Blacktop Mourning

Their music hit MySpace in December 2005 and within two weeks, Blacktop Mourning was inking a deal with MTV. By the six month mark, their songs had been played on 12 MTV shows and the band had been picked as an “MTV Featured Artist.” Blacktop Mourning has never looked back. Blacktop Mourning has recently completed their Tyrannosaurus Records debut CD with the production team of Max Steger, Adam Duritz and David “Immy” Immerglück (The Devil and The Bunny Show). Adam Duritz' unique voice contributes vocals on this major worldwide release set to drop May 15, 2007. This Chicago-based Rock/Pop Punk band is a blend of accomplished musicians led by songwriter Max Steger, an 18-year-old guitar prodigy, who could be found jamming in Chicago’s legendary blues clubs such as Kingston Mines and Buddy Guy's Legends by his 12th birthday. During that time, Max’s precocious guitar talent caught the eye of Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records. Ertegun called Max “one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen” and counseled him to stay in school and keep honing his craft until he could better handle the fame that lay just around the corner. Max listened to the sage advice. After writing and arranging an abundance of new songs and sharing stages with Grammy winners Los Lonely Boys and punk rockers Sum 41, Max felt the time had finally arrived for a new band. Blacktop Mourning came into being. Blacktop Mourning’s sound is an unforgettable blend of catchy hooks, upbeat, melodic vocals with pop/punk lyrics laid over heavy rock, distorted guitars. Joe Levand fronts the band with soaring emotional vocals and finely honed bass playing. Shawn Nystrand brings a dynamic brand of rhythm guitar playing and Max completes the front line with lead guitars and jaw-dropping solos. Nate Wethy on Bass and Greg Gerard round out the lineup with their high energy rhythm section. Chicago's premiere rock station (Q101 FM) has called Blacktop Mourning, "The Band to Watch in 2006" while their music has surpassed 500,000 plays on MySpace.com. "The recording experience was incredible," according to Max. "Adam brought a 'take' on my songs that I hadn't considered. He's a conceptual guy who instinctively knows how the songs should sound. Immy, on the other hand, is the 'detail guy' who zeroed in on the intricacies of every guitar part." Blacktop Mourning's upcoming CD, "No Regret" will be available in Spring 2007 on T-Recs.