band of Asians for their musical projects or social life. Going to Guitar Center to pick up new musical instruments and computer software to create new songs and music with, the Band of Asians put out two albums in 2006. Their live concert at the guitar store, and the music Patrick made for Audio Rage but instead the garage band music Patrick made for Audio Rage's scrapped third album became Band of Asians' new album "Revenge" which is going to be sold on Independent music store CDBaby.com on November 15, 2006, Patrick Lew's 21st birthday.
The roster of Audio Rage changed once more, Augusto Hernandez was out on bass guitar. Patrick and Dave's friend from City College of San Francisco (who works at the bookstore), Cory Gaitan joined Audio Rage on the bass guitar, in January 2007.
What followed was a series of FREE concert at City College of San Francisco in early 2007 to support the new album. Taking time in between the recording studio and touring as musicians, they went to the recording studio to jam on music for a bit, and recorded new Audio Rage music during soundchecks. From October 2006 up until June 2007, the new and revised Audio Rage finished recording their fourth studio album "Buy Product" and is expected to be released on CDBaby around September.
Meanwhile. Eddie and Shawn are putting together a new revised version of their new local band Sapien since leaving Audio Rage in March 2006. The original version of Audio Rage is no more as the newly revised musicians of the NEW Audio Rage roster has since been playing music. Sapien had done concert tours locally in San Francisco in 2005 and 2006 but hasn't published a studio recording of their music on a demo/mixtape. Dave, Patrick and Cory also formed the local New Metal band of community college musicians, Power Trip, at City College of San Francisco. They are currently recording a demo/mixtape at Oakland Studios of musical work to add to their musical resume.
PART II - BIOGRAPHY
Audio Rage. Band in the Box! We are a garage band that plays music for gigs in Chinatown! We also play music as Band of Asians in the music studio.
Audio Rage's music and garage band (i.e. computer software and musical rock instruments) was the one-man band of Patrick "Audio" Lew. He was born on November 15, 1985 in San Francisco, and grew up around music. A Taiwanese-American musician, Audio formed his first band he played music with when learning how to play electric guitar through books he got at the local guitar store. Growing up with a dysfunctional but rich Asian American family, Audio was an outsider at school and turned to music and playing music as a solution to his personal hardships. He was also previously a classical musician playing violin and piano in a few school orchestras because the music department store in Chinatown wanted Patrick to take music as a hobby and resume. After a series of musical resumes in short-lived local garage bands with musicians he knew from Art School, he decided to either do music solo or with musicians in a local garage band/
It wasn't until 2001 when Audio was in community college at City College of San Francisco where he studied computers and music when he formed the garage band Audio Rage. He met his best friend Eddie Blackburn in an electronic music lab at the college, and jammed on guitars. Becoming fast friends, he and Eddie formed Audio Rage to jam on some music as a garage band. Audio and Eddie began playing music together at Patrick "Audio" Lew's house and set up a music studio called School of Rage. Audio was dating a Japanese girl named Mayumi at the time, and attended a free concert at Amoeba Music (record store) to see Jpop singer Nami Tamaki for a FREE live music festival at the record shop. This event in Audio's life led Audio Rage to write their best song, "Tokyo Pop Princess." Audio Rage began playing live music events (gigs) at the local "Battle of the Bands" and shows at places in Daly City and San Francisco. Sooner than later, a community college friend of Eddie's named Shawn Blacharski joined Audio Rage on bass.
The garage band Audio Rage never had a drummer, so Eddie used a drum machine he picked up at a guitar store to be the virtual instrument and drummer in the band when playing gigs (live music events) or making music at School of Rage Studios. In 2003 and 2004, they jammed on music in Patrick's home music/recording studio and made dozens of demo mixtapes of their musical work and resume and published on the Internet through various music webpages.
Audio Rage's repertoire consisted of playing Grunge and Hair Metal music based on Audio's huge record collection of a thousand CDs he got from Amoeba Music or Green Apple Bookstore, and Audio and Eddie were both into Heavy Metal music but wanted to play music in a garage band that mixed Grunge into 1980s Heavy Metal music in their band Audio Rage...They placed a couple ads looking for a keyboardist or drummer on www.Craigslist.org in the paper, but instead got David Arceo to join Audio Rage on drums. Audio's community college friend from CCSF, Zack Huang, briefly played keyboards in the band...But left to focus on his college and education.
Playing music for gigs did help Audio Rage get their music and garage band out there, but they were underappreciated as musicians and garage band because of their unique sound. But that didn't stop Audio Rage from recording their demos and musical improvisations at School of Rage or when playing shows. Around Audio's 19th birthday, the band Audio Rage played gigs at some City College events. Their Ori-Wave music festival gig was a disaster as the college holding the music festival, didn't like the band's music and pulled them from performing more than 2 songs at the concert.
Afterwards, Audio Rage would sign with a small independent music company, IAC Records, and put out their first studio album "Psychotic Love" which was based on their garage band recordings made at their home recording studio. "Psychotic Love" was music that was based on Audio Rage Band's endless guitar improvisations and jam sessions. While on the road touring San Francisco, they went to a near-by recording studio in the city to record a couple of Eddie's new songs, along with Eddie and Shawn's musical work which they collaborated on. Audio took part when playing music in the music studio, putting on a bare bones guitar arrangement, basic chords. He put his guitar through a portable 4-track studio and handed Eddie the CD of his guitar parts to put into the new Audio Rage album. The album was "Blizzard of Sound" and was sold in the record stores by May 2005.
Touring would end in February 2005, and the band Audio Rage decided not to play concerts or live music events for the time being. By now, tensions ran high within the garage band. Audio wanted to evolve from Audio Rage's Seattle influenced Grunge sound by using music computer software and better musical instruments from Best Buy and Guitar Center, while Eddie and Shawn thought the garage band should stick to playing music from their rock roots. Audio Rage had no idea where to lead the next album's musical direction, and Audio's fame in the Local & Independent Music Scene/Industry in the SF Bay made him anxious. Eddie and Shawn played music in Audio Rage for one last minute gig at Haight-Ashbury Music Store in San Francisco on June 9, 2005 and in August, Eddie and Shawn left Audio Rage to focus on other solo musician projects and resumes (Eddie and Shawn now play music in the local band Sapien).
The rest of Audio Rage done musical instrument and computer shopping at the music and computer stores. They briefly hired Mark Hawkins on guitar to replace Eddie Blackburn through putting an ad in the paper. He played music in Audio Rage only during the summer of 2005 and left to pursue a career and hobby in making pornography.
Meanwhile, Audio and David Arceo continued playing music as the garage band Audio Rage. The musical duo began playing live music events in ther first-ever concert tour across Asia, with shows done in Hong Kong. Afterwards, Audio Rage went into the School of Rage Studios to continue work on their next studio album. In early 2006, the band Audio Rage played a couple shows in Serramonte Shopping Mall and Skyline College. Audio Rage's first concert and live music festival since February 2005 was at Vibo Music Center on May 8, 2006. With Augusto Hernandez on bass guitar, whom was hired from an ad on www.MySpace.com on the music classified ads in the paper. This was also taped for a live concert album, "Band of Asians, Live!" While working on music for the next Audio Rage studio album, they went to Guitar Center and Best Buy to pick up musical instruments and computer programs to record it.
After 2 years in seclusion making music in various recording studios, "Revenge" was finally published on online record company for the "undiscovered" bands and musicians, CDBaby, in November 2006. What followed was Augusto leaving the band to join a local Daly City punk band for his resume, and Cory Gaitan replacing Augusto on bass guitar and Jasmine "Alky" Marcella joining the band as a touring guitarist. Whom Audio met Jasmine on an online dating website Singlesnet.com. What concluded was a series of FREE concerts at City College of San Francisco in early 2007 and finishing a new studio album, "Buy Product." Which from October 2006 to the summer of 2007 saw the Audio Rage roster of musicians playing music in the Band in the Box ensconced in the recording studios and music workshop jamming on music and recording new musical resume and work at Bank Studios.
Dave and Cory also invited Patrick "Audio" Lew to form a local New Metal band at the community college music department, Power Trip. They are currently recording a demo tape at Oakland Studios and making a Power Trip band & music webpage on the Internet.
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