Rocket Scientists

ROCKET SCIENTISTS is a progressive rock band from Los Angeles, California founded in the late 80s by keyboardist / producer Erik Norlander and vocalist / guitarist Mark McCrite. NS/Stick and Chapman Stick virtuoso Don Schiff was brought in as a session musician on the first album, Earthbound (1993) and transformed into a regular member shortly thereafter, appearing on the second studio album, Brutal Architecture (1995) and the third (live) album, Earth Below and Sky Above: Live in Europe and America (1998).

Rocket Scientists released their fourth CD in 1999, a heavier, more aggressive sounding album called Oblivion Days. This album boosted the bands profile and received much critical acclaim from around the world.

The band has always had a strong focus on melodic and memorable songwriting, and this focus has consistently been the priority of the band. Rocket Scientists then takes those great compositions and then arranges and performs them in a compelling and adventurous style.

Erik and Mark spent the following years working on solo projects and also touring with symphonic rock vocalist Lana Lane. Afer this hiatus, Rocket Scientists formally reunited in 2002 to play some live concerts with new drummer Shaun Guerin and began to write and demo material for a new studio album. But following Shaun\\\\\\\'s death in 2003, Rocket Scientists again went on hiatus. Out of respect for their lost friend and colleague, Erik and Mark thought it was best to take a break for a while rather than quickly bringing in a session drummer to complete the album.

Rocket Scientists returned in 2006 joined by drummer Gregg Bissonette to create their fifth album, Revolution Road, a spectacular 2CD studio effort that generated much excitement in the progressive rock world. The band toured to support the album in 2007.

At the end of 2007, Rocket Scientists released Looking Backward, a 5-disc multimedia box set containing remastered versions of the first three studio albums, Earthbound, Brutal Architecture and Oblivion Days, along with a fourth disc of new 2007 recordings of songs from these albums called Looking Backward: The 2007 Sessions. The fifth disc is a DVD with live in the studio footage of The 2007 Sessions along with extensive interviews with the musicians and historical footage going back to 1993.

Here on Mindawn, the Looking Backward set is offered as four individual albums: Earthbound, Brutal Architecture, Oblivion Days and Looking Backward: The 2007 Sessions. If you purchased any of the early albums previously, you can download the new remastered versions for free along with all of their included bonus tracks. How cool is that?

SEE ALSO: The solo albums of producer / keyboardist ERIK NORLANDER, Stick player DON SCHIFF and vocalist / guitarist MARK McCRITE.

The Rocket Scientists musicians can also frequently be found playing on the albums on symphonic rock diva LANA LANE.

Rocket Scientists official artist site: http://www.thetank.com/rocketscientists.htm