The Shake - Debut CD ’Kick It’

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May 15 is the red-letter day when New York City's latest rock-throne contenders The Shake will release Kick It, their debut album on Unicycle Records. If advance reaction is any indication, this band is sure to garner lots of positive media attention. All not yet 21, four area college students have managed to hone their musical craft and amass a loyal fan base while still pursuing their studies at Columbia, NYU, and Queens College. For lead singer/guitarist Jon Merkin, lead guitarist Eliad Shapiro, bass player Jeremy Stein and drummer Andrew McNellis, the album is an "appe-teaser" of things to come for the group. In order to retain their fresh, live sound, the CD was recorded over the course of just one week in Englewood, NJ's Bennett Studio with producer Al Perrotta (the Misfits, Herbie Hancock, Tony Bennett) and Shake members Merkin and Shapiro, and engineered by Brian Dozoretz (Interpol, Elefant, Joan Osborne).

While no strangers to making music and taking the concert stage, the recording process was new to the band as a whole. "The band really came together in a way I had hoped we would after all the rehearsals, " said Merkin. "We were used to playing in a very loose, relaxed atmosphere, " explains Shapiro. "I was apprehensive that the studio sessions would be scientific and methodical, but they weren't. Once we got inside (the studio) everything felt totally natural." Only Merkin had ever even stepped foot in a recording studio prior to beginning Kick It. The band utilized the studio's prestigious collection of equipment including vintage '57 fender twin amps. "Initially it was pretty painful…lots of anxiety going in, much like an actual virgin" said Shapiro with a sly grin.

Virtually all of the songs were recorded without tracking. Shapiro feels "tracking is almost soulless. Mistakes are honest. The details are in the mistakes and we wanted to keep the album as real and as pure as possible." That's also why the band opted to stay away from a clicktrack, because "it gave us that 'you are on heroin feel'."

The Shake counts several of the original "British invasion" bands among their influences. Parallels to the Yardbirds, the Small Faces and the early Rolling Stones are apparent in many of their songs. But what give The Shake their versatility are the individual band members' varied influences. Merkin cites BritRock acts like Oasis and the Kinks while Shapiro prefers the classic rock styling of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and guitar greats Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Stein revels in old-school punk like the Ramones and early Green Day, while McNellis is a Jazz connoisseur. When you add all this together and mix it with their youthful enthusiasm, the result is the unique sound that is The Shake.

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